Privacy Policy

Last updated: 15 September 2026

Who is responsible for your data

THE BIBLE DOGS e.U. Große Stadtgutgasse 18/27 1020 Vienna, Austria Companies register no. FN 682214g

Email: hello@thebibledogs.com Phone: +43 664 534 22 88

If you have a question about your data, that email address reaches us directly.

The short version

The Bible Dogs is built to work on your phone. Your dog, your ✦, your gratitude entries, everything you write — it all lives on your device.

A copy is also kept in the cloud so that a lost or replaced phone does not mean a lost journey. This backup starts with your first launch, before you create any account. We explain exactly how below, because we think you should know it rather than discover it.

We do not use analytics. We do not use advertising. We do not use tracking software of any kind, and we do not sell or share your data with anyone for their own purposes.

What the app stores on your device

• The name you give, and an email address if you choose to enter one (it is optional)
• Your puppy: breed, colour and name
• Your ✦ balance, what you have earned over time, and items you own
• Your gratitude entries and personal checklist — your own words
• Your walk log, step totals per day and your streak
• Your quiz answers and best scores
• What you have read and kept, and how far along the Way you are
• Which day showed which verse, prayer and encouragement, so your archive stays true
• Settings: language, prayer voice, reminders, animation and vibration preferences
• Whether your Premium subscription is active, as a cache, so the app knows what is open even without a connection

All of this is stored by the app on your phone. Deleting the app deletes it.

What is sent to the cloud, and when

On your very first launch, the app creates an anonymous account for you. It has no name, no email and no password — it is a random identifier whose only purpose is to have somewhere to put your backup.

Every time you leave the app, the app writes a copy of your journey to that account — the items listed above, your gratitude entries among them. The subscription cache is not part of it: whether you have paid is always decided by Apple, never by a copy.

What is never stored anywhere — not even on your phone

Some things are meant to be let go of, so the app does not keep them:

• The mood check. Whatever you tap, nothing is written down.
• "Give it to God". What you hand over is gone the moment you do. That is the entire point of the screen, and the code is built that way.
• The letter. Written, read, released. Nothing remains.

These never reach your phone's storage, so they can never reach the cloud either. There is nothing about them for us — or anyone else — to hold.

Nothing is ever written back onto your phone automatically. Restoring a backup only happens when you ask for it and confirm it. Your device is always the original; the cloud is only a copy.

You can switch this off. Under Settings → Cloud backup you can stop it at any time, and nothing further leaves your phone from that moment on. The app is told about this during onboarding rather than leaving you to find it.

If you switch it off, everything in the app keeps working exactly as before — it simply all stays on your device. What you give up is the safety net: if you lose this phone, the journey goes with it.

Accounts

You can turn the anonymous account into a real one, so you can get back to your journey on a new phone. There are three ways:

• Email and password
• Sign in with Apple — if you choose "Hide My Email", Apple gives us a relay address instead of yours. We never see your real address, and that is fine.
• Sign in with Google — we receive the email address of the Google account you pick, and nothing else. We do not gain access to your Google account.

Your existing journey carries over: the account keeps the same identifier, so nothing is copied and nothing can be lost in between.

The Premium subscription

Part of the app can be unlocked with a subscription, monthly or yearly.

Payment happens only through Apple. You buy the subscription with your Apple ID in the App Store. We never see your payment details — card, bank account or billing address. Apple is responsible for the purchase itself: Apple Distribution International Ltd., Hollyhill Industrial Estate, Hollyhill, Cork, Ireland. Apple's privacy policy applies (apple.com/legal/privacy).

RevenueCat checks the receipt for us. So that nobody can unlock the subscription with a forged receipt, and so that a purchase can be restored on a new phone, the receipt goes to RevenueCat. RevenueCat processes:

• a random identifier that RevenueCat assigns to your device, or — if you have a real account, not the anonymous one — that account's identifier
• your purchase history: which subscription, when it was bought, renewed or cancelled, how long it runs, price, currency and your App Store country
• technical details such as app version, iOS version, device model and the IP address of the request

RevenueCat does not receive your name, your email address or anything you write in the app.

The legal basis is performing the subscription contract with you, Article 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Noted in your account. If you have a real account, RevenueCat tells us on every purchase, renewal and cancellation whether your subscription is active, which one it is, when it runs out and what happened last. We store this in Firebase with your account so we can help if you have a question about your subscription. Only you can change it, through Apple, and it is deleted together with your account.

To cancel, open your iPhone's Settings, tap your name at the top and choose "Subscriptions". Refunds are decided by Apple; you request them at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Who else processes your data

Google (Firebase). Accounts and the cloud backup run on Firebase, a Google service. Google acts as our processor: they store the data on our behalf and may not use it for their own purposes. The relevant companies are Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) and Google LLC.

