In short
We collect as little as we can, we never sell it, and we use it only to care for you and run the church. Visitors to this website get no cookies and no advertising or tracking code. The sermon player remembers where you stopped listening — on your own device, not on our server. Anything you type into a form goes to our church team so they can reply.
This notice explains, in plain language, what Connexions Church Randfontein (“we”, “us”) collects through www.connexionschurch.org.za, why, who sees it, how long we keep it and what your rights are under South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Last updated 12 October 2026.
On your device
A few small things are saved in your own browser so the site works the way you’d expect. They stay on your phone or computer — the website doesn’t read them back, and you can delete them any time by clearing this site’s data in your browser settings.
| Name | What it remembers | How long |
|---|---|---|
cxs-positions | Sermon player — where you stopped. For each message you’ve listened to for more than 10 seconds: the message’s ID and how far in you got (in seconds), so Play carries on from there. A message is taken off the list when you finish it. This also means the list shows which messages you’ve started on this device. | Until you finish the message or clear your browser data |
cxs-volume | Sermon player — your volume level, so it doesn’t jump back to full volume next time. | Until you clear your browser data |
cxListenClosed | That you closed the “Latest message” button on the home page, so it doesn’t pop up again. | Until you close the tab |
cx-pwa-dismissed | That you closed the “Install the app” banner. | Until you close the tab |
| Offline copies | Copies of our pages, styles, scripts and photos, kept by the site’s service worker so it loads quickly, works as an app and shows something when you’re offline. No personal details are in them. | Replaced when the site is updated; removed when you clear browser data |
Cookies: the public website sets none.
Other services that appear on some pages may set their own cookies — see Other services.
Forms you fill in
Plan a visit
Your first name and surname, an email address or cellphone number, which Sunday you’re thinking of and how many children you’re bringing — so we can welcome you and get Kids Connect ready.
Prayer requests
Your name and contact details (both optional), your request, and whether it’s confidential. A confidential request is not saved on the website at all — it’s emailed only to our pastors, and the website keeps just a note that a confidential request came in (with the name and contact details you gave, if any).
Contact us
Your name, email address, what it’s about and your message.
For every form
- We also save the date and time and your IP address, to stop spam and abuse. Your IP address is also kept in a separate list for 24 hours to limit how many messages one connection can send.
- Your message is emailed to the church team member who handles that form, and you get an automatic email reply (only if you gave an email address).
- Messages are kept in the website’s private inbox so the team can follow up. Only the most recent 2,000 are kept — older ones are deleted automatically, and the team deletes others sooner.
- Messages that look like spam are kept apart and not emailed to anyone.
Event sign-ups
When you book for an event we collect your name, email address, cellphone number (when the event asks for it), your answers to any questions the event asks, the tickets you chose, and the name of each person you’re booking for — plus their age when a ticket is for a certain age group (for example kids’ camps). We also record the date, your IP address, whether you’ve paid, and who has arrived at the door.
- We use this to confirm your place, send your tickets and a reminder before the event, and to check people in.
- QR tickets contain only a link to your booking with a secret code — no names or other details are written into the code itself.
- Paid tickets are paid through PayFast (see Giving) — we never see your card details.
- Sign-ups are kept until our team deletes the event, normally once it’s over and any follow-up is done.
Giving
When you give online, the payment itself happens on PayFast, a South African payment provider, in their secure window. Your card or bank details never reach us.
We keep a record of each gift: your name and email address, the amount, the fund you chose, the date, PayFast’s reference and fee, and the receipt number we gave it — so we can send your receipt and year-end statement and keep proper church accounts. Gifts given in person (cash, EFT, SnapScan or card machine) may be recorded the same way when you ask for a receipt.
- Section 18A tax receipts: if you ask for one, we also need your ID or tax number and your address, because SARS requires them on the certificate. These are stored encrypted on our server, used only for your tax certificate, and are never written into our activity logs.
- Regular giving: for a monthly, three-monthly or yearly gift we also keep how often you give, how many payments have gone through, and the reference PayFast gives us to stop the gift when you ask. Your emails include a private link to see or stop it.
- Unfinished online gifts (where the payment was never completed) are deleted after 14 days.
- Financial records are kept for as long as the law requires — normally five years — and then deleted.
SnapScan payments and EFTs go through SnapScan and your bank under their own privacy terms.
Newsletter
If you sign up for our newsletter we keep your email address, the date, where you signed up and whether you’ve confirmed. You’re only added after you click the link in the confirmation email we send you.
Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link that works straight away. After you unsubscribe we keep your address marked “unsubscribed” only so that we never email you again by mistake — ask us if you’d like it deleted completely.
