Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28 September 2026

Grace and peace to you. We know that many people who visit our website or write to us live in circumstances where an interest in Christ can be costly. So we have written this page in simple words. It tells you what we collect about you, why, who sees it, how long we keep it, and what your rights are and how to use them. It also tells you honestly what we cannot promise.

Who we are, and who is responsible for your data

• yemen4christ.org is run by the Yemen for Christ Church ministry, registered in England and Wales as YFC CHURCH CIC, a Community Interest Company, company number 16294882.
• We are the “controller” under UK data protection law (UK GDPR). This means we decide why and how your data is used, and we are legally responsible for it.
• Our registered office address is published on the public register at Companies House in the UK, and we will send it to you if you ask.
• We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO), as we are a small ministry. For anything to do with privacy, write to us at contact@yemen4christ.org.

Before you write to us

• You do not need to give your real name. Use a pseudonym if you prefer.
• Do not write your town, village, phone number or other people's names unless you really need to.
• Neither the law nor we require you to give us any data. You can read everything on the website without writing to us at all. But if you leave us no way to reply, we will not be able to answer you, and if you do not give your email in the meetings form, we will not be able to send you the meeting link.
• If you share your device with others, or someone might check it, please read “Your Safety First” first.

What we collect

What we collect depends on how you contact us. Most of it comes directly from you. Donation records come to us from PayPal or Stripe, and technical data comes from your browser via our hosting company.

1. Website forms

The website has four forms: the contact form (/contact/), the prayer request form (/prayer/), the volunteer form (/volunteer/) and the online meetings registration form (/events/). They may contain:

• A name or pseudonym, if you give one (not required).
• Your message or prayer request.
• A way to reply to you, if you want a reply: an email address or WhatsApp number (optional).
• In the volunteer form: your skills and availability, and whether you live in Yemen, if you answer (optional).
• In the meetings form: your email address, so we can send you the meeting link.

Every message sent through these forms arrives by email in our inbox, contact@yemen4christ.org, and is not stored in the website's database. Each form also has a hidden field that you do not see or fill in; it is there to block automated spam.

2. The prayer form on the Spiritual Content page

The Spiritual Content page has a second prayer form. Its messages also arrive in our inbox, and their text is not stored on the website. To limit misuse of the form, the website keeps, for one hour only, a one-way scrambled code (a hash) of your device's IP address, not the address itself, and then deletes it.

3. Email

If you write to us directly at contact@yemen4christ.org, or your message reaches us through one of the forms, it is kept in that mailbox. The mailbox is hosted by Hostinger, the same company that hosts the website. Messages are read by a small team from the church, and a few trusted members of our ministry team pray for the requests.

4. The automated assistant (chat)

• The automated assistant is a program, not a person, and it can make mistakes. What you type into it is sent to Anthropic (the AI provider, in the United States) to generate the reply.
• The conversation is stored in the website's database: the messages, their times, and a random session number created in your browser. We do not ask for your name.
• The chat has a “Send by email” option, which includes a name or pseudonym, your email, a subject and a message. This copy arrives in our inbox, and a copy of it is also stored in the database.
• Please do not type your name, your town or any details that could identify you into the chat.

5. Donations

Donations are made through PayPal, and through Stripe for card payments when available (it is currently switched off). You enter your card or account details on PayPal's or Stripe's own pages; our website never sees or stores them. PayPal or Stripe sends us a record of the donation, including your name, email and the amount, as they do for every payment.

6. Progress in the Discipleship course

Your progress through the lessons is saved on your own device only. If you choose to create a “progress code” so you can continue on another device (this is optional and needs no e-mail address or account), the website stores only three things: a one-way converted version (hash) of your code, not the code itself; the numbers of the lessons you have completed; and the date.

7. WhatsApp

The website only provides a link to our WhatsApp number (+44 7337 813000). If you choose to message us there, we will see your phone number, and the messages are also subject to WhatsApp’s terms and policy.

8. Server and security logs

When you open any page, our hosting company Hostinger, together with its content delivery network (CDN), processes your device’s IP address and technical data about the request (such as the page requested, the time and the browser type). This is necessary to deliver the pages to you and to protect the website from attacks.

