Privacy policy — Functional Faith
This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, who sees it, and how you can ask us to change or delete it. It is written for readers in Australia, under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
What we collect
When you subscribe we store your email address and, if you provided it, your first name. When you sign up for the 30-day reading plan we store the same information plus the date you started. That is the complete subscriber dataset.
You give us that information yourself, by typing it into the forms on this site. We do not scrape it, buy it, or infer it from anywhere else.
If you write through the contact form, we also receive your email address and whatever you typed — your name, if you gave it, and your message. We use that only to reply. Using the form does not add you to the letter.
Who we are
Functional Faith is operated by the person behind the pen name Oliver T. Shepherd, based in Australia. That is who holds your information, and who you write to if something is wrong.
How we use your information
We use your email address to:
- Send the weekly Monday letter
- Send the 30-day reading plan emails, if you opted in
- Send a one-time welcome email when you subscribe
We do not use your information for advertising, profiling, or any purpose other than sending you the content you asked for — or answering you, if you wrote to us.
Third party processors
Your email address is processed by:
- Resend (resend.com) — our email delivery provider, based in the USA
- Neon (neon.tech) — our database provider, based in the USA
Both providers are bound by their own privacy policies and data processing agreements. Your data is stored on servers in the United States. That is an overseas disclosure. We do not send it anywhere else.
How long we keep your data
We keep your email address for as long as you remain subscribed. When you unsubscribe we remove your address from all active lists within 24 hours. You can request complete deletion at any time (see below).
Contact messages are kept only long enough to reply. We do not turn them into a mailing list.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- Know what information we hold about you
- Correct any inaccurate information
- Have your information deleted entirely
- Withdraw your consent at any time by unsubscribing
How to exercise your rights
Reply to any letter with your request, or use the contact form. We will respond within 7 days.
What we do not do
We do not sell, rent, or share your information with any third party for their own purposes. We do not run advertising tracking. We do not use your data to build profiles.
Complaints
If you believe we have handled your information improperly, please contact us via our contact form.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
Changes to this policy
If we ever change how we handle your data we will notify subscribers by email before the change takes effect.
Last updated: September 2026