The Beacon Centre

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 26 September 2026

This policy explains what information The Beacon Centre mobile app collects, why, and how you can control or delete it. The app is built to work fully as a guest — creating an account is optional and only needed to save content across sessions, join a Community Service Group (CSG), or give.

Information we collect

What we collect depends on how you use the app.

• If you create an account: your name, email address, and a 4–6 digit passcode. The passcode is stored as a one-way cryptographic hash — we cannot see or recover it.
• Saved content, notes, and playback progress: which devotionals, sermons, or audio messages you've saved or noted, and how far you've gotten in a message, tied to your account so it's there next time you open the app.
• Community Service Group (CSG) membership: if you ask to join a group, the full name, date of birth and address (street and area) you give on the request, whether a church admin has approved it, and your RSVP status for group updates. Your request details are seen only by the church's admins. Once you're an approved member, other approved members of that group see your name and when you joined — never your date of birth or address.
• Events: if you RSVP to an event or register for one, your answer (going, maybe, can't go) or the answers you give on that event's registration form, which church admins can read and export to organise the event.
• Giving records: on iPhone and iPad, giving happens on our website in your browser, not in the app. On Android, if you give through the app, we store the transaction reference, amount, purpose, status, and the email address used for your receipt. Card payments are processed by Paystack — we never see or store your full card number. We may store a tokenized authorization code from Paystack so you can give again without re-entering your card.
• Prayer requests and contact messages: whatever you choose to submit (name, email, phone if given, and your message), sent to our pastoral team or church office to respond to.
• Push notification token: a device identifier used only to deliver notifications you've opted into, and which kinds you chose (verse of the day, live service, new sermons). If you're signed in it's linked to your account, so group updates and replies about your CSG request reach you; signing out unlinks it.
• Anonymous usage data: for guests and account holders alike, we log which content is viewed or played (e.g. "this sermon was watched for 4 minutes") tied to an anonymous device identifier, not your name or email, to understand what's useful.

How we use this information

• To run the core features you use: saving content, resuming playback, CSG membership and updates, events, giving, prayer requests.
• To send notifications you've explicitly opted into.
• To respond to prayer requests and messages sent to the church office.
• To keep basic records of giving as required for financial accountability.

We do not sell your data, and we do not use it for advertising.

Third-party services we use

• Paystack — processes card payments for giving. See Paystack's own privacy policy.
• Cloudinary — hosts images, audio, and video thumbnails used in the app.
• YouTube / Google — sermon videos are streamed via YouTube's player.
• Google Gemini — generates devotional card background images from the day's verse text only; no personal or account data is sent to it.
• Firebase (Google) — hosts the daily devotional quote and its image. No personal or account data is stored there.
• Railway — hosts our server and database, where the account and content data described above is stored.

Your choices

• Delete your account: open the app, go to Settings → Delete account — or, without the app, at the-beacon-centre-production.up.railway.app/delete-account with your email and passcode. Either way this permanently removes your account, saved content, notes, playback progress, CSG memberships and join requests (including the date of birth and address you gave), event RSVPs, notification settings, and any prayer requests, contact messages and event registrations you sent while signed in. It cannot be undone.
• Giving transaction records are the one exception: financial recordkeeping requires us to keep them after account deletion. They are unlinked from your account, but keep the amount, date, purpose and the email address used for the receipt.
• You can sign out at any time without deleting your account; your data stays as-is for next time.
• You can use nearly all of the app — sermons, devotionals, live service, audio — without ever creating an account.

Children's privacy

The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, we'll update the date above and, where appropriate, notify users in the app.

Contact us

Questions about this policy or your data can be sent through the app's Settings → Contact the developers or Contact the church office.