Create a memorial

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 26 May 2026

Paused Beat is a place for Kenyan families to announce, remember, and honour a life. We treat the information you share with the same care we expect for the people you are remembering. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have.

Who we are

Paused Beat is operated from Nairobi, Kenya. For any privacy question, write to [email protected]. We act as the data controller for the personal information described below.

What we collect

  • Account details: your name, email address, and phone number when you create an account or accept an invitation to contribute to a memorial.
  • Memorial content: the death announcements, obituaries, tributes, photos, and other content you or invited contributors publish on a memorial page.
  • Invitations and notifications: phone numbers and email addresses you provide to invite family and friends, used only to deliver the SMS or email notifications you ask us to send.
  • Technical information: basic request data (IP address, browser, referrer) handled briefly by our hosting and CDN providers to deliver the site and protect against abuse.
  • Privacy-first analytics: we use Simple Analytics to count page visits. Simple Analytics does not use cookies, does not collect personal data, and does not fingerprint visitors. See what Simple Analytics collects.

Why we collect it

  • To create and protect your account.
  • To publish the memorial pages you and invited contributors author.
  • To deliver the invitations and notifications you ask us to send to family and friends.
  • To keep the service running safely (security, fraud prevention, debugging).
  • To understand, in aggregate, which parts of the site people use, so we can improve them.

How memorial visibility works

Each memorial has a visibility setting chosen by the family. A memorial may be public (discoverable by anyone), unlisted (only people with the link can see it), or private (only invited contributors). You control this setting and can change it at any time from the memorial’s privacy settings.

Who we share with

We do not sell personal information. We share it only with the service providers we need to run Paused Beat, and only the minimum each one needs to do its job:

  • Hosting and infrastructure: our cloud and CDN providers (including Cloudflare) host the site and protect it from abuse.
  • SMS delivery: Rayvicon (and, where configured, Africa’s Talking) deliver the SMS invitations and notifications you request.
  • Email delivery: our transactional email provider sends account emails and invitations.
  • Analytics: Simple Analytics processes aggregate, non-personal page-view data.

We may also disclose information if required by Kenyan law or a valid legal request, or to protect the safety of users and the public.

Where your data is stored

Paused Beat is hosted on infrastructure that may store and process data outside Kenya, including in the European Union and the United States. We rely on appropriate safeguards (including standard contractual clauses, where relevant) for any international transfer.

How long we keep it

Memorial content is kept for as long as the memorial exists, because permanence is the point. Account information is kept for as long as your account is active. When you ask us to delete a memorial or your account, we remove the content and personal information within a reasonable period, except where we are required to retain limited records for legal or security reasons.

Your rights

Under the Kenya Data Protection Act, 2019, and (where it applies to you) the EU/UK GDPR, you have the right to:

  • access the personal data we hold about you;
  • ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
  • ask us to delete your account and associated personal data;
  • object to or restrict certain processing, and (where applicable) request a portable copy of your data;
  • withdraw consent at any time, without affecting prior processing.

To exercise any of these rights, write to [email protected]. If you believe we have not handled your data properly, you may lodge a complaint with the Kenya Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, or with your local supervisory authority in the EU/UK.

Children

Paused Beat is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you believe a child has provided personal information, please contact us and we will remove it.

Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, give clear notice on the site.

Privacy · Paused Beat