Privacy Policy

Who we are

Ablaze is run by Arvin Rhen M., an individual developer, not a company. Arvin decides how your personal information is used. Under the Philippines' Data Privacy Act of 2012, that makes him the "personal information controller". Under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), he's the "controller".

Arvin also acts as Ablaze's data protection officer. You can reach him about anything in this policy:

Email: ablaze@arvinrhen.com
Post: Arvin Rhen M., P.O. Box 9311, Cavite, Philippines

This policy covers the Ablaze app and the website ablaze.arvinrhen.com.

What stays on your iPhone

You can use Ablaze without an account. What you do in it is saved in Ablaze's private storage on your iPhone, and we never see it. That includes:

your reading: where you are, the chapters you've read, your highlights and your reading settings
your notes and journal
your private prayers, the days you prayed for them, and the answers you write down
your Daily Fire history, embers, rest days and streak
your seed log: who you shared the gospel with (a first name or "a friend"), how, and what happened
proof photos you take for a seed story, until you share that story
the verses you're learning by heart, and your reading plans
your answers in the first run (such as what brings you to Ablaze), your reminder time and your other preferences

Your Daily Fire reminder, and the reminder before a free trial ends, are scheduled on your iPhone. We don't send them. Bible search runs on your iPhone, and your widgets read from your iPhone too.

Your iPhone's own backups, to iCloud or a computer, may include Ablaze's data, as they do for most apps. Apple runs those backups under your Apple Account, not us.

Ablaze connects to our server when it opens, even if you never sign in. It downloads new devotions, verses and reading plans, and the public Prayer Wall. If you're not signed in, nothing about you is sent, apart from what any internet connection reveals, such as your IP address. Ablaze also checks with RevenueCat whether you have Ablaze+ (see "Ablaze+ and purchases").

Backup and sync with Ablaze+

Backup and sync is part of Ablaze+. It's on when all three of these are true:

you have Ablaze+
you're signed in
Backup and sync is on for that iPhone (it's on unless you turn it off in Settings, Backup and sync)

When it's on, we keep a copy of these on our server, so every iPhone you sign in to has the same:

your notes and journal
your prayers, including private ones, the days you prayed and the answers you wrote
your highlights and reading history
your Daily Fire history, embers and rest days, from which your streak is worked out
your seed log (but not your photos)
your memory verses and reading plan progress
your preferences, such as your Bibles, text size, reminder time and what brings you to Ablaze

Who can see your backup. It's kept in a private part of our database on Supabase, in Singapore. Only the backup and sync functions can read or write it, and only for your own account. Nobody else who uses Ablaze can see it. Arvin manages the server, so he could technically open it. We don't look at your backup unless you ask us to help with it, or the law requires it. Your backup is not end-to-end encrypted.

Turning it off. Switch off Backup and sync on an iPhone, and nothing more is sent from that iPhone. What's already backed up stays on our server until you delete your account. If your Ablaze+ ends, syncing stops and your backup waits for you, in case you come back. If you'd like your backup erased without deleting your account, write to us and we'll erase it.

Your account

An account is optional. You need one to share on the Prayer Wall, or to pray for others and encourage them. You also need one to join or start a Fire Circle, to get notifications from other people, and to back up with Ablaze+.

Sign in with Apple. You sign in with your Apple Account. Apple gives us a unique ID for you and an email address. You can let Apple hide your email, and then we get a private relay address instead of your real one. The first time you sign in, Apple may also share your name. We keep only your first name.

We don't use your email for newsletters or marketing. We keep it with your account so you can sign in, and so we can reach you about your account if we ever must.

Our sign-in service, run by Supabase, also keeps a security record of each sign-in: the time, your email, your IP address and your device type. It helps us spot misuse. Confirm: how long sign-in records are kept, see NOTES

Your profile. Your profile on our server holds:

your first name (optional). It shows only on posts where you choose your first name, and to the people in your Fire Circles. You can change it in your account.
your country (optional, two letters such as PH). It shows on a post only when you choose. It also puts your own country's crisis line first if you ever need one.
your place (optional): your province, your city in Metro Manila, or your country abroad. It's used only for Together (see below).
your confirmation that you're 16 or older. Once confirmed, it stays confirmed.
the version of the community rules you agreed to.
your standing in the community: your trust level, how many of your posts were approved, any strikes, and whether you're quietly hidden or banned. Only our moderators see this.

