Privacy Policy

In a nutshell

Life Essentials is a Christian prayer and spiritual formation app. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we look after it, and what rights you have over it.

The short version:

• Your prayers, reflections, and emotional check-ins are private to you.
• We never sell your information and we never use it to train artificial intelligence.
• The app works without an account. If you do sign in, your information lives in the European Union, protected by UK and EU data protection law.
• You can export or delete everything at any time from the app's settings.
• If you're worried about anything, email us at lifeessentials.app@gmail.com and we'll help.

If you want the detail, keep reading.

1. Who we are

Life Essentials is operated by Life Essentials Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales. We are the "data controller" for the information described in this policy — which is the legal term for the organisation that decides how your information is used.

• Registered address: (to be added on company formation)
• Privacy contact: lifeessentials.app@gmail.com
• Company registration number: (to be added on company formation)

We are a small team. We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer because we are not required to under UK or EU law. If you have a privacy question, the best way to reach us is the email above.

2. What this policy covers

This policy applies to the Life Essentials mobile app on iOS and Android, and to any website we run at lifeessentialsapp.com.

It does not cover third-party services we link to — for example, if you tap through to an online Bible, that other service has its own privacy policy.

If we ever offer a separate product, it will have its own privacy notice.

3. The information we collect

We collect as little information as we can. The categories below cover everything.

Information you give us

Account information — If you create an account, we collect your email address and a password hash. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we collect the identifier those services send us (usually an email or a persistent token). You do not need an account to use the app. The app works fully offline without one.

Prayer and reflection content — This is everything you write inside the app:

• Prayer list items
• Bible reflection journal entries
• Daily Examen responses (evening review, feelings, forgiveness, renewal)
• HALT emotional check-ins (hunger, anger, loneliness, tiredness)
• Midday reflection notes

This content reveals things about your spiritual life. Under UK and EU law this is "special category data" and we can only store it with your explicit permission. We ask for that permission the first time you save anything of this kind. You can withdraw your permission at any time and we will delete the content within 30 days (see Section 8).

Subscription information — If you subscribe to Life Essentials, we receive a subscription identifier from Apple or Google, plus the subscription status (active, lapsed, cancelled). We do not see your card details — those stay with Apple or Google.

Information we collect automatically

Device information — When the app runs, we know the device type, operating system version, app version, and the language the device is set to. This is standard technical information without which the app cannot function.

Crash reports — If the app crashes, we can receive a crash report showing the error and what the code was doing at the moment of the crash. Crash reports never include the text of your prayers, reflections, or check-ins. Personal identifiers are stripped automatically.

Usage information (signed-in product insights) — When you are signed in, we may collect basic first-party usage events on our own servers — which prayer flows you complete, how you use the unguided Pray screen (duration and prompt kind only), onboarding preferences as enums, and soft survey / review-prompt outcomes. These events are timings, counts, booleans, and enum labels only. We never record the text of what you write (prayers, reflections, prompts). There is no third-party analytics SDK. You can object by emailing privacy@lifeessentialsapp.com.

Information we do not collect

To be clear, we do not collect any of the following:

• Your location
• Your contacts
• Your photos or camera feed
• Your microphone input
• Any biometric information
• Advertising identifiers for tracking
• Your calendar event titles, locations, notes, or attendees

Calendar busy times (optional, on device only). If you choose “Suggest from your calendar” for midday prayer times, the app asks the operating system for calendar access and reads only when you are busy tomorrow (start and end times). That information is used on your device to suggest a quiet midday prayer time. It is never uploaded, synced, or used for marketing. You can turn this off in Settings. Event names and details are not stored by the app.

The app asks the operating system for permissions only when required for a specific feature you've initiated, and we do not store the underlying permission data beyond your on/off preference.

4. Why we use your information and our legal basis

Under UK and EU law, we must have a lawful reason ("legal basis") for every use of your information. Here is the reason for each.

To give you an account and keep it working

Legal basis: performing a contract with you. If you sign up, we need your email and password to let you in.

To save and sync your prayer and reflection content

Legal basis: your explicit consent (GDPR Article 9(2)(a)).

Because this content reveals your religious and spiritual practice, we need a higher standard of permission than normal. We ask for it at the first save. You can withdraw your consent at any time in Settings, and we will delete the content within 30 days.

To fix bugs and improve reliability

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in keeping the app working. Crash reports have personal identifiers stripped automatically.

To suggest a midday prayer time from your calendar (optional)

Legal basis: your consent (you turn the feature on). Busy start and end times are read on your device only and are not uploaded. You can turn this off in Settings at any time.

To understand which features are useful (first-party product insights)

Legal basis: our legitimate interests in improving the product. Events are counts, timings, and enums only — never prayer or reflection text. They may be associated with an anonymous install id or with your account if you sign in. No third-party analytics SDK. You can object by emailing privacy@lifeessentialsapp.com.

