Privacy Policy

Ascent With Christ

Effective Date: February 1, 2026

Welcome to Ascent with Christ. We are a Christ-centered ministry committed to helping believers grow into spiritual maturity through biblical teaching and discipleship. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, protect, and share your personal information when you visit our website at https://ascentwithchrist.org/, engage with our content, create an account, make purchases, or subscribe to our services. Your privacy matters to us. As a ministry grounded in biblical values, we are committed to stewarding your information with integrity, transparency, and respect. We collect only the information necessary to serve you effectively and to fulfill our mission of making disciples and spreading the Gospel.

1. Who We Are

Ascent with Christ is a Christ-centered ministry dedicated to helping believers grow in spiritual maturity through the study and teaching of God’s Word. We serve individuals, churches, and leaders globally by producing biblically sound teaching resources, courses, and media content that reveal Jesus Christ throughout all of Scripture.

Our website serves multiple purposes: it is a platform for biblical teaching and discipleship content, a community space for believers to engage through comments and discussions, and an e-commerce platform where we offer print-on-demand products, ebooks, and subscription-based services to support our ministry operations.

2. What Personal Data We Collect and Why We Collect It

We collect personal information to provide you with ministry resources, fulfill your orders, improve your user experience, and communicate with you effectively. Below is a detailed explanation of what we collect and why:

2.1 Comments

When you leave a comment on our articles or teaching posts, we collect:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your comment text
• Your IP address (automatically collected by WordPress for spam prevention)

Legal Basis: Your consent when you submit the comment.

Purpose: Comments allow our community to engage with our teaching content, ask questions, share testimonies, and encourage one another. Your email address is not displayed publicly but may be used to notify you of replies to your comment. Your IP address helps us identify and block spam comments.

2.2 Contact Forms

When you submit a message through our contact form, we collect:

• Your first name
• Your last name
• Your email address
• Subject of your inquiry
• Your message content

Legal Basis: Your consent when you submit the form.

Purpose: Contact form submissions enable you to ask questions, request prayer, seek biblical guidance, report technical issues, or communicate with our ministry team. We retain these submissions for one year to maintain a record of our correspondence and provide quality customer service, but we do not use this information for marketing purposes unless you have separately opted in to our newsletter.

2.3 User Accounts

When you create an account on our website, we collect:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your chosen username and password
• Billing and shipping addresses (if you make purchases)
• Order history and download records

Legal Basis: Contractual necessity to provide you with account services and fulfill orders.

Purpose: Your account allows you to access downloadable resources (such as ebooks and teaching materials), view your order history, manage your subscription services, save billing and shipping information for future purchases, and update your account preferences. This data is essential for us to deliver the products and services you have purchased.

2.4 Newsletter Subscriptions

When you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect:

• Your email address
• Your name (if provided)

Legal Basis: Your explicit consent when you opt in to receive our newsletter.

Purpose: Our newsletter provides you with biblical teaching, ministry updates, announcements of new resources, and encouragement for your spiritual journey. We retain your subscription information until you unsubscribe. You may unsubscribe at any time using the link provided in every email we send.

2.5 E-commerce and Transactions

When you make a purchase on our website (including print-on-demand products, ebooks, monthly subscriptions, or annual subscriptions for our SaaS services), we collect:

• Billing information (name, address, email)
• Shipping address (for physical products)
• Payment information (processed securely by Stripe)
• Order details (products purchased, amounts, dates)

Legal Basis: Contractual necessity to process your order and comply with tax and accounting requirements.

Purpose: This information is necessary to fulfill your orders, process payments, deliver digital and physical products, manage subscriptions, and maintain accurate financial records.

Important Note: We use Stripe as our payment processor. Stripe collects and processes your payment card information directly. We do not store your full credit card details on our servers. For more information on how Stripe handles your payment data, please review Stripe’s Privacy Policy at https://stripe.com/privacy.

2.6 Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience, analyze website traffic, and understand how visitors interact with our content. Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit our website.

Types of cookies we use:

• Essential cookies: Required for the website to function properly (e.g., remembering your login status, shopping cart contents)
• Analytics cookies: Help us understand how visitors use our site (e.g., which pages are most popular, how long people stay on the site)
• Preference cookies: Remember your settings and preferences for future visits

You can control and manage cookies through your browser settings. However, disabling cookies may limit your ability to use certain features of our website.

2.7 Analytics

We use the following analytics tools to understand how our website is used and to improve our content and services:

• Google Analytics
• Google Tag Manager
• Google Site Kit
• Google Search Console
• MonsterInsights (WordPress analytics plugin)

These tools collect anonymized or pseudonymized data about your browsing behavior, including:

• Pages you visit
• Time spent on each page
• Your general geographic location (country/city level)
• Device type and browser information
• Referral sources (how you found our website)

Legal Basis: Legitimate interest in improving our ministry website and content.

You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

For more information on how Google uses data, visit https://policies.google.com/privacy.

2.8 Social Media and Content Sharing

Our website includes social media sharing buttons for the following platforms:

• Facebook
• X (formerly Twitter)
• WhatsApp
• Pinterest
• Instagram
• Tumblr
• Email

When you interact with these buttons, the respective social media platforms may collect data about your visit to our website. We do not control how these third-party platforms collect or use your information. Please review the privacy policies of these platforms to understand their data practices.

2.9 Media Uploads

If you upload images or other media files to our website (for example, as part of a comment or profile picture), please be aware that any location data (EXIF GPS) included in uploaded images may be visible to others who download your files. We recommend removing this metadata before uploading if you wish to protect your privacy.

3. Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. However, we share your data with trusted service providers who help us operate our website and deliver our services. These providers are contractually obligated to protect your information and use it only for the purposes we specify.

