Legal
Privacy Policy
Effective date: 2026-05-16 Controller: Joshua Katigbak, operating Praize ("Praize", "we", "us") Privacy contact: privacy@praize.faith Supervisory authority (Estonia): Andmekaitse Inspektsioon (Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate), https://www.aki.ee
1. Overview
Praize is a prayer community app where users can anchor prayers, praises, and reflections to Bible verses. If you create an account and post content, your prayers may reveal religious beliefs, which is treated as sensitive (special category) data under EU data protection law.
This policy explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and your rights.
2. How You Can Use Praize
2.1 Viewer Mode (no account required)
You can browse public Scripture and prayers without creating an account. In viewer mode we process only basic technical data (IP address, device info) to operate and secure the service. We do not store personal content for viewers.
2.2 Account Mode
When you create an account, you can post prayers, give and receive intercessions, join groups, participate in vigils, and use voice features. Creating an account and posting prayer content involves processing data that may reveal religious beliefs.
2.3 Guest Accounts
You may initially use Praize with a guest account for limited functionality. If you later sign up with email or a social provider, your guest activity may be migrated to your new account. Guest activity is pseudonymous, not fully anonymous, while it can still be linked to the same device or later account.
3. What We Collect
3.1 Account data
- Email address (if signing up with email)
- Display name, username, avatar, bio
- OAuth identifiers (Apple, Google, or Facebook — depending on your sign-in method)
- Account preferences and settings
3.2 Prayer and community content
- Prayer, praise, testimony, and reflection text
- Verse references, timestamps, visibility settings (public / private / group-only)
- Community interactions: "Amens" (spiritual agreements), follows, group memberships
- Answered prayer markers and testimonies
3.3 Audio and transcripts (optional)
If you use voice features:
- Audio recordings of prayers/praises (stored as OPUS/AAC files)
- Auto-generated transcripts and captions (may be editable by you)
- Auto-generated translations (if enabled, for cross-language delivery)
3.4 Location (optional)
If you enable location-based prayer alerts:
- Coarse location only (country, city) — we do not store precise GPS coordinates
- Radius preferences for prayer alerts
3.5 Groups, vigils, and invites
- Group memberships and roles
- Vigil participation and prayer activity within vigils
- Prayer invite tokens and redemption status
3.6 Safety and security data
- Moderation flags, abuse reports, risk scores
- Security logs: IP address, device/user agent, authentication events
- Rate limiting identifiers
3.7 Error monitoring
We use Sentry for crash and error reporting. Sentry receives:
- Error events and stack traces (with prayer content scrubbed before sending)
- Device and app version info
- Your internal user ID only (never your name, email, or prayer content)
3.8 Analytics (optional)
If you consent to analytics:
- Screen views and feature usage events (no prayer content, no PII)
- Events are batched, validated against an allowlist, and sent without identifying information
3.9 Payments (optional, future)
If you use paid features or sponsorship:
- Transaction references, timestamps, amounts
- We do not store payment card details (handled entirely by the payment processor)
4. Why We Use Your Data
| Purpose | What data | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Provide the service (accounts, prayer posting, delivery) | Account data, prayer content | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) + Explicit consent for religious content (Art. 9(2)(a)) |
| Voice prayers and transcription | Audio, transcripts | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) where needed to provide the feature + explicit consent for religious content (Art. 9(2)(a)); separate opt-in for voice |
| Translation for cross-language delivery | Transcripts, translations | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) where translation is enabled for delivery + explicit consent for religious content (Art. 9(2)(a)) |
| Location-based prayer alerts | Coarse location | Separate optional consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) |
| Analytics | Anonymized usage events | Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) |
| Community safety and moderation | Content metadata, flags, reports, transcripts (for moderation) | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) + explicit consent for religious content where special-category content is processed (Art. 9(2)(a)) — see our LIA: Safety & Abuse Prevention |
| Security, fraud prevention, rate limiting | IP, device info, auth events | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) — see our LIA: Security Logging |
| Backups and disaster recovery | Database snapshots, including special-category content where present | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) + explicit consent for religious content where special-category content remains in backups (Art. 9(2)(a)) — see our LIA: Backups & DR |
| Payments | Transaction references | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Legal/tax obligations | Payment records | Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) |
5. Religious Content (Special Category Data)
Prayer content may reveal religious beliefs. In account mode, we process this based on your explicit consent to operate the service you request.
