Privacy Policy
Effective 2 November 2026
In short: we collect your email address (and your name if you join with Google) so you can have a free account, and we use it to sign you in and, if you agree, to send the Church of the Week email. We do not sell your data and we do not run advertising trackers.
Who we are
ChurchesAtlas (“we”, “us”) is a website of photographed guides to churches, run by an individual and not yet a registered company. This policy covers churchesatlas.com. You can reach us about anything in it at support@churchesatlas.com.
What we collect
- Account details. Your email address. If you join with Google, we also receive your name and the email address on your Google account. We do not ask for passwords.
- Sign-in records. A sign-in cookie and the time of your sign-ins, so you stay signed in and can sign out everywhere.
- Newsletter choice. Whether you asked for the Church of the Week email, and when.
- Your country. Our host reports the country a visit comes from. We use it only to decide whether the newsletter box starts ticked (it starts unticked in the EU and UK) and to protect the site.
- Things you send us. Messages through the contact page, church suggestions, and photos you upload, with the church name, location and licence you tell us about, and the email you give us.
- Saved churches. The churches you save or mark as visited in your account.
- Purchases and tips, when they open. Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card number; we keep a record of what you bought and the email on the order.
- Technical data. Our host and security provider process IP addresses and basic request data to deliver pages and block abuse.
How we use it
- To create your account, sign you in and keep your saved churches.
- To confirm your email address and send you sign-in links and codes.
- To send the Church of the Week email, only if you have agreed, and only after you confirm your email.
- To answer your messages and review suggestions and photos you send.
- To process orders and tips, and keep the records the law requires.
- To keep the site secure and working.
If you are in the EU or UK, our legal bases are: providing the account you asked for (contract), your agreement for the newsletter (consent), and our interest in running and securing the site (legitimate interests). Orders also rely on legal obligations.
Google sign-in
If you choose “Continue with Google”, we ask Google only for your name and email address. We use them to create and find your ChurchesAtlas account and for nothing else. We do not sell Google user data, use it for advertising, or give it to other parties except the service providers below that run the site for us. ChurchesAtlas’s use of information received from Google APIs will follow the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. You can remove ChurchesAtlas’s access at any time in your Google Account under Security, then Third-party connections.
Who handles your data for us
We use service providers who process data only to do their job for us:
- Cloudflare, for hosting, security, the account system, storage, and our contact and suggestion forms.
- Google, for sign-in.
- An email-sending service, for confirmation and sign-in emails, and a newsletter service for Church of the Week.
- Stripe, for payments, once purchases open.
Some of these are based in or process data in the United States. Where the law requires, we rely on approved transfer safeguards such as standard contractual clauses. We do not sell your personal data and we do not share it for advertising.
Cookies and analytics
We use a cookie to keep you signed in. We do not use advertising cookies.
To see which churches people read, we use these tools:
- Cloudflare Web Analytics and Umami. Visits, pages and button taps, without cookies.
- Google Analytics. How people use the site. It uses cookies only with your consent or, outside the EU, UK and Switzerland, until you opt out. Without consent it sends limited cookieless signals.
- Microsoft Clarity. Taps, scrolling and masked session recordings, so we can improve the phone design. It doesn't run on Join or Account pages. Without consent it runs in a limited mode.
In the EU, UK and Switzerland we ask first. Everywhere, you can change your choice with Privacy choices in the footer.
How long we keep it
- Account details: until you delete your account.
- Accounts whose email is never confirmed: deleted 30 days after the 24-hour confirmation window ends.
- Newsletter details: until you unsubscribe, then only what is needed to remember that you did.
- Messages and suggestions: as long as needed to answer and act on them.
- Photos you upload: if we do not publish a photo, we delete it after we review it. A photo we publish stays until you ask us to take it down.
- Order records: as long as tax and accounting law require.
Your choices and rights
You can ask us to show you the data we hold about you, correct it, delete your account, or send you a copy. Write to support@churchesatlas.com from the email address on your account and we will act within one month. Every Church of the Week email has an unsubscribe link. If you are in the EU or UK you also have the right to object to or restrict processing and to complain to your local data protection authority. California residents can ask what we hold and ask us to delete it; we do not sell or share personal information as those laws define it.
Children
ChurchesAtlas is not meant for children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you think a child has given us their details, write to us and we will delete them.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will update the date at the top and, for account holders, tell you by email.