Data processing for churches

This page summarizes how we handle the personal information your church keeps in theway.host. It forms part of our Terms of Service. If your church or denomination needs a signed data processing agreement, write to us and we'll provide one.

1. Roles

• Your church is the controller. You decide which people records to keep, why, and for how long, and you're responsible for having a good reason and any permission you need.
• We are the processor. We handle that information only to provide theway.host to your church and only as you instruct through the service or in writing. We don't use it for our own purposes, don't sell it, and don't market to your members.

2. What's covered

People and households, contact details, groups, attendance, notes, prayer requests, event sign-ups, children's check-in records, giving records, and messages sent through theway.host. The people involved are your members, visitors, volunteers, staff, givers and their families, including children.

3. Our people

Only the small team that runs theway.host can reach church data, and only when needed to run, support, secure or fix the service. Everyone with access is bound to keep it confidential. We don't look at your records unless you ask for help or we must, to keep the service safe.

4. Sub-processors

Sub-processor	Purpose	Location
Cloudzy	Servers, database and backups	Dallas, Texas, USA
Stripe	Card payments (when switched on)	USA
Twilio	Text messages (only if your church turns texting on)	USA
BlockRun and its AI model provider	AI drafts (only if your church turns AI on). Only the text staff type is sent.	USA

Email is sent from our own mail server. We'll give account owners at least 14 days' notice by email before adding a new sub-processor that handles church records, so you can object or leave.

5. Security measures

• Encrypted connections (HTTPS) for everything.
• Passwords stored only as one-way hashes. Limits on repeated failed sign-ins.
• Every request is checked so a church only sees its own records. Staff roles limit who can see or change what.
• Kids check-in pickup codes are random, shown once and stored hashed. A wrong or blank code never checks a child out.
• Uploaded photos are saved without hidden location and camera details.
• Regular database backups, and a backup before every software update.

6. Children's information

Children's records are kept only for check-in, safety and the features your church uses. Your church is responsible for getting a parent's or guardian's permission before entering a child's information (as the US COPPA law expects for children under 13), and for letting parents review or remove it. We never use children's information for anything else.

7. Helping with requests

If someone asks to see, correct, export or delete their information, you can do most of it yourself in theway.host (records can be edited and deleted, and exported as CSV). If you need help, we'll help. If someone contacts us directly about a church record, we'll pass the request to your church.

8. If something goes wrong

If we learn of a breach that affects your church's records, we'll tell your account owner without undue delay, and within 72 hours of confirming it, with what we know, what we're doing, and what you may need to tell your people.

9. When your church leaves

You can export your records at any time. After your account closes, they stay available to export for 60 days, then we delete them from our live systems. Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis, normally within 90 days. Records we must keep by law (for example billing records) are kept only as long as required.

10. Questions and checks

Ask us anything about how your church's information is handled. We'll answer reasonable questions about our security in writing.

Questions

Write to us at hello@theway.host. A real person reads every message. Inventing Genius Labs LLC, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, USA. Our full postal address for legal notices is available on request.