Galilean Baptist Church runs this website and app itself, for its own congregation. We are not an advertising business and we have nothing to gain from collecting more about you than the church actually needs. This page says plainly what we hold, why, who can see it, and how to have it removed.
The short version
- There is no advertising, and nothing that follows you around the internet. We do not sell or rent anyone's information, and there is no third-party pixel or tracking script anywhere on the site.
- There is one thing we do record about you: if you watch a service live while signed in, the church keeps your name and how long you watched. It is kept for the same reason a church takes attendance, and only administrators can see it.
- You can read the whole public website, and watch a service, without an account.
- An account exists so the church can tell members apart from strangers. It holds your name, your email address, and nothing else about you.
- Our services are recorded, and those recordings show the people who were in the room.
- Ask us and we will delete your account and what is attached to it.
What we collect, and why
If you create an account
We ask for your name, your email address, and a password. Sign-in is handled by Supabase, our database provider; they store your password in scrambled (hashed) form and neither we nor they can read it back. We also keep the level of access an account has — member, livestream, or administrator — and the date it was created and last used.
Your name is shown to other members where you would expect it: in the live chat beside your messages, and on the church's account list, which only administrators can open.
If you send us a message from the website
The "Send us a message" form asks for your email address and your message, and lets you add your name if you want to. You do not need an account. We keep those messages so the church can read and reply to them. We do not record your IP address, your browser, or which pages you looked at.
Only the church's administrators can read these messages. When one arrives, a short preview — the name given, and the first part of the message — appears as a notification on an administrator's phone. If an administrator replies by email, your name and email address are passed to Resend, the service that sends the message on our behalf.
If you use the live chat
Chat messages are cleared automatically: only the most recent are kept, and the day's messages are cleared when the next service's chat begins.
If you watch a service live
When a broadcast is running, the church records who was watching it. For each live service we keep your name, your access level, when you first joined, when you were last seen, and the total time you had the stream playing. This is attendance, kept for the same reason a church has always taken attendance — to know who was at the service and to notice who has been missed.
Some specifics, so there is no surprise in it:
- The time counted is time the stream was actually playing, not time the page was open. Leaving a tab open does not add to it, and neither does the waiting screen before a service.
- Watching a public broadcast from the home page without signing in is not tied to a name. Those viewers are counted, and nothing more — there is no name, no email and no account behind the number.
- Only administrators can see any of it. It is not shown to other members, it is not published, and it is not used for anything outside the church.
- We do not record what you watch in the sermon archive afterwards — only the live broadcast.
Recordings of services
The church records its services and keeps them in a sermon archive for members. A recording captures whoever was present and audible — the preaching, the singing, the congregation. If you attend a service, you may be in the recording, whether or not you use this website or the app.
Recordings are stored with Cloudflare and Supabase (see below) and are processed on our behalf by Vercel, which hosts the site. If you would rather not appear in a recording, please speak to the church and we will do what we reasonably can.
Things the church writes
Members with permission create orders of service, bulletins, choir schedules and outreach calendars. These are church documents rather than personal records, but they do contain people's names — who is preaching, who is singing, who is on nursery duty, and birthdays and anniversaries the church prints in its bulletin. A bulletin may also contain a photograph chosen by whoever prepared it. Each document records which account last saved it.
These are visible to signed-in members of the church, not to the public.
What stays on your own device
Some things never leave your phone or computer:
- Whether you chose the light or dark appearance.
- Work in progress — a half-finished order of service or bulletin — saved so you do not lose it if the page reloads.
- A copy of the hymn book, so the builder works quickly.
- Your fingerprint or face. If you switch on unlocking with a fingerprint, the check is done by your phone and the answer is simply yes or no. No biometric data is sent to us, and we never see it.
What the app asks permission for
The app is a window onto this same website, so it asks for a permission only when a page needs one:
- Camera and microphone — only for an administrator running a live broadcast.
- Location — only on the outreach map, to show where you are while visiting homes. We do not store a location history.
- Notifications — so administrators are told when a visitor writes to the church. Declining costs you nothing else.
- Files — only when you choose one to upload, and only the file you pick.
For notifications, an administrator's phone registers a random code with us. It is not your advertising ID and it is not tied to your hardware. Signing out of the app removes it.
Who we rely on
We use a small number of outside services to run the site. They act for us and are not permitted to use anything for their own purposes:
- Supabase — accounts, sign-in and the database.
- Vercel — hosting the website, and processing recordings.
- Cloudflare — storing and delivering video and audio.
- Resend — sending email, such as a reply to a message you sent us, or an order of service to the church printer.
- Google Fonts and jsDelivr — supplying the typefaces and code libraries the pages use. Because your browser fetches these directly, those companies can see your IP address and which browser you use, as they can for most websites.
The links to the church's Facebook and Instagram pages are ordinary links. They do not load anything from those companies and they do not track you unless you click them.
How long we keep things
- Accounts — until you or the church removes them.
- Messages to the church — until an administrator deletes the conversation.
- Live chat — cleared automatically, as described above.
- Who watched a service live — kept as part of the church's attendance records. Ask us and we will remove yours.
- Recordings and church documents — kept as the church's records.
Removing your information
You can ask us to delete your account and the personal information attached to it, and we will. Email galileanbaptistchurch1611@gmail.com from the address on the account, or write to the church at the address below, and say what you would like removed. You do not have to give a reason.
We will remove your account, your name and email address, and any messages you sent the church. Two things we may not be able to remove: a recording of a service you attended, and a name printed in a bulletin the church has already published. Tell us and we will discuss what is possible.
You can change your own name, email address and password at any time under Settings in the members area.
Children
This website and app are meant for the adults and families of the congregation, and nothing here is directed at children or designed to appeal to them. We do not knowingly collect information from a child. If a child has created an account, tell us and we will delete it.
Keeping it safe
Traffic to the site is encrypted. Accounts are held by Supabase and the database restricts what each account may read, so being signed in does not mean seeing everything. No system is perfect; if we ever discover a breach affecting your information, we will tell you.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will say so where members will see it.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or about what we hold, go to the church:
Galilean Baptist Church
42290 Five Mile Road
Plymouth, Michigan 48170
galileanbaptistchurch1611@gmail.com
(734) 404-5010