Privacy policy

Effective 28 September 2026

Laos is a church community app. Each church runs its own separate instance of Laos, either hosted by us (“Laos Cloud”, at an address such as yourchurch.laosapp.com) or on the church’s own server (“self-hosted”). The church is the keeper of its members’ information: it decides who is listed, who may sign in, and what is shared. Laos (operated by John Worthington, Evansville, Indiana, USA — hello@laosapp.com) provides the software and, for Laos Cloud, the hosting.

What the app holds

• Directory entries entered by the church office or by you: name, household, phone, email, address, photo, birthday and anniversary, membership status, and the ministries and groups you belong to.
• Sign-in details: your email address, the one-time links and codes we send, and a sign-in session on your device. There are no passwords for members.
• What you post: prayer requests you share with the church, group announcements and discussion messages, sign-ups, and photos you submit.
• Notification registrations: if you turn notifications on, a device identifier issued by Apple or your browser, and your notification preferences.
• Usage counts: anonymous, aggregated counts of which parts of the app are used (for example how many members opened the reading plan on a day). These are not linked to you, and the raw entries are deleted after 90 days.

Kept only on your device and never sent to any server: your private prayer list and your reading-plan progress markers.

How it is used

To run the church’s app: show the directory to signed-in members of that church, deliver the church’s news, events, prayer list and sermons, send the notifications you asked for, and let the office administer it. Nothing else. There is no advertising, no profiling, and no sale or sharing of information with third parties for their purposes.

Who can see it

• Only signed-in members of your church see your directory entry and posts. Churches are completely separate from one another.
• Your church’s administrators (typically the office and elders) can see and edit all of that church’s information.
• For Laos Cloud, we operate the servers and can access data only to run and support the service. For self-hosted churches, we have no access at all.

Service providers

Laos Cloud runs on servers we operate in the United States, with encryption at rest. Sign-in and notification emails are sent through Google Workspace. Push notifications pass through Apple (iPhone) or your browser’s push service (Android and web); these carry only the notification text. Sermons and videos play from YouTube or SermonAudio, whose own policies apply when you watch. Bible passages open on Bible Gateway.

Retention and deletion

Information stays as long as you are listed by your church. When the church removes you, your directory entry, sign-ins and notification registrations are deleted from that instance. You can ask your church office to correct or remove your information at any time, and you can withdraw notification permission on your device whenever you like. Posts you made in groups may remain, attributed to a removed member, unless the church removes them.

Children

A church directory naturally lists children as part of their families; that information is entered and controlled by the church and the parents, and is visible only to signed-in members of that church. Laos accounts are for members the church has approved; the app is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from a child directly.

Your rights

You may ask to see, correct or delete your information. Because the church holds it, please ask your church office first; for Laos Cloud you may also contact us and we will work with the church. Residents of the EU/EEA, UK and California have specific legal rights to access, correction, deletion and portability, which we honour on request.

Changes

If this policy changes materially we will post the new version here with a new effective date and note it in the app.

Questions: hello@laosapp.com.