Last modified on June 8, 2020 

As noted in the policy below, the English language version of the PrivacyPolicy and Terms of Use will govern your relationship with The Blessing Church. While the English version will govern, you can also use an automatic translation tool like Google Translate to view the documents in your language.

In the years following our 1996 launch in a two-car garage, The Blessing Church has become recognized for our use of technology to spread the Gospel. We began using video teaching in our services in 2001, were one of the first churches to offer Church Online in 2006, launched the YouVersion Bible App in 2008, and more.

Our place at the forefront of digital ministry has always been driven by our passion to see technology leveraged to help people find hope, peace, and joy in the incomparable love of Christ. The The Blessing Church app and our websites are tools we offer to serve our attenders and visitors by connecting them to one another and equipping them on their journey to becoming fully devoted followers of Christ.

The Blessing Church is also passionate about serving pastors and church leaders around the world to help build the “capital C” Church. Through The Blessing Church Open Network, leaders can download free resources, trainings, and apps to grow their church and reach more people for Christ.

Every digital product and service we provide is created with great care and intentionality. Each one designed to help more people pursue a deeper relationship with God in a safe and secure manner. We craft these tools as an act of ministry to serve you, and you have choices in your experience. You choose what you access. You choose what you share, and with whom. Your data is yours. The Blessing Church does not sell your information, nor will we share it with others without your consent.

And every aspect of The Blessing Church’s digital tools are completely free, with no strings attached and no advertising. Our intent is to remove every possible barrier so you’re able to focus on getting to know God more intimately.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully because it discusses how we will collect, use, share and process your personal information. By using The Blessing Church sites and services, you agree to this Privacy Policy and its terms.

We welcome any questions or comments you may have about this Privacy Policy and our privacy practices. If you have any questions or comments, you may contact us by mail at Life Church, attn.: The Blessing Church Support, 4600 E. 2nd St., Edmond, Oklahoma 73034, or by email at get.blessed@ustbc.org.

To make this document easier to read, we’re going to use some shorthand throughout. For example, when we say “our sites” or “The Blessing Church sites” (whether we reference them individually or collectively) we’re talking about the websites and applications offered by The Blessing Church, including (but not limited to) The Blessing Church, gear.The Blessing Church, giving.The Blessing Church, and open.The Blessing Church, together with their subdomains and content. These are owned and operated by The Blessing Church Operations. LLC, together with its parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries, which we’ll refer to as “The Blessing Church,” “us,” or “we” throughout this policy. When we refer to persons interacting with The Blessing Church in this policy, we’ll use the term “you.”

Please note that use of YouVersion and YouVersion applications and services is governed by a separate privacy policy found here: https://www.bible.com/privacy

This Privacy Policy outlines the types of data we collect from your interactions with The Blessing Church and how we process that information. You have choices about how your personal information is accessed, collected, shared and stored by The Blessing Church, which is discussed below. We take the privacy of the information you provide and that we collect seriously and implement security safeguards designed to protect your data, which are also discussed below.

In general, the information we collect depends on the services you request. In addition to personal information that you provide (such as your name, email address, financial information and other personally-identifiable information), we collect Internet and other network activity information with cookies and other automated technologies as discussed below. We use the data we collect and that you provide as well as inferences we make from that information as follows:

• To provide, support and personalize our sites and services;
• To create, maintain, customize and secure a The Blessing Church profile or account, if any;
• To process your requests and respond to your inquires;
• To provide information on our products or services;
• To maintain the safety, security and integrity of The Blessing Church sites and the infrastructure that facilitates use of our sites;
• For internal development and analysis of our products and services;
• To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it;
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights;
• As described in this Privacy Policy;
• In a manner we may describe when you provide the information; and
• For another purpose with your consent.

We collect personal data from you when you provide it to us both offline and online. You do not need to provide personal information to us to use the The Blessing Church sites; however, we allow you to create a profile which allows us to tailor our sites and services to be a more personalized experience. To create a profile, we require your first and last name, your email address and a password to authenticate you when you try to access your profile. Beyond the personal information needed to create a profile, you have choices about what additional information you provide to us, which may include your zip code, the names of your family members, gender, social security number, and your martial status, all of which will be stored in association with your profile. Certain information may be required based on your specific request, such as your social security number for employment inquiries and volunteer requests; we will notify you of this at the time of such a request. We also collect information about you when you send, receive, or engage in communications with us, including when you submit personal information or requests by emailing get.blessed@ustbc.org. We retain those communications to process your inquiries, respond to your requests, and improve our sites and our services.

