Privacy Policy

Your account

When you join, we store your email address, the display name you choose and your username (handle). We use your email address to send you sign-in links and the other emails described below. If you set a PIN for quick sign-in, we store only a one-way hash of it.

• Profile photo (optional): if you upload one, it is stored in our database. Moderators can hide it. A photo removed for breaking our rules, or one with an open report, is kept as moderation evidence, even after you delete your account.
• Member directory: new accounts are listed in the member directory by default, so other signed-in members can find you by name or username and send you a friend request. Your email address is never shown. You can turn this off in your Profile at any time.
• Presence: friends you have connected with can see when you were recently active. You can turn this off in your Profile.

Your conversations

Your text chats and the transcripts of your voice conversations are stored in our database, on servers we operate, until you delete the conversation or your account. We keep them so that you can see your history and pick up where you left off.

In a shared conversation, every participant sees the conversation. If a message in a shared conversation is flagged as a possible crisis, only the person who wrote it can see it.

Your church tradition (optional)

If you choose a Bible tradition in the Library (Protestant, Catholic or Ethiopian Orthodox), we save that choice on your account. We use it only to show the books your tradition reads and to tell the characters which books you receive as Scripture. A religious belief is sensitive personal data: we never share it, never use it for analytics or advertising, and it is not sent to the operator's feed. You can change or clear it at any time in the Library or on your profile, and it is deleted with your account.

Voice

When you talk by voice, your recording is sent to our own voice service, where an open-source speech recognition model (Whisper) turns it into text. The audio file is deleted right after transcription; only the transcript is kept, as described above. The avatar’s spoken reply is generated on our server by an open-source speech synthesizer (Piper).

The Dictate button uses the speech recognition built into your browser or device instead: Apple’s in Safari and in the iOS app, Google’s in Chrome. That audio may be sent to Apple or Google and is handled under their privacy policies; we receive only the text.

AI replies

Avatar replies are generated by open-source language models running on servers we operate (Ollama). Your conversations are not sent to third-party AI companies.

The avatars are AI portrayals of biblical figures, not real people, and their replies can be wrong. Community members labeled as AI members are bots, not people.

Attachments

If you attach a document to a message, we extract its text to answer that one message and do not store the text. Only the file name is recorded.

Operator review on Telegram

When the operator turns it on, a copy of each chat turn is sent to a private Telegram chat that only the operator reads, for quality and safety review. Each copy contains your display name or email address, the character, and up to the first 300 characters of your message and of the reply. Telegram is a third party with its own privacy policy.

• Conversations in the iOS app are not forwarded unless the operator turns this on for the app, and in that case the app asks for your permission first.
• The operator can stop forwarding for any individual account.
• The same private chat receives operator alerts about requests to join (name, email address, message and how you heard about us), new profile photos and reports. The person who made a report is never named.

Location

The iOS app never asks for your location. On the website, we ask before using it, and use it only if you agree:

• If you choose Allow, your browser shares your location and we store it rounded to about 1 km.
• If you choose Allow but your browser blocks location access, we look up a coarse city and country from your IP address with ipapi.co, a third-party service that receives your IP address for that lookup.
• If you choose “No thanks”, nothing is collected.

IP addresses stored with location records are truncated.

Analytics, logs and cookies

• We use Plausible, a privacy-friendly analytics tool that we host ourselves. It sets no cookies and does not track you across other websites.
• For each session we keep an access log linked to your account: a truncated IP address, your device type, browser and operating system, the character, the mode (text or voice) and the seconds used.
• We record when the app is installed on a device.
• Visits to the request-access page record the IP address and browser user agent for up to 30 days, to prevent abuse.

We use cookies only to keep you signed in and to remember display preferences, and your browser’s local storage to remember settings such as your language. We use no advertising or tracking cookies.

Email

We use Resend, a third-party email service, to send sign-in links, invitations, the welcome email when you join, and friend notifications. Resend also receives the email you send to our support address and passes it on to us; we store your message so that we can answer it.

Notifications

If you turn on notifications, we store an address for your device (a push endpoint or token) and your app language. On the web, notifications are delivered through your browser’s push service, which Apple, Google or Mozilla runs depending on your browser. In the iOS app, they are delivered through the Apple Push Notification service, and occasional reminders to come back are sent only if you choose to receive them. You can turn reminders on or off in your Profile.

Tips and payments

There are no payments on the website today. An optional Ko-fi tip link may appear; Ko-fi has its own privacy policy.

In the iOS app, optional tips are processed by Apple. We receive the transaction ID, the product, the price, the currency and the App Store country, never your card details. Tip records are kept for accounting after you delete your account, but are no longer linked to you.

Reports and blocks

When you report a message or a person, we store the report, with a copy of the reported message, so that the operator can review it. Reports reach the operator without your name. When you block someone, we store the block so that neither of you can find, contact or share a conversation with the other.

Children

Bible Avatars is not directed at children. You must be at least 13 years old, or older if the age of digital consent where you live is higher. If you believe a child below that age has an account, write to support@gospel-ai.app and we will delete it.

Why we use your data

We use your data to provide the service you asked for, to keep it safe and prevent abuse, and to meet legal obligations such as keeping tip records for accounting. We use your location and send you notifications only with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. We do not sell your personal information or share it for advertising.

Third parties at a glance

• Resend sends our emails and receives the mail you send to our support address.
• Telegram carries the operator’s review copies and alerts, when they are turned on.
• ipapi.co receives your IP address for a coarse location lookup, only if you allowed location and your browser blocked it.
• Apple, Google and Mozilla deliver push notifications, if you turn them on.
• Apple processes tips in the iOS app.
• Ko-fi handles tips made through the optional link on the website.
• Apple or Google recognise speech when you use the Dictate button, depending on your browser.

We give each of these services only the data it needs to do its job, and we share data only with services that protect it to the same or an equal standard as this policy describes. Some of them may process data outside your country.

How long we keep data, and how to delete it

We keep your data while your account exists, and your conversations until you delete them or your account.

You can delete your account in the app at any time: open your Profile and choose Delete account. This permanently removes:

• your account, sessions and sign-in tokens;
• your messages, including those you wrote in other people’s shared conversations, and the conversations you started, which are removed for everyone in them;
• your memberships in shared conversations, and your friendships, friend requests and blocks;
• your photos, unless they are held as moderation evidence as described above;
• your analytics, access-log and location records, and your notification tokens;
• join requests, feedback and support mail sent from your email address.

Copies already sent to the operator’s Telegram chat cannot be recalled. Reports you made are kept for moderation without your name, and tip records from the iOS app are kept for accounting, no longer linked to you.

Deleted data leaves our live database at once. It can remain in our database backups for up to six months, until those backups expire. We use backups only to restore the service after a failure.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, including under the GDPR in the European Union and the United Kingdom, the LGPD in Brazil and California law, you have the right to access your personal data, correct it, delete it and receive a portable copy of it. To make a request, write to support@gospel-ai.app from the email address on your account. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Contact

The controller of your personal data is the operator of Bible Avatars. For any question about this policy or your data, write to support@gospel-ai.app.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The effective date at the top shows the current version. When we make an important change, we will ask you to review it in the app before you continue.