We share data with the following categories of third parties:

3.1 Payment Processors

Stripe: We use Stripe to process all payments securely. When you make a purchase, Stripe receives your payment card information, billing address, and transaction details. Stripe is certified as a PCI Service Provider Level 1, the highest level of certification in the payment industry.

Privacy Policy: https://stripe.com/privacy

3.2 Web Hosting and Cloud Services

Hostinger: Our WordPress website is hosted on Hostinger’s servers. Hostinger stores website files, databases, and server logs that may contain your IP address and browsing activity.

Privacy Policy: https://www.hostinger.com/privacy-policy

Replit: Our Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) web applications are hosted on Replit. If you use our SaaS products, your account data and usage information are stored on Replit’s infrastructure.

Privacy Policy: https://replit.com/site/privacy

3.3 Analytics Providers

As described in Section 2.7, we use Google Analytics and related Google services to analyze website traffic. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize ads within its own advertising network.

Google Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

3.4 Email Service Providers

We use email service providers to send newsletters, order confirmations, and ministry updates. These providers have access to your email address and name for the purpose of delivering our communications.

3.5 Print-on-Demand Fulfillment Partners

When you order physical products (such as books, journals, or other printed materials), we share your name, shipping address, and order details with our print-on-demand partners who manufacture and ship these products directly to you.

3.6 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law, or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with legal obligations, protect our rights or property, prevent fraud, or ensure the safety of our users or the public.

4. How Long We Retain Your Data

We retain your personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Below are the specific retention periods for different types of data:

• Contact form submissions: Retained for one year from the date of submission
• Comments: Retained indefinitely unless you request deletion
• Newsletter subscriptions: Retained until you unsubscribe
• User account data: Retained for the duration of your active account and for a reasonable period afterward to allow account reactivation if desired
• Order and transaction data: Retained for up to ten years for tax, accounting, and legal compliance purposes
• Analytics data: Google Analytics data is retained according to Google’s data retention policies (typically 26 months by default, though we may adjust this)

5. What Rights You Have Over Your Data

You have important rights regarding your personal information. Depending on your location, these rights may be governed by laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), or similar data protection laws. We honor these rights for all users, regardless of location.

You have the right to:

• Access your data: You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectify your data: If any of your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to request that we correct it. You can also update most information directly through your account settings.
• Erase your data: You can request that we delete your personal information, subject to certain legal exceptions (such as transaction records we are required to retain for tax purposes).
• Export your data: If you have an account on our site, you can request to receive an exported file of your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format (data portability).
• Withdraw consent: If we are processing your data based on your consent (such as for our newsletter), you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
• Object to processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your data for certain purposes, such as direct marketing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@ascentwithchrist.org. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

If you have an account on this site or have left comments, you can also request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you through your account dashboard.

6. Where Your Data Is Sent

Our website and services use infrastructure and third-party providers that may process or store your data outside your country of residence, including outside the European Economic Area (EEA). When we transfer data internationally, we ensure it is protected to standards equivalent to those required by European data protection law.

Specifically:

• Hostinger operates data centers in multiple locations worldwide. Your website data may be stored on servers in the United States or Europe, depending on the specific server configuration.
• Replit operates cloud infrastructure in the United States. If you use our SaaS applications, your data may be processed and stored on US-based servers.
• Google (Analytics) processes analytics data globally and may transfer data outside the EEA.
• Stripe is headquartered in the United States and may process payment data on servers located outside the EEA.

These third-party providers have implemented appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), binding corporate rules, or other legally recognized mechanisms to ensure your data is protected in accordance with European data protection standards. By using our website, you acknowledge and consent to these international data transfers.

7. How We Protect Your Data

We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect it from unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or alteration.

Our security measures include:

• Encryption: All data transmitted between your browser and our website is encrypted using SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security) technology.
• Secure payment processing: We use Stripe, a PCI-DSS compliant payment processor, to handle all credit card transactions. We do not store your full payment card details on our servers.
• Password protection: User passwords are stored in hashed and salted format, not in plain text.
• Access controls: We limit access to personal data to authorized personnel who need it to perform their duties.
• Regular backups: We maintain regular backups of our website to prevent data loss.
• Software updates: We keep our website software, plugins, and security systems up to date to protect against known vulnerabilities.

While we strive to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we are committed to using industry-standard practices to safeguard your data.

8. Data Breach Procedures

In the unlikely event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we have procedures in place to respond promptly and appropriately:

• Internal reporting: Any suspected or confirmed data breach is immediately reported to our leadership team for assessment.
• Investigation: We investigate the scope and severity of the breach to determine what data was affected and how the breach occurred.
• Containment and remediation: We take immediate steps to contain the breach and prevent further unauthorized access.
• User notification: If the breach poses a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you without undue delay (typically within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach), along with information about what happened and what steps you should take to protect yourself.
• Regulatory notification: Where required by law, we will notify the appropriate supervisory authorities.

If you become aware of any security vulnerability or potential breach, please report it to us immediately at info@ascentwithchrist.org.

9. Children’s Privacy

Our website and services are not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take steps to delete that information as soon as possible. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at info@ascentwithchrist.org.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or website functionality. When we make significant changes, we will notify you by posting a notice on our website or sending you an email (if you have provided your email address). The “Effective Date” at the top of this policy indicates when it was last updated. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.

11. Contact Information

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us:

Ascent with Christ

Email: info@ascentwithchrist.org

Website: https://ascentwithchrist.org/

Thank you for trusting Ascent with Christ with your personal information. We are committed to stewarding your data with integrity and using it to serve you and advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ.