Elim
Privacy Policy
Elim is a quiet place to read Scripture, write and pray, on your own and with a small circle you choose. What you write there is personal, so this page says plainly what the app keeps, where it goes, and how to remove it.
The short version
- Your journal is written to your phone first, then backed up to your Elim account so it survives a lost or replaced phone.
- Your private journal, personal prayers, saved verses and letters are never shown to your pod. Only what you choose to share is.
- Elim has no advertising, no analytics or tracking tools, and does not sell your data.
- The AI features are optional and are off until you turn them on. Elim asks you first. Once you agree, the text you submit is sent to Google’s Gemini service to produce the answer (see AI features). You can turn them off again at any time in Profile → AI features.
- You can delete your account and your private data yourself, inside the app: Profile → Delete account.
What Elim keeps
Your account
You sign in with Apple, Google, or email. We receive the email address for your account (or the private relay address Apple gives us) and the name you set. Your name is what the members of your pod see. We never see your Apple or Google password, and your email address is not shown to other people in Elim.
What you write
Journal entries (their text, themes, and the passage they relate to), personal prayers and the dates their status changed, saved verses and notes, letters to your future self, and your answers to reading-plan days.
All of this is stored first in a private database inside the app on your phone, so Elim works fully offline. When you are online it is also sent to your Elim account on our server so it is backed up and available on a new phone. We do not add our own encryption to the database on your phone; it is protected by your device’s own security (passcode and device encryption).
Your pod
A pod is a small group you join by invitation. Pod members can see your name, that you are a member, and only what you choose to put there:
- Plan reflections. Your answer to a day of a shared reading plan is visible to the pod once the app’s reveal rule allows: members see each other’s answers to a day after they have answered it themselves, or after the day’s reveal time has passed. Your private journal is never part of this.
- Prayer requests you post to the pod’s prayer board.
- Signals (a way to tell the people you choose in a support pod how you are doing) and the replies they receive. A reply records how someone reached out, such as a prayer, a call or a message, but never what they said.
Voice
If you use the microphone to speak a prayer or reflection, the recording is sent, through our server, to Google’s Gemini service to be turned into text (see AI features). The recording is deleted from your phone right afterwards, and we do not keep a copy.
Notifications
The daily reminder is scheduled on your phone and involves no server. If you allow push notifications, we store a device token so we can send them. You can turn notifications off in the app or in your phone’s settings.
Technical data
Like any app that connects to the internet, Elim’s servers process your IP address and basic request details in order to answer your phone. Elim does not read or use your device’s advertising identifier.
What Elim does not do
- No advertising and no ad networks.
- No analytics, tracking or crash-reporting tools built into the app.
- No tracking you across other apps or websites.
- No selling your data, and no sharing it for marketing.
Services Elim relies on
Elim uses a small number of services that are needed to run it. They handle data only to provide that service.
| Service | What it does for Elim |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosts your account, sign-in, the backed-up copy of your data, and the server functions the app calls. |
| Apple and Google | Sign in with Apple and Google Sign-In, if you choose them. Apple also delivers push notifications to iPhones. |
| Google Gemini | Produces the answers for the optional AI features, described next. |
The Bible text (the World English Bible, which is in the public domain) and the recorded Scripture readings are built into the app, so reading them sends nothing anywhere.
AI features
Elim has optional AI features that help you study and reflect. They never write or paraphrase Scripture: any verse shown is looked up in the Bible stored in the app.
They are off until you turn them on. The first time you reach for one (a study question, a search, a plan suggestion, the microphone, and so on), Elim explains that it uses Google Gemini and asks whether to enable AI features. If you choose “Not now”, nothing is sent, and you can carry on without them. Your choice is kept on your phone for your account, and you can change it at any time with the AI features switch under Profile → Privacy & account. Turning it off stops anything further from being sent; it does not recall what was sent earlier.
Each feature sends only what it needs, through our server, to Google’s Gemini service, which generates the response. We do not send your name, email address or account ID with these requests, and we do not keep a copy of what you send.
| Feature | What is sent | When |
|---|---|---|
| Reflection question on Today | Today’s passage and a few short theme words from your recent entries (not the entries themselves) | Automatically, once you have turned AI features on and have recent themes. Until then Today shows a fixed question for the day and sends nothing |
| Personal pattern insights | The text of up to 20 of your journal entries from the last 30 days | Only when you tap to open it |
| Study questions | Your question, the passage reference, and any text you selected | When you ask |
| Scripture context | The passage reference; the answer may use a web search | When you open it |
| Search by topic or feeling, and plan suggestions | What you type | When you search |
| Voice to journal | The audio recording | When you use the microphone |
| Pod insights and discussion questions | Reflections your pod has already revealed, with names removed | Only when you tap |
Google handles what it receives under its own Gemini API terms and privacy policy, which decide how long it may keep that content and whether it may be reviewed by people or used to improve its services. You can read them at ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms. Please do not submit anything to an AI feature that you would not want processed by Google. You can use all of the rest of Elim, including your journal, prayers and pod, without ever using an AI feature.
Background for a passage may be saved on our server and reused for other readers of the same passage. It contains no personal information.
How long we keep things, and deleting them
We keep your data for as long as your account exists, so that it is there when you need it.
- One entry, prayer, verse or letter. Delete it in the app. It is removed from your phone, and from our server the next time your phone is online.
- Your whole account. Go to Profile → Delete account and confirm. This is immediate and cannot be undone. It permanently deletes your account, your journal entries, personal prayers, saved verses, letters to your future self, notification settings and device tokens, and your membership of your pods. The journal stored on your phone is erased too.
- What stays in a pod. Things you had already shared with other people stay for them: reflections the pod had already unlocked, prayer requests, signals and replies. They are no longer linked to you and appear under “Former member”.
- Signing out does not delete anything. Your journal stays on your phone until you delete your account or remove the app.
- Backups. Our hosting provider may keep routine backups for a limited time after deletion before they are overwritten.
Security
Data travels between the app and our servers over encrypted connections. On the server, each person’s private rows are protected so that only that person’s signed-in account can read them. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot promise absolute security, but we design Elim to collect only what it needs.
Your choices and rights
Most of what you may want to do, you can do yourself in the app: change your name, delete anything you wrote, choose what you share, turn off notifications, turn the AI features on or off, and delete your account. If you live somewhere that gives you rights over your personal data, such as access, correction or deletion, you can also contact us (below) and we will help.
Children
Elim is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
Where data is processed
Our service providers may process data in countries other than your own.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top, and if the change is significant we will tell you in the app.
Contact
For questions about this policy or your data, email support@elimjournal.app.