Last updated: 23 October 2026
Whetstone is a free scripture memorization and Bible study app. There are no ads, no in-app purchases, and nothing about you is sold or shared for advertising. This policy describes exactly what is stored, where, and how to get rid of it.
It was written against the app’s actual database, not from a template.
Signing in is optional. Signed out, everything you do — memorization progress, reading position, notes, highlights, prayer requests, habits — is stored only in your browser’s local storage on that device. It is not transmitted to us and we cannot see it.
If you clear your browser data or uninstall the app while signed out, that information is gone and cannot be recovered, by you or by us.
Your email address. Signing in uses a one-time code sent to your email. We store the address so we can recognise you next time. There is no password.
A display name, if you set one. It is shown to the members of any group you join beside what you post there, to that group’s administrators, and — only if an event’s organizer chooses to show who is going — to members viewing that event.
Your app data, synchronised so it reaches your other devices: memorization verses and progress, reading positions, daily training logs, training records and cycle history, reading plans and their progress, notes (including your private sermon notes), highlights, bookmarks, saved verses, habits, prayer requests, listening queue, and drill scores.
Reminder subscriptions, if you turn on reminders or notifications: a push subscription identifier issued by your browser, or the push token your phone issues to the app, the time of day you chose, and your time zone. This is what lets a notification arrive at the right local time.
Group data, if you join a group (a church, family, class or circle of friends): your membership, any prayer requests you post there, any posts you share to the group’s board and the name you post them under, the posts you mark Amen, anyone you have blocked, and any posts you have reported along with the reason you gave. If you are a group’s administrator, what you post for it — announcements, events, sermons and their notes, and the group’s logo and banner images.
Event sign-ups, if you respond to a group event: your response (going, maybe, can’t make it, or on the waitlist), the number of guests and, if the organizer asks, their names, your answers to the organizer’s questions, an optional note to the organizer, and whether you were checked in. This is visible to that group’s administrators, who can export it as a spreadsheet. If the organizer chooses to show who is going, other members of the group see your display name as going.
Whetstone runs on services that necessarily process some data on our behalf:
Scripture text is fetched through our own server so that these providers do not receive your device’s address directly.
If you join a church, anything you post to that church’s prayer wall is visible to every member of that church, and to that church’s administrators. It is not private, and it is not encrypted in a way that hides it from us.
An administrator can delete any post in their church and can remove members. Anyone holding your church’s invite code can join and read the wall, which is why administrators can change that code.
Do not post anything to a church wall that you would not want every member to read. If something is confidential, keep it in your personal prayer list instead — that is only ever visible to you.
The group’s board works the same way. Anything you post to the board — a reflection, a verse you share, or a note quoted from a commentary — is visible to everyone in that group, shown under the name you post as. Other members can mark it Amen, and anyone can report it. An administrator can remove any board post and can see which posts have been reported and the reasons given. Your board posts, the Amens you give, and the reports you file are deleted when you delete the post, or when you delete your account.
A reported post — on a prayer wall or the board — that a group’s administrators have not handled within a day may be reviewed and removed by Whetstone.
A church’s administrator can choose to give the church a public page. What goes on it is what they type or switch on: a description, service times, the church’s address, website, a livestream link, a contact email, sermons they mark public (and their posted outlines, if marked), the church’s podcast, its name, logo, banner and member count. Anyone can read a public page, signed in or not. Members’ names, the prayer wall, announcements, events and the invite code are never on it, and nobody’s personal sermon notes are ever public.
A church can also ask to be listed in Find a church. We review each listing before it appears. To find churches by distance we send the church’s address to the US Census Bureau’s free geocoding service and store the resulting map position. When you search by ZIP code the lookup happens on your device; when you tap Near me, your location is used for that one search and is not stored.
Anyone can report a public page. A report — what you wrote, which page, when, and your account if you were signed in — goes to the people who run Whetstone, who review it and may hide the page.
Your data is kept while your account exists. When you delete your account it is removed immediately, not archived. There is no waiting period and no soft delete.
Scripture text we cache from our providers is refreshed or discarded on a rolling cycle under their licence terms. That cache contains Bible text only — never anything about you.
You can delete your account and everything in it at any time:
Deleting removes your account, your synchronised app data, your reminders, your church membership, your prayer requests, your board posts and the Amens and reports tied to them, and your display name. It is permanent and immediate, and it applies to every device.
One exception exists so that other people are not harmed: if you are the only administrator of a church that still has members, deletion is refused, because it would leave that congregation with nobody able to moderate it. The app will tell you what to do instead.
Bible text and audio you downloaded for offline use stay on your device. That is public scripture content tied to the device rather than to you, and deleting it is done by clearing the app’s storage or uninstalling.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete your personal information, and to object to certain processing. Whetstone gives everyone the deletion right directly, without asking. For anything else, contact us using the address below.
Whetstone is intended for general audiences and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Sign-in uses one-time email codes, so there is no password to steal. Access to your data is enforced at the database level: rows are readable only by the account that owns them, and church content only by members of that church. Scripture provider API keys are held on the server and are never present in the app you download.
No system is perfectly secure, and we do not claim otherwise.
If this policy changes materially we will update the date at the top and note the change in the app.
Scripture translations are used under licence from their respective publishers. Full copyright notices for every translation and commentary in the app are listed on the Copyright screen inside Whetstone.
See also: Terms of use
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