Summary: The Biblical Tools app, used without an account, does not collect or share your personal information — your study data stays on your device. If you create a free member account on BiblicalTools.org, the study data you choose to keep there (such as your journal and reading progress) is stored securely on our servers so it stays with you across devices — see Member Accounts & Study Data below. The BiblicalTools.org website uses cookies and analytics tools, including Google Analytics and Google Ads, to understand site usage and measure the effectiveness of our advertising. We do not sell your data to third parties.
App Data Collection
The Biblical Tools mobile app does not collect personal data. We do not require you to create an account, provide your name, email address, or any identifying information to use the app.
- No account or registration required
- No advertising tracking or behavioral analytics in the app
- No device fingerprinting or unique identifiers collected
- No data is sold, rented, or shared with third parties for marketing
Member Accounts & Study Data
BiblicalTools.org offers an optional, free member account for features like the community feed, private messaging, and the study dashboard. Creating an account is never required to read the Bible, use the study tools, or access any teaching resources.
When you create a member account, we collect your email address (for sign-in and account recovery) and a username you choose. If you sign in, the following is stored securely on our servers (hosted with Supabase, our database provider) so it stays with you across your devices:
- Your journal — private to your account. Journal entries are never shown to other members and are never published anywhere on the site.
- Study progress — reading activity, study points and levels, memorized verses, quiz results, and reading-plan progress.
- Your profile — username, avatar, and any bio you choose to write.
- Community content you choose to share — posts, comments, prayer requests, and answered-prayer testimonies. These are visible to other signed-in members, along with your username and avatar.
- Private messages — visible only to you and the member you are messaging.
Push notifications (optional): If you choose to enable browser notifications, we store a delivery address for your device so we can send them. Disabling notifications in your browser removes it. We never send notifications you have not opted into.
Your data is yours. You can download everything we store for you at any time from Account → Export Your Data, and you can delete your account and all associated data from the same page. We do not sell member data or share it with third parties for marketing.
Website Analytics & Advertising
The BiblicalTools.org website uses cookies and similar technologies to understand how visitors interact with our site and to measure the effectiveness of our advertising through the Google Ad Grants program. Specifically, the website uses:
- Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to collect anonymized data about site traffic, page views, and user behavior. This helps us understand which resources are most useful and how to improve our site. Google Analytics may use cookies to distinguish unique visitors.
- Google Ads Conversion Tracking: As a participant in the Google Ad Grants program for nonprofits, we use Google Ads conversion tracking to measure how effectively our search ads direct visitors to our Bible study resources. This may involve cookies placed by Google when you click on one of our ads.
- Google Tag Manager: We use Google Tag Manager to manage the analytics and advertising tags described above.
The data collected through these tools may include your IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited, referring URL, and interactions with our site. This data is used to improve our website, measure the reach of our ministry, and inform our Google Ads campaigns. We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes. Where data is shared with Google as described in this section, Google acts as a data processor on our behalf under the Google Ads Data Processing Terms.
Managing Cookies: You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings. You may also opt out of Google Analytics tracking by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. To learn more about how Google uses data from partner sites, visit Google's privacy & terms page.
Audience Data for Advertising: We may use data collected through Google Analytics to create audience lists (such as lists of past website visitors) for use in our Google Ads search campaigns. These audience lists help us better reach people who have already shown interest in our Bible study resources. As a Google Ad Grants recipient, these audiences are used for search advertising only — we do not run display or video remarketing campaigns.
Customer Match (Conversion-Based Lists): When you complete a conversion action on our website — such as making a donation or completing a signup — our Google Ads conversion tag may transmit hashed personal identifiers (such as a hashed version of your email address) to Google. Google uses this information to automatically create Customer Match audience lists, which allow our search ads to be served more effectively to people who have previously engaged with our ministry. These identifiers are transmitted in hashed form, are matched only against Google account data, and are processed by Google solely on our behalf as a data processor under the Google Ads Data Processing Terms. This data is not used by Google for their own marketing purposes, and we do not receive personal information about other Google users in return. Our Google Ads campaigns are geographically targeted to the United States only.
Local Storage
Certain features save data locally on your device. When you use the app or the website without signing in to a member account, this data is never transmitted to our servers or any third party.
Data stored locally includes:
- Bible study chat history
- Bible reading progress and bookmarks
- Step counter and fitness tracking data
- Food and nutrition logs
- Personal notes
You can clear this data at any time by uninstalling the app or clearing app data through your device settings.
If you sign in to a member account on the website, your journal and study progress are also synced to your account as described in Member Accounts & Study Data — local storage then acts as an offline copy so those features keep working without a connection.
Third-Party AI Services
The Bible study chat feature uses an AI service (provided by OpenAI or Anthropic) to generate responses to your questions. When you send a message in the chat:
- Only the text of your conversation is sent to the AI service
- No personal identifiers are included (no name, email, device ID, or account info)
- No location data is sent
- No device information is transmitted
These AI providers have their own privacy policies. We encourage you to review them if you have concerns about how conversation text is handled on their end.
Audio Streaming
Audio Bible narration is streamed directly from our servers at biblicaltools.org. Standard web server logs (IP address, timestamp, file requested) may be recorded as part of normal server operation, but this data is not associated with any personal profile and is not used for tracking purposes.
No user account data or identifiers are collected during audio playback.
App Permissions
The app may request the following device permissions:
- Activity / Step Counter: Used to count steps using your device's motion sensors. Step data is stored locally on your device only and is never transmitted.
- Location (optional): If granted, location is used only to determine your local timezone for accurate day-boundary tracking (e.g., midnight rollover for daily step counts). No location coordinates are stored or transmitted to any server.
All permissions are optional where possible. Denying a permission will disable only the feature that relies on it.
Children's Privacy
The Biblical Tools app is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information through the app, please contact us and we will promptly address it.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will post the revised policy on this page and update the effective date at the top. We encourage you to review this page periodically.
Continued use of the app after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
Contact Us
If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or the Biblical Tools app, please contact us:
- Email: info@bibleministriesinternational.org
- Mail: Bible Ministries International, 1119 S. Mission Road #188, Fallbrook, CA 92028
- Website: biblicaltools.org