Privacy Policy

At splendor.church, we are committed to protecting your privacy and personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our platform to find Catholic Mass schedules, Confession times, and Adoration hours.

We believe that privacy is a fundamental right, and we design our services with privacy in mind from the ground up.

Personal Information You Provide

• Account Information: Name, email address, and password when you create an account
• Profile Information: Optional profile details like location preferences and favorite parishes
• Communication: Messages you send to us through contact forms or support channels
• User Content: Reviews, comments, or feedback you provide about churches or services
• Pages & Feed Content: Pages you create or manage (including page name, description, category, and images), feed posts you publish (text, images, carousels), comments you write, and votes you cast
• Follow Data: Pages and churches you choose to follow, and your notification preferences for followed pages
• Uploaded Images: Images you upload for page avatars, cover photos, or feed posts, which are stored on our secure cloud storage
• Flag Reports: Content reports you submit, including the reason category and any additional details you provide

Information Automatically Collected

• Usage Data: How you interact with our platform, pages visited, and features used
• Device Information: Browser type, operating system, and device identifiers
• Location Data: Approximate location (with your permission) to show nearby churches
• Cookies & Local Storage: Small data files that help improve your experience on our site. See our Cookie Policy for a full list of cookies we use and how to manage your preferences.
• Feed Engagement Data: Post views, vote activity, and comment interactions used to calculate engagement scores and personalize your feed
• View Tracking: We track post views with a one-hour deduplication window to ensure accurate view counts. For anonymous users, a hashed client identifier is used temporarily

Information from Third Parties

• Social Media: Information from Google or Facebook if you choose to sign in with these services
• Church Data: Publicly available church information from official diocesan sources

We use your information to:

Provide Our Services

• Help you find nearby churches and worship schedules
• Personalize your experience with relevant recommendations
• Curate your feed using an algorithm that considers your location, followed pages, post engagement, and content diversity
• Calculate engagement scores on posts using votes, comments, and views to surface relevant content
• Maintain and improve our platform's functionality
• Send you important service updates and notifications

Communication & Support

• Respond to your questions and provide customer support
• Send you updates about new features or important changes
• Notify you about schedule changes at your favorite parishes

Safety & Security

• Protect against fraud, abuse, and security threats
• Moderate content through automated filtering (banned keywords and domains) and community-driven flagging to maintain a safe environment
• Enforce rate limits on posts, comments, votes, follows, and reports to prevent abuse
• Validate uploaded images for security (checking file types and restricting allowed sources)
• Review flagged content and take appropriate moderation actions
• Verify the accuracy of church information
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information only in these limited circumstances:

With Your Consent

When you explicitly agree to share information with third parties, such as connecting with church communities.

Service Providers

With trusted third-party companies that help us operate our platform, such as hosting providers, email services, and analytics tools. These partners are bound by strict confidentiality agreements.

Legal Requirements

When required by law, court order, or governmental authority, or to protect our rights and safety.

Business Transfers

In connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, with appropriate notice to users.

Our feed uses an algorithm to show you the most relevant content. Here is how it works and what data is used:

How Your Feed Is Personalized

• Location: Posts from churches and pages in your city or country are prioritized
• Follows: Content from pages you follow receives higher visibility in your feed
• Engagement: Posts with more votes, comments, and views are ranked higher
• Diversity: We limit repeated posts from the same page to ensure variety in your feed
• Verification: Content from verified pages receives a slight boost

Engagement Scoring

Each post has an engagement score calculated from votes, comments, and views. This score decays over time so that fresh content surfaces naturally. The score is recalculated automatically when interactions occur.

Content Moderation

Posts and comments are automatically checked against a list of banned keywords and domains. Content may be blocked, flagged for review, or placed under manual review depending on severity. Users can report content using 10 predefined categories (such as spam, harassment, or misinformation), and our administrators review flagged content to take appropriate action.

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information:

• Encryption: Data transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted using industry-standard protocols
• Access Controls: Strict access controls ensure only authorized personnel can access personal data
• Regular Audits: We regularly review and update our security practices
• Data Minimization: We collect only the information necessary to provide our services
• Secure Storage: Personal data is stored on secure servers with robust backup systems
• Image Security: Uploaded images are validated using file-type verification and restricted to approved storage domains. Dangerous file types (SVG, executable files) are blocked
• Rate Limiting: Automated rate limits protect against abuse across all user actions including posting, commenting, voting, and reporting
• External Link Warnings: Links to external websites in feed posts trigger a security warning before you leave our platform

Important: While we strive to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

You have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal information we have about you
• Correction: Update or correct inaccurate personal information
• Deletion: Request deletion of your personal information (subject to legal requirements)
• Portability: Request your data in a portable format
• Opt-out: Unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time
• Location Services: Control whether we collect location data through your device settings
• Follow Management: Unfollow pages at any time to stop receiving boosted content from them
• Content Removal: Delete your posts, comments, and page content at any time
• Page Deletion: Page owners can request deletion of their pages and associated content

To exercise these rights, please contact us at support@splendor.church.

splendor.church serves Catholics worldwide. Your information may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your own. We ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data during international transfers.

By using our service, you consent to the transfer of your information to countries outside your residence, including countries that may have different data protection laws.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons.

When we make changes, we will notify you by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this policy and, for material changes, by providing additional notice such as email notification.