Last updated: October 6, 2026
This summary is here to help. The full policy below is what applies.
My Virtual Pastor ("we," "us," "our") is a faith-based mobile app offering AI-powered pastoral guidance, Bible reading and daily devotionals. This policy explains what personal information we collect through the app, how we use it, and the choices and rights you have.
For the purposes of data protection law (including the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation, "GDPR"), we are the controller of your personal data.
You can sign in with Apple, Google, Facebook or an email address, or continue as a guest. When you sign in, we receive your name (if you choose to share it) and your email address, which may be a private relay address. Guests get an anonymous account with no name or email. We use this to run your account and to greet you by name.
What you tell your pastor when you first meetThe first time you use the app, your pastor asks for:
You can tap an option or write in your own words. These answers are saved to your account so your pastor can remember them and suggest a reading plan that fits.
Your conversations with the pastorWhen you send a message, it passes through our server to Anthropic's Claude AI, which writes the reply. We do not store your conversations on our servers. A conversation stays on your device until you clear it, unless you choose to save it to your journal. If Personalization is on, a conversation is also used once to write short notes (see section 3).
Your mood check-insWhen you pick a mood on the daily check-in, we save the mood and the date to your account. This lets you look back over time and, if Personalization is on, lets your pastor notice how you have been feeling. You can delete your mood history in Profile.
What you choose to saveIf you tell us the app is not helping yet, or leave a note on one of the pastor's replies, we save the reasons you tick and anything you write. This feedback is stored without any link to your account. We can read what was said, but not who said it. Please don't include personal details in feedback.
SubscriptionsApple handles payment, and we never see your card details. The app records which plan you are on and when it renews, so it knows whether your subscription is active.
Devotionals and Bible audioDaily devotionals are written by Anthropic's Claude AI, shaped by the language and tradition you chose. When you listen to a Bible passage or reading plan, the text of that reading is sent to OpenAI to turn it into audio. Only Bible and reading-plan text is sent, never anything you wrote.
Usage analyticsTo understand how the app is used and where it can be improved, we record a small set of first-party usage events, such as opening the app, finishing onboarding or sending a message. Each event includes:
We never record the content of your messages, your pastor's notes, anything you write, your journal, your name or your email as part of analytics. You can switch analytics off at any time in Profile → Preferences → "Improve the App".
Advertising measurement (Meta)The app includes Meta's software kit (the Facebook SDK), which lets us see whether our adverts on Facebook and Instagram bring people to the app. It tells Meta when:
Meta also receives basic technical information such as your device model, operating system version and IP address. No advertising identifier is collected. Nothing you write, and nothing about your faith, health or mood, is ever sent to Meta.
If you are in the European Union, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the app does not send these events to Meta.
On your deviceYour sign-in is kept securely on your device in the iOS Keychain. Some settings, such as your theme and reminder times, are kept only on your device. If you turn reminders on, your own phone schedules them. We do not send push notifications from our servers.
Personalization lets your pastor remember what matters to you, so you don't have to start from the beginning every time. It works like this:
You are in control:
About other people. When you talk about family or friends, your pastor may note what you share about them, for example a name or that someone is unwell. Please share only what you are comfortable with. These notes are visible only to you and are deleted in the same ways as your own.
Some of what you share with My Virtual Pastor can reveal your religious beliefs, your health or your state of mind:
Data protection law treats this as "special category" or sensitive information, and so do we.
The app uses your camera or photo library only if you choose to add a profile photo.
GDPR requires us to tell you the legal basis for each use of your data. Here they are:
| What we do | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Create and run your account and subscription; keep what you save | Performing our agreement with you |
| Send your messages to the AI so your pastor can reply | Performing our agreement with you, and your explicit consent where a message contains sensitive information |
| Onboarding answers, pastor's notes (Personalization), mood check-ins and journal | Your explicit consent |
| Usage analytics to improve the app | Our legitimate interest in understanding and improving the app. You can switch it off at any time. |
| Advertising measurement with Meta (outside the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland only) | Our legitimate interest in knowing whether our adverts work |
| Keep the service secure, prevent abuse, and respond to legal requests | Our legitimate interest, and our legal obligations |
Do you have to give us your data? Some basic information is needed to run your account and let you chat with your pastor. Everything else is optional:
If you choose not to give it, the app still works, just in a less personal way.