Website statistics
To understand which pages help people, the website counts visits without cookies and without storing IP addresses. For each page view it notes:
- the page and the time (to the minute);
- whether you’re on a phone, tablet or computer;
- the website that sent you here, if any — just its name, like “google.com” or “facebook.com”, never the full address;
- the address of any page that couldn’t be found, so we can fix broken links;
- an anonymous visitor code, made by scrambling your IP address and browser details with a secret key that changes every day. It can’t be turned back into your IP address, and it can’t connect your visit today with one tomorrow.
When you listen to a message for 30 seconds, the player sends us the message’s ID and title (with the same anonymous code) so we can see which messages are being played.
The day’s records are turned into totals the next time the team views the statistics; the totals are kept for about 13 months. Church team members who are logged in aren’t counted.
The Connexions app
The church app for Android works without an account. Forms you send from it (like a prayer request) are handled exactly as on this website.
On your phone the app keeps the list of messages, where you stopped listening, the messages you download to listen offline and your notification choices. Uninstalling the app removes all of it.
Notifications are only sent if you turn them on, and only the kinds you choose (church news, new messages, events). They are delivered by Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging: your phone signs itself up for those kinds with Google, so Google knows your phone’s notification address, but the church never receives or keeps a list of phones — we send one message to everyone who chose that kind. Turn them off any time under Me in the app or in your phone’s settings.
Church team sign-in is only for people on the church’s team who check people in at events. They sign in with their website account; the phone keeps a sign-in code in its encrypted storage (never the password) until they sign out, and the website records which phone signed in and when it was last used so an administrator can sign it out. Scanning a ticket only checks it with the website — the app doesn’t keep the booking list or photos from the camera.
Other services
Some parts of the site load content from other companies. When they do, your browser connects to them directly, so they receive your IP address and browser details and handle them under their own privacy policies:
- Podbean hosts our sermons. The message list, audio and artwork load from Podbean (and Podbean counts downloads).
- Facebook: the News page shows posts from the church’s own Facebook Page. Their text and photos are copied to our website, so reading the News page doesn’t connect you to Facebook — only the “View on Facebook” links do. The website can only read the Page’s posts; it can’t post, comment or see messages.
- Google Maps shows the map on the Plan a visit and Contact pages, and may set its own cookies.
- PayFast processes online payments in its own secure window.
- YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) is used if a page shows one of our videos.
- Links to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SnapScan and our church directory (Net153) take you to those services — what you share there, such as registering on Net153, is handled by them under their own privacy terms.
Our fonts are stored on our own server, so loading a page doesn’t contact Google Fonts or other font services.
Who sees your information
We never sell or rent your information, and we don’t use it for advertising. It’s seen by:
- the church team members who need it — for example our finance team sees giving records, the events team sees sign-ups, and the door team only sees the check-in list;
- the companies that help us run the website: our web host (which stores the website and its records, and keeps standard server logs such as IP addresses and pages requested), our email provider (which delivers the emails), and PayFast for payments;
- SARS or other authorities, but only when the law requires it.
Some of these services (Podbean, Google — including Firebase for app notifications — our email provider) may store information outside South Africa. We only use providers that protect personal information to a standard similar to POPIA.
How we protect it
- The whole site uses an encrypted (https) connection.
- Everything the website stores is kept in a private area of the server that can’t be opened from the web.
- Section 18A ID and tax numbers and addresses, and the email system’s password, are stored encrypted.
- Team members log in with strong passwords (stored only in scrambled form), only see the parts of the admin area their role needs, and get locked out after repeated wrong passwords. Their actions are recorded in an activity log, with their IP address.
- The website makes regular backups of its records so nothing is lost. Backups are kept on the server and, from time to time, a copy is kept safely offline by the church office. Older backups are replaced automatically.
Children
We don’t ask children to give us their details through this website. When a parent or guardian books children into an event (for example a kids’ camp), the parent gives the child’s name and age, and we use them only for that event.
Photos taken at church services and events sometimes appear on this website and our social media. If you’d rather you or your child didn’t appear, just let us know and we’ll take the photo down.
Your rights
Under POPIA you may ask us:
- whether we hold information about you, and for a copy of it;
- to correct or update it;
- to delete it, where we don’t need to keep it by law (for example, gift records needed for tax);
- to stop sending you newsletters or other messages — any time.
Contact us using the details below; we’ll answer within 30 days and won’t charge you. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please talk to us first — you can also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa).
Contact us
Our lead pastor is our Information Officer. For any privacy question or request:
- Email: info@connexionschurch.org.za
- Phone: 011 412 7364
- Post or in person: Connexions Church Randfontein, 31 North Way, Rand West City, 1759
We may update this notice when the website changes; the date at the top shows the latest version.