You can withdraw consent at any time in Settings > Privacy & Data. Withdrawing consent:
- Disables prayer posting and receiving features
- Reverts you to viewer mode (you can still browse public content)
- Requires a content decision for prior religious content: delete prior content, or detach eligible public content only where lawful and selected by you (see Section 11)
Consent withdrawal is not a punishment. Viewer mode provides meaningful access to the service.
6. Automated Processing
6.1 Transcription and translation
If you use audio features, we may auto-transcribe your voice prayers. Translation is used only where enabled for cross-language delivery or otherwise selected in the product.
- Auto-generated transcripts and translations may be inaccurate
- We label AI-derived content (e.g., "Auto-transcribed", "Auto-translated") where feasible
- You can review and edit transcripts before they are used for translation
6.2 Privacy filter
We apply automated checks to detect high-risk personal information in posts (e.g., phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, identifying details about minors). If detected:
- You will be prompted to review and edit before posting publicly
- We do not silently alter your content
6.3 New user safety period
During the first 14 days after account creation, we may apply additional safety checks to protect the community (e.g., enhanced moderation review of audio content). You are informed about this during onboarding.
7. Third-Party Data in Prayers
Prayers naturally mention other people. Please:
- Use initials, pseudonyms, or vague references instead of full names + identifying details
- Do not include others' contact information, health details, or sensitive personal data without their awareness
- If your post is flagged by our privacy filter, you will be asked to edit before publishing
If you believe someone has posted your personal information without consent, you can report the content for review.
8. Who We Share Data With
8.1 Other users
Based on your visibility settings, your content may be visible to:
- Other users you choose (private/shared content, group members, vigil participants)
- The public (public prayers)
8.2 Service providers (processors)
We use the following categories of service providers to operate Praize:
| Provider | Service | Location | Safeguard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Audio storage (R2), CDN, upload workers | EU region for core storage; global edge network for CDN/security | DPA/SCC or equivalent contractual safeguards |
| OpenAI | Audio transcription/translation where enabled | May process outside the EU depending on service configuration | DPA/SCC or equivalent contractual safeguards |
| Deepgram | Transcription fallback where enabled | May process outside the EU depending on service configuration | DPA/SCC or equivalent contractual safeguards |
| Apple | OAuth authentication | US | Platform DPF/SCCs |
| OAuth authentication | US | Platform DPF/SCCs | |
| OAuth authentication | US | Platform DPF/SCCs | |
| Sentry | Error monitoring | US | DPA/SCC or equivalent contractual safeguards |
| Proton Mail | Email hosting for support and privacy requests | Switzerland / EU-region infrastructure depending on service routing | Adequacy/SCC or equivalent contractual safeguards |
| Apple, Google, Expo | Push notification delivery where enabled | May process outside the EU depending on platform routing | Platform terms and contractual safeguards |
| Payment provider | Payment processing | Not enabled for this beta release | Not applicable until paid features launch |
We configure providers to minimize retention and require appropriate contractual protections before production use. Provider retention, region, DPA, SCC/DPF, and transfer-impact status is tracked in our vendor register.
8.3 We do not sell your data
We do not sell, rent, or trade personal data to third parties for advertising or marketing.
9. International Data Transfers
We process and store core user data (database, audio, backups) in the European Union as our baseline for all users, regardless of your location.
Some service providers (OAuth, push notifications, email, error monitoring) may process limited data outside the EU under their own infrastructure. Where Praize initiates transfers via processors, we use appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) or rely on adequacy decisions.
