Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

BizTrack Church ("we", "us", or "our") is a church management and engagement platform operated by BZ Tracking Solution (Pty) Ltd, accessible at biztrack.church and via our mobile applications on Android and iOS.

We are committed to protecting the privacy and personal information of our users in accordance with the South African Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) and other applicable data protection legislation.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, how we protect it, and what rights you have in relation to your data. When we change it materially we show you a summary inside the app and ask you to acknowledge it, and we record which version you acknowledged and when.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information that you provide directly when using the BizTrack Church platform, as well as information generated through your use of the service.

2.1 Personal Information

• Name and surname
• Email address
• Contact number
• Profile picture (optional)

2.2 Church Membership Data

• Organisation (church) affiliation
• User type and role within the organisation
• Team membership and assignments

2.3 Event and Activity Data

• Event registrations and attendance records
• Check-in and check-out times
• Prayer requests and meeting requests

2.4 Household and Family Data

• Household and family relationship information
• Children's names and details (collected only with parent or guardian registration)
• Pickup codes for child checkout verification

2.5 Payment Information

Payment transactions (event registrations, giving, and subscription billing) are processed securely via PayFast, a PCI DSS-compliant payment gateway. PayFast supports card payments, EFT, SnapScan, and Zapper. We do not collect, store, or have access to your credit card details, bank account numbers, or other financial instrument data. PayFast handles all payment information directly. Churches may additionally configure a custom external payment link (for example, Quicket); in that case, the payment is completed on the external provider's platform under their own privacy terms.

2.6 Uploaded Images

Images uploaded by users are stored in Supabase Storage. Only signed-in users of the platform can upload or change them, and the stored files cannot be browsed or listed by anyone who is not signed in.

Profile photographs are held in a private area of that storage. They are not reachable from any public web address: each time one is displayed, the app requests a temporary link that expires within the hour, and only signed-in users can request one.

Church logos, small-group photos, event images and devotional artwork are treated differently, because they have to appear in emails we send you, on the sign-in screen, and on public pages such as a church's daily devotional or an event registration page. These are served from a web address that does not require a sign-in, so anyone given that address, or who obtains it, can view that image. We therefore recommend against uploading anything to those fields that you would not want seen outside your church.

2.7 Location Data

When an administrator creates a small group and searches for a meeting location, the search text is sent to the Google Places API to return suggestions. The selected address, place identifier, latitude, and longitude are stored so members can see where the group meets. We do not track user device location; location data is limited to what an admin explicitly enters.

2.8 Custom Fields

Each church organisation may define custom fields (such as baptism date, cell group, or other church-specific information). The nature and content of these fields are determined by the church organisation's administrators.

2.9 Team Notes and Voice Recordings

Members of a church's full-time team can make notes for themselves — typed, spoken, or with a photograph attached — to remember something they need to follow up on. A note may be linked to a person in the church's records. A note is private to the person who made it and is not readable by other team members, church administrators or BizTrack; it becomes part of the church's record only if its author deliberately converts it into a touchpoint.

A spoken note is sent to OpenAI in the United States to be converted to text, and the recording and transcript are then held in private storage reachable only by a temporary link. It is not used to train OpenAI's models. See Section 5.1.

2.10 Sermons, Sermon Notes and Video

Churches can publish their sermons ("messages") in the app. Members can write notes on a message while they watch or listen, and a note may be marked with the minute of the sermon it was written at. Sermon notes are private to the member who wrote them and are not readable by other members, church administrators or BizTrack. Because a note on a sermon can reveal a person's religious beliefs, which POPIA treats as special personal information, notes are kept only for the member's own use and are deleted when the member deletes their account.

Sermon audio that a church uploads, or asks us to copy from its own website, is held in private storage and played through temporary links.

Sermon videos are played inside the app by YouTube's embedded player, in YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode. When you play a video, YouTube (Google) receives information about that viewing, such as your device, browser and IP address, and processes it under the Google Privacy Policy. The app also uses YouTube API Services to list a church's public videos. By watching videos in the app you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service.

