Sermon Sidekick — Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 21, 2026

Sermon Sidekick is built for private Bible study. We do not sell personal data, show behavioral advertising, or use cross-app advertising trackers. Your notes are not shared with your church, pastor, other users, or the public.

Bible reader on this website

Website reader information added: September 6, 2026

Without signing in, the website Bible reader saves your reading place, bookmarked verse references, text size, and light/dark preference in this browser's local storage. Clearing site data removes these guest records. If storage is unavailable, changes last only for the current visit.

You can optionally create an account or sign in with your existing Sermon Sidekick email and password. Firebase Authentication handles account access. The reader then loads and syncs your reading place, single-verse highlights, text size, and light/dark preference through your private Firebase account. Other app notes and content are not edited by this website reader. Guest bookmarks are added to your account only when you choose to import them.

By default, sign-in uses browser session storage. Choosing Remember me uses persistent browser storage to keep you signed in. Account reading data is kept in this tab's memory rather than the guest reading record. Signing out clears the active account's reading data from this interface and returns to the browser's separate guest data. Sign out on shared devices. Changes need an internet connection to finish syncing; wait for sync before closing the tab.

Scripture text loads from this website. Full-text search runs in your browser after downloading the Bible books; the search phrase is not sent to a search service. Opening a passage puts its reference in the page URL, which is included when you copy that link or request that page. No sign-in is required to use this reader.

Website study features

Verse Lens and Now Watch This load Scripture and reference material from this website. Lesson answer selections and exercises stay in the current visit and are not synced to your account or saved as lesson progress. The study features do not send your questions to an AI service.

Additional Google and Apple sign-in methods are being prepared. While their buttons say Coming soon, they cannot be used. When available, the provider and Firebase Authentication will handle the sign-in identity; you will be asked to consent before connecting another sign-in method to an existing account. Apple may provide a private relay email address. Connecting a sign-in method does not grant church staff access.

Information the app handles

Automatic guest identity. The app can begin with a device-local guest while offline. When Firebase is available, the app may create a private anonymous Firebase identifier so that guest work can sync for that identity. An anonymous guest cannot recover its work on another device unless it is upgraded to an account with sign-in credentials.
Account information (optional). If you create or sign in to an account, Firebase Authentication stores your email address and authentication records so you can sign in and recover synced data on another device.
Your study content. Notes, Journal entries, sermon reflections, saved Scripture references, highlights, reading and study progress, followed churches, preferences, and reminder settings are saved locally first. When a Firebase identity is connected, supported records may sync to that identity's private Firebase storage.
Church access. If you enter a church code, the app stores the resulting church membership and followed-church information so it can show authorized sermon content. Previously viewed church and sermon content may be cached on the device for offline use.
Support communications. If you email support, we receive the information you choose to send. Do not send passwords, confidential counseling information, or private prayer requests.

Live Listen and Read Aloud

Live Listen transcription

Live Listen uses the speech-recognition service provided by your device to turn speech into text for a note. Sermon Sidekick does not create, retain, or upload a microphone audio recording to Sermon Sidekick servers, Firebase, or Anthropic. Where supported, the app requests on-device recognition. On some devices or configurations, the operating-system speech service may use network processing under the device provider's terms. Only finalized text is added to the note, and that text follows the same local-save and optional sync behavior as other note content.

Read Aloud

Read Aloud uses a voice available through the device's text-to-speech service. Sermon Sidekick does not upload Bible, sermon, study, or note text to an AI provider merely to read it aloud.

AI-assisted features

Ask about this passage

When this feature is enabled and you explicitly choose to use it, the app sends the Scripture passage, its reference, your question, and relevant server-owned conversation history to Anthropic's commercial API to produce a passage-scoped response. The question and response may be stored in your private Firebase account history so follow-ups and account deletion can be enforced. The feature will provide a first-use disclosure before sending a question. Anthropic handles API data under its current commercial privacy and retention terms; see Anthropic's Privacy Center.

Sermon companion generation

A church administrator may submit a public-facing sermon title, Scripture references, message, outline, or notes for the purpose of generating a congregation-facing sermon companion. Those submitted source materials may be processed through Anthropic's commercial API. Generated companion text can be made visible to authorized congregation members. Church leaders should not submit confidential counseling details, private prayer requests, contact information, identifying details about minors, or stories they do not have permission to share.

Service providers

Google Firebase provides authentication, private data synchronization, church-content access, server functions, and hosting.
Anthropic processes content only for AI-assisted features that use its commercial API, as described above.
Your device platform and speech services provide microphone permission, speech recognition, and text-to-speech behavior.

Who can access personal study data

Firestore security rules restrict personal records to their authenticated owner, and churches, pastors, other users, advertisers, and the public cannot read those records through the app. Authorized service operators may access account data only when reasonably necessary for support, security, abuse prevention, legal compliance, or system maintenance. We do not routinely read personal notes.

What we do not do

No sale or rental of personal data.
No behavioral advertising or cross-app advertising tracking.
No sharing of personal notes with churches or pastors.
No contact-list access or continuous location tracking.
No storage of Live Listen microphone audio by Sermon Sidekick.

Storage and retention

Local records remain on the device until you delete them, clear the app's data, or uninstall the app. Synced records remain in Firebase until they are deleted individually or the associated identity/account is deleted. Service providers may retain limited operational logs, backups, or security records for the periods allowed by their policies and applicable law. Device-local copies on an offline device may remain until that device reconnects, the app clears them, or its local app data is removed.

Deleting data

Individual Journal entries and highlights can be removed in the app. From the Account screen (Me → Account), you can permanently delete a connected guest identity or linked account, including the associated Firebase Authentication record, synced profile, notes, highlights, progress, Journal entries, church memberships, inquiries, and Live Q&A history. A local-only offline guest can clear its local guest data without first creating a server identity. Explicit sign-out and deletion also clear the app's saved church and sermon cache on the initiating device. Other offline devices may retain local copies until they reconnect or their app data is cleared.

Security

We use owner-scoped database rules, authenticated server functions, local ownership boundaries, and a crash-resumable account-deletion process. No system can promise absolute security, but the app is designed to minimize collection and keep personal study data separated from shared church content.

Children

Sermon Sidekick is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13 without appropriate authorization.

Changes to this policy

Material changes will be reflected on this page with a revised date. Where appropriate, the app may present a new disclosure or request renewed consent before a newly enabled data-processing feature is used.

Contact and support

Email chrisj.0820@gmail.com or visit the Support page for help with privacy, data deletion, permissions, or account access.

Website visit and download counts

Website counter information added: September 8, 2026.

On sermonsidekick.org, we count visits to public app-information pages and clicks on app testing and download links. These are aggregate totals grouped by day, app, destination, and a small set of campaign labels (for example, our Facebook introduction). They are not confirmed installs or unique visitor counts.

This counter uses no cookies, advertising pixel, visitor ID or browser storage. It does not record names, email addresses, IP addresses, account IDs, complete URLs, personal notes or Bible-reading activity in its database. Hosting providers still process normal network requests under their own service policies. Browser Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals disable this counter. Counts are stored with our website hosting service; they are not sent to Meta or used for personalized advertising.