Home · Privacy
Your privacy on this site
Last updated: [effective date]
This site is run by the Defense and Confirmation Project (DCP). It helps people find responses from the co-workers, DCP, and the local churches' own websites, quoted and linked. You can ask questions here without an account, and your questions are not tied to who you are.
The short version:
- We never store your question exactly as you typed it. Names, schools, places, and contact details are removed first.
- Our database never stores your IP address, and there are no visitor accounts, names, or email addresses.
- We look only at combined trends, such as which questions many people ask, so we can improve the site and find topics we haven't answered yet.
- We don't sell anything about you, and the site has no advertising or ad trackers.
- Most records are deleted, or have their question text removed, after 90 days.
What this notice covers
This notice covers this site, including its question and topic pages. The responses we show link to DCP's and the local churches' own websites. When you follow a link, you leave this site, and that site's own privacy policy applies.
What you type is up to you
Please leave names and other personal details out of your questions. We remove them before anything is saved, but you are the best protection.
When you ask a question
Before anything is saved, an automated step removes personal details from your question. For example, “my roommate Jenny at UC Davis says…” is saved as “my roommate [name] at [school] says…”. If that step fails, we save no question text at all, only counts.
Along with the cleaned question, we keep which responses were shown, how they were used (for example, whether a source was opened or “Did this help?” was answered), your approximate area, and a daily device code (explained under “Visits”).
We keep what we save in a form meant not to identify anyone, and we will not try to work out who anyone is from it.
If you share results, we give the cleaned question a random link. Anyone with the link sees the same responses. The link preview never shows what you typed.
If you report a problem, we keep what kind of problem it was, the cleaned question, the results shown, and your optional note, after the same removal of personal details. If the note can't be cleaned, we drop it.
On your device
Your browser keeps a few things on your device so the site works well: your questions and results while the tab is open, a simple count of your visits (restarted after 13 months, and not kept at all for visitors in the EU or UK), and copies of pages you've opened so they load without a connection. None of it identifies you. Closing the tab clears your questions and results, and clearing this site's data in your browser removes the rest. We use no cookies.
Visits
For each page you open, we record general information: the kind of page, the kind of device (phone or computer), how you arrived (for example, from a search engine, a shared link, your home screen, or a link made for an event), your approximate area, and whether you've visited before. We never record the address of the site that sent you.
The daily device code is a scrambled code that changes every day. It lets us count how many different devices visited on a given day, but it can't be traced back to you or recognize you from one day to the next.
Approximate area (country, state, and city, worked out by our hosting provider) helps us see which regions need more help. We report an area only when enough people from it used the site, so no one can be picked out, and sensitive topics are reported by state only.
Your IP address. Our database never stores it. Like every website, our hosting provider sees it to deliver pages and block abuse. Its request logs are kept for about a day, and it keeps some security data under its own privacy notice.
How long we keep it
After the periods below, records are deleted automatically, or their question text is removed and only counts remain. Our database backups clear within about a week after that.
| What | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Cleaned questions and share links | 90 days, then only counts remain |
| Visits and how results were used | 90 days |
| Problem reports | 12 months |
| Weekly trend summaries for editors | 3 years |
| Combined totals and the list of topics not yet answered | Indefinitely (no personal details) |
| Records used to stop misuse | Up to 1 day in our records; about a day in our hosting provider's request logs |
| On your device | Until you close the tab (questions and results) or clear this site's data (everything else) |
Who sees it
Our editors see a weekly summary of combined trends: how many people asked about each topic, which responses helped, and where responses are missing. A topic appears only if people on at least 5 different devices asked about it, and an unusual wording is never shown. Editors never see questions tied to a person or a small area.
Service providers run parts of the site for us. They may use the data only to provide their service, and they may keep it longer only where the law requires it or to stop misuse of their service.
| Service | What it does | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| AI service | Removes personal details from your question and restates it so search works better | Your question as typed. It may keep it for up to 30 days to provide and protect its service. It does not use it to train its models. |
| Search service | Finds passages that match your question's meaning | Your question as typed and its cleaned version. It deletes them right after use and never uses them to train its models. |
| Database host | Stores the site's records | The records described in this notice |
| Website host | Delivers the website and works out your approximate area | Your connection details, including your IP address, to deliver each page and protect the site. Request logs are kept about a day; some security data is kept under its own privacy notice. |
Children and teens
This site is for a general audience, