Privacy Policy

About this policy

St John's Coptic Orthodox Church (ABN 89 267 350 990) runs the St John's mobile app and this website. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and how long we keep it. We have tried to write it plainly rather than in legal language.

The short version: we collect what the parish needs to serve you, we do not sell anything about you to anyone, and you can ask us to delete your information at any time.

What we collect, at a glance

We only collect the items below when you use the feature that needs them. If you never place an order, we never hold an order.

We do not use advertising networks, and the app contains no analytics or tracking software. Nothing about you is sold, rented or used for advertising.

Accounts and signing in

Much of the app works without signing in. You can read the verse of the day, browse events and announcements, open church resources, place a food or cafe order, donate, and ask the AI assistant a question as a guest.

Signing in is optional and uses Sign in with Google. It is needed for the parts of the app tied to you personally, such as venue bookings and their status updates, your saved AI conversations, and the admin tools if you serve on a church team. When you sign in, we receive your name, email address and profile photo from Google, and we create a record for your session that includes your IP address and device information.

Google handles your password. We never see it.

What each feature collects

Food and cafe orders

We collect the name you give us, your phone number if you want a text when the order is ready, an email address if you provide one, your items and any notes you add. Your name and order are printed on a sticker in the church kitchen. Volunteers and staff serving that day can see your order.

Donations and receipts

We collect the amount, and your name and email if you want a receipt. Card details go directly to Stripe and never touch our servers. We keep a record of the payment, which includes Stripe's reference for it, so the parish books balance and so we can issue a refund if something goes wrong. Receipt PDFs are stored in our file storage.

Venue and hall bookings

We collect your name, email address, phone number, what the event is, how many people you expect, and the dates and times you want. If a deposit or bond applies, we also hold the payment record for it. Church staff who manage bookings can see all of this, and we email or notify you as the booking moves along.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, we store a push token for your device, the platform it runs on, and which categories you have turned on. A push token identifies the device, not you, unless you are signed in, in which case we link it to your account so booking updates reach the right person. You can turn notifications off in the app or in your phone's settings at any time.

Photos and your camera

The app asks for permission to save to your photo library only when you choose to save an announcement photo, a video or a resource. Church team members who post announcements are also asked for permission to pick images from their library to upload. The app does not browse or read your library in the background, and we do not collect your photos otherwise.

Contacting us

If you email us, we keep your message and your email address so we can reply and follow up.

Technical and security records

Our server records your IP address and device information alongside sign-ins and actions taken in the app, and keeps an activity log of changes made through the admin tools. We use these to keep the parish's data safe, to limit abuse, and to work out what went wrong when something breaks.

The AI assistant

The app includes an AI assistant that answers questions about the parish and the faith. It is the most sensitive feature we run, so this section covers it in detail.

What is sent to OpenAI

Your question, the recent messages in the conversation, and the excerpts of church documents we retrieved to answer it are sent to OpenAI, which generates the reply. Your message is also sent to OpenAI's moderation service, which flags harmful content. OpenAI does not use data sent through its API to train its models. We do not send your name, email address or account identifier with the question.

If you are not signed in

Guest conversations are stored on your device only. We do not keep them on our servers. If you later sign in, the app offers to import those conversations into your account, and only then are they stored with us.

If you are signed in

Your conversations and the assistant's replies are stored on our servers so your history is there when you come back. We keep them for 90 days after the last message in a conversation, then delete them automatically. You can delete any conversation yourself from the app at any time. Church staff responsible for the assistant can read stored conversations, so please do not use it for anything you would only want to say to a priest.

Messages the guardrails refuse

If a message is refused, for example because moderation flagged it or it looked like an attempt to manipulate the assistant, we record the message so we can review misuse. If you were not signed in, we record an identifier derived from your internet connection instead of an account. These records are deleted after 90 days.

Repeated refusals, or a decision by the church team, can bar an account from the AI assistant. We keep the account's email address and the reason until the bar is lifted, including after the account is deleted, so the bar still applies if the same address signs up again.

Reporting an answer

If you report an answer, we receive your question, the answer you reported, the six messages immediately before your question, the reason you picked, and anything you typed in the note box. Nothing else from your chat is included, and the report deliberately carries no account identity, even if you are signed in. We do record an identifier derived from your internet connection so that repeated abuse of the report button can be stopped. Reports are deleted after 90 days.

The assistant can be wrong

It is software, not a person, and it makes mistakes. Please check anything important with the parish office. For confession, or any pastoral or spiritual matter, speak with one of our priests. The assistant is never a substitute for that.

Who we share information with

We do not sell, rent or trade your information, and we do not share it for advertising. We share it in three situations: with the companies listed below that run parts of the app for us, with church staff and volunteers who need it to serve you, and where the law requires it.

Several of these companies are based outside Australia, so your information may be handled overseas. Each is bound by its own agreement with us to protect it and to use it only to provide the service.

• Stripe: Payments for donations, food and cafe orders, and booking deposits and bonds. Also powers Tap to Pay on the church's in-person terminal.
• Google: Sign-in. When you choose Sign in with Google we receive your name, email address and profile photo.
• OpenAI: The AI assistant, including the moderation check that screens messages.
• Qdrant: Stores the searchable index of church documents the assistant draws on. It holds church material, not your messages.
• Cloudflare R2: File storage for resources, announcement images and receipt PDFs.
• PrintNode: Sends order stickers to the printer in the church kitchen. The sticker carries your first name and your order.
• Twilio: Text messages telling you a cafe order is ready.
• Resend: Email, including donation receipts and booking correspondence.
• Expo: Builds the app, delivers app updates, and relays push notifications through Apple and Google.
• Railway: Hosts our server and database.
• Vercel: Hosts this website and the church's admin dashboard.

The app also links out to websites we do not run. This policy does not cover them.

How long we keep things

• Your account: until you ask us to delete it.
• AI conversations: 90 days after the last message, or until you delete the conversation.
• Refused messages and reported answers: 90 days.
• Orders, donations and receipts: 7 years, because charities are required to keep financial records.
• Booking records: 7 years, because bookings carry deposits and bonds and form part of our financial records.
• Admin activity and security logs: 12 months. Financial booking actions, including refunds and payment captures, are kept for 7 years with the related financial record.
• Push tokens: until you turn notifications off or uninstall the app.

Your choices and your rights

You can ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. You can turn notifications off at any time, delete individual AI conversations in the app, and use most of the app without signing in at all.

To delete your account, follow the steps on our account deletion page. That page sets out exactly what is removed and what we have to keep.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, write to us at the address below. If we cannot resolve it, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Children

The app is made for the parish as a whole and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from a child under 13, and signing in requires a Google account, which has its own age rules.

Sunday School material in the app can be read without signing in and without giving us anything. If you are a parent or guardian and think your child has given us personal information, contact us and we will remove it.

How we protect your information

All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted. Card details are handled by Stripe and never stored by us. Access to parishioners' information in the admin tools is limited by role, so a volunteer serving coffee cannot see booking records. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot promise otherwise, but we take this seriously and fix problems when we find them.

Changes to this policy

We update this page when the app changes. The date at the top tells you when it was last revised. If a change materially affects how we handle your information, we will say so in the app.

Contact us

For anything about this policy or your information, please get in touch: