Privacy Policy
Last updated August 11, 2026
This policy explains what Holy Land Treasures LLC does with your information, in plain language. If anything here is unclear, write to us and ask.
Who is responsible for your information
Holy Land Treasures LLC decides what happens to the personal information described here, and is the controller of it. We are an independent business - not the Basilica of the Annunciation, and not the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, which administers the church.
You can reach us by post at 3120 Southwest Fwy, Ste 101 #707208, Houston, TX 77098, USA, or by email at hello@basilicaoftheannunciation.com.
What this policy covers
This policy covers this website and the candle-lighting service sold through it. It does not cover Facebook, Instagram, Google or any other site you may reach from here - each has its own policy, and we do not control them.
What we collect
Only what the service actually needs:
- Your order. Your name, your email address, the intention you write, the plan you chose and an order reference.
- Your payment. Stripe processes your card. We never see or store your card number - we keep only the identifiers Stripe gives us, so we can match a payment to an order and refund it if you ask.
- Your messages. Anything you write to us, and our replies.
- Technical information. Your IP address, your browser, and the two-letter country your request came from, which our host records for security and which we use to decide which privacy choices to offer you.
- Measurement and advertising data - but only if you agree to it. See Cookies below.
We never ask for anything we do not need, and there is nothing on this site that quietly collects more.
Why we use it, and on what legal basis
- To take your order, light your candle and send you the video - because we must, in order to perform our contract with you (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)).
- To take payment, prevent fraud, and keep the accounting records the law requires - to comply with a legal obligation, and because we have a legitimate interest in being paid and not being defrauded (Articles 6(1)(c) and 6(1)(f)).
- To answer you when you write - our legitimate interest in running the service properly (Article 6(1)(f)).
- To measure how the site is used, and to advertise it - only with your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time.
We do not make decisions about you by automated means, and we do not build profiles of you.
Your intention, and why we treat it differently
The intention you write may reveal your religious beliefs, or somebody else's. Under the GDPR that is a special category of personal data, and it needs a stronger basis than the rest - so we rely on your explicit consent, which you give by choosing to write it and send it (Article 9(2)(a)).
We use it for exactly one thing: lighting the candle you asked for. We do not publish it. We do not share it. We never use it to advertise anything, and it is never sent to Google or Meta. Nobody outside Holy Land Treasures LLC reads it.
If you would rather we did not keep it once your candle is lit, write and say so, and we will delete the text of your intention while keeping only the payment record the law obliges us to hold.
Where your information goes
We are a United States business, and our suppliers store data in the United States. If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, your information is therefore transferred out of your own country.
Those transfers rely on the European Commission standard contractual clauses, or on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the supplier is certified under it. Write to us and we will tell you which applies to a particular supplier, and send you a copy of the safeguards.
How long we keep it
- Your order and the record of the candles we lit for you: for as long as your subscription runs, and six years after your final payment, because tax and accounting law requires us to keep records of what we sold and to whom.
- The text of your intention: with the order, unless you ask us to delete it once your candle is lit - then straight away.
- Your emails to us: three years.
- Measurement and advertising data: for the period Google and Meta apply, typically no more than fourteen months.
- Your consent choice: one year, after which we ask again.
Your rights
If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, you have the right to:
- ask what we hold about you, and get a copy of it;
- have anything wrong put right;
- have your information deleted;
- ask us to restrict what we do with it, or object to it;
- receive what you gave us in a portable form;
- withdraw your consent at any time - which does not make what we did beforehand unlawful.
Write to hello@basilicaoftheannunciation.com and we will answer within one month. It costs nothing, and we will not treat you any differently for asking.
If you think we have got something wrong, you may complain to the data protection authority in your own country. You can go to them directly - you do not have to come to us first, though we would like the chance to fix it.
Your US privacy rights
If you live in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, Oregon or another US state with a privacy law, you have the right to know what we collect and why, to get a copy of it, to correct it, to delete it, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for targeted advertising.
We do not sell your personal information for money, and we do not knowingly sell or share the information of anyone under sixteen. We do share limited information with Meta for cross-context behavioural advertising, if you allow the advertising cookies. To stop that, use Your Privacy Choices in the footer of any page, or turn Advertising off in Cookie settings.
We honour the Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends that signal, advertising stays switched off for you automatically and there is nothing further for you to do.
We will not deny you the service, charge you a different price, or give you a worse experience for exercising any of these rights. You may use an authorised agent, in which case we will ask for proof that you gave them permission. To make a request, write to hello@basilicaoftheannunciation.com.
Children
This service is for adults. We do not knowingly collect information about anyone under sixteen. If you believe a child has given us their information, write to us and we will delete it.
How we protect it
Your order is held in an encrypted database that only we can reach, over a connection that is authenticated and encrypted end to end. We never handle card numbers - Stripe does that, and it is certified to do it.
No system is perfectly safe and we will not pretend otherwise. If a breach ever put you at risk, we would tell you and the relevant regulator, as the law requires.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we change the date at the top. If the change matters - a new purpose, a new recipient, a new cookie - we will ask for your consent again rather than assume the old one still covers it.
How to reach us
Write to hello@basilicaoftheannunciation.com, or by post to Holy Land Treasures LLC, 3120 Southwest Fwy, Ste 101 #707208, Houston, TX 77098, USA.
There is a person at the other end, and we answer.