App Privacy Policy

Your choices

You can read and study without an account. Personal notes and saved passages can remain on your device. An optional account lets you save supported personal items to your account and access them on other signed-in devices.

Signing in does not automatically upload existing device notes. Choose “Move to this account” if you want those items transferred. New notes created while you are using a signed-in account are saved to that account when sync is available.

Information the app handles

• Account information: email address, account identifier, authentication and session information, and name or profile picture supplied by a sign-in provider where available.
• Your study content: note titles and text, formatting, folders, pins, passage references, bookmarks, highlights, linked teachings and recording timestamps, and creation or edit dates.
• Profile photo: an image you choose, if any. The app prepares a smaller image for your profile.
• Device preferences: reading position, text size, appearance, search history, download information, listening progress and Study Streak activity. These are stored on your device; Study Streak is not currently synchronised between devices.
• Service requests: searches you submit and technical information associated with requests, such as IP address, time, browser or app information and service errors.
• Support messages: information you choose to include when contacting the ministry.

Notes may contain religious beliefs, prayer requests or other sensitive information. Choose carefully what you write or sync. Do not add someone else’s private information, including information about children, unless you have appropriate permission.

Why we use information

We use information to create and protect your account, deliver verification and password-reset emails, display your profile, save and synchronise your study content, provide reading and search features, maintain the service, respond to support requests and meet applicable legal obligations. Signing in does not subscribe you to a marketing mailing list.

Email and Google sign-in

Supabase provides the app’s authentication and account database. Passwords are handled by that authentication service; do not send passwords to the ministry by email or chat. Resend delivers account emails to your email address.

If you choose Google sign-in, Google supplies the account identifier and the basic profile and email information you authorise. We use that information for sign-in, account identification and your app profile, not advertising. This sign-in flow does not request access to your Gmail inbox, Google Drive files or contacts. Google also handles information under its Privacy Policy.

Other sign-in methods are available only when enabled in the app. You can remove an app’s Google access from your Google Account settings. Removing that access or signing out does not itself delete the HSHW account or its synced notes.

Device storage and account sync

Without account sync, personal notes and recovery copies remain on your device. The app creates automatic device recovery copies and offers optional exports. Losing the device, clearing app data or uninstalling can remove those copies. An exported backup is a readable file: keep it somewhere appropriate for its contents.

When account sync is enabled, account notes, folders, saved passages and supported profile information are stored with the service. Offline changes wait on the device until they can sync. Account access rules restrict ordinary users to their own records. This does not make the service end-to-end encrypted: authorised administrators and service providers may be able to access information for operation, support, security or legal requirements.

Signing out hides account items on that device but does not erase the cloud account. Guest notes and signed-in account notes are kept separately.

Service providers and overseas processing

HSHW uses providers to operate the app:

• Supabase: authentication, account records and private profile-photo storage. The current HSHW project is hosted in Sydney, Australia.
• Resend: account email delivery. The configured sending region is Tokyo, Japan.
• Cloudflare: app API hosting, delivery, security and services used for teaching search and generated answers.
• Google: optional sign-in and services used to search published ministry teachings.
• Media and Bible providers: providers supplying a recording, video or Bible version you choose to open may receive the technical requests needed to deliver it.

Providers may process support, security, email delivery and other service information outside the configured project region, including in the United States and other countries where they operate. An Australian project region is not a promise that all processing remains in Australia. Their own privacy terms also describe their handling of information.

We do not sell your personal information or use your private study content for targeted advertising. Information may also be disclosed where required by law or reasonably necessary to protect people, accounts or the service.

Search, generated answers and external content

Questions submitted to teaching search are sent through our service to the configured search or answer providers. Generated answers use the ministry’s published teaching notes. Your private notebook, bookmarks, highlights and folders are not automatically sent to those AI services. Avoid typing private or sensitive details into a search question.

Search answers may be cached to avoid repeating requests. Links and embedded media can connect to external services, which handle information under their own policies. External services may receive your IP address and device information when their content is requested.

Retention and deletion

Account information and synced study content are kept while needed to provide your account and related services, unless you request deletion or another retention reason applies. Signing out or uninstalling does not delete synced account information.

Recently deleted personal notes are available for restoration on a device for up to 30 days. Sync can retain deletion markers so another device does not recreate a deleted record. Device recovery copies, exports, other devices and provider backups may contain earlier versions after an item is removed. Backups are not necessarily erased at the same time as active records.

You can delete your own HSHW account in the app: open Profile → Manage account → Delete account, review the warning and confirm. No email request or ministry approval is required. Deletion permanently removes your sign-in account, synced notes and folders, saved passages and uploaded profile photo. When deletion completes, the app signs you out and removes that account’s cached study data and automatic recovery copies on the device used to delete it. Export anything you want to keep before confirming.

Deleting an account cannot remove files you exported, separate device-only notes or offline copies retained on other devices. Remove those copies separately if needed. Provider backups and service logs may retain earlier information under their retention processes or applicable legal and security requirements. Signing out or uninstalling alone does not delete your account. If you cannot access the app or need help, contact info@hshwministries.org.

Access, correction and privacy concerns

You can edit your notes and profile information through the app and export supported personal study records. For help accessing, correcting or deleting information, or to raise a privacy complaint, contact info@hshwministries.org. Describe the request without sending passwords or unnecessary sensitive details.

We will review the request, verify identity where needed and respond with the steps available. If a concern remains unresolved, you can contact the relevant privacy regulator. In Australia, information about privacy complaints is available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Applicable rights depend on your circumstances and the law that applies.

Changes to this policy

We will update this page when the app’s information handling changes. The date at the top identifies the current version. Material changes may also be brought to your attention through the app or an account communication.