Tapping a scripture reference opens that passage on bible.com (the YouVersion Bible App), which is operated by YouVersion under its own privacy policy. We send it nothing except the passage you chose.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• To provide and maintain the BizTrack Church platform and its features
• To manage your account and church organisation membership
• To facilitate event registration, check-in, and attendance tracking
• To manage prayer requests and meeting requests within your church organisation
• To enable family and household management, including child check-in and checkout
• To process payments through our payment partners
• To send transactional communications (such as event QR codes and registration confirmations)
• To provide customer support
• To improve the platform and develop new features

4. App Permissions

BizTrack Church requests the following device permissions:

BizTrack Church does not collect device location, contacts, or health data, and does not record audio except while a team member is deliberately recording a voice note as described in Section 2.9. The app does not use tracking SDKs, advertising identifiers, or analytics providers that profile individual users.

5. Data Storage and Processing

• Database: Your data is stored on Supabase (PostgreSQL) hosted infrastructure with industry-standard security measures, including encryption at rest and in transit.
• File Storage: Uploaded images (profile pictures, church logos, small-group photos, event images) are stored in Supabase Storage. Only signed-in users can upload, change or remove them, and the stored files cannot be browsed or listed without signing in. Individual images are served from web addresses that do not require a sign-in, so that they can be shown in emails, on the sign-in screen and on public pages — see section 2.6.
• Email Communications: Transactional emails (such as event QR codes, registration confirmations, subscription receipts, and notifications) are sent via SendGrid.
• Payment Processing: All payments (event registrations, giving, subscription billing) are processed via PayFast, which is PCI DSS compliant. We do not store any payment card or banking details. Where a church has configured an external payment link (such as Quicket), payment is completed on that provider's platform under their own terms.
• Sermon Videos: Played inside the app by YouTube's embedded player in privacy-enhanced mode; YouTube API Services list a church's public videos. See section 2.10.
• Location Suggestions: Small-group meeting-location search queries are sent to the Google Places API for address suggestions. Only the address text the admin types and picks is processed; no device location is transmitted.
• Hosting: The web application is hosted on Firebase Hosting (Google Cloud). No page-view tracking or advertising cookies are enabled.
• Device Storage: No personal data is stored on your device beyond authentication tokens required to maintain your logged-in session, small preferences such as the last-selected calendar, and a local cache of images you have already viewed so they do not download again. These are stored securely using platform-appropriate secure storage mechanisms.

5.1 Where Your Information Is Processed

BizTrack Church is a South African service, but some of the providers we rely on process information outside South Africa:

• Supabase (database and uploaded images) — hosted in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany). This is where member records, event data, household data and uploaded images are stored.
• SendGrid (transactional email) — operated by Twilio Inc. in the United States. Your email address and the contents of the emails we send you are processed there.
• OpenAI (speech-to-text for voice notes) — operated by OpenAI, L.L.C. in the United States. Only the audio of a voice note is sent, and only to obtain its transcript; no member record or profile information is sent with it, although the recording itself will contain whatever was spoken. It is not used to train OpenAI's models, and OpenAI may hold a copy for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring before deleting it. This applies only to the team notes feature described in Section 2.9.
• Google Places (address suggestions) and Firebase Hosting (delivery of the web app) — operated by Google on global infrastructure, which may include servers outside South Africa.
• YouTube (sermon video playback and listing) — operated by Google LLC in the United States. When you play a video in the app, YouTube receives information about that viewing under Google's own privacy terms.
• PayFast (payments) — processed in South Africa.

Section 72 of POPIA permits these transfers where the recipient is subject to laws, binding corporate rules or a binding agreement providing an adequate level of protection; we rely on the data processing terms that form part of our agreement with each provider. Information held in the European Union is additionally protected by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We do not transfer your information to any country other than those named above, and we do not transfer it for any purpose other than delivering the service described in this policy.

6. Data Ownership and Sharing

6.1 Data Ownership

Church member data belongs to the church organisation. BizTrack Church acts as an operator (processor) of this data on behalf of the church organisation, which is the responsible party (controller) under POPIA.