You can see and change your profile on your account page: tap the round button on Today to open Settings, then tap your name.

The Prayer Wall and For you

When you share with "Everyone", your post goes on the Prayer Wall and in other people's For you feed. That can be a prayer request, a reflection on a verse, a seed story, a "said yes to Jesus" story, or an answered prayer.

Who sees it. Anyone who uses Ablaze, signed in or not. Please treat it as public.
How your name shows. As "Someone" unless you choose your first name. If you've added your country, the share screen offers to show it too. That switch starts on, and you can turn it off before you share. We never show your full name, your email or an exact place.
What happens first. Every post is checked automatically before it goes live (see "Keeping the community safe"). The first posts of a new account, and every seed story, wait until a person approves them. A post that mentions self-harm stays private (see "Crisis care").
How long it stays up. A prayer request leaves the wall after 14 days, unless you put it back up. An answered prayer stays for 14 days as a praise report. Reflections and seed stories stay until they're taken down.
Taking it down. You can take a shared prayer off the wall at any time, or delete it, in the Prayer tab. To take down a reflection or a seed story, write to us and we'll remove it. Confirm: the app has no take-down button for reflections and seed stories yet

When a post comes down, other people stop seeing it at once. Its words stay in our database, out of sight, until you delete your account. If you'd like them erased sooner, write to us.

Seed stories and proof photos

A seed story can carry a proof photo. Ablaze takes this photo inside the app only, never from your photo library. Before the camera opens, you confirm that the person said it's OK. You can photograph something else instead of a face, such as the Bible you gave them. Please never photograph a child.

The photo stays on your iPhone, without any location data, until you share the story. Then it's uploaded to a private folder for your account. You and our moderators can see it. Everyone else sees it only after we approve the story. A photo shows as "verified" when the story was shared within 24 hours of the photo being taken in Ablaze.

If you appear in someone's story or photo and want it taken down, write to us. We'll remove it.

Prayers and encouragement

When you tap "I prayed", "Amen", "Encouraged" or "Praise God", or send an encouraging phrase or a verse, we record it with your account.

On the Prayer Wall, other people see only how many people prayed or responded.
The author also sees which phrases and verses were sent, but never who sent them.
In a Fire Circle, people pray by name. The circle's members can see the first names of those who prayed for a request.
If people prayed for your requests today, you may get one evening notification such as "Joy and 3 others prayed for you today". It names only people from your circles.

Fire Circles

To join or start a circle, you need an account and a first name. You also confirm you're 16 or older and accept the community rules. A circle's members see:

your first name
whether you've lit today's Daily Fire, and your streak
your "heart of 66": how much of each book of the Bible you've read
when you finish a book, such as "Joy finished Romans this week"
the requests and reflections you share with the circle, and your comments, with your first name
who prayed for a circle request

Your flame (today's fire, your streak and your heart) is sent to our server only while you're in at least one circle. When you're no longer in any circle, we delete it.

Comments in a circle are free text, up to 500 characters. Links, phone numbers, email addresses and money requests are refused. When someone comments on your circle post, your notification shows their first name and their comment.

Anyone who has your circle's invite code can see its name, its leader's first name and how many people are in it, before they join. A leader can remove posts, comments and members, rename the circle and make a new code. When a leader leaves, the member who has been there longest leads. When a leader deletes a circle, everything shared in it is deleted too.

Your faith is sensitive information

Under the Philippines' Data Privacy Act of 2012, information about your religious affiliation is "sensitive personal information". Under the GDPR, religious beliefs are a "special category" of personal data. Much of what you write in Ablaze can reveal them. That includes your prayers, your reflections, the seeds you plant, and stories of people who said yes to Jesus.