To manage your subscription

Legal basis: performing a contract with you. If you subscribe, we need to know the subscription is active to unlock the features you paid for.

To keep the service secure

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in protecting the service and our users. We log security-relevant events like login attempts.

To comply with the law

Legal basis: legal obligation. If a court or regulator requires us to retain or disclose information, we will do what the law says.

5. Who we share your information with

We share information only with a small number of trusted service providers that make the app work. Each of them acts as a "processor" on our behalf — meaning they can only use your information to deliver services to us, not for their own purposes.

Supabase Inc. — Database and authentication. Hosts your account and your prayer content. European region (Frankfurt or Dublin). Privacy notice →

Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.) — Crash reporting. Receives crash reports with personal identifiers stripped. European region. Privacy notice →

Apple Inc. — App Store distribution and subscriptions. Receives your App Store identifier and subscription status. Privacy notice →

Google LLC — Play Store distribution and subscriptions (Android users). Receives your Play identifier and subscription status. Privacy notice →

We do not sell your information. We do not rent it. We do not share it with advertisers, data brokers, analytics companies outside the list above, or anyone else.

If we ever change this list, we will update this policy and notify you in the app before the change takes effect.

6. Where your information lives

We host your information in the European Union, specifically at Supabase's Frankfurt or Dublin region. This is true regardless of where you live or sign in from.

If you are outside the EU and you use the app, your information is transferred to and stored in the EU. We consider the EU to offer strong data protection, and this residency choice gives all our users the protection of UK and EU law even if they live elsewhere.

Our sub-processors (Sentry) also hold the information they receive in the EU.

At this time we do not transfer personal information outside the EU or UK, other than incidental routing by Apple or Google for app store operations. If this changes, we will put Standard Contractual Clauses or other approved safeguards in place, and we will update this policy.

7. How long we keep your information

When you delete your account we delete your personal information. We keep an audit record that the deletion happened — this is required by law so we can prove we honoured your request — but the audit record does not contain your prayer content or personal details.

8. How we protect your information

We take security seriously. The measures we have in place include:

• Encryption in transit: all network traffic between the app and our servers uses TLS 1.2 or higher
• Encryption at rest: information stored in our database is encrypted using AES-256
• Row-level security: our database is configured so that every query must prove it has permission to see a given row. Your information is isolated from every other user at the database level.
• Access controls: only a small number of people have access to production systems, and that access is logged
• No personal data in logs: our crash and error logs automatically strip user identifiers and content
• Opt-in sensitive collection: analytics are off by default, and session replay (which would capture what you write) is disabled entirely and cannot be enabled remotely

No security is ever perfect. If something goes wrong, and your information is compromised in a way that presents a risk to you, we will tell you without undue delay. Under UK GDPR we must also tell the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, and we will.

9. Your rights over your information

Everyone using Life Essentials has these rights, no matter where they live:

The right to know — You can ask us what information we hold about you and we will tell you.

The right to a copy — You can download a machine-readable copy of everything we hold. The app has a built-in export tool in Settings.

The right to correct — You can edit or correct anything in the app directly. If anything cannot be edited in the app, email us.

The right to delete — You can delete any entry individually, or delete your whole account and all your information. The delete button in Settings triggers a full purge within 30 days.

The right to withdraw consent — Where we rely on your consent (Article 9 religious content), you can withdraw at any time. Withdrawing is as easy as giving.

The right to restrict processing — You can pause sync so that your information stays only on your device, in Settings.

The right to object — You can object to any processing we do on the basis of legitimate interests. Write to us at the privacy address.

The right to complain — If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, you can complain to a data protection regulator. Section 11 lists the right regulator for you.

We will respond to any request within one month, unless the request is especially complex, in which case we may extend by two further months and we will tell you.

Exercising any of these rights is free. We will not charge you and we will not restrict your access to the app.

To make a request, email lifeessentials.app@gmail.com. Most requests can be fulfilled directly in the app — check Settings first.

10. Children

Life Essentials is for people aged 13 or older.

When you first open the app we ask for your year of birth. If the year you enter means you are under 13, we will not create an account for you and we will not collect any information about you. A screen will ask a parent or guardian to help.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent and you believe your child has given us information, email us at the privacy address and we will delete it.

In the United States, this complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

In the European Union, Article 8 of the GDPR allows member states to set the age of digital consent anywhere between 13 and 16. We have set our minimum at 13 globally. Users in EU countries whose national law sets a higher threshold (for example Germany, which uses 16) should have a parent or guardian's permission to use the app even if they pass our age gate. We are not able to verify this automatically.

11. Your rights by region

The rights in Section 9 apply to everyone. The sub-sections below describe the specific legal framework in your region and the regulator you can contact.