If you have a profile with us, the information you provide us is generally associated with your profile and is stored internally in our third-party relationship management system or “CRM system.” We will use this information to authenticate you and allow you to access your specific profile. We create user profiles for off-line purposes as well, which include volunteerism and inquiries concerning employment. We may combine the information you provide us for your profile and interactions with our sites with information you provide us through other The Blessing Church sites, services and products and inferences we make from the same for our internal development to improve the overall quality of our sites, services and products. We may also make recommendations to you for other The Blessing Church services based on the information you provide and we infer.

Our The Blessing Church sites have a wide array of functionality, including streaming video, creating prayer requests, and identifying and communicating with your The Blessing Church groups and teams. Some The Blessing Church sites may allow you to publish, distribute and display certain content, which we will refer to as “posted” and the content as “posts.” Posts may be made on public areas of websites and social media accounts you access through our sites or may otherwise be transmitted to third parties. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information in a public manner whether through collaborative postings, social media, message boards, or other public online forums, this information may be collected and used by others. We cannot control the actions of other users or third parties with whom you choose to share your posts. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your posts will not be viewed by unauthorized persons, nor do we accept any liability associated with your posts.

If you choose to provide a voluntary donation through those The Blessing Church sites where you are able to make a donation, then and only then will you be prompted and required to provide credit card, bank account, and other payment information necessary to process the transaction. We will collect the designation for your donation, if you provide one, the The Blessing Church campus designated for your donation (if any), and personal information such as your name, address, phone number and/or email address to ensure that your donation is used for the purpose you request and to provide you with a “Annual Giving Statement” that itemizes your donation(s) for tax purposes or your personal use. This information (with the exception of your financial information) is stored in connection with your profile if you have created one for another purpose; or, if you have no preexisting profile with us, we will use this information to create a profile for you in our internal CRM system. We will not store or otherwise process financial information provided to us online for the purposes of making a donation. As of the date of this Policy, we use Stripe and PayPal to process your online donation payments. For information on how these third parties process your information, please refer to their privacy policies which may be found here: https://stripe.com/privacy; https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full. For donations you provide to us in person or by mail, we store your financial information in our databases in an encrypted form for as long as necessary to process your donation and as required by applicable law and GAAP accounting principles.

With respect to those The Blessing Church sites where you are able to purchase The Blessing Church-branded clothing and other items, which include gear.The Blessing Church, your personal and financial information is provided and shared with our third-party contractors that we use to process your order. These third parties are identified at the time of your purchase. For information on how those companies use, store, maintain and disclose your information, please refer to their respective privacy policies or contact them directly.

You may apply to be a volunteer for miscellaneous activities and events in person at a The Blessing Church campus, over the phone and through one or more of our sites. You may also apply for employment in person and through our sites. The information we require for volunteer and employment applications are your first and last name, telephone number, address, social security number, date of birth and, in the case of a job inquiry, your employment history. We will use this information to create a profile or associate it with your profile if one exists. We will use your social security number and date of birth solely for a background check in connection with your application to be a volunteer and/or employee, and will not share either with any other party except for third party service providers that enable us to perform background checks which are obligated not to share your information or use it for any other purpose. If you become an employee of The Blessing Church, your personal information is also used in connection with your employment.

As a ministry volunteer, you may have access to third-party software which allows you to schedule and check-in to your volunteer activity, as well as manage other volunteer activity. This location-based information is stored in association with your profile to enable you to see your past volunteerism, and we also use it for our own internal analysis of volunteerism.

By agreeing to our Privacy Policy, you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies (for example, web beacons, pixels, tags, and device identifiers which we collectively refer to as “cookies”) as described in this policy. If you use The Blessing Church sites without changing your browser or device settings to disable cookies, we assume that you consent to receive all cookies provided through The Blessing Church sites.

We use cookies to recognize you and/or your device(s) on, off, and across the different applications of our sites and devices. Cookies help to facilitate the best possible user experience of our sites as they allow us to recognize you and maintain your user preferences from session to session, help us keep your account safe, and generally improve the functionality of the products and services offered through The Blessing Church sites. They also help us ensure that profile information is used in association with the correct profile. Importantly, we do not use cookies to facilitate interest-based ads from third parties for third party goods or services.

We log usage data when you use The Blessing Church sites, including when you view or click on content, browser type, browser language, perform a search or request, the date and time of your request, install an update, seek new functionality, or use one or more tools offered through our sites. We use cookies to identify you and log your use. When you access or leave our sites, we receive the URL of both the site you came from and the one you go to next. We also get information about your IP address, proxy server, operating system, web browser and add-ons, device identifier and features, and/or ISP or your mobile carrier. If you use our sites from a mobile device, that device will send us data about your location based on your phone settings and access you have granted the The Blessing Church sites as discussed below.

