Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-05-13

TimelyChurch ("we", "our", "the Service") provides church management software to churches and their members. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, how we use it, the lawful basis for processing under the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), and your rights under GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA").

1. Who is the data controller?

Each church account on the Service is its own data controller. The church you have joined determines what data is collected about you, how long it is retained, and who within the church can access it. TimelyChurch is the data processor acting on the church's instructions. For questions about a specific church's practices, contact that church's administrator directly.

2. What data do we collect?

  • Identity & contact: name, email address, phone number, postal address, date of birth, family relationships.
  • Account: password (hashed), two-factor authentication secrets, login history, IP addresses, browser/device user agent.
  • Membership activity: group memberships, event registrations, attendance, check-in records, volunteer assignments.
  • Communications: messages you send/receive through the platform, prayer requests, form submissions, comments.
  • Donations & giving: donation amounts, dates, payment-method metadata (we do not store full card numbers — payment data is tokenized by Stripe).
  • Consent records: when you accepted or withdrew each consent (marketing emails, photo use, etc.), with timestamps and IP/UA for audit (GDPR Art. 7).
  • Sensitive data: if your church uses healthcare/allergy fields for children's check-in, that data is stored encrypted at rest and access is audit-logged.

3. Lawful basis for processing (GDPR Art. 6)

  • Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)): Account creation, attendance tracking, group participation, event registration — necessary to deliver the membership service you signed up for.
  • Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): Marketing emails, photo publication, optional directory listing. You can withdraw consent any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
  • Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)): Internal analytics on platform usage, security monitoring, fraud prevention. We balance these against your privacy rights.
  • Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)): Donation records retained for tax-receipt compliance (IRS Pub. 1771 / equivalent foreign requirements).

4. How long do we keep your data?

We keep your personal data only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected:

  • Profile and activity data: while your account is active.
  • After account deletion: anonymized after the 30-day grace period — name, email, phone, address, photo, and free-form notes are cleared. Donation totals and attendance counts may be retained in anonymized form for legal/tax compliance.
  • Audit logs of consent changes, security events: 7 years (legal hold).
  • Tax-relevant donation records: 7 years (IRS retention requirement).
  • Backups: rolling 35-day retention; deleted data is purged from backups within that window.

5. Your rights

Under GDPR / CCPA you have the right to:

  • Access (Art. 15 / CCPA § 1798.110): Get a copy of all personal data we hold about you. Use the "Download my data" button on the Privacy & Data page in your member portal.
  • Rectification (Art. 16): Correct inaccurate data via your profile page or by contacting your church admin.
  • Erasure / "Right to be forgotten" (Art. 17 / CCPA § 1798.105): Request that your personal data be anonymized. Use the "Request account deletion" button. A 30-day grace period applies. How to delete your account.
  • Restrict processing (Art. 18):Pause processing while a dispute is resolved.
  • Data portability (Art. 20): Receive your data in machine-readable JSON/CSV format. Same export button as access.
  • Object (Art. 21):Object to processing based on legitimate interest.
  • Withdraw consent (Art. 7(3)):Toggle consent flags on the profile page at any time.
  • Lodge a complaint: File a complaint with your local supervisory authority (e.g., your country's data protection regulator).

6. Cookies & tracking

We use essential cookies for session management (login, CSRF protection). With your consent, individual churches may enable analytics (Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Google Tag Manager) on their public-facing pages. You can withdraw analytics consent via the cookie banner at any time. We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

7. Third-party processors

We share data only with sub-processors necessary to operate the Service:

  • Stripe: Payment processing (donations, subscriptions).
  • Email delivery providers:Transactional and campaign email.
  • Cloud hosting: Application infrastructure (US/EU regions).
  • xAI / Grok: Only if your church admin enables the AI assistant; personally identifiable fields are anonymized before being sent to the AI provider.

8. Children's privacy (COPPA)

Children under 13 are not permitted to create their own accounts. Parents/guardians may register children in family check-in. Healthcare/allergy fields for minors are encrypted at rest and access is audit-logged.

9. Changes to this policy

We will post material changes on this page and update the "Last updated" date. For substantive changes affecting your rights, we will notify active members by email.

10. Contact

For questions about how your church handles your data, contact your church administrator directly. For questions about TimelyChurch platform-wide practices, see your account dashboard for the contact email associated with our Data Protection Officer.

This is the platform-level Privacy Policy. Individual churches may publish a supplementary policy specific to their congregation; check with your church admin for any local addendum.