United Kingdom

Your information is protected by the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

You have all the rights listed in Section 9. You can also lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office:

• Website: ico.org.uk/concerns
• Phone: 0303 123 1113
• Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

European Union and EEA

Your information is protected by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

You have all the rights listed in Section 9. You can lodge a complaint with the data protection authority in your country. A list of authorities is maintained by the European Data Protection Board: edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members

California, United States

Your information is protected by the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (together "CCPA/CPRA").

You have the rights listed in Section 9, plus:

• The right to know what categories of personal information we have collected, the sources, the purposes, and the third parties we share it with — all listed in this policy.
• The right to correct inaccurate personal information.
• The right to delete personal information we have collected.
• The right to opt out of sale or sharing. We do not sell or share your personal information. This right is effectively automatic.
• The right to limit the use of sensitive personal information. Religious content is sensitive under California law. You can limit its use to service delivery only (no analytics) using the Settings toggle "Limit use of my sensitive information." We do not use sensitive information for any other purpose in any case.
• The right to non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights.

You can submit a request through the app or by emailing the privacy address. You may also authorise an agent to submit a request on your behalf.

If you are unsatisfied with our response, you can complain to the California Attorney General: oag.ca.gov/privacy

Brazil

Your information is protected by the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD).

You have the rights listed in Section 9. You can also contact the Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados: gov.br/anpd

Canada

Your information is protected by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). If you are a resident of Quebec, you are also protected by Law 25.

You have the rights listed in Section 9, plus the right to data portability under Quebec law. You can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: priv.gc.ca

Quebec residents can complain to the Commission d'accès à l'information: cai.gouv.qc.ca

Australia

Your information is protected by the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles.

You have the rights listed in Section 9. You can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: oaic.gov.au

New Zealand

Your information is protected by the Privacy Act 2020 and its Information Privacy Principles.

You have the rights listed in Section 9. You can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner: privacy.org.nz

Japan

Your information is protected by the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI). Religious information is treated as "special care-required personal information" under APPI.

You have the rights listed in Section 9. You can complain to the Personal Information Protection Commission: ppc.go.jp

Other regions

If you live somewhere not listed above, your local law may still give you rights. Email us at the privacy address and we will do our best to honour them.

12. Cookies and similar technologies

In the app: we do not use cookies. Your device stores some information locally so the app can work offline — your prayer content, your preferences, and a session token if you are signed in. This is held in the operating system's standard secure storage and is accessible only to the Life Essentials app.

On the website: if we have a website up, any cookies used will be disclosed in a cookie notice on the site itself. At the time of this policy, our website is a simple marketing page with no cookies beyond those strictly necessary for it to work.

No tracking across apps or sites: we do not use, set, or read identifiers that allow us or anyone else to track you across applications or websites.

13. Automated decision-making and artificial intelligence

We do not make any automated decisions about you that produce legal effects or significantly affect you.

We do not train artificial intelligence on your prayer content, reflections, check-ins, or any other information you create in the app. We do not pass your content to any third-party AI model, including large language models.

If that changes — for example, if we ever introduce a feature that uses AI to help you reflect — we will tell you clearly, explain what information it uses and what it does not, and give you a choice about whether to turn it on.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we do:

• For a minor change (clarifying wording, adding a sub-processor of the same type), we will update the version number and the "last updated" date and post the new policy in the app.
• For a material change (new data collection, new purpose, new category of third party), we will notify you in the app at least 30 days before the change takes effect, and we will ask for fresh consent where the law requires it.

A full version history is maintained below.

Version history

• 1.0 (2026-04-20) — Initial policy, drafted during v1.0 preparation. Awaiting legal review. Will become effective on launch.

15. How to contact us

For privacy questions, data requests, or complaints:

lifeessentials.app@gmail.com

We will reply within one month at the latest. Most requests are answered in a few days.

For urgent legal notices:

lifeessentials.app@gmail.com — please put "URGENT LEGAL" in the subject line.

For general support (not privacy):

Please use the in-app feedback option or email the address above.

Appendix — Plain-English summary of the Article 9 consent wording

When you first save a prayer, reflection, Examen entry, HALT check-in, or journal entry, you will see this screen:

One permission before we save this.

Life Essentials stores your prayers, reflections, and check-ins — content that reveals things about your spiritual life. We need your explicit agreement. Private to you, never sold, delete anytime.

[ Agree and save ] [ Not now ]

Privacy policy →

Tapping "Agree and save" grants your explicit consent under Article 9 of the UK GDPR and EU GDPR. We record the date, the exact wording you saw, and a hash that proves the text hasn't been changed.

You can withdraw your consent at any time in Settings → Privacy → Withdraw consent and delete everything. Withdrawal is as easy as giving, as required by Article 7(3).

If you tap "Not now," the app carries on working as normal — you just can't save the current entry. You'll see the screen again when you next try to save something.