Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28 July 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.

The short version

  • You can use most of Whetstone without an account at all. Signed out, your work stays on your device and never reaches us.
  • If you sign in, we store your email address and the app data you create, so it can follow you to another device.
  • We do not use analytics, advertising, tracking pixels, or third-party profiling.
  • You can delete your account and everything in it from inside the app, or from the web if you have uninstalled it.

Using Whetstone without an account

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.

What we store if you do sign in

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. Only you and an administrator of a church you have joined can see it.

Your app data, synchronised so it reaches your other devices: memorization verses and progress, reading positions, daily training logs, streaks and cycle history, notes, highlights, bookmarks, saved verses, habits, prayer requests, listening queue, and drill scores.

Reminder subscriptions, if you turn on reminders: a push subscription identifier issued by your browser, the time of day you chose, and your time zone. This is what lets a notification arrive at the right local time.

Church data, if you join a church: your membership, any prayer requests you post there, anyone you have blocked, and any posts you have reported.

What we do not do

  • No advertising, ad networks, or advertising identifiers.
  • No analytics or usage-tracking product.
  • No selling, renting, or sharing personal information with anyone for their own purposes.
  • No profiling, scoring, or automated decisions about you.
  • No use of your content to train AI or machine-learning models. Our scripture provider’s terms prohibit this and we do not do it with your data either.

Who else is involved

Whetstone runs on services that necessarily process some data on our behalf:

  • Supabase — database, sign-in, and server functions. Holds your account and synchronised app data.
  • Netlify — hosts the app and the server function that fetches scripture.
  • Your browser’s push service (Google for Chrome and Android, Apple for Safari and iOS) — delivers reminder notifications. It receives the subscription identifier your browser issued; it does not receive your email address or your app data.
  • API.Bible (American Bible Society) and Crossway — provide licensed Bible translations. Their licence requires us to report anonymous usage so publishers can see how their translations are used. What is reported is a one-way hashed identifier, a device identifier, and a session identifier. Your email address is never sent, and the hash cannot be reversed to identify you.

Scripture text is fetched through our own server so that these providers do not receive your device’s address directly.

Church prayer requests — please read this one

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.

How long we keep things

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.

Deleting your account

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, 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.

Your rights

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.

Children

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.

Security

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.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially we will update the date at the top and note the change in the app.

Contact

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.

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