Privacy policy
Updated 2026-09-09
About Prayer Circle
Prayer Circle is operated by Benjamin Jones to help small Christian communities share prayer requests and pray for one another. This policy explains how the app, website and support service handle your information.
Information we collect
We store your email address, display name, timezone, reminder preferences, circle memberships and roles, prayer requests and answered notes, prayer assignments, notification delivery records, device identifiers and push tokens. We also store blocks, reports and review actions, and the date and version of your community agreement. Prayer content may reveal religious beliefs, health information or other sensitive personal details. Share only what you want your selected audience to know, and get permission before identifying another person or sharing their private information. When you visit our website or use the app, infrastructure providers process connection and diagnostic information such as IP addresses, request times, requested pages and device or browser information. If you email support, we receive your email address, message and any attachments you send.
How information is used and shared
We use this information to sign you in, show prayers to the circles you choose, assign prayers, send reminders, manage membership, respond to reports and operate the service. Approved circle members can read shared prayers and display names; later approved members can also see available prayer history. Circle owners review ordinary reports, and the app operator reviews reports about owners. Reports do not show the reporter's account identity to reviewers, but written details can identify you. Authorized operators may access stored data for support, moderation and maintenance. The service is not end-to-end encrypted, and members can copy content they can see.
Universal sharing
Universal is an optional community for signed-in members who acknowledge its wider audience. Joining does not share your existing private prayers. Each prayer you explicitly share with Universal is readable by everyone who joins, including future members. You can hide your display name for that Universal share; your name remains visible in private circles. Anonymous sharing does not hide identifying details in your prayer, and authorized operators can identify authors for support and moderation. Reporting and blocking in Universal do not reveal an anonymous author to other members. Universal reports go to Prayer Circle support. Leaving Universal withdraws your Universal shares and stops Universal pool reminders, while preserving your private-circle shares and your own prayer history. Withdrawing is different from deleting a prayer: deleting removes it from every destination. Members may retain copies or notifications they already received.
Service providers and notifications
Our backend runs on privately operated infrastructure, with Google Cloud providing a public connection endpoint and off-site backups and Tailscale providing network connectivity. Cloudflare hosts our public website and forwards incoming support email. Google Gmail stores support correspondence, and Resend delivers sign-in emails and support replies. Apple Push Notification service and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging deliver notifications; notifications can include prayer titles and appear on your device’s lock screen. Expo EAS builds and distributes the app. These providers process information needed to deliver their services. We do not sell your personal information or use prayer content for advertising. We do not add advertising trackers or analytics SDKs to the app or website.
Retention and deletion
Account and prayer data is kept while needed to provide the service. You can delete your own prayers and use Settings → Delete account to remove your account. Deleting your account deletes all your prayers, including answered and archived prayers, from every circle, along with your profile, memberships and device tokens. Reports you submitted are also deleted. Details in reports submitted by others may remain for moderation until the report or its circle is deleted. Application logs from our backend and public proxy are automatically expired within 30 days and may be removed sooner because of storage limits. Database backup cleanup targets about one week locally and two weeks off-site; deleted data can remain in backups until scheduled cleanup runs. Support emails are stored separately and are not automatically removed by account deletion; contact us to request their deletion. Service providers may retain delivery, security or diagnostic records according to their own retention practices. Deletion does not remove copies already made by circle members or delivered to their devices.
Your choices and questions
You can edit your profile and reminder preferences, disable notifications through your device, block members, delete your prayers and delete your account. Contact support for privacy questions or help with a data request. We verify account ownership before acting on requests. Material policy changes will be reflected here with an updated date.