1. Introduction

Welcome to Prayer Network. We are deeply committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you have a secure and trustworthy experience on our website (the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains in detail our practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information when you access and use our Service. By using the Service, you explicitly consent to the data practices described in this policy. We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand how we handle your information.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information from and about users of our Service to provide and improve our services, personalize your experience, and for essential operational and security purposes. The types of information we collect are outlined below:

2.1 Personal Information

Personal information is data that can be used to directly or indirectly identify you. We collect the following types of personal information:

Account Information: When you register for an account, we collect your Full Name, Email Address, Physical Address, Username, and Password.
Profile Information: You may choose to provide additional information for your profile, such as profile picture, bio, denomination, prayer interests, etc. to optionally enhance you profile on this service
Prayer Requests and Content: The full content of your prayer requests, responses to prayers, comments, and any other content you post or submit on the Service. Please remember that prayer requests are intended to be shared within the community and we do provide an anonymous option when submitting prayer requests.
Payment Information: If you subscribe to Premium Membership, we collect payment and billing information through our third-party payment processor, Stripe. This includes your payment method details, but we do not directly store your full credit card details on our servers. All payment processing is handled securely by Stripe.
Communications with Us: We retain records of any communications you have with us, including emails, support tickets, and any information you provide in these communications.
Marketing Preferences: We collect information about your preferences for receiving marketing communications from us, and your communication preferences.

2.2 Non-Personal Information

Non-personal information is data that does not directly identify you as an individual. We may collect the following non-personal information:

Log Data: When you access and use our Service, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends ("Log Data"). This Log Data may include information such as your computer's Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, and other diagnostic data and statistics.
Usage Data: We collect data about how you use the Service, including features you use, prayers you interact with, pages you view, actions you take, and the frequency and duration of your activities.
Aggregated Data: We may collect, use, and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for various purposes. Aggregated data is derived from your personal data but, in its aggregated form, does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity and is therefore not considered personal data under applicable data protection laws.

2.3 Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience, analyze trends, administer the website, track users' movements around the website, and gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.

Essential Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary for the operation of our Service and enable core functionalities such as user login and account management. We use session cookies, which are essential for maintaining your logged-in session.

Session Cookies: These cookies are used to uniquely identify you during a single session and to manage your login state. For example, when you log in to Prayer Network, we use a session cookie to remember that you are logged in, so you do not have to re-enter your credentials for each page you visit within the session. These cookies are temporary and expire when you close your browser.

Analytics Cookies

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyze how users use our Service. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the Service (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.

We utilize Google Analytics to gain insights into website traffic patterns, understand user behavior on our Service, and ultimately improve the functionality, design, and user experience of Prayer Network. The data collected by Google Analytics may include, but is not limited to: anonymized IP addresses, browser type and operating system, referring website addresses, pages visited on our Service, time spent on pages, navigation paths, and, if enabled, demographic and interest data.

You have the option to prevent Google's collection and use of data (cookies and IP address) by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at: Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

For comprehensive information regarding Google Analytics privacy practices, we encourage you to review Google's Privacy Policy, accessible here: Google Privacy Policy, and their explanation of how Google uses data when you use partner sites or apps, available here: "How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps".

You have choices regarding cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. However, please note that disabling cookies, particularly essential cookies, may affect your ability to fully use our Service and some features may not function correctly.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information for a variety of purposes essential to operating, improving, and securing our Service, as well as to communicate with you effectively. These purposes include:

