Who we are

This website, promiseave.org, is the online home of Promise Ave, an ordained minister, teacher and author based in London, United Kingdom. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Promise Ave as the person responsible for the website and for any personal information collected through it. Under UK data protection law, that makes us the “data controller” for your information.

This policy explains, in plain language, what information we collect when you use the website, why we collect it, who helps us look after it, and what rights you have.

Last updated: 30 October 2026.

The information we collect

We only collect what we need to run the website and to provide what you ask for.

When you contact us. If you use our contact form, we receive your name, your email address, your phone number if you give it, and your message.

When you open an account or sign up for the newsletter. We hold your name, your email address and your account details so that you can sign in, receive the newsletter and reach the items you have access to.

When you buy something. For newsletters, ebooks and other downloads bought on this website, we keep a record of your order: what you bought, when, how much you paid and the email address linked to the order. Your card or PayPal details are entered directly with Stripe or PayPal and never reach us.

When you leave a comment. We keep the name, email address and comment you enter, together with your IP address and browser details, which help us detect spam. Your comment may be checked by Akismet, an anti-spam service. A coded version of your email address (called a hash) may be sent to Gravatar to show your profile picture if you have one.

When you sign in. To protect the website, our security system records the IP address and time of each attempt to sign in, and temporarily blocks addresses that make repeated failed attempts. When an account holder sets a new password, a small part of a coded version of it is checked against a public list of leaked passwords. The password itself is never sent.

When you browse. We use our own visitor statistics tool, which runs on our website rather than with an outside company. It works without cookies and without identifying you: it simply counts which pages are read and roughly where visitors come from, so that we can improve the content. We do not use Google Analytics, advertising trackers or social media tracking pixels.

Why we use your information

UK data protection law asks us to explain the reason, or “lawful basis”, for each use.

What we do	Why we are allowed to
Reply to your messages	Our legitimate interest in answering people who contact us
Run your account and send the newsletter you signed up for	To provide the service you asked for (contract), and your consent for the newsletter
Process orders and keep purchase records	To fulfil your order (contract) and to meet tax and accounting law (legal obligation)
Publish and moderate comments	Our legitimate interest in running a safe, spam-free discussion
Keep the website secure	Our legitimate interest in protecting the website and its users
Understand how the website is used	Our legitimate interest in improving it

You can withdraw your consent to the newsletter at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any issue or by contacting us.

Payments

Payments on this website are handled by Stripe and PayPal. When you pay, you enter your card or account details with them directly. They process the payment under their own privacy policies, and they may set their own cookies to help prevent fraud. We receive confirmation of the payment and the order details, never your full card number.

Printed books are sold through our separate online bookshop, which runs on Shopify. Purchases there are covered by that shop’s own policies.

Cookies

Cookies are small files stored on your device by your web browser. This website only uses cookies that are needed for it to work, or that are set by our payment providers when you pay. We do not use cookies for advertising or tracking. These are the cookies you may see:

Cookie	What it does	How long it lasts
WordPress sign-in cookies (names beginning “wordpress_” and “wp-settings”)	Keep you signed in to your account	Until you sign out, or up to two weeks if you tick “Remember me”
Comment cookies (names beginning “comment_author”)	Remember your name and email for your next comment, if you ask us to	Up to one year
Shop and basket cookies (names beginning “woocommerce” and “wp_woocommerce”)	Remember what is in your basket	From the end of your visit up to a few months
Stripe and PayPal cookies (for example “__stripe_mid”)	Help the payment providers prevent fraud	Set by the providers; up to one year

You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings. If you block the sign-in or basket cookies, parts of the website, such as your account and checkout, will not work.

Who helps us look after your information

We never sell your personal information. We share it only with the trusted companies that help us run the website, and only as far as they need it:

• our web hosting company, which stores the website and its information on its servers;
• Stripe and PayPal, for payments;
• our email delivery service, which sends account emails and the newsletter;
• Automattic, for the Akismet spam filter and Gravatar profile pictures;
• Font Awesome, which supplies some of the icons on our pages, so your browser may contact its servers when a page loads;
• YouTube, if you play a video embedded on our pages; YouTube may then set its own cookies.

We may also share information if the law requires us to.

Some of these companies are based in, or store information in, the United States or elsewhere outside the UK. Where that happens, the transfer is protected by the safeguards UK law requires, such as approved contract terms.

How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it:

• messages: for as long as needed to deal with your enquiry;
• accounts and newsletter details: until you close your account or unsubscribe;
• order records: for as long as UK tax law requires, normally six years;
• comments: for as long as the comment stays on the website;
• security records of sign-in attempts: for a limited period, to protect the website;
• backups of the website: we keep daily backups for seven days, except for occasional backups kept for longer as a safeguard.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct anything that is wrong;
• ask us to delete your information, where we have no legal reason to keep it;
• object to, or ask us to limit, how we use your information;
• ask for your information in a format you can take elsewhere;
• withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on it.

To use any of these rights, contact us using the details below. We will reply within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so that we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Keeping your information safe

We protect the website with a security firewall, limits on repeated sign-in attempts, an encrypted (https) connection and regular backups. No website can be completely secure, but we take sensible steps to keep your information safe.

Children

This website is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us their information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Links to other websites

Our pages link to other websites, such as our bookshop, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok. We are not responsible for how those websites handle your information, so please read their own privacy policies.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last changed.

How to contact us

For any question about this policy or your personal information, or to use any of your rights, please email us at privacy@promiseave.org. You can also write to us through the Contact Me page on this website: promiseave.org/contact-us