Take Root Privacy Statement
The short version
- We store what the app needs to remember: your account, your church membership, the sermons your church shares, your reading progress, your notes, and your memory-verse reviews.
- Your notes, progress, verse reviews, and attendance answers are private to you. Not your pastor, not your church admin, not other members. This is enforced in the database, not just hidden in the app.
- Churches see counts only, never names. Attendance breakdowns appear only once at least five people have answered.
- No ads, no data sales, no third-party trackers or advertising kits.
What we store, and why
| Data | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Email, display name | Sign-in and greeting | You; fellow church members see your display name on the roster |
| Church membership and role | To show your church's sermons | You and your church's members |
| Sermon recordings, transcripts, devotionals, guides, cards | The content itself | Members of the church that shared it, or people you shared it with |
| Which days you completed | Progress and streak | Only you |
| Notes, note photos, and your answers to each day's step | Your journal | Only you |
| Memory-verse review history | Scheduling reviews | Only you |
| A small group you lead: its name and meeting night | So Take Root writes the guide before each meeting | Your church's members |
| Attendance answers | The church's aggregate report | Only you individually; the church sees totals |
| Daily reminder time | Your reminder | Stored on your device only |
Who processes the data
- Supabase: database, file storage, sign-in. Hosted in the United States.
- Deepgram transcribes sermon audio.
- Anthropic (Claude) writes the devotional, summary, guide, and cards from the transcript, and reads handwritten note photos into text when you ask. Anthropic's API does not train on this data.
- YouTube for sermon video. A church that connects its channel gives Take Root read-only access to the channel and its captions; the app cannot post, edit, or delete anything.
- Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube links for worship songs open in those apps. We host no music or lyrics.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access images and Wikimedia Commons public-domain files for artwork. Every painting is credited with its source and license.
Scripture text in the app is the World English Bible (public domain). Other translations open in your own Bible app.
Your control
- Export: every week's devotional and group guide exports as a PDF from inside the app.
- Leave a church: from the You tab, any time. Your notes and progress stay yours.
- If your church stops using Take Root: nothing is deleted. You keep your notes, progress, and every devotional already published; the church keeps its sermons, transcripts, devotionals, and guides and can ask for a complete export at any time. Only new weeks stop.
- Delete your account: from the You tab, any time. The app shows you exactly what will be deleted, with counts, and asks you to type DELETE. It removes your sign-in, notes, written answers, progress, memory-verse reviews, and attendance answers permanently. Your church keeps its sermons, devotionals, and guides. The only thing it refuses is the last admin of a church that still has members, until someone else is made an admin.
- Attendance question: answer, skip, or turn it off for yourself; a church admin can turn it off for everyone.
Children
Take Root is for adults and teens 13 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13.
Changes
If this statement changes materially, the app will say so on the Today screen and the date above will move.
This page serves as the privacy policy for Take Root on the App Store, Google Play, and Google's YouTube API consent screen.