9. Backups

Every day we make a full backup of the website’s database and files, so that we can restore the website if it breaks or is attacked. The backups are kept in the same hosting account, and access to them is restricted.

What we do not ask for

We do not ask for your real name, your address, your ID number, your photo or the names of your family members. We do not use analytics tools, advertising or tracking “pixels”, and the fonts on the website are stored on our own server, so your browser does not connect to external font services.

Why we use your data, and on what lawful basis

UK law requires every use of data to have a “lawful basis”. These are our purposes and the basis for each:

Purpose	Data	Lawful basis
Replying to your messages and questions	Form and e-mail messages, and your contact method if you gave one	Your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), and your explicit consent, because the message may reveal your religious belief (Article 9(2)(a))
Praying for your request	The prayer request and the name you chose	Your consent and explicit consent (Articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a))
Contacting you about volunteering	Volunteer form data	Your consent and explicit consent (Articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a))
Sending the link to the online meeting	Your e-mail address	Your consent and explicit consent (Articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a))
Running the automated assistant	The conversation text and session number	Your consent and explicit consent (Articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a)), after you have seen a notice before using it
Keeping donation records	Name, e-mail address and amount	Legal obligation, because UK accounting law requires us to keep financial records (Article 6(1)(c))
Saving your course progress with a code	The converted progress code, the lessons and the date	Your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), as you are the one who chooses to create the code
Protecting the website and preventing abuse and spam	Server logs, the converted (hashed) IP address and the hidden field	Our legitimate interest in keeping the website secure and working (Article 6(1)(f)). Network and information security is an example the law expressly gives of a legitimate interest
Backups	Everything in the database and the website files	Our legitimate interest in restoring the website if it breaks or is attacked (Article 6(1)(f))
Remembering the language you chose	The y4c_lang cookie	Our legitimate interest in the website working in the language you have chosen (Article 6(1)(f))

About religious belief

A prayer request, a question about faith or any message to us may reveal your religious belief. This is “special category data”, which the law protects more strongly. So we only process it with your explicit consent: every form has a consent box you must tick before sending, and the automated assistant shows you a notice before you begin.

Withdrawing consent

You can withdraw your consent at any time by writing to contact@yemen4christ.org. Withdrawing consent does not make what we did before it unlawful, but after it we stop using your data for that purpose.

No automated decisions about you

The automated assistant writes replies to your questions, but it does not make any decision about you that has a legal effect or a similarly significant effect.

Who sees your data, and who we share it with

• Our team: messages are read by a small team from the church, and requests are prayed for by a small number of trusted members of our ministry team.
• Hostinger: hosts the website, its database, the mailbox and the backups, and processes server logs through its network (CDN). It acts on our behalf as a “data processor”.
• Anthropic: processes the text of your conversation with the automated assistant to generate the reply, as a service provider acting on our behalf.
• PayPal and Stripe: process the payment on their own pages under their own policies, and send us the donation record.
• WhatsApp (Meta): only if you choose to message us there. The messages are then subject to WhatsApp’s terms.

We do not sell your data, rent it out or use it for advertising. We never publish your message or your story without your permission. We do not share your data with anyone other than the service providers listed here, unless UK law requires us to, and then we share the minimum necessary.

Transfers of data outside the UK

• The text of your conversation with the automated assistant is sent to Anthropic in the United States.
• This transfer takes place under Anthropic’s data processing terms, which rely on safeguards recognised by UK law: the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the Standard Contractual Clauses.
• PayPal, Stripe and WhatsApp may also process your data outside the UK, under their own terms and policies.
• If you would like to know more about these safeguards, write to us at contact@yemen4christ.org.

How long we keep your data

These are the periods for which we keep your data:

Data	Retention period
Messages and prayer requests in the mailbox (from the forms or sent directly)	Deleted once dealt with, and at the latest 12 months after the last contact
Volunteer applications	12 months from the last contact
Registration for an online meeting	One month after the meeting
The converted (hashed) IP address (prayer form on the Spiritual Content page)	One hour
Automated assistant conversations in the database	30 days, then deleted automatically
The “send by e-mail” copy of a conversation	The copy in the database: 30 days. The copy in the mailbox: as for messages above
Discipleship course progress code	180 days from last use, then deleted automatically
Donation records	6 years, as UK accounting law requires
Server and security logs	A limited period set by the hosting company
Backups	14 days, then replaced by newer copies

So data we have deleted may remain in a backup for up to 14 days before it disappears. What is stored on your own device is described in the section Cookies and browser storage.