6.2 No Sale of Personal Data

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third parties. Your data is used solely for the purpose of providing the BizTrack Church service.

6.3 Church Administrator Access

Authorised administrators of your church organisation can view and manage member data within their organisation. This is necessary for the operation of the church management platform.

Administrators see the members of their own church. Separation between churches is currently enforced by the application, and we are progressively moving that enforcement into the database itself so that it is guaranteed at the data layer.

6.4 Third-Party Service Providers

We share data only with the third-party service providers listed in Section 5 (Supabase, Supabase Storage, SendGrid, OpenAI, PayFast, Google Places, YouTube, Firebase Hosting), solely for the purpose of delivering the BizTrack Church service. None of the providers acting for us is permitted to use your information for their own purposes. Section 21 of POPIA requires a written agreement with every operator that processes personal information on our behalf; each of these providers' data processing terms form part of our agreement with them, and are the binding agreement we rely on for the purposes of section 72(1)(a). PayFast and Google also process certain information as responsible parties in their own right, for their own regulatory and service purposes, under their own privacy terms. Each provider maintains its own privacy policy governing data received from us.

7. Children's Privacy

Children are registered by a parent or guardian, never by the child. Section 35 of POPIA allows a child's personal information to be processed only with the consent of a competent person — in practice, the parent or guardian who sets up the household. When you add a child to your household, you confirm that you are that child's parent or legal guardian and that you consent to the processing described in this section.

Information held about a child may include:

• Name and surname
• Date of birth, where provided — used for age-appropriate children's programmes and event registration
• Relationship to the parent or guardian, and household membership
• A profile photograph, if one is uploaded
• Event registration, attendance, check-in and checkout records, including pickup codes
• Any additional information the church itself chooses to collect through custom fields (for example allergies or medical notes). The church decides what those fields are and is responsible for them.

Children's checkout is protected by secure pickup codes and QR verification to ensure that only authorised individuals can collect a child from a church event or programme.

A parent or guardian may review, correct or delete a child's information at any time by contacting the church administrator, or us at support@biztrack.co.za, and may withdraw consent at any time. If consent is withdrawn, the child's record is removed from the church's directory.

8. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as the church organisation with which you are affiliated maintains an active BizTrack Church account. If a church organisation closes its account, the data belonging to that church is deleted within 90 days, unless a longer period is required by law. Where a person belongs to more than one church on the platform, only the departing church's records are removed — their profile remains for the churches they still belong to. Individual users may request deletion of their personal data at any time (see Section 10).

Team notes and voice recordings (Section 2.9) belong to the team member who made them, and are kept until that person deletes them or leaves the church, whichever comes first. Deleting a note removes its recording, its transcript and any attached photographs.

9. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include encryption of data in transit (TLS/SSL), encryption of data at rest, secure authentication mechanisms, and role-based access controls within the platform.

10. Your Rights Under POPIA

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), you have the right to:

• Be informed about the collection and use of your personal information
• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal information
• Request that we destroy or delete personal information we are no longer authorised to retain
• Object, on reasonable grounds and in the prescribed manner, to processing that relies on our legitimate interests rather than on your consent, a contract or the law
• Withdraw your consent to processing
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator

To exercise any of these rights, you may contact your church administrator directly, or reach out to us at support@biztrack.co.za. We will respond to your request within a reasonable time, and in any event within the timeframes required by applicable law.

11. Cookies and Local Storage

The BizTrack Church web application uses local storage (a browser-based storage mechanism) to maintain your authentication session. This is necessary for you to remain logged in while using the platform.

We do not use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or any third-party analytics cookies. No data is shared with advertising networks or social media platforms through cookies or similar technologies.

You can clear your local storage data at any time through your browser settings. Doing so will require you to log in again.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes, we will notify users via email or through a prominent notice within the application. The "Effective Date" at the top of this policy indicates when the latest revision was made. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

14. Information Regulator (South Africa)

If you believe that your right to privacy has been infringed upon by BizTrack Church, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the South African Information Regulator: