Gather privacy policy

Updated 2 October 2026 · Current iOS beta

This policy describes information handled by Gather’s prayer community app and this information website. For privacy questions or account help, contact gather@bodielab.com.

Information the app handles

• Account information: email address, chosen display name, authentication identifiers and sessions, and confirmation that you are an adult and accept the community terms. Older accounts use the service’s password authentication; accounts using email sign-in use Google Firebase Authentication.
• Community content: intentions, edits, updates, chosen audience and named or anonymous mode, group names, and related timestamps and moderation status. Prayer text can reveal sensitive information, including religious beliefs or health concerns.
• Interactions and safety records: “I prayed” acknowledgments, private saves, group membership and invitations, blocks, reports, review requests, and moderation records.
• Approximate location: when you choose a Nearby action, the app requests a foreground location fix and converts it on your device to a coarse area. It sends the coarse area, freshness and accuracy information, not raw coordinates. There is no background location tracking. Public, Groups, Saved, and My intentions do not require location.
• Connection information: the service processes network information such as IP addresses to handle requests and limit abuse.

How this information is used

Gather uses this information to authenticate accounts, show intentions to their selected audience, provide approximate Nearby discovery, maintain private saves and prayer acknowledgments, manage groups, moderate submissions, handle reports and review requests, and operate account recovery and deletion.

Who can read what you share

“Public” in the app means signed-in members; intentions are not published on this website. Nearby discovery uses an approximate area. Group intentions are available to current group members. Saving an intention can preserve access after moving, but does not override expiry, withdrawal, blocks, or group membership restrictions.

Named intentions show the chosen public display name. Anonymous intentions hide that name from other members. The service retains account ownership for account controls and moderation, and authorized moderators can access account-associated content. Anonymous posting does not make content untraceable. Details in text and copies or screenshots can identify you.

Your email is not shown on intentions. Saved prayers are private to the saving account and do not notify the author.

Authentication, moderation, and providers

Google Firebase Authentication handles email sign-in, account verification, and password-reset emails where email recovery is enabled. These operations send authentication information to Google. Google’s handling is described in its privacy policy.

Automated moderation runs locally on Gather’s private server. It reviews submitted text and relevant parent context; named intentions include their public name, and group names are also screened. Anonymous moderation submissions omit the public-name field. The moderation payload does not include account email or account ID, but the text itself may contain identifying information. Automated review may make mistakes, and restricted human review handles exceptions, reports, and review requests.

The app communicates with the service through HTTPS. This beta does not add advertising, analytics, or session-replay SDKs. These statements do not promise that hosting or authentication providers keep no operational records.

Device storage

The app stores its service session token in the device’s Keychain. Firebase also manages its sign-in session on the device. Intentions are loaded into memory without a persistent offline feed cache. Other people’s copies and screenshots are outside these app controls.

Retention and deletion

Intentions have a 30-day visibility window. Archived content is scheduled for purge after 90 days. Those product windows do not describe the lifetime of every related record. Restricted moderation and safety records, older revisions, operational metadata, and backups can remain beyond normal content windows. This beta does not have a complete fixed retention deadline for every record category.

You can close, archive, or delete your own intentions, remove saves, sign out, and delete your account in Settings. Account deletion ends app account access and withdraws owned intentions from members. Deletion is not an immediate erasure of every copy: backups and restricted records may remain, and copies or screenshots made by members cannot be recalled. If you cannot access the app or need help with a privacy request, email support. Do not send your password or unnecessary sensitive details.

Age eligibility

Gather’s current English-language beta is for adults 18 and older. Registration asks for an adult confirmation; this is a self-attestation rather than proof of age. Contact support about an account that does not meet that requirement.

This website and support email

This static information website contains no member intentions, account sign-in, analytics scripts, tracking pixels, or cookie-based features added by Gather. It is hosted on GitHub Pages. GitHub states that Pages visitors’ IP addresses are logged and stored for security purposes; see GitHub Pages data collection and the GitHub privacy statement.

If you email support, your email address and message are processed through the support email service and used to address your request.

Changes and contact

This page will need to reflect changes to the app’s data handling. Its update date identifies the current notice. For questions, contact gather@bodielab.com.