To Provide and Maintain the Service: To ensure the proper functioning of our Service, deliver the services you request, and provide you with access to your account and all the interactive features of the Prayer Network platform.
Account Creation and Management: We use your Full Name, Email Address, and Physical Address to create and manage your user account, verify your identity, and ensure secure access to the Service.
To Personalize Your Experience: To tailor your experience on the Service to be more relevant and engaging. This may include recommending prayers, showing content based on tags, tailoring content based on profile info, etc.
To Process Transactions: To securely process payments for Premium Membership subscriptions through our payment processor, Stripe, and to manage your subscription status.
To Communicate with You:
- Service Communications: To send you essential service-related announcements, updates, and notifications (e.g., password resets, account verification, changes to our Terms or Privacy Policy, service updates, and support messages). These communications are crucial for the administration and operation of the Service.
- Customer Support: To effectively respond to your inquiries, provide timely customer support, and resolve any issues or concerns you may have while using the Service.
- Marketing Materials (Automatic Consent): We may send you promotional emails and marketing communications about Prayer Network, new features, premium offerings, and relevant updates based on automatic opted-in to receive such communications during sign up and by agreeing to this privacy policy and terms. You have the right to withdraw your consent to marketing communications at any time using the unsubscribe link in emails, and/or account settings.
To Improve and Develop our Service: To continuously analyze how users interact with our Service, closely monitor and analyze usage patterns and activity trends, and to identify areas for improvement, develop new features, and optimize the overall functionality and user experience.
To Ensure Security and Prevent Fraud: To rigorously detect, prevent, and address technical issues, security breaches, potential fraud, and abuse of our Service, ensuring a safe and secure environment for all users.
To Comply with Legal Obligations: To fully comply with all applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, or enforceable governmental requests as required by law.

4. Sharing Your Information

We are committed to maintaining your privacy and will only share your information in specific circumstances, primarily to operate the Service effectively, comply with legal obligations, or with your explicit consent. We may share your information in the following situations:

With Service Providers: We engage trusted third-party companies and individuals to perform certain functions and provide services to us, essential for the operation and improvement of our Service. These service providers include: Stripe for payment processing, StartHost for hosting of our service, Google Analytics, Mailchimp. These third-party service providers have strictly limited access to your Personal Information, and only to the extent necessary to perform these specific tasks on our behalf. They are contractually obligated not to disclose or use your information for any other purpose and are bound by confidentiality agreements.
For Legal Reasons: We may disclose your Personal Information to legal authorities, governmental bodies, or in response to legal processes if we are legally required to do so, or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with applicable law, regulation, legal process (such as a subpoena or court order), or governmental request; to enforce our Terms of Service; to detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues; or to protect against harm to the rights, property, or safety of Prayer Network, our users, or the public, as required or permitted by law.
In Connection with a Business Transaction: In the event that Prayer Network is involved in a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a significant portion of its assets, your Personal Information may be among the assets transferred. In such a case, your information would remain subject to the promises made in the applicable privacy policy in effect at that time. We will provide prominent notice on our Service and via email before your Personal Information is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy as a result of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale.
With Your Consent: We may share your Personal Information with third parties when we have your explicit consent to do so, or at your direct request or direction. For example, if you choose to make certain profile information publicly visible, you are consenting to the sharing of that information with other users of the Service and the public.
Aggregated and Anonymized Data: We may share aggregated or anonymized information, which does not personally identify you, with third parties for various legitimate purposes, including but not limited to: analytics, demographic analysis, research, marketing, and industry reporting. This type of information is used in a collective and non-identifiable way.

5. Data Security

We are committed to protecting the security of your Personal Information and implement robust security measures designed to safeguard your information from unauthorized access, use, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, it is essential to acknowledge that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is entirely 100% secure. While we employ commercially reasonable and industry-standard security practices to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Our security measures include, but are not limited to: hashing and encryption of sensitive data both in transit (using HTTPS/SSL) and at rest, secure server infrastructure and hosting environment, use of firewalls, intrusion detection systems, regular security audits and vulnerability scanning, access control measures and role-based access, security training for personnel, and incident response procedures. We regularly review and enhance our security practices to adapt to evolving threats and technological advancements.

6. Your Data Protection Rights

We are committed to upholding your data protection rights and providing you with control over your Personal Information. Prayer Network aims to provide you with reasonable and accessible mechanisms to exercise your rights regarding your data.

