Church Community Platform Privacy Policy
Effective Date:
Last Updated:
This Privacy Policy is written for a church-operated online community hosted on the FaithSuite platform. The specific church identified on the applicable website, app, or subdomain as (the “Church,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the community and decides how ministry-related features are used. The Church may be reached at and is based in . FaithSuite (“FaithSuite”) provides the software, hosting, infrastructure, and related support.
This Privacy Policy explains how personal information is collected, used, disclosed, retained, and protected when you use a Church’s branded FaithSuite-powered platform, including a site or app hosted at (the “Platform”).
1. Scope of This Policy
This Policy applies to personal information collected through the Platform, including when you:
(a) browse the Platform;
(b) create an account or profile;
(c) join groups, ministries, or communities;
(d) submit forms, prayer requests, volunteer interest, or care requests;
(e) register for events, give donations, purchase tickets, subscriptions, or content;
(f) communicate with the Church or other users through the Platform; or
(g) otherwise interact with Platform features, pages, content, or support services.
This Policy does not necessarily apply to:
(i) information collected offline by the Church;
(ii) websites, apps, or services operated by third parties;
(iii) payment processors, livestream platforms, app stores, SMS carriers, or external tools integrated by the Church, except as described here; or
(iv) church records maintained outside the Platform.
2. Roles of the Church and FaithSuite
2.1 Church as primary community operator. The Church identified as , based in , is generally responsible for its community membership decisions, church communications, events, content, ministry workflows, volunteer management, giving campaigns, and many of the purposes for which Platform data is used.
2.2 FaithSuite as hosted service provider. FaithSuite generally processes information to provide the software and related services to the Church, including hosting, support, security, account administration, analytics, platform functionality, backups, and service improvement.
2.3 Shared responsibility model. Some data uses are controlled by the Church, some by FaithSuite, and some jointly depending on the feature involved. If you submit a request relating to data that the Church controls, FaithSuite may refer your request to the Church at or assist the Church in responding.
3. Information We Collect
Depending on how the Church configures the Platform, the categories of information collected may include:
3.1 Account and profile information
Examples include your name, username, password, email address, phone number, mailing address, profile photo, ministry interests, family or household information, birthday or age range, and communication preferences.
3.2 Church community information
Examples include your role within the Platform, ministry participation, volunteer interests, small group membership, event attendance, serving preferences, donation history summaries visible to authorized users, and church-related notes or tags created by authorized administrators.
3.3 Content and communications
Examples include prayer requests, comments, posts, direct or group messages, testimonials, uploaded photos or videos, event submissions, feedback, survey responses, form responses, and customer support or ministry support communications.
3.4 Transaction and payment information
If the Church enables giving, ticketing, subscriptions, premium content, or other payments, we may collect transaction details such as donation amount, event purchased, billing contact information, receipt information, and payment status. Payment card data is typically collected and processed by third-party payment processors rather than stored in full by FaithSuite.
3.5 Device, log, and usage information
Examples include IP address, browser type, operating system, device identifiers, referring URLs, pages viewed, dates and times of access, clicks, app events, crash data, approximate location inferred from IP address, and similar technical usage data.
3.6 Cookies and similar technologies
We and our service providers may use cookies, pixels, local storage, SDKs, and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember preferences, measure usage, protect the Platform, and improve functionality.
3.7 Information from integrations and third parties
If the Church enables integrations or if you connect third-party accounts, we may receive information from tools such as calendar providers, payment processors, authentication providers, messaging tools, embedded media, app stores, or social sign-in providers.
3.8 Sensitive information you choose to provide
Church communities sometimes collect or display information that may be sensitive, such as prayer requests, pastoral care requests, family information, ministry needs, or health-related information that you voluntarily provide. Please use care before sharing sensitive information through the Platform.
4. How We Use Personal Information
We may use personal information for the following purposes:
4.1 To provide and operate the Platform
This includes creating and managing accounts, authenticating users, displaying Church branding, enabling groups and community features, delivering content, supporting donations and registrations, and administering ministry workflows.
4.2 To communicate with you
This includes sending transaction receipts, password resets, event notices, prayer updates, community announcements, newsletters, support responses, and other service or ministry communications.
4.3 To personalize your experience
This includes presenting relevant groups, events, content, language settings, ministry opportunities, donation flows, and notification settings.
4.4 To support the Church’s ministries and administration
This includes member engagement, volunteer coordination, pastoral care workflows, event planning, attendance tracking, reporting, communication management, and other church administration functions authorized by the Church.
4.5 To secure, maintain, and improve the service
This includes monitoring uptime, troubleshooting problems, preventing spam or abuse, detecting fraud or suspicious activity, performing backups, debugging, conducting analytics, and improving product features and performance.
4.6 To comply with law and protect rights
This includes complying with legal obligations, enforcing agreements, responding to valid legal process, protecting the safety of users and communities, and investigating violations of these Terms or misuse of the Platform.
4.7 To generate analytics and improve the service
This includes creating internal reports, performance metrics, and aggregated or de-identified analytics that help the Church and FaithSuite understand engagement, reliability, and feature effectiveness, provided the information is handled in accordance with applicable law.
5. How Information May Be Shared
We may share personal information in the following circumstances:
5.1 With the Church and authorized church personnel
Information submitted through the Platform may be available to the Church and to administrators, pastors, ministry leaders, staff, volunteers, or moderators authorized by the Church, depending on role-based permissions and the feature involved.
5.2 With other users according to settings
Your profile, posts, prayer requests, comments, event registrations, or group participation may be visible to other users based on the privacy settings, audience selection, and Church configuration for that feature.
5.3 With service providers
FaithSuite may share information with vendors and service providers that help provide the Platform, such as cloud hosting, analytics, customer support, email delivery, security tools, content delivery, authentication services, and payment-related providers.
5.4 With payment processors and transaction partners
If you make a donation or other payment, your information may be shared with the payment processor, banking partners, tax receipt systems, event partners, or other providers needed to complete the transaction.
5.5 For legal and safety reasons
Information may be disclosed when reasonably necessary to comply with law, legal process, or governmental requests; enforce rights or contracts; prevent fraud or abuse; protect the safety of any person; or respond to emergencies.
5.6 In a business transfer
If FaithSuite or FaithSuite is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, restructuring, sale of assets, bankruptcy, or similar transaction, personal information may be disclosed as part of that process subject to appropriate confidentiality and legal safeguards.
5.7 With your direction or consent
We may share information when you ask us to do so or when you consent to a specific disclosure.
We do not sell personal information for money. However, depending on the technologies enabled on a particular Platform, some privacy laws may treat certain analytics, ad-tech, or targeted advertising disclosures as a “sale,” “sharing,” or targeted advertising. If a Church’s Platform uses those technologies, applicable opt-out rights will be honored as required by law.
6. Cookies and Similar Technologies
We and our service providers may use cookies and similar technologies to:
(a) remember login sessions and preferences;
(b) understand site traffic and feature usage;
(c) improve performance and reliability;
(d) protect against fraud, abuse, or unauthorized access; and
(e) support embedded content or integrations.
You may be able to manage cookies through your browser or device settings. Blocking some cookies may affect Platform functionality.
7. Donations and Payment Information
If the Church enables donations, paid registrations, subscriptions, ticketing, or other payments:
(a) payment information is generally processed by a third-party processor selected by the Church or FaithSuite;
(b) the Church may receive transaction details and donor information necessary for receipting, donor care, accounting, and ministry administration;
(c) FaithSuite may receive limited payment-related metadata necessary to support the Platform, prevent fraud, produce reports, and provide support; and
(d) tax treatment, deductibility, and donation receipting are the responsibility of the Church.
