Privacy Policy

1. Our role: church or us?

Each church that uses Ministry Planner decides what information about its people it records and why. For that information, the church is responsible for the data and we act as its service provider, handling it only to run the service and on the church's instructions. If you are a member, volunteer, parent or child at a church, contact that church first about your information. We are directly responsible for information about church administrators we deal with, people who contact us, and website visitors.

2. What we collect

• Account details: name, email address, hashed password, role and sign-in activity.
• People records entered by a church: contact details, dates of birth, family and group relationships, notes, photos and uploaded files.
• Scheduling data: volunteer assignments, availability, accept/decline responses, rehearsal and attendance records.
• Children's ministry data: check-in and check-out records, authorised pick-up people, and safety alerts such as allergies or medical notes entered by the church.
• Messages sent through the service (for example reminder emails) and a log of those messages.
• Enquiries you send us through the contact form.
• Technical data: IP address, browser type and security logs, used to keep the service safe and to limit abuse.

Some of this is sensitive information under the Privacy Act (for example health information and religious affiliation). We collect it only where the church needs it for its ministry and, where required, with consent.

3. How we use it

• To provide, secure and support the service for each church.
• To send service emails such as volunteer requests, reminders, password resets and sign-in codes.
• To respond to enquiries and fix problems.
• To meet legal obligations, including child safety obligations the church has.

We do not sell personal information and do not use it for advertising.

4. Who we share it with

Within a church, access depends on the person's role (Administrator, Service Planner, Ministry Leader or Volunteer) and department. We do not share one church's data with another church. We use service providers to host the service and deliver email. They may only use the data to provide those services. Where a church shares a service program publicly, anyone with that link can see it.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to prevent serious harm to a person, including a child.

5. Overseas disclosure

Some providers (such as email delivery) may process data outside Australia. Before disclosing information overseas we take reasonable steps to make sure the recipient handles it consistently with the APPs. A current list of providers and locations is available on request.

6. Cookies

We use only essential cookies, needed to keep you signed in and to protect against forgery. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

7. Security and retention

See our Security overview. We keep information while a church's account is active and for as long as the church needs it. When a church leaves, it can ask us for a copy of its data and ask us to delete it. We then delete or de-identify it, unless we must keep it by law. Backups are overwritten on their normal cycle.

8. Access, correction and complaints

You can ask for access to, or correction of, information we hold about you (APPs 12 and 13). For information held on a church's behalf we will refer you to the church or help them respond. If you have a complaint, contact us. We will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

9. Data breaches

If a breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify affected churches without delay so that they and we can meet notification duties under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

10. Children

Children do not hold accounts. Children's information is entered by a church, with the parent or guardian's knowledge, for ministry safety and attendance. See the Collection notice.

11. Changes

We will post updates on this page and change the date above.