10. How Long We Keep Data
| Data type | Retention | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Account data and content | Until you delete it or request account deletion | You control your data lifecycle |
| Audio files | Until you delete them or request account deletion | Deleted from storage within 24 hours of request |
| Deleted content in backups | Up to 30 days after deletion | Backups expire automatically; deletion re-applied after any restore |
| Security logs | 7-30 days (detailed); up to 90 days (aggregated/pseudonymized) | IP addresses pseudonymized after 7 days |
| Moderation artifacts | `transcript_raw`: 24h (7d if flagged); flags: with content lifecycle | Raw transcripts are ephemeral |
| Payment records | 7 years | Legal/tax requirement; anonymized on account deletion where possible |
| Security audit logs | Up to 1 year | Using pseudonymized identifiers |
11. Your Rights
Depending on your location, you may have rights including:
| Right | How to exercise | Response time |
|---|---|---|
| Access (Art. 15) | Settings > Privacy & Data > Export, or email us | Up to 30 days |
| Rectification (Art. 16) | Edit your profile or content directly in the app | Immediate |
| Erasure (Art. 17) | Settings > Privacy & Data > Delete Account | 7-day grace period, then deletion + 30-day backup expiry |
| Restriction (Art. 18) | Withdraw consent > revert to viewer mode | Immediate |
| Portability (Art. 20) | Data export in machine-readable format (JSON/ZIP), including audio | Up to 30 days |
| Object (Art. 21) | Analytics opt-out in Settings; email us for other objections | Immediate for opt-outs |
| Withdraw consent | Settings > Privacy & Data | Immediate; does not affect prior lawful processing |
| Complain | Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (https://www.aki.ee) or your local authority | N/A |
Account deletion details
When you request account deletion: 1. 7-day grace period: You can cancel the deletion during this time 2. Day 7: Hard delete from live database; audio files deleted from storage within 24 hours 3. Day 37: Oldest backup containing your data expires (30-day backup retention)
Public content options at deletion:
- Delete: Permanently remove all your content
- Detach: Remove your account link from eligible public prayers, preserving them as pseudonymous community content
> Important: "Detach" removes your account link but is pseudonymization, not true anonymization. If your prayer text includes identifying information (your name, location, etc.), it may still be identifiable. We recommend reviewing and editing content before detaching.
12. Security
We use appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data, including:
- TLS encryption in transit for all connections
- Encryption at rest for database and backup storage
- JWT authentication with short-lived tokens (15 minutes)
- Row-level authorization checks in the application layer
- Password hashing (bcrypt with salt)
- Rate limiting and abuse prevention
- Request body logging disabled (prayer content never appears in logs)
- Restricted access controls (least privilege)
- Error monitoring with automatic PII scrubbing
13. Children
Praize is not intended for children under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If we learn a user is underage, we will delete the account and related data.
14. Cookies and Local Storage
The Praize mobile app uses:
- Secure token storage (device keychain/keystore) for authentication tokens
- Local database for offline caching of Scripture and public content
The Praize website (praize.faith) may use:
- Local storage or session storage for theme and temporary interface preferences
- No third-party tracking cookies
15. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy. If changes are material (new processing purposes, new processors, changes to your rights), we will notify you via the app or email before the changes take effect.
16. Contact
- Privacy questions or data requests: privacy@praize.faith
- General support: support@praize.faith
- Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate: https://www.aki.ee
Change Log
| Date | Change | Why | Remaining blocker |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-16 | Removed public draft placeholders, set the release effective date, updated controller/contact details, and replaced unresolved vendor placeholders with current beta-release posture. | Makes the public policy suitable for TestFlight/App Store review links while preserving accurate external-state caveats. | Final legal review and store-console App Privacy confirmation remain required before production submission. |
| 2026-04-28 | Marked draft, replaced guest-account anonymity wording, added Article 6 + Article 9 pairings, corrected consent-withdrawal wording, and softened unverified processor retention/DPA claims. | Aligns public policy with GDPR design and vendor register. | Superseded by 2026-05-16 release update. |
Related Documents (Internal)
| Document | Purpose |
|---|---|
| RoPA | Full register of processing activities (Art. 30) |
| DPIA | Data Protection Impact Assessment (Art. 35) |
| LIA: Security Logging | Legitimate interests assessment |
| LIA: Backups & DR | Legitimate interests assessment |
| LIA: Safety & Abuse Prevention | Legitimate interests assessment |