Depending on your location and applicable data protection laws, you may have the following rights:

Right to Access: You have the right to request access to the Personal Information we hold about you and to receive a copy of this information in a portable format, where technically feasible.
Right to Rectification: You have the right to request correction or rectification of any inaccurate or incomplete Personal Information we hold about you. You can also directly update certain account information through your account settings page.
Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): Under certain circumstances, you have the right to request the deletion of your Personal Information from our records. Please note that this right is not absolute and may be subject to legal obligations and legitimate interests that may override your request.
Right to Object to Processing: You have the right to object to the processing of your Personal Information for certain purposes, such as direct marketing, or where our processing is based on legitimate interests.
Right to Restriction of Processing: You have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your Personal Information in specific situations, such as while we are verifying the accuracy of your data or assessing the legitimacy of an objection.
Right to Data Portability: To the extent applicable, you have the right to receive your Personal Information, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit that data to another controller without hindrance from us.
Right to Withdraw Consent: If we are processing your Personal Information based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
Right to Lodge a Complaint with a Supervisory Authority: You have the right to lodge a complaint with a competent data protection supervisory authority if you believe that our processing of your Personal Information infringes applicable data protection laws.

To exercise any of these rights, or if you have any questions or concerns about our data processing practices, please contact us using the contact information provided in the "Contact Us" section below. We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable data protection laws. To protect your privacy and security, we may take reasonable steps to verify your identity before fulfilling your request.

7. Children's Privacy

Prayer Network is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under the age of 18. We are firmly committed to protecting the privacy of children. We do not knowingly solicit or collect personally identifiable information from children under 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you become aware that your child has provided us with Personal Information without your consent, please contact us immediately. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected Personal Information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will take immediate steps to remove that information from our servers and terminate the child's account.

8. Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to external websites and services that are not operated or controlled by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party's website. We want to emphasize that we strongly advise you to carefully review the Privacy Policy of every website you visit.

We want to explicitly state that we have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party websites, applications, or services. Links to such external sites are provided for your convenience and informational purposes only, and do not imply endorsement by Prayer Network of those websites or their content. Your interactions with these linked sites are solely governed by the privacy policies of those websites.

9. Data Retention

We will retain your Personal Information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

Specifically, we will retain your information for the duration of your active account and for a reasonable period thereafter to allow you to reactivate your account should you choose to do so, to analyze historical data for service improvement, for fraud prevention and security purposes, to enforce our Terms of Service, and where required or permitted by applicable legal obligations.

After the retention period, we will securely delete or anonymize your Personal Information in accordance with our data retention policies and applicable laws.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify or update this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or Service features. When we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will provide clear and conspicuous notice as appropriate under the circumstances.

We will notify you of any material changes to this Privacy Policy by posting the updated Privacy Policy on this page with a new "Last Updated" date and, where appropriate and feasible, through additional communication channels such as email or a prominent notice on our Service's homepage, prior to the changes becoming effective. The method of notification and the notice period will depend on the nature and significance of the changes.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information and to be aware of any modifications. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the revised Privacy Policy, you must stop using the Service.

12. Severability

If any provision of this Privacy Policy is held to be invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions of this Privacy Policy shall continue in full force and effect.

13. No Waiver

No waiver of any term of this Privacy Policy shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term, and our failure to assert any right or provision under this Privacy Policy shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

14. Force Majeure

Prayer Network shall not be liable for any failure to perform its obligations under this Privacy Policy where such failure results from any cause beyond Prayer Network's reasonable control, including, without limitation, acts of God, war, terrorism, riots, embargoes, acts of civil or military authorities, fire, floods, accidents, pandemic, strikes, or shortages of transportation, facilities, fuel, energy, labor, or materials, or failure of telecommunications or network infrastructure.

15. Assignment

This Privacy Policy is binding upon and shall inure to the benefit of the parties and their respective successors and permitted assigns. You may not assign or transfer this Privacy Policy, in whole or in part, without prior written consent from Prayer Network. Prayer Network may assign or transfer this Privacy Policy, in whole or in part, without restriction, provided that the assignee agrees to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy in a manner that is no less protective of your privacy rights.

Privacy Policy