So we handle it with extra care:

It stays on your iPhone unless you choose otherwise. Prayers are private by default.
Sharing is always your own step. Before anything is shared, you pick who sees it, and you see a preview of exactly what they'll see.
The quieter choice comes first. Posts show "Someone" unless you choose your first name.
We ask for your consent by those choices. Sharing a post, joining a circle, turning on Ablaze+ backup and choosing your place for Together are each your decision. You can take back that consent at any time. Take a post down, leave a circle, turn off backup, or delete your account. Taking consent back doesn't undo what was already done with it.
Only the people you chose see it, plus our moderators, who keep the community safe.
We never use it for ads, never sell it, and share it only with the service providers who run Ablaze for us.

Together

Together shows how many seeds were planted, and how many people said yes to Jesus, in each place this week. It's a ranking of places, never of people.

How you join. Choose your place in Seeds ("Where are you?"). Until you do, nothing you log is counted.
What we store. When you're signed in and have a place, each seed you plant and each "yes" you log is sent to our server. We store that you logged a seed or a yes, your place and the day. It's linked to your account, so we can apply a daily limit and count how many different people logged in a place. We never store your name, the other person's name or your journal with it.
What everyone sees. Weekly totals by place, a few hours behind, with times rounded to the hour. A place appears only once at least 3 different people logged there that week.
What's never counted. Prayers for people stay on your iPhone. Nothing is stored at all for a place in a country where sharing the gospel is dangerous (see below).
How long. Until you delete your account. To stop counting without deleting your account, write to us and we'll clear your place. Confirm: the app can change a place but not remove it

Many Filipinos live and work in countries where sharing the gospel can put them at risk. We keep a list of these countries, based on Open Doors' World Watch List. For these countries:

Together stores nothing, and the country never appears on the map.
A post never shows the country, even if you chose to show it.

Your profile can still hold the country you entered, so your crisis lines come first if you ever need them. Only you and our moderators see it. If you live in one of these places, please think carefully before you share your first name or your story.

Crisis care

If you're thinking about hurting yourself, please call someone you trust, your local emergency number or a crisis line now. Ablaze is not an emergency service, and nobody watches posts as they're written.

What's checked. When you share to the Prayer Wall or a circle, our server checks the words for phrases about self-harm, in English and Tagalog. Your private prayers and notes never leave your iPhone for this.
On the Prayer Wall. A post like this never goes public. It's kept private, so only you and our moderators can see it. Our moderators see it in a separate list, so a person knows someone is struggling.
In a circle. A circle is a safe place to ask for prayer, so the post still goes to your circle.
Help comes first. Either way, Ablaze shows you crisis lines and the emergency number, with your own country first. The numbers are built into the app. If you call or text one, it goes straight from your iPhone, and we never learn that you did.

Notifications

Ablaze asks before it sends notifications. You can turn them off at any time, in Ablaze's Settings or your iPhone's Settings.

Reminders. The Daily Fire reminder and the trial reminder are scheduled on your iPhone.
Messages from others. These are sparks, comments on your circle posts, and the evening line when people prayed for you. Our moderators also get alerts when posts need review. For these, when you're signed in and allow notifications, we store your iPhone's push token with your account. We also store your time zone and language, so messages come at the right hour and in your language. And we store your choices: each kind on or off, your quiet hours and your evening hour.
How they're sent. Through Expo's push service, which passes them to Apple's Push Notification service, which delivers them to your iPhone. To set this up, Expo receives your iPhone's notification address from Apple and a random ID for this installation. Expo doesn't keep a message once it's delivered. If your iPhone is offline, Apple may hold a message for up to 30 days.
What they show. A prayer request never shows on your lock screen. A comment notification shows the commenter's first name and their words.
How long. We delete a sent message after 30 days. We remove a push token when you sign out or delete your account. We also remove it when Apple says the iPhone no longer takes notifications, or after 270 days without use.