We store this information and information pertaining to your use of our sites in connection with your profile. We do not share any of your personally identifiable information along with your device identification or location without your explicit permission. We advertise on third party sites such as Facebook and Google and use third party software development kits (“SDKS”) to attribute a download of a The Blessing Church application on to the advertisement placed on the third party site. We may provide these third parties with aggregate information concerning ads placed on their sites and downloads that result from those ads.

We use this information to provide a tailored The Blessing Church site experience for you and to communicate with you more effectively. The information is also collected to determine the aggregate number of unique devices using our sites, track total usage, and analyze usage data to provide you with a better experience and to improve the quality of our services. If you do not want us to collect this information you should cease use of our sites.

Although most internet browsers accept cookies by default, you can control these types of technology through your browser settings and similar tools and agree to refuse all cookies altogether. If you refuse to accept cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser or smartphone, you may prohibit us from delivering the full capability of our sites.

Please note that we cannot regulate other sites, content, or applications of third-parties, which may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) targeted content. We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly.

Some of our sites use GPS information to identify when you are near one of our physical locations. You will be given the opportunity to provide consent for us to use this information when you first download or begin to use our sites. If you provide that consent, we use that information to enable push notifications related to interactions with our The Blessing Church sites and physical locations. You also have the ability to manually initiate a GPS location search to identify whether you are at one of our physical locations. When using certain The Blessing Church sites, you can provide us with your GPS location through your browser, zip code, or city, which will be processed by a third-party search engine. We do not store this information outside of your device. Once your particular session of use of the feature ends, we will cease to have access to your GPS location unless you use the feature again. After your first use of this functionality and consent for us to use your GPS location, we will assume we have that consent unless you revoke it through the settings of your mobile device.

We also collect and use the wireless (or “WiFi”) permissions of your mobile device to determine if you are connected to a WiFi or cellular network. This information is used to provide an optimized user experience by providing higher resolution content to a user who is on a high-speed WiFi connection rather than a cellular network. WiFi permissions are also used for casting content with Chromecast and similar devices. This information is not shared by The Blessing Church.

We collect the manner you use the content available through our sites and the language in which you choose to utilize that content. We also may collect and store your posts. We process this information to allow you to access and use content and posts through each session of your use of our sites. It is your choice whether to create, access or store information and content in our sites. If you do, we will we store it in association with your profile for so long as you opt not to delete it. We may use information about your use of our sites and the inferences we make from that use to provide recommendations to you of other The Blessing Church sites, products, services and content.

From time to time, we may contact you as set forth below. You may opt out of receiving certain communications from us by modifying the settings of your application (where applicable) or by contacting us at the information below.

Recommendations and General Information

We use the data we have about you and inferences we make from that data to recommend certain content and functionality as well as additional products and services offered by The Blessing Church. We may contact you through push notification, email, mail or in-app messages to discuss these recommendations, how to use our sites, and other news messages.

Giving

If you have given a donation to us, we use the data we collect about that donation to inform you of the impact of your giving. We will also contact you periodically in the future to inquire if you would like to give to another program or campus or purpose. We may contact you through push notification, email, mail or in-app messages to discuss these opportunities.

Security, Legal and Technical Issues

We use your personal information to respond to and resolve technical issues and complaints concerning our sites and as necessary for security purposes or to investigate possible fraud, violations of law or agreement or attempts to harm self or others. We may use your information to contact you about these accounts, security, legal and other service-related issues. Please be aware that you cannot opt-out of receiving such messages from us.

Notice

We may use your personal information to provide notice regarding a security incident or data breach, by: (i) sending a message to the email address you provide (as applicable); (ii) posting to a publicly facing page of The Blessing Church sites or through an in-app messages; (iii) through major statewide media; and/or (iv) telephonic means, including calls and/or text messages, even if sent via automated means including automated dialers. Standard text and data messaging rates may apply from your carrier. Notices sent by email will be effective when we send the email, notices we provide by posting will be effective upon posting and by in-app messaging when the message is made, and notices we provide through telephonic means will be effective when transmitted or dialed. You consent to receiving electronic communications from The Blessing Church relating to your use and access of the services provided by The Blessing Church. It is your responsibility to keep your email address and any other contact information you provide to us current so that we may provide these communications to you.

We internally analyze the personal data available to us and use of content found on our sites. In some cases, we work with trusted third parties to perform this research, under controls that are designed to protect your privacy as discussed below. We may disclose statistics concerning the use of our site in an aggregated manner with de-identified and anonymized information that does not disclose any particular user or that user’s personally-identifying information. For example, we may use your data to generate statistics about overall usage of one of our sites worldwide or in specific geographic regions.

We also use de-identified and aggregate user data to market our sites, including communications that promote membership and network growth. Where we share stats of our growth publicly, we make sure to analyze and publish the data in an aggregated form, protecting your privacy and keeping your identity and personal information confidential. We use data, including data collected through use of our sites, public feedback and information inferred from this data to conduct internal research and development in order to provide a better overall experience on The Blessing Church sites, measure the performance of our sites and increase use of our sites and their features. This is done by making changes to The Blessing Church sites that are generally available, as well as sending messages suggesting functionality and content.

We do not share your personal data with any third-party advertisers or ad networks for third party advertising purposes. We may disclose your personal information to third parties as discussed below.

Disclosure on Your Behalf

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this Privacy Policy to fulfill our obligations, the purpose for which you provide it, a purpose you request or a purpose for which we have your consent.

Disclosure by You

If and when you share information through our sites, that information is viewable by you and by anyone else you choose to share it with. If you give access to your account to other applications and services, based on your approval, those services would then have access to your shared information. The use, collection and protection of your data by such third party services are subject to those third parties’ policies.

Internal Disclosure

We will share your personal data internally within The Blessing Church to help combine the personal information covered across the different aspects of The Blessing Church sites and our other products and services to help provide services to you in a manner that is personalized and useful to you and others. For example, we can personalize potential services to recommend to you using cookies or similar technologies that track what functionality you have already opted to receive.

Service Providers

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this Privacy Policy to contractors, service providers and other third parties we use solely to support our sites (such as cloud hosting, maintenance, analysis, audit, payments, fraud detection, communication, and development). These third parties will have access to your information as reasonably necessary to perform tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose it to others or use it for other purposes.

Content Providers

We utilize certain third parties to provide content on our sites. We do not share personal information of users with these third parties. We may, however, provide these third parties with analytics concerning the use of their content using de-identified and anonymized data.

Legal Process and Subpoena

It is possible that we will need to disclose information about you when required by law, subpoena, or other legal process. We may dispute third party demands when we believe, in our discretion, that the requests are overbroad, vague, or lack proper authority, but we do not promise to challenge every demand. We may also need to disclose your information if we have a good faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary to (i) investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities or to assist government enforcement agencies; (ii) enforce our agreements with you; (iii) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations; (iv) protect the security or integrity of our sites; or (v) exercise or protect the rights and safety of The Blessing Church, our users, personnel, you, or others. We also reserve the right to confidentially disclose personal information we have about you in connection with a potential or actual merger or acquisition such as the sale of all or substantially all of our assets.

Certain laws provide for requests concerning personal information. To make such a request with respect to your personal information, you may send us an e-mail to get.blessed@ustbc.org. You may also contact us at: Life Church, Inc., attn.: The Blessing Church Support, 4600 E. 2nd St., Edmond, Oklahoma 73034. When contacting us, please indicate your name, address, email address, and what personally identifiable information you request to be accessed, corrected, or removed. We may decline to process requests if we cannot verify the requestor’s identity, if we believe the request will jeopardize the privacy of others, if we believe the request would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect, or for a similar legitimate purpose. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights under applicable law. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to a verifiable request concerning your personal information unless it is excessive, unduly burdensome, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

If you ask that we modify or delete some or all of your personal information, we will retain your personal data if reasonably necessary to comply with our legal obligations (including law enforcement requests and obligations concerning financial records and tax returns), meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, maintain security, prevent fraud and abuse, enforce our agreements or fulfill any others requests from you (for example, to opt-out of further messages or for a copy of your data). Additionally, third-parties addressed in this policy may have their own policies with respect to data retention and deletion. We have no control of information you have shared with others through one of our sites after you close your account or asked to delete information or attempted to delete your account yourself. Your information and content you have shared may continue to be displayed in the services of others (for example, search engine results) until they refresh their cache.

We implement security safeguards designed to protect data. These include using encryption for your data while it is being transmitted between your device or browser and our servers and while it is at rest. Data provided to us through our sites is also stored in an ISO 27017-certified infrastructure management system, meaning it has been audited and found in compliance with the requirements of the management system standards ISO 27017, an internationally recognized code of practice for information security controls for cloud services. However, given the nature of communications and information technology, and that the use of the internet has inherent risks, although we monitor for possible vulnerabilities and attack, we cannot warrant or guarantee that information provided to us through our sites or stored in our systems or otherwise will be absolutely free from unauthorized intrusion by others, nor can we warrant or guarantee that such data may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.

The Blessing Church allows users to access its services through an interactive platform called Church Online. Where you use Church Online, we collect your first name, last name, nick name, email and phone number to create your Church Online account. We also collect your age, gender, and time zone, date of birth, and city and state where you provide it. Where you create a Church Online profile, the automatic data collection technologies referenced above are used to log your IP address and phone carrier to help associate your uses of your Church Online account from session to session and to better facilitate Church Online chat communications. In addition to the content and posts noted above, Church Online allows users to chat with other users and create other shareable posts, such as emojis and reactions to certain content, where you “raise your hand” in Church Online, and what content you choose to stream and access when using this site. We store this information in association with your Church Online account for so long as you do not delete the content.

A parent or guardian may consent to the use of our sites or services by a minor. However, we ask that you discuss the risks of sharing personal information on the Internet with your children and require that they refrain from communicating with any third parties or share any personal information online or otherwise without the supervision of a parent or guardian. Should you allow your minor child to use our sites or services, you shall be solely responsible for providing supervision of the minor’s use of the same and assume full responsibility for the processing of any information provided to us by that minor. Where you associate your minor child’s information with your account, we will assume you consent to our processing of that information in accordance with this policy and other privacy notices and terms we may provide to you from time to time. Where we are provided a minor’s information by an adult or a minor while accompanied by an adult, we will assume that the parent or guardian consents to our use and processing of that information in accordance with this policy and other privacy notices and terms we may provide to you from time to time. If you believe we might have any information from or about a minor child without parental or guardian consent, please contact us at the information below.

We will collect and process personal data about you where we have lawful bases. Lawful bases include consent, contract and other legitimate interests. Such legitimate interest include protection to you, us and third parties, to comply with applicable law, to enable and administer our internal processes, to manage corporate transactions, to generally understand and improve our relationships, and to enable us and other users of our sites to connect with you to exchange information, provided that the foregoing adequately protects your rights and freedoms. Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw or decline your consent at any time and where we rely on legitimate interests, you have the right to object. If you have any questions about the lawful bases upon which we collect and use your personal data, please contact us at the information below.

This Privacy Policy applies only to sites and apps that are owned and operated by The Blessing Church. Please keep in mind that our sites may contain links to other websites or apps. You are responsible for reviewing the privacy statements and policies of those other websites you choose to link to or from one of our sites, so that you can understand how those websites collect, use and store your information. We are not responsible for the privacy statements, policies or content of other websites or apps, including websites you link to or from a The Blessing Church site. Websites containing co-branding (referencing our name and a third party’s name) contain content delivered by the third party and not us. If you choose to link to other websites, applications, and services or profiles you have with third party applications, you will provide the personal data stored on those applications to The Blessing Church. For example, you may link your Facebook account to your profile, providing personal information you have opted to share through Facebook to The Blessing Church. When you do so, we are provided with your Facebook (or other applicable social media) username. You may revoke the link with such accounts and third party applications by modifying your settings with those applications. As noted above, third party sites that link to or are associated with our sites may collect information through the use of automated technologies such as cookies. We have no control over such collection and use, which are subject to the privacy policies of those third parties.

We are based out of Oklahoma within the United States and your use and this Privacy Policy are governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Oklahoma. If you are using one of our sites from outside this state or country, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. We process data both inside and outside of the United States and rely upon contractual commitments between us and companies transferring personal data that require the protection and security of such data for your privacy. The data protection and other laws of the State of Oklahoma might not be as comprehensive and may differ from those in your state or country. By using a The Blessing Church site, you consent to your information being transferred to our facilities and to the facilities of those third-parties with whom we share it as described in this Privacy Policy.

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices. As we improve our sites, this may also mean the collection of new data or new ways to use data. If we collect materially different personal data or materially change how we use your data, we may modify this Privacy Policy. We will post any changes to our Privacy Policy on this page. The date the Privacy Policy was last modified is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you concerning any changes and for periodically visiting this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.

To ask questions or comment about this Privacy Policy and our privacy practices, you may contact us at: The Blessing Church, Inc., attn.: The Blessing Church Support, 4600 E. 2nd St., Edmond, Oklahoma 73034, or at get.blessed@ustbc.org.