Our data is stored in the region eur3 — Google's European multi-region, which means storage takes place inside the European Union. Where processing takes place outside the EU, it is covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses and Google's certification under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

RevenueCat. Checking purchases, as described above, is done by RevenueCat, Inc., 1032 E Brandon Blvd #3003, Brandon, FL 33511, USA, as our processor. RevenueCat may use the data only on our behalf. Processing takes place in the USA and is covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

Expo (app updates). Some improvements reach the app without a new download from the App Store. For this the app asks Expo's servers at launch, and after a longer pause, whether a newer version exists. The app version, the platform and your device's IP address are transmitted, nothing else. Expo is 650 Industries, Inc., 3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA, acting as our processor. Processing is covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in fixing errors quickly, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

Amazon (SES). The newsletter is sent through Amazon Simple Email Service, a service of Amazon Web Services. Amazon acts as our processor: it sends on our behalf and may not use the addresses for its own purposes. The relevant company is Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy, 1855 Luxembourg. Sending takes place in the Europe (Frankfurt) region, so processing happens inside the European Union. Where processing takes place outside the EU, it is covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

Amazon also tells us when an email could not be delivered or when someone marks it as junk. We learn the address concerned and remove it from the list. Anyone who never subscribed is not affected by any of this.

That is the entire list. Apart from Google, RevenueCat, Expo and Amazon, no company receives your data from us. Apple processes your purchase under its own responsibility, as described above.

The helpline link

The SOS screen and the settings screen link to findahelpline.com, an independent service that lists crisis helplines by country. Opening it means visiting someone else's website, and their privacy policy applies from that moment. We do not tell them anything about you, we do not learn whether you tapped it, and nothing about that tap is stored.

Notifications, steps and the microphone

Reminders are created and scheduled by your phone itself. No server is involved and no notification is ever sent to us or from us.

Steps are read from your phone's motion sensor to celebrate your daily walk. The daily totals stay on your device and are part of the backup described above. We do not receive location data — the app never asks for it.

The microphone is never used. The app only plays audio; it cannot record.

The newsletter

The newsletter is optional and separate from the app. If you do not ask for it, you never receive it.

Subscribing takes two steps. After the form we send you an email with a link. Only the click on that link makes you a subscriber. Without it we never write to you again, and the unconfirmed entry is deleted after 30 days.

What we store: your first and last name, your email address, your language, and the time and IP address of your confirmation. The last two are not decoration — they are the proof that the consent really came from you, and the GDPR requires it.

The legal basis is your consent, Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. You can withdraw it at any time through the unsubscribe link in every email. One click, no login, no reason needed.

After you unsubscribe your address stays on a suppression list so that no email from us can ever reach you again. It is there for nothing else. If you want that entry gone too, write to hello@thebibledogs.com.

Legal bases at a glance

• Account, cloud backup and Premium subscription: performing our contract with you, Article 6(1)(b) GDPR
• App updates and protection against forged receipts: our legitimate interest in an app that works and is secure, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR
• Newsletter: your consent, Article 6(1)(a) GDPR
• Keeping purchase and accounting records: legal obligation, Article 6(1)(c) GDPR

How long we keep it

The cloud copy stays as long as your account exists. Deleting your account deletes it, and that deletion is permanent. The same applies to the note about your subscription.

You can delete your account inside the app at any time: Settings → Account → Delete account. You do not have to write to us and we will not ask why. What is on your phone stays on your phone — delete the app to remove that too.

Deleting your account does not end a subscription, because it belongs to your Apple ID. Cancel it first in your iPhone's Settings. Records we must keep for tax reasons are kept for as long as the law requires, in Austria usually seven years.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you may request access to your data, correction of it, its deletion, a portable copy of it, restriction of processing, or object to processing. You can withdraw any consent at any time with effect for the future. Write to hello@thebibledogs.com and we will answer.

You also have the right to complain to the Austrian data protection authority: Österreichische Datenschutzbehörde, Barichgasse 40–42, 1030 Vienna, dsb.gv.at.

Children and teenagers

The app is rated 13+ in the App Store. It tells the Bible, and that includes passages about violence and wine, which Apple rates from that age. It is written in language that teenagers can read easily.

We do not knowingly collect data from children under the age at which they can consent on their own, which in Austria is 14. Only someone allowed to do so under the law of their country can take out a subscription; purchases by minors are governed by Apple's family and purchase settings. If you are a parent and believe your child has given us data, write to us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

The app is still growing, and this text will change with it. The date at the top tells you when it was last revised. Substantial changes will be announced in the app.