Before the legal text begins, here is our core philosophy: Your church owns your data 100%. Check Into Church will never sell, rent, monetize, or harvest your congregation's records, child check-in tags, or giving history for third-party advertising. We act as your data processor, bound by strict encryption and security protocols so you can minister in peace.
01.Introduction & Scope
Check Into Church, Inc. ("Check Into Church," "we," "us," or "our") provides modern church management software (ChMS) and related services, including child and nursery check-in kiosk applications, community and household directories, digital giving ledgers, worship planning run-sheets, and ministry coordination tools (collectively, the "Platform").
This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, process, store, protect, and disclose information when your church organization ("Church Organization"), authorized staff, volunteers, church members, parents, and attendees (collectively, "Users" or "you") interact with our website, mobile interfaces, and software platforms.
02.Controller vs. Processor Relationship
Under applicable privacy legislation (including the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act):
- The Church Organization is the Data Controller: Your church decides what congregation records to create, what information to gather from members during check-in, and how ministry communications are sent.
- Check Into Church is the Data Processor (or Service Provider): We process personal information solely on behalf of, and in accordance with the lawful instructions of, the subscribing Church Organization.
If you are an attendee, family member, or donor with inquiries about how your personal details are gathered or handled by a specific local church, please contact your local church administrator directly.
03.Information We Collect
A. Church Account & Administrative Data
When an authorized representative registers a church or applies for private beta access, we collect first and last names, church email addresses, phone numbers, church legal name, church website URL, physical campus locations, estimated congregation size, and tax-exempt 501(c)(3) verification documentation.
B. Congregation & Household Directory Records
Entered directly by church administrators or members via directory profiles: member names, email addresses, phone numbers, postal addresses, profile avatars, family relations, household head designations, birthdates, baptism dates, and volunteer team rosters.
C. Child & Nursery Check-In Records (COPPA Compliance)
To safeguard children in nursery, toddlers, and youth programs, check-in kiosks capture child first and last names, age, grade, allergy alerts, critical medical instructions, authorized guardian phone numbers, emergency contacts, check-in timestamps, and randomized 4-character pickup security tags.
D. Contribution & Stewardship Records
Donation amounts, designated fund allocations (e.g. Tithe, Missions, Building Fund), physical check numbers, envelope identifiers, and donor tax receipt addresses. Payment Notice: Check Into Church operates as a central stewardship ledger and does not process debit/credit card transactions or store banking credentials on its servers.
E. Technical, Audit & Kiosk Device Data
IP addresses, browser client user agents, authenticated session tokens, audit trail logs (e.g. who printed child security tags or logged a pastoral note), and check-in station device identifiers.
04.Our Sacred Promise: Zero Data Monetization
Many corporate technology vendors cross-index attendee emails, display commercial banner advertisements, or sell consumer behavioral segments to advertisers. Check Into Church prohibits this entirely:
- We do not sell, rent, or lease personal church records to third parties or data brokers.
- We do not serve third-party behavioral advertisements in our platform or kiosk displays.
- We do not train general-purpose public AI models on your private church notes, prayer requests, or member directory entries.
05.How We Use Information
We use the data collected strictly to fulfill our contractual commitments to your church organization:
- Platform Delivery: Generating nursery check-in stickers, verifying pickup security tags, compiling service orders, and maintaining accurate household records.
- Financial Accounting: Generating IRS-compliant annual giving statements and providing transparent financial ledgers for church treasurers.
- Pastoral Communications: Dispatching church email blasts, urgent volunteer schedule notifications, and critical prayer alerts initiated by church staff.
- Account Security & Fraud Prevention: Authenticating church logins, enforcing rate limits, monitoring suspicious activities, and auditing administrative role assignments.
- Customer Support & Beta Onboarding: Diagnosing reported software issues, responding to support tickets, and onboarding invited beta churches.
06.Third-Party Sub-Processors & Service Providers
To operate our cloud infrastructure reliably, we partner with vetted third-party service providers ("Sub-processors") who are contractually bound to maintain strict confidentiality and data protection standards:
| Sub-Processor | Service Provided | Data Handled | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare / AWS | Cloud Hosting & DDoS Protection | Encrypted Application Traffic | United States |
| Stripe, Inc. | Payment & Tithe Processing (PCI-DSS) | Donor Tokenized Billing Details | United States |
| SendGrid / Postmark | Transactional & Notification Emails | Recipient Email & Message Body | United States |
07.Child & Nursery Check-In Privacy (COPPA)
Child safety is the cornerstone of Check Into Church. In accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"):
- We do not knowingly collect personal data directly from children under 13 years of age. All child profiles and check-in registrations are submitted solely by the child's parent, legal guardian, or an authorized church ministry leader.
- Child records (including allergy alerts and emergency contacts) are used exclusively for physical safety, nursery room check-in, allergy notification, and guardian pickup verification.
- Pickup security tag codes are randomized, 4-character cryptographic tokens that rotate each check-in session and expire automatically at the conclusion of church services.
08.Data Retention, Portability & Deletion
Because your church retains complete ownership of your data, you hold full control over its retention and lifecycle:
- Export Anytime: Church administrators can export member directories, giving logs, and attendance rosters to industry-standard CSV formats at any time without fees.
- Account Deletion: If a church organization closes its account or cancels its subscription, we will permanently purge all database records, family trees, and pastoral notes within 30 days of written request, retaining only anonymized accounting records strictly required by tax authorities.
09.Technical & Operational Security Measures
All data in transit is encrypted using modern TLS 1.3 encryption. Sensitive database columns and access tokens are secured at rest using AES-256 encryption.
Every church organization's records are segregated at the application and query layer with foreign key tenant boundaries (`organization_id`) to prevent cross-tenant data leakage.
Granular permission levels ensure volunteers (such as nursery helpers) only see relevant security tags and allergies, while confidential pastoral notes remain restricted to pastors.
Automated rate limiting, credential verification backoff delays, and single-use setup tokens protect church accounts from unauthorized access attempts.
10.Policy Updates
We may periodically update this Privacy Policy to reflect enhancements in our ChMS software, evolving legal statutes, or new security capabilities. When material revisions occur, we will notify church administrators via email or in-app dashboard banners prior to the changes taking effect.
11.Contacting Our Data Protection Team
If your pastoral team or church board has questions regarding our data architecture, compliance, or church privacy commitments, please reach out to our dedicated privacy officers: