privacy policy
Still Waters is a place to read the Bible, pray, journal and be still. What you write here is personal, so this page explains plainly what we keep, why, where it lives, and what you can do about it.
who we are
Still Waters is run by Hana Griffiths, trading as Still Waters, in the United Kingdom. For UK data protection law, Hana Griffiths is the "controller" of your information. You can reach us at support@wearestillwaters.co.uk.
what we keep
- Your account: your first name, your email address, your password (kept only as a one-way scramble, so nobody, including us, can read it), your chosen Bible version, whether your email is confirmed, and when you agreed to our Terms and this policy.
- What you write: journal entries, prayers (including those you give to God with an Amen), Bible study notes and gratitudes, with their titles and dates.
- Your Bible activity: the verses you highlight and favourite.
- Technical details: your network address and basic request details pass through our servers, and short-term technical logs may be kept, to keep the service running and to block abuse (for example, someone guessing passwords).
Some choices stay on your phone only, such as your last be still settings. They're never sent to us.
We don't use your location, contacts, photos or microphone. There are no adverts, no analytics and no tracking in Still Waters, and we don't sell your information.
a note about what you write
Prayers and reflections can reveal your religious beliefs, which the law treats as especially sensitive ("special category" information). That's why you're asked to agree to us keeping what you write when you create an account. You can withdraw that agreement at any time by deleting your account.
how we protect it
- Everything travels between the app and our servers over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.
- The text of your journal entries, prayers, study notes and gratitudes is encrypted before it's saved in our database, using a key kept separately from the database. Someone who only had access to the database could not read your writing.
- To be clear about the limits: this is not "end-to-end" encryption. The service holds the key, so it can decrypt your writing to show it back to you. We don't read what you write. Entry titles, dates and the passage a study is about are not encrypted.
- Your sign-in details are kept in your phone's secure storage, and repeated wrong passwords temporarily block sign-ins.
No system is perfectly secure, but we take care to protect it.
why we use it, and our legal basis
- To create your account and run Still Waters, saving and showing back what you write: this is needed to provide the service you asked for (contract).
- To look after information about your beliefs: your explicit consent, given when you sign up.
- To email you about your account (confirming your email, resetting your password, security alerts): contract, and our legitimate interest in keeping accounts safe. We don't send marketing emails.
- To keep the service secure and prevent abuse: our legitimate interests.
who else handles it
These companies process information for us, only to run Still Waters:
- Amazon Web Services hosts our servers and the be still audio, in Stockholm, Sweden.
- MongoDB Atlas hosts our database, on AWS in Ireland.
- Resend sends our account emails (it sees your email address and the message).
- OpenAI writes the "explain this verse" feature. Only the verse is sent to it, never your name, email or anything you've written.
The be still voices are recorded ahead of time, so none of your information is sent to the voice provider. Where a provider is outside the UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards for those transfers. Beyond this, we only share information if the law requires it.
how long we keep it
We keep your account and your writing until you delete them. In the app, Settings → Delete account permanently deletes your account, entries, prayers, gratitudes, highlights and favourites, and signs you out everywhere. Technical logs are kept only briefly.
your rights
You can ask to see a copy of your information, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how it's used, or receive it in a portable form, and you can withdraw your consent at any time. Email support@wearestillwaters.co.uk and we'll respond within one month. You can delete your own information straight away in the app.
If you're unhappy with how your information is handled, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. We'd be glad of the chance to put things right first.
age
Still Waters is for people aged 13 and over. If we learn that someone younger has an account, we'll delete it.
changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.