8. Prayer Requests, Pastoral Care, and Health-Related Information
8.1 Use caution with sensitive information. Church communities often invite prayer requests, care requests, testimonies, and similar submissions. Those submissions can include highly personal or health-related information. Please share thoughtfully and only to the extent you are comfortable.
8.2 Not a medical or emergency platform. Unless the Church expressly states otherwise, the Platform is not a medical record system, crisis hotline, or emergency reporting service. Do not use it for urgent medical, mental health, or emergency needs.
8.3 Information about others. If you submit information about another person, including a prayer request or care request, you represent that you have permission or another lawful basis to do so.
8.4 Additional health-data rules may apply. Certain states regulate health-related information even outside traditional HIPAA-covered settings. If a Church uses Platform features to collect or store health-related prayer, care, counseling, or ministry information, additional notices, consents, or workflows may be required under applicable law.
9. Children and Youth Ministries
9.1 General age expectation. The Platform is generally intended for users age 13 and older unless a Church expressly enables a youth or children’s feature and appropriate legal consents are obtained.
9.2 Under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13 through general-audience Platform features without the legally required notices and verifiable parental or guardian consent.
9.3 Parent and guardian involvement. If the Church enables youth ministry features, the Church is responsible for obtaining any parental or guardian consents, school or childcare permissions, media releases, or other authorizations required by law or by the Church’s policies.
9.4 Reports and deletion requests. If you believe a child submitted personal information in violation of this Policy, contact the Church and FaithSuite using the contact information below so the matter can be reviewed.
10. Retention
We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including to:
(a) maintain accounts and Church community records;
(b) provide requested services and support;
(c) comply with legal, tax, accounting, or recordkeeping obligations;
(d) enforce agreements and resolve disputes; and
(e) preserve backups and security logs.
Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data, the Church’s settings, legal requirements, the sensitivity of the information, and whether the data is needed for ongoing ministry administration or platform security.
11. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information. These measures may include access controls, role-based permissions, encryption in transit where appropriate, logging, monitoring, backups, and security review processes. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
If we become aware of a security incident affecting personal information, we may investigate, mitigate, and provide notifications as required by applicable law and consistent with our role in relation to the data involved.
12. Your Choices
Depending on the feature and your relationship with the Church, you may be able to:
(a) access, correct, or update profile information in your account settings;
(b) change notification settings;
(c) unsubscribe from promotional emails;
(d) delete certain posted content through the Platform;
(e) request account deletion or deactivation; and
(f) request information about how personal information is handled.
Some requests may need to be handled by the Church rather than FaithSuite, particularly where the Church controls the underlying data or decides retention requirements.
13. U.S. State Privacy Rights
Depending on where you live and subject to applicable law, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or a copy of certain personal information, or to opt out of certain uses such as targeted advertising, profiling, sale, or sharing of personal information. You may also have the right to appeal a denial of your request.
To exercise a privacy request, contact the Church using the contact information on the applicable Platform or contact FaithSuite at aus@faithsuite.org. We may need to verify your identity and, where appropriate, refer the request to the Church or coordinate with the Church to respond.
If the Church or FaithSuite processes sensitive personal information, consumer health data, or children’s data in ways regulated by law, additional rights, notices, or consent mechanisms may apply.
14. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Controls
Some browsers or extensions offer privacy preference signals such as Global Privacy Control. Where legally required and technically supported, we will process applicable opt-out preference signals in connection with the relevant browser or device.
15. Third-Party Links and Services
The Platform may link to or embed third-party services such as livestream providers, maps, app stores, calendar tools, payment processors, and social media features. Those third parties have their own privacy policies and practices, and this Policy does not govern them except as specifically stated.
16. Changes to This Policy
The Church or FaithSuite may update this Policy from time to time. When changes are made, the updated version will be posted with a revised effective date. If required by law, additional notice will be provided for material changes.
17. Contact Information
For Church-specific privacy questions, member data questions, event registration data, donations, or ministry communications, contact:
For FaithSuite privacy questions, legal notices, or data requests, contact:
FaithSuite
aus@faithsuite.org