Your rights, and how to use them

UK data protection law gives you these rights:

• Right of access: to know what we hold about you and to ask for a copy of it.
• Right to rectification: to ask us to correct anything that is wrong or complete anything that is incomplete.
• Right to erasure: to ask us to delete your data.
• Right to restriction: to ask us to stop using your data for a time while we keep it.
• Right to object: to object to anything we do on the basis of our legitimate interests.
• Right to data portability: to ask for the data you gave us in a format that can be moved elsewhere.
• Right to withdraw consent: at any time, without affecting anything done before.
• Right to complain: to us, and to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). See Complaints.

How to make a request

• Email us at contact@yemen4christ.org and tell us what you want. You don't need to use legal wording.
• Because we don't ask for names, we may need a detail from you to help us find your message: its rough date, the pseudonym you used, or the channel you used. We ask for no more proof of identity than we need to be sure the data is yours.
• We reply within one month. If the request is complex, we may extend this by up to two further months, and we will tell you so, and why, within the first month. If we need a detail from you to find your data, the time starts when we receive it.
• We carry out a reasonable and proportionate search of every place where your data might be.
• Using these rights is normally free of charge.

Complaints

If you are not happy with how we have handled your data, please write to us first at contact@yemen4christ.org so we can put it right. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it and reply to you without undue delay.

You also have the right to complain at any time to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the data protection regulator, through its website ico.org.uk.

Cookies and browser storage

We do not use cookies for analytics, advertising or tracking. Everything we store in your browser is strictly necessary for the site to work or to do something you choose, so we do not show a consent banner. This is the full list:

Name	Type	Purpose	Duration
y4c_lang	Cookie	Remembers your language if you choose one other than Arabic. Only set if you change the language	180 days
y4c_visitor_id	Session storage (sessionStorage)	A random number for your chat session with the automated assistant	Removed when you close the tab
Discipleship course progress	Local storage (localStorage)	Saves the lessons you have completed on your device, if you use the course	Until you clear it from your browser
WordPress login cookies	Cookies	Only for team members who log in to manage the site	Length of the login session

You can clear all of this in your browser settings at any time. Our “Your Safety First” page has practical steps for doing so.

Children

Our website is written for adults and is not aimed at children under 13. If you are under 13, you are welcome to read, but please do not send us any contact details.

How we protect your data, and the limits of that

What we do:

• We collect as little as possible: no real names are required, and most fields are optional.
• Form messages are not stored in the website's database.
• We automatically delete chats and progress codes from the website's database once their retention period ends.
• In the website's database we store one-way hashed codes instead of the IP address and the progress code themselves.
• We use no analytics, advertising or tracking tools, and our fonts are hosted on our own server.
• Only a small team reads messages, and access to backups is restricted.

And what we honestly cannot promise:

• No method on the internet is free of all risk, and we cannot promise you complete safety.
• We cannot protect your own device. Someone may see your messages if your device is shared or checked by others: your browser history, your email app, and the WhatsApp chats that stay on your phone.
• Email providers and WhatsApp keep their own records, and we have no control over them.
• So do not write your name, your city or anything that reveals who you are in the chat or in messages unless you need to.

Read our “Your Safety First” page for practical steps to protect yourself. If you are in danger now, first contact your local emergency services or someone you trust who is near you, and see what to do if you are in danger. We are not an emergency service, and our reply may be delayed.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when what we do changes or the law changes. We show the date of the last update at the top of the page, and if a change is significant we explain it at the top of the page too. This version was last updated on 28 September 2026.

Contact us about privacy

• Email: contact@yemen4christ.org
• Controller: YFC CHURCH CIC, company number 16294882, England and Wales.
• Postal address: published on the Companies House register, and we will send it to you if you ask.

You can write to us under a pseudonym, and we will try to help you as much as we can.