Privacy Policy

Renata Roberts / GK Press (Pty) Ltd (“we”, “us”, or “our”) operates this website, related book and newsletter offerings, and The Slowsteader mobile app, which is published by GK Press (Pty) Ltd under the Renata Roberts brand. You can reach us through the contact form at /contact on this website, or through Settings → Support in The Slowsteader app.

This policy applies to visitors, newsletter subscribers, customers who purchase ebooks through our shop or are directed to third-party retailers for physical books, and users of The Slowsteader app on iOS and Android.

Contact and identity information: name and email address when you subscribe to the newsletter, request freebies, send a message through the contact form, or create an account in The Slowsteader app.

Purchase information: when you buy an ebook through our shop, payment and order details are processed by our merchant of record, Creem.io. We may receive order confirmation details such as your name, email, product purchased, and transaction identifiers needed to fulfil or support your order. We do not store full payment card numbers on our servers.

Physical book purchases: paperback and other physical editions sold via Amazon or similar retailers are processed under that retailer’s own privacy policy. We do not receive your payment card details from those checkouts.

App information: account details, subscription status, and the content and device data described in section 6 (The Slowsteader app).

Technical and usage information: IP address, browser type, device information, pages viewed, referring URLs, and approximate location. We may also use cookies or similar technologies as described below.

Marketing attribution: if you arrive from an advertisement, we may process campaign and UTM parameters and advertising pixel events to understand which campaigns led to views or purchases.

To provide the website and app, respond to messages, and deliver free resources you request.

To send newsletters, book updates, blog notifications, and related communications when you have subscribed or otherwise consented. You may unsubscribe at any time using the link in those emails or by contacting us.

To process and fulfil ebook purchases (including delivery of download links via Creem.io) and app subscriptions, provide customer support, and send transactional emails related to your order or account.

To operate, secure, and improve the website and app; prevent fraud and abuse; and understand traffic and conversion performance on the website (including Meta Pixel and OpenPanel analytics, where used).

To comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms and Conditions.

If you subscribe to our newsletter or related lists (including when claiming freebies), we use your email address to send occasional newsletters, book updates, and blog or resource notifications.

Email delivery and list management may be handled by a service provider such as MailerLite. Their processing of your data is governed by their own privacy terms in addition to this policy.

Creating an account in The Slowsteader app does not by itself subscribe you to the newsletter.

We do not sell your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time. Unsubscribing stops marketing emails; we may still contact you about a purchase, account, or support request you initiated.

Ebooks sold on this website are fulfilled through Creem.io as merchant of record. Creem.io collects payment information and may process personal data needed for checkout, tax, fraud prevention, and delivery. Please also review Creem.io’s privacy policy.

Physical books linked from this site are typically sold by Amazon or other third-party retailers. Those purchases are subject to the retailer’s privacy policy and terms. We are not responsible for how those retailers handle your data.

Order-related emails (receipts, download links, shipping updates from a retailer) are transactional and are separate from newsletter marketing, though the same email address may be used for both if you have subscribed.

The Slowsteader is designed to keep your personal records on your device. Garden maps and logs, sowing notes, kitchen and recipe records, journal entries, reflections, and photos you attach are stored locally on your phone and are not uploaded to our servers during everyday use. The app contains no advertising trackers and we do not sell app data.

Account: if you sign in with email, Apple, or Google, our backend provider Supabase stores your account identifier, email address, sign-in provider, and a small profile (display name, first and last name, and onboarding preferences such as your climate and garden settings). If you use Sign in with Apple and choose to hide your email, we receive only Apple’s relay address.

Subscriptions: paid app memberships are sold through the Apple App Store or Google Play (or, where offered, a web checkout redeemed in the app). The store processes your payment; we never receive your card details. We use RevenueCat to manage subscription status, which receives an anonymous or account-linked app user ID, purchase and entitlement records, and basic device information.

Speak to Renata and on-device AI: by default, Speak conversations are answered on your device (using the phone’s built-in AI where available) or from notes bundled with the app, and your messages do not leave the device.

