Privacy policy
BelieversMap helps people find churches and Christian communities near them and connect with people in them. This page says what the app collects, why, who can see it, and how to remove it. It describes how the app actually works today.
Who we are
BelieversMap is operated by Colorful Passage LLC. For anything about your data, email privacy@believersmap.com.
What we collect, and why
Your account
- Email address: to sign you in with a one-time code, and to send you messages about your account. There is no password.
- Name: the name you choose to show other people.
- Phone number (optional): only needed to offer a skill or service, or to ask to manage a church’s listing. We confirm it with a code sent by WhatsApp or SMS. Other people see that your phone is confirmed, never the number itself.
Your faith and church
- Religion and denomination: you tell us these so the app can show you churches and communities relevant to you. “No specific denomination” is a valid answer.
- How you’re involved at church (optional): for example member or church worker. You can decline to answer. It is what you tell us, and it gives you no special access.
- Churches you join and denominations you follow: so you get their updates.
Where you are
BelieversMap never uses your device’s location (GPS). You choose an area, such as a town or city, as your home area and as where you are now. The app asks you to confirm your current area from time to time. We record when you last confirmed it, and nothing finer than the area.
What you write and upload
- Messages in conversations with other people
- Skill and service listings, and reviews
- Prayer requests and testimonies
- Reports about content or people, and churches you suggest
- If you manage a church or lead a denomination: requests to manage a church (your role and how we can check with the church), posts, and photos uploaded as a church’s cover or a denomination’s logo
From your device and use
- Notification token: if you allow notifications, a token from Apple or Google that lets us send them to your phone.
- When you last used the app, to the nearest hour. We use it only to avoid emailing you news you’ve already seen.
- Your consents: which version of the Terms and of any optional consent you agreed to, and when.
We do not use advertising identifiers, analytics trackers or ad networks.
Who can see what
- Anyone, without an account: church listings and the posts churches and denominations publish. A skill listing shows the provider’s name, whether their phone is confirmed, their denomination, the area the work is offered in, and their reviews. It never shows their email, phone number or church.
- The person you’re talking to: your name, whether your phone is confirmed, and your community.
- Prayer requests go only to the prayer ministers of the denomination you send them to. They see your name and contact details only if you choose to share them.
- Testimonies are read by that denomination’s prayer ministers. They are published, in the denomination’s name, only if a minister approves them.
- Leadership reports: only if you separately agree, you are counted towards how many people of your denomination are in each area. Your denomination’s leaders and BelieversMap staff see those counts, never your name, contact details or exact location. Where a group is small enough that a number could point to a person, no number is shown. You can withdraw at any time.
- BelieversMap staff see what they need to keep the service safe and accurate: reports, requests to manage a church, and the details needed to act on them.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.
Services we use
These companies process data on our behalf, only to run BelieversMap:
- Amazon Web Services: hosting the service, storing uploaded photos, and receiving email
- Supabase: our database
- An email delivery provider: sending sign-in codes and account emails
- Twilio: sending phone confirmation codes by WhatsApp or SMS
- Expo, Apple and Google Firebase: delivering notifications. A notification says who or what it is about, never the content of a message, prayer request or testimony.
- Google Maps Platform: the in-app map, and finding a church’s position from its address. Your device loads the map from Google.
- Vercel: hosting this website
How long we keep it
- Your account and what’s in it: until you delete your account.
- Prayer requests: deleted automatically after 90 days, or sooner if you withdraw them.
- Testimonies that aren’t published are deleted on the same schedule. Published ones stay until you withdraw them or delete your account.
- Leadership counts only include people who confirmed their area recently. Monthly totals are kept as numbers of people per area, with nothing that names anyone.
Your choices
- Change your name, religion, denomination, involvement or areas in Profile, or remove your home area.
- Withdraw from leadership reports, turn off any kind of notification, or stop the weekly email, in Profile → Privacy and notifications.
- Block or report anyone, and withdraw your prayer requests and testimonies.
- Delete your account in the app, or by emailing us.
- Ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct it, at privacy@believersmap.com.
Age
BelieversMap is for people 18 and over. Agreeing to the Terms confirms you are. Anyone who says they are under 18 has their account deleted.
Security
Everything between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit. Access to personal data is limited to the people and systems that need it to run the service.
Changes
If this policy changes, we’ll update the date at the top. If a change affects what you agreed to, we’ll tell you in the app.