Ablaze+ and purchases

Apple handles payment. You buy Ablaze+ through the App Store. We never see your card number or billing details.
RevenueCat manages subscriptions for us. Each time Ablaze opens, it asks RevenueCat whether you have Ablaze+, even if you've never bought it. RevenueCat knows you by a random ID, or by your account ID once you sign in. It receives your Ablaze+ purchases and receipts from Apple.
What else RevenueCat receives. Details about your iPhone and the app: the model, the iOS and app versions, your languages and App Store country, and when you last opened Ablaze. It also receives the ID that Apple gives Ablaze on your iPhone (the "identifier for vendor"). It uses your IP address to work out your country, then drops it. RevenueCat stores this in the United States.
Your account ID goes with a purchase. When you buy while signed in, your Ablaze account ID is attached to the purchase, so Apple's records match ours.
Managing your plan. In Settings, Ablaze+, then Manage opens RevenueCat's screen for your plan. If it asks why you're cancelling, your answer goes to RevenueCat, and we can read it there. Confirm: whether RevenueCat's cancellation survey is switched on
What we keep. Our server stores whether you have Ablaze+, and until when, which plan you have (monthly, yearly or lifetime), whether your current period was paid, and when it began. It also records any free time we give by hand.
Give a year. When you give a year, we keep which gift code went to you and when, so each member gets the gifts their plan includes and a code is never given twice. We don't know who you send it to unless they tell us.
Why. To turn on what Ablaze+ includes, to work out who can give a year, to restore purchases, and to help if you have a billing question.

Keeping the community safe

Ablaze has posts from many people, so we check and moderate them. Here's how that uses information:

Automatic checks. Before a post goes on the Prayer Wall, our server checks it. It must be 20 to 500 characters, at most 2 a day, and not a repeat. It can't contain links, phone numbers, email addresses, social handles or requests for money. It also goes through a word filter in English and Tagalog. A post that fails is refused, or held for a person to review.
Review by a person. Our moderators review the first posts of new accounts, every seed story, and every reported post or comment, from the Prayer Wall or a Fire Circle. Today our only moderator is Arvin. If others ever help, they'll be bound by this policy.
Reports. When you report a post or a comment, we store your report with your account, your reason and the time. The author is never told who reported it, and neither is anyone in a circle, including its leader. What you reported leaves your own wall, circle and feed at once. After 3 reports, it's hidden from everyone else until a person reviews it.
Blocks. When you block someone, they aren't told. Blocking from the Prayer Wall keeps you apart on the wall and in the Feed. Blocking from a circle keeps you apart anywhere your names show, and no notification names one of you to the other. Posts shared anonymously, and anonymous prayers and encouragements on them, stay as they are, so a block never reveals who wrote them. If you block someone from a circle, we also note which circle, so Settings can show their first name. You can see and undo your blocks in Settings, Blocked people.
What moderators see. The post or comment and any photo, how the author chose to show, and the author's first name and country. For something shared in a circle, they also see the circle's name, and for a comment, the post it's under. They also see the author's account ID, trust level, strikes and approved posts, and the reasons given in reports.
What moderators can do. Approve, hide or remove a post, and keep or remove a comment. Give a strike, quietly hide someone's posts so only they see them, or ban them from sharing and from circles. Every action goes into a moderation record. That record helps us stay fair and accountable.
Automated decisions. The filters can refuse a post or hold it for review. Nothing else about you is decided automatically. If you think a filter got it wrong, write to us and a person will look.

When you write to us

Email to ablaze@arvinrhen.com is forwarded by Cloudflare's email routing to Arvin's Gmail inbox, run by Google. Cloudflare doesn't keep the email itself, but it keeps a record of each one it forwards (sender, recipient and subject) for 31 days. We use what you write only to help you and to keep a record of what we did. We keep these emails for Confirm: how long, for example 2 years after the conversation ends.

Our website

ablaze.arvinrhen.com runs on Vercel, which hosts the website and staff dashboard. Cloudflare manages the domain.

The website has no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and it sets no cookies for visitors.
Its fonts are served from our own site, so your browser doesn't contact Google to load them.
Our hosting providers keep short technical logs, such as IP address, browser type and the page asked for. These keep the site running and secure.
Moderators sign in to the staff dashboard with a one-time email link. This sets a sign-in cookie for them only.

What we don't do

No ads and no ad networks.
No tracking across other companies' apps and websites. Ablaze doesn't use your advertising identifier, so it never asks to track you.
No analytics or crash-reporting tools that watch how you use Ablaze. The only figures we see are RevenueCat's totals of Ablaze+ purchases.
No outside map or font services. The Together map is drawn inside the app, and its fonts come with it.
No selling or renting your information, to anyone.
No access to your contacts, photo library, microphone or GPS location. The camera is used only for proof photos, and only when you choose.
No AI services read your prayers, notes or posts. If that ever changes, we'll update this policy and ask you first.

We share information only with these service providers, and only so they can run Ablaze for us. Each one processes it on our instructions and under its own data protection terms. We choose providers that are bound to protect your information at least as well as this policy does.

Supabase, Inc. runs our database, sign-in, photo storage and server functions. Your data is stored in its Singapore region, on Amazon Web Services.
Apple Inc. provides Sign in with Apple, App Store payments and notification delivery.
RevenueCat, Inc. (United States) manages Ablaze+ subscriptions. It stores data in the United States, on Amazon Web Services.
Expo (650 Industries, Inc.) (United States) sends notifications on to Apple. Its service runs on Google Cloud.
Vercel Inc. (United States) hosts our website and staff dashboard.
Cloudflare, Inc. (United States) manages our domain and forwards our email.
Google LLC (United States) runs the Gmail inbox where our email arrives.

We may also share information:

when the law requires it, such as a valid court order. We'll tell you unless the law forbids it.
to protect someone's life or safety, when we believe in good faith that it's urgent and the law allows it.
if Ablaze ever passes to someone else. We'd tell you first, and this policy's promises would go with it.

And, of course, the people you share with see what you share, as described above.

Ablaze also links to a few websites and services we don't run, such as crisis lines and findahelpline.com. Their own privacy policies apply there.

International transfers

Wherever you live, your information travels to Singapore, where our database is. Some of it also goes to the United States, for RevenueCat, Expo, Vercel, Cloudflare and Google. These countries may have different data protection laws from yours.

When we send personal information to these providers, we rely on their data protection terms. Supabase and RevenueCat protect transfers with the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, which are part of their data processing terms. Expo, Vercel, Cloudflare and Google are certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Under the Philippines' Data Privacy Act, we stay responsible for your information while a provider processes it for us. Confirm: accept each provider's data processing agreement

How long we keep it

On your iPhone: until you delete it, or delete the app.
Your account and profile: until you delete your account.
Your Ablaze+ backup: until you delete your account, or ask us to erase it.
Posts, comments and responses: until you delete your account. A post that's taken down is hidden at once, and erased when you delete your account, or sooner if you ask.
Posts kept private for crisis care: the same.
Proof photos: until you delete your account, or ask us to remove them.
Together records, sparks and circle moments: until you delete your account.
Your flame in a circle: only while you're in a circle.
Reports and blocks you made: until you delete your account. A block also ends when you undo it.
The moderation record: kept so we stay accountable. When you delete your account, it no longer points to you.
Notifications: sent messages for 30 days. Push tokens as described under "Notifications".
Purchase records: Apple and RevenueCat keep them as long as billing, tax and the law require.
Emails to us: see "When you write to us".
Server backups: Supabase keeps daily backups of our database for 7 days. Something deleted from Ablaze can remain in a backup for that long, and is then gone. Photos aren't in these backups. Confirm: Supabase's Pro plan at launch; the Free plan keeps no backups
Server logs: Supabase keeps logs of requests to our server, with IP addresses and device types, for Confirm: 7 days on the Pro plan, 1 day on Free.
Sign-in records: see "Your account".
Email records: Cloudflare's record of forwarded email, 31 days.
Website logs: our host keeps its request logs for a day or less.

How we protect it

Everything between the app and our server travels encrypted.
Our database lets each person reach only their own private data. Posts are read through functions that never reveal who wrote them.
Ablaze+ backups sit in a separate part of the database that can't be reached directly.
Proof photos sit in private storage, and are shown through links that expire.
Your sign-in is kept in your iPhone's Keychain.
Only staff can open the moderation dashboard. Staff accounts are listed in the database and checked on every action. Today, the only staff member is Arvin.
Supabase encrypts all stored data (AES-256), and everything sent to it travels over TLS.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your information at risk, we'll tell you and the authorities, as the law requires. In the Philippines, that means the National Privacy Commission within 72 hours of learning of it, where the law requires notice.

Your rights and choices

In the app, you can:

change your first name, country and place
choose, for each post, whether your first name and country show
take a shared prayer off the Prayer Wall
leave a circle, and remove your own circle posts and comments
block and unblock people
turn each kind of notification on or off, and set quiet hours
turn Backup and sync off on any iPhone
export your notes and journal as text: Settings, Backup and sync, then Export notes and journal
delete your account

By writing to us, you can ask:

to know what we hold about you, and get a copy of it in a common format you can take elsewhere
to correct it
to erase it, or to stop us using it
to object to how we use it
to take back a consent you gave

We'll answer within 30 days, free of charge. We may ask a question or two to make sure the account is yours.

Complaints. If you're unhappy with how we handled your information, please write to us first, so we can make it right. You can also complain to a regulator. In the Philippines, that's the National Privacy Commission. In the European Economic Area, it's the data protection authority where you live or work.

In the Philippines, you have the rights the Data Privacy Act of 2012 gives you. These include the rights to be informed, to object, to access, to correct, to erase or block, to data portability, and to claim damages.

If you live in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland

The GDPR asks us to tell you the legal reason for each use of your information:

To provide Ablaze and Ablaze+, as you asked: performing our agreement with you.
For anything you share or back up that reveals your faith: your explicit consent, which you give through the choices described in "Your faith is sensitive information".
To keep Ablaze safe, to moderate posts, prevent abuse and keep our systems secure: our legitimate interest in a safe community, balanced against your rights.
For notifications from other people: your consent, given through your iPhone's notification permission.
To keep records the law requires, and to answer lawful requests: our legal obligations.

Confirm: whether to appoint an EU representative under GDPR Article 27, and name them here

If you live in the United States

We don't sell your personal information, or "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We don't use it for targeted advertising.
Wherever you live, you can ask to know, correct or delete your information, as described under "Your rights and choices". We'll never treat you differently for asking.
Prayer requests often mention health. We use anything you write about health only to show your post the way you chose. We never sell it or use it for ads.
Ablaze doesn't track you, so there's nothing for a "Do Not Track" or Global Privacy Control signal to switch off.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app at any time. Open Settings with the round button on Today, scroll to the bottom, tap Delete account and confirm. It's also at the bottom of your account page (tap your name at the top of Settings). You'll need an internet connection.

What it deletes from our server, straight away:

your account, profile and sign-in
everything you shared: prayer requests, reflections, seed stories, answered notes, circle posts and comments
your proof photos
your prayers, Amens and encouragements on other people's posts
your reports and blocks
your circle memberships, flame, sparks and circle moments
your Together records
your Ablaze+ backup
your push tokens, notification settings and any notifications waiting to be sent
our record of your Ablaze+ status

Circles you lead pass to the member who has been there longest. A circle with nobody else in it closes.

What stays:

What's on your iPhone stays there, no longer tied to an account. Delete the app to remove it.
Ablaze+ keeps billing until you cancel it, because Apple runs the subscription. Cancel in your iPhone's Settings: tap your name, then Subscriptions.
Apple and RevenueCat keep their own records of your purchases, as billing and the law require.
The moderation record keeps what moderators did, but no longer points to you.
Emails you sent us stay in our inbox, as described above.
Server backups may hold your data for up to 7 days. Confirm: Supabase plan
Sign-in records may keep your email and IP address for a short time. Confirm: clear them on deletion, see NOTES

Deleting your account doesn't remove Ablaze from your Apple Account's list of apps that use Sign in with Apple. To remove it yourself, open your iPhone's Settings, tap your name, then Sign in with Apple. Tap Ablaze, then Delete. Apple explains this in Manage your apps with Sign in with Apple. Confirm: the app doesn't yet revoke the Apple sign-in on deletion

Children

Ablaze is for people 16 and older, and it isn't directed to children. We don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If we learn that someone under 16 has an account, we'll delete it. If you're a parent or guardian and think your child has an account, please write to us.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change matters, such as a new use of your information, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect. Where the law requires it, we'll ask for your consent again.

Contact

Questions, requests or worries about your privacy? Write to Arvin Rhen M. at ablaze@arvinrhen.com, or by post to P.O. Box 9311, Cavite, Philippines.