We do not sell your personal information. We do not use what you tell your pastor for advertising. We do not make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
Your pastor's replies, devotionals and memory notes are generated by artificial intelligence. They can be wrong or incomplete, and a note can misremember something. You can always correct or delete a note. Your pastor is not a licensed counsellor, therapist or medical professional.
Nobody monitors your conversations as they happen, and we cannot contact emergency services for you. If you or someone else is in danger, please contact local emergency services. In the US or Canada, call or text 988. Crisis lines for other countries are listed in our Terms of Service, and findahelpline.com lists free crisis lines for every country.
Service providers. We use these companies to run the app. They process your data only on our instructions and only to provide their service:
Legal requests and safety. We may disclose information if the law requires it, for example under a valid court order. We may also disclose it, where the law permits, to protect someone's life or safety, or to protect our rights and the security of the service. We will tell you about such a request unless the law or the circumstances prevent it.
If the business changes hands. If My Virtual Pastor is merged, sold or reorganised, your information may be transferred to the new owner. The new owner must continue to protect it as this policy describes. We will tell you before that happens.
Combined statistics. We may use or share statistics that are combined and cannot identify you, such as how many people finished a reading plan this month. These never include what you wrote.
We do not share your personal information with anyone else unless you ask us to.
Our service providers are based in the United States, so your information is processed there. Where your information comes from the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland, these transfers are protected by one of two legal safeguards:
You can ask us for more information about these safeguards.
Deleting your account (Profile → Delete Account) permanently removes your account and everything linked to it from our systems. This cannot be undone. Copies that exist only in our providers' short-term backups are overwritten in their normal backup cycle.
Depending on where you live, you have the right to:
Many of these you can do yourself in the app. For anything else, write to hello@myvirtualpastor.com.
You can also leave instructions about what should happen to your personal data after your death.
If you are in the EU, EEA or UK and are not happy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to your local data protection authority. In France this is the CNIL (cnil.fr); in Spain, the AEPD (aepd.es); in the UK, the ICO (ico.org.uk). We would appreciate the chance to put things right first.
Residents of some US states, such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and Texas, have privacy rights under state law. These include the right to know what we collect, to access, correct and delete it, and to opt out of its sale or use for targeted advertising. We give these rights to everyone, wherever you live, as described in section 11.
We do not sell your personal information. We do not use it for targeted advertising. We do not share sensitive information except as described in this policy. You may use an authorised agent to make a request; we may ask for proof of their authority and confirm your identity directly with you. If we decline a request, you can appeal by replying to our decision, and we will review it.
Consumer Health Data Privacy NoticeSome states, including Washington (My Health My Data Act) and Nevada, give extra protection to information about your physical or mental health. Here is how we handle it:
My Virtual Pastor is not directed to children, and you must be at least 13 years old to use it.
If you live in the EU, EEA or UK, you must be at least 16, or the lower minimum age set by your country (for example 15 in France and 14 in Spain), unless a parent or guardian has given consent.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under these ages. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it promptly.
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information:
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a security breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities where the law requires it.
This policy covers the My Virtual Pastor app. Links to other websites or services are covered by their own privacy policies.
We may update this policy from time to time, and we will change the "Last updated" date at the top of the page when we do. If a change affects how we use your personal data, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. Where the law requires it, we will ask for your consent again.
This policy is available in English, French and Spanish. If the versions differ, the English version applies, unless the law where you live requires otherwise.
If you have questions, concerns or requests about this policy or your personal data, please contact us:
My Virtual Pastor
58 avenue de Wagram, 75017 Paris, France
Data protection contact: hello@myvirtualpastor.com
Website: www.myvirtualpastor.com