Effective Date: March 17, 2026
Your prayers are sacred. Arbor is built from the ground up to protect your privacy. We will never browse or review, sell, or share your prayer content.
Arbor ("we," "our," or "us") is a prayer journal application for iOS. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use the Arbor app and visit our website at arborprayer.app.
Arbor processes data relating to religious beliefs, which is classified as sensitive personal information under multiple privacy laws. We take this responsibility seriously and have designed every system to minimize data collection and maximize your control.
✓ Your audio recordings are saved on your device only and are never stored on any server
✓ Your prayer content is never sold, shared with advertisers, or used to train any AI model
✓ Your data is protected using industry-standard encryption and security practices
✓ We may access prayer data solely to provide our journaling, transcription, and search features — we will never browse or review your prayers
✓ Your prayer content and app data are never used for advertising or profiling. We may use standard marketing tools on our website to measure the effectiveness of our own campaigns
✓ Arbor Shield data (app selections, schedules) stays entirely on your device
✓ Account deletion is immediate and permanent upon your request
Account information. When you create an account, we collect your email address and a display name you choose. Your account is authenticated securely by our database provider — we never see or handle your password in plaintext.
Prayer content. Your prayer transcripts, prayer requests, session metadata (date, mood, duration), timestamped notes, and written prayers are stored in our secure database. This data relates to religious beliefs and is treated with the highest level of care. We process it solely to provide the app's core journaling features and only with your explicit consent, obtained before account creation.
Audio recordings. Your audio recordings are saved on your device only for playback. When you record a prayer, the audio file is sent through our secure server to a transcription service that processes the audio and immediately discards it. The transcription service does not store, cache, or use your audio for model training. The original audio file remains only on your device.
Scripture data. Daily verse references are stored in our database. The actual verse text is fetched on demand and cached locally on your device. We do not track which passages you read.
Arbor Shield. Arbor Shield helps you block distracting apps during prayer times using the Screen Time API. All Arbor Shield data — including your app selections, prayer schedules, and authorization status — is stored exclusively on your device. We cannot see which apps you selected because the system provides only an opaque, encrypted token that our code cannot decode. No Arbor Shield data is ever transmitted to our servers.
Group prayer sessions. When you record a group session, the transcription identifies different speakers using generic labels (Speaker 1, Speaker 2). Speaker identification is processed during transcription and discarded immediately after — no voice prints or biometric data are stored.
Notifications. Arbor may send you push notifications and local notifications for purposes including prayer insights (such as potential connections between your gratitude and ongoing prayer requests), Arbor Shield alerts (such as when your scheduled prayer time begins), reminders to help you maintain your prayer habits, and account-related updates. You can manage or disable notifications at any time through your device settings.
Payments. All payments are processed by Apple through In-App Purchases. We never see or store your payment details. We only store your subscription tier to determine feature access.
Usage and diagnostics. We may collect crash reports and anonymized usage data to maintain app stability and monitor service costs. We may also track API usage metrics on our servers to prevent abuse and manage operating costs. This data is used exclusively for app maintenance and is not shared with third parties for advertising or marketing.
We use your information exclusively to provide and maintain the prayer journaling experience: transcribing and organizing your prayers, tracking prayer requests and suggesting when prayers may have been answered, displaying scripture and prayer statistics, supporting group sessions, authenticating your account, enforcing subscription limits, and sending essential account communications like password resets and email verification.
We use a small number of third-party services to operate Arbor, each selected for its privacy commitments. These include: a database and authentication provider (SOC 2 Type 2 compliant), a speech-to-text provider for audio transcription (zero data retention), an AI provider for prayer structuring and organization (data not used for model training), and a scripture content provider for Bible verses.
All payments are handled by Apple. Our website is hosted by a separate hosting provider that maintains standard web server logs for website visitors only.
Third-party providers receive your data only as needed to perform their specific function (such as transcription or prayer structuring) through our secure server-side functions. They do not retain your prayer content after processing or use it for their own purposes. For the specific names of our service providers, contact us at globalcoms@arborprayer.app.
Your data is stored in encrypted databases hosted on infrastructure located in the United States. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Security policies prevent other users from accessing your data through the app. Authentication tokens are stored using the most secure storage available on your device. All API keys for third-party services are stored server-side and never embedded in the app.
If you are located outside the United States, your data is transferred internationally to provide the service. We rely on our service providers' compliance certifications and the security measures described above to protect your data during and after transfer.
Arbor uses automated processing to organize your prayer transcripts into structured journal entries and to suggest potential connections between your expressions of gratitude and your ongoing prayer requests. These are suggestions — you always have the final say on whether a prayer has been answered. No consequential decisions are made automatically.
Regardless of where you are located, you have the right to:
Depending on your location, you may have additional rights under laws such as the GDPR, CCPA, the Philippine Data Privacy Act, LGPD, or other regional privacy legislation. We do not sell or share personal information for advertising purposes, so opt-out rights related to data sales do not apply — but we state this so there is no ambiguity. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any privacy right.
To exercise any right, use the in-app options or contact us at globalcoms@arborprayer.app.
We retain your data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, all associated data is permanently deleted from our database immediately. Audio recordings and Arbor Shield data, being stored only on your device, are removed when you delete them or uninstall the app. Standard infrastructure backups maintained by our database provider may retain encrypted copies for a limited period as part of normal operations.
Arbor Shield uses the Screen Time API to temporarily block access to apps you select during your scheduled prayer times. When you open a blocked app, a shield screen appears with the option to close the app. To remove the shield, open Arbor and turn off Arbor Shield.
All Arbor Shield data is stored exclusively on your device. We do not collect, transmit, or store any information about which apps you have installed, how you use other apps, or your screen time statistics. Arbor Shield is available to paid subscribers and free trial users.
Arbor is rated 13+ on the App Store. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. In the European Economic Area and United Kingdom, users must be at least 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information without appropriate consent, contact us and we will delete it promptly.
In the event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify affected users and relevant authorities within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, in accordance with applicable law.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and notify you through the app. Continued use of Arbor after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, your data, or your rights, contact us at:
Email: globalcoms@arborprayer.app
Website: arborprayer.app/contact