In short
- Everything you write, record or photograph in the app is stored on your phone.
- There is no account, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking.
- Two features of the app send data off your phone, and only if you choose to use them: Google Drive backup, which goes to your own Drive, and prayer groups, whose content is end-to-end encrypted.
- Separately, Android’s own device backup may copy the app’s data to your Google account. Your phone’s settings control it (see Android device backup).
- The developer never receives your personal journal, and cannot read what you share in a group.
What is stored, and where
The prayers, revelations (prophecies, visions and dreams), Bible studies, notes, prayer topics, highlights, tags, Bible references, voice recordings and photos you add are stored in the app’s private storage on your phone, which other apps cannot open. So are your settings, such as language, theme and highlight colour names.
Before a photo is stored, the app resizes it and removes its metadata, including location. The Bible translations are built into the app, so reading them sends nothing anywhere.
The developer runs no server that receives your personal journal, and has no copy of it. The only server the developer runs that the app itself connects to is the group relay, which receives encrypted group content only (see Prayer groups and the relay).
Private entries and encryption
You can mark any prayer, revelation, study or note as private. For a private entry, the text, voice recording, photos and photo captions are encrypted on your phone with AES-GCM, and can only be opened after you unlock with your fingerprint, your phone’s PIN or an app PIN.
A private entry’s title, tags, dates and attached Bible references are not encrypted, so that lists, dates and search keep working. For a study, the title is its passage. When you mark a private prayer answered, the note on how it was answered is not encrypted either. Choose titles and answer notes with that in mind.
If you forget your PIN, the answer to your security question is the only way to recover private entries. If both are lost, nobody can recover them, including the developer.
Google Drive backup
Backup is optional and off until you connect a Google account in Settings → Backup & restore.
- Where it goes
- Into your own Google Drive, in a hidden app folder (Google’s
drive.appdataspace). The app asks only for access to that folder: it cannot see or change your other Drive files, and other apps cannot see its folder. The app also keeps your Google account’s email address on your phone, to show which account is connected. - What is included
- Your journal and topics, highlights, voice recordings, photos and settings. Private entries stay encrypted inside the backup; the parts listed above as not encrypted stay readable there too.
- What is never included
- Prayer groups, their content and their keys. After a restore, you join groups again with an invite.
- How long it is kept
- The app keeps your five most recent backups and deletes older ones. Backups stay in your Drive if you disconnect or uninstall the app, until you delete them yourself: Google Drive → Settings → Manage apps → Christian Walk → Options → Delete hidden app data.
- Google’s role
- Signing in and storing files in Drive are handled by Google, under Google’s privacy policy. The developer never receives your backups.
Android device backup
Separately from the app’s own backup, Android can back up apps to your Google account as part of your phone’s backup. Depending on your phone’s backup settings and Android’s size limits, this may include Christian Walk’s settings and data. It is managed by Android and Google, not by the app, and you can turn it off in your phone’s settings.
Prayer groups and the relay
Joining or creating a prayer group is your choice. What you share in a group is encrypted on your phone before it leaves, with a key that only the group’s members hold (it travels inside the invite). Update files you send by hand are encrypted the same way.
New groups keep themselves up to date through a relay: by default relay.oliver-apps.com, run by the developer, or any other address you enter in the group’s relay settings. You can turn automatic sync off for each group at any time and share update files by hand instead.
The relay stores only encrypted data in an anonymous mailbox. It cannot read your prayers, the group’s name or who its members are. Like any web server, it can see technical details of each connection, such as IP addresses and the times of sync requests. The default relay deletes encrypted data once it is more than 60 days old.
Anything shared in a group can be read by its members, who may keep copies on their own phones.
No accounts, analytics, ads or tracking
The app needs no account and contains no analytics, advertising, crash-reporting or tracking software. It does not sell or share your data, because it never receives it.
Permissions
- Microphone
- To record voice prayers and revelations. Asked the first time you record.
- Camera
- To take photos for an entry and to scan a group invite QR code. Asked the first time you use it.
- Photos
- Chosen through Android’s photo picker, which gives the app only the photos you select. No permission needed.
- Biometrics
- To unlock private entries with your fingerprint or face, if you choose to.
- Internet
- Used only for Google Drive backup and prayer group sync, when you turn them on.
The app does not ask for your location, your contacts or permission to send notifications.
Deleting your data
- Delete any entry, photo or highlight inside the app.
- Uninstalling the app, or clearing its storage in Android’s settings, deletes everything it stored on your phone.
- Google Drive backups remain until you delete them: Google Drive → Settings → Manage apps → Christian Walk → Options → Delete hidden app data.
- To remove something you shared in a group, use Retract in the group. Copies already received by other members are on their phones.
Children
Christian Walk is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from anyone. Since your journal stays on your phone, the developer holds no personal information about any user.
This website
This website uses no cookies and no analytics. Its fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, so your browser connects to Google when you open a page. The web server keeps standard access logs, such as IP address, time and page requested, for security and troubleshooting.
Changes to this policy
If the app’s handling of data changes, this page will be updated and the date at the top will change. A shorter summary is shown in the app under Settings → Privacy Policy; this page is the reference.
Contact
Questions about privacy: hello@oliver-apps.com.