Cloud Renata (optional, off by default): if you turn on Cloud Renata in Settings, your Speak messages and relevant context are sent through our Supabase edge functions to OpenRouter, which routes them to a third-party large language model provider to generate a reply. The same cloud processing is used when you ask the app to identify a plant from a photo, in which case the photo is sent for analysis. We do not use this content to build advertising profiles. OpenRouter and model providers process it under their own terms and may retain it for limited periods for abuse monitoring. Do not include sensitive personal information you do not want processed by these services. You can switch Cloud Renata off at any time.

Plant information: searches in the botanical library are sent to our edge function, which queries the Perenual plant database. Search terms are cached without being linked to your account.

Location: if you grant location permission, the app reads your approximate location to set your climate zone, seasons, and frost dates. To name your area, coordinates are sent to the OpenStreetMap Nominatim service for reverse geocoding. We do not track your location in the background or store a location history on our servers.

Camera, photos, calendar, reminders, and Face ID / Touch ID: these permissions are used only for the features that request them (capturing or attaching kitchen and garden photos, identifying plants, adding garden care to your calendar or reminders, and optionally locking the app). Biometric data never leaves your device’s secure hardware and is never shared with us.

Notifications: if you allow notifications, the app schedules garden care reminders on your device and may register an Expo push token so we can deliver reminders and service messages.

Support messages: if you contact us from inside the app, your message, the email address you provide, and basic app and device details are sent to us by email using Resend.

Deleting your data: you can delete your account at any time from Settings in the app. This removes your account and profile from our backend and clears app data stored on the device. Uninstalling the app also removes locally stored content. Subscription purchase records held by Apple, Google, or RevenueCat are retained under their policies and applicable tax law. Active subscriptions must be cancelled separately through your App Store or Google Play account.

On this website we may use cookies, local storage, and similar technologies for essential site functions, analytics, and advertising measurement.

Where Meta (Facebook) Pixel or similar tools are used on the website, they may collect information about your visit and interactions (such as page views, product views, checkout starts, and purchases) and share it with Meta according to your browser and platform settings.

We may also use OpenPanel on the website for product analytics and optional session replay. Session recordings are privacy-aware by default (for example, form inputs and on-screen text may be masked). OpenPanel processes usage data to help us understand how the site is used and improve it.

The Slowsteader app does not use advertising pixels, cross-app tracking, or session replay.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect site features. Advertising platforms may also offer their own preference tools.

We share personal information only as needed with service providers who help us operate the site, app, and offerings, including email/newsletter providers (MailerLite, Resend), payment and digital delivery providers (Creem.io, Apple, Google, RevenueCat), hosting and backend providers (including Supabase), AI processing providers when you opt in (OpenRouter and the model providers it routes to), plant data and mapping services (Perenual, OpenStreetMap Nominatim), and website analytics or advertising partners.

We may disclose information if required by law, to protect rights and safety, or in connection with a business transfer. We do not sell personal information as a standalone product.

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described in this policy, including legal, accounting, and dispute-resolution requirements. Newsletter data is retained until you unsubscribe and for a reasonable period afterward as needed for suppression lists and compliance. Purchase records are retained as required for tax and commercial record-keeping.

App account and profile data is retained until you delete your account. Content stored only on your device stays under your control and is removed when you delete your account in the app or uninstall it.

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including device encryption for local app data, row-level access controls on our backend, and keeping third-party API keys on the server rather than in the app. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security.

We are based in South Africa. Our service providers may process data in countries other than your own, including the United States and the European Union. Where that occurs, we rely on appropriate safeguards offered by those providers and applicable law, including the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

Depending on where you live (including under POPIA, the GDPR, or US state privacy laws), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict use of your personal information, to object to certain processing, or to withdraw consent (including unsubscribing from marketing emails or turning off Cloud Renata).

To exercise these rights, you can reach us through the contact form at /contact on this website, or through Settings → Support in The Slowsteader app. We may need to verify your request. Some requests may be limited by law or legitimate business needs (for example, retaining purchase records). You may also lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa or your local data protection authority.

This website, The Slowsteader app, and our products are not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us information, please contact us so we can delete it.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page will change when we do. Where changes are material to the app, we may also notify you in the app. Continued use of the site or app after changes means you accept the updated policy, where permitted by law.

You can reach us through the contact form at /contact on this website, or through Settings → Support in The Slowsteader app. Please include enough detail for us to identify your request (for example, the email used to subscribe, purchase, or sign in to the app).