Privacy Policy

Shepherd's Hook · Effective October 2, 2026 · Updated October 4, 2026

Shepherd's Hook is an app churches use to care for their people. It's used to follow up with members, track check-ins, coordinate staff, and manage church expenses. This policy explains what information the app handles, why, who it's shared with, and the choices you have.

Each church that uses the app decides what is recorded about its congregation and who on its staff can see it. We operate the app on the church's behalf.

Who runs the app: [Operator name — to be added once the operating company is formed]. Privacy contact: support@shepherdshook.org.

Information the app handles

• Your account: your name, email address, and password (stored securely by our login provider: we never see your password), plus the church(es) you belong to and your role.
• Care records your church keeps: names and contact details of people in the congregation, attendance and check-ins, households, follow-up history, and notes entered by staff. This can include limited information about children (for example, Kids Ministry check-ins), used only for ministry care by authorized church staff.
• Location: only if you allow it and use campus check-in, your phone's location is used at that moment to pick the nearest church campus. The app does not track your location in the background.
• Photos and files: receipts and invoices you upload for expenses, stored privately and visible only to people your church has given access.
• Expense information: amounts, vendors, ministries, approvals, and payment details such as check numbers. The app does not store credit card numbers or bank logins.
• Device information: a notification token if you turn on notifications, and basic error reports (such as device type and app version) that help us fix problems.

How it's used

Only to provide the app's features to you and your church. We do not sell your information, show ads, or track you across other apps or websites.

Who it's shared with

Information is shared only with the service providers that make the app work, and only as needed:

• Supabase: secure hosting for the database, logins, and file storage.
• Netlify: hosting for the app itself.
• Planning Center: if your church connects it, the app mainly reads people, attendance, serving and check-in information from your church's Planning Center account. At the church's request it can update a specific field for a specific person (such as a phone number or status). It never makes bulk changes there.
• Anthropic (Claude): for AI features, only with your permission (see below).
• Google: only if your church turns on its Google Sheets sync. Then the church's own spreadsheet receives the names of people on its follow-up list, their check-ins, and contact activity (calls, texts and visits, with dates and notes).
• Apple, Google, and web push services: to deliver notifications you've turned on.

AI features

Some optional features use artificial intelligence from Anthropic (Claude):

• Receipt scanning: the receipt photo is sent to read the vendor, date, and amount.
• AI summaries: a person's follow-up history (calls, texts, visits and the notes written about them) and their Planning Center serving and check-in information are sent to write a short summary for staff. Children are only counted, with their check-in dates — their names are never sent — and phone numbers are never sent.
• Feedback review: bug reports and requests you send in may be reviewed by AI to suggest a fix. To do that the AI may look up the church records your message mentions (names, recent check-ins and contact notes). Phone numbers are never sent.

The app asks for your permission before sending anything to an AI service. One switch covers all of these features, and each one explains what it sends the first time you use it. If you choose not to allow it, these features stay off for you and everything else works normally. You can change your choice any time from the app's account menu. Anthropic processes this data under its commercial terms, which do not allow it to be used to train AI models.

Security

Information is encrypted in transit. Access is limited by role (for example, staff only see what their church allows), receipts are stored privately, and sensitive actions are recorded.

Keeping and deleting information

• Delete your account any time in the app: tap your name (top right) → Delete my account. This permanently deletes your login, your church memberships and roles, your notifications, and your settings, and removes your email from your church's team list. (It's also offered on the “Create your church” and “Waiting for approval” screens.)
• Records you added for your church: such as care notes or expenses you submitted: belong to the church and stay with the church after your account is deleted.
• If you are a member of a church using the app and want your information corrected or removed, contact your church directly. When a church removes someone, their earlier copies in the app's change log are erased too. So a mistaken removal can be undone, a hidden copy of that person's records is kept for 30 days and then deleted automatically; only the church's leaders can restore it.
• How long records are kept: the app's change log (a record of edits, used for security and to undo mistakes) is kept for 12 months and then deleted automatically. A church's care records are kept for as long as the church uses the app.
• When a church leaves: deleting a church erases its people, notes, check-ins, photos, receipts and change-log history. Only a one-line record that the church was deleted (by whom and when) is kept.

Children

The app is for church staff and volunteers and is not intended for children to use. Where a church records information about children for ministry care, it is visible only to authorized church staff.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top and, for significant changes, let users know in the app.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email support@shepherdshook.org, use Report a bug / request a change in the app's account menu, contact your church administrator, or reach us through the Support page.