Churches trust Phyle with information about their people, including children. This explains what we keep, why, who helps us run it, and what we will never do with it.
Two kinds of information
Your church's records
The people, households, groups, attendance, serving, care notes, prayer requests and giving records your church adds to Phyle belong to your church. We keep and process them on your church's behalf and only to run Phyle for it. Your church decides what goes in, who can see it and when it's removed. If you're a member of a church that uses Phyle, your church is the best place to ask about your record; we'll help them answer.
Information about the people who run an account
When a church signs up, we keep the name and email address of its account administrators, its billing details and a record of its subscription. When anyone signs in, we keep the basic technical information needed to keep accounts secure, such as sign-in times and IP addresses.
What we never do
- We never sell personal information, and never share it with anyone for their own marketing.
- We never use your church's records for advertising, and there's no advertising in Phyle.
- We don't look at your church's records except to keep the service running, to fix a problem you've asked us to help with, or when the law requires it.
Children's information
Churches use Phyle to check children in and to keep them safe. Information about children, such as their class, allergies and medical notes, and who may pick them up, is used only for check-in and safety. Children don't hold accounts, and pickup codes are never shown on rosters.
Who helps us run Phyle
We use a small number of trusted companies ("processors") to provide parts of the service. They may only use the information to do that work for us.
- Stripe takes payment for Phyle subscriptions. Online gifts go through your church's own Stripe account, under its agreement with Stripe. We never see or store full card numbers.
- Twilio delivers the text messages your church sends.
- Our hosting and email delivery providers store the service and deliver the email your church sends, under contracts that keep the information confidential.
Cookies
Phyle uses only the cookies it needs to keep you signed in and to protect forms from misuse. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies.
Keeping information safe
Information travels encrypted between your browser and Phyle. Passwords are stored scrambled so nobody can read them, and secret keys, such as your church's connection details, are encrypted. We keep regular backups, and access within Phyle follows the roles your church sets, so confidential notes stay with staff.
How long we keep it
We keep your church's records for as long as its account is open. When an account closes, we delete its data within 60 days, apart from records we must keep by law, such as invoices. Your church can also remove or anonymize a person's record itself at any time.
Your choices and rights
You can ask to see, correct, export or delete personal information. If it's part of a church's records, we'll pass the request to that church, which decides. Anyone can stop text messages by replying STOP, and unsubscribe from email with the link at the bottom of each message.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page, and email account administrators about any change that matters before it takes effect.
Contact us
Phyle is responsible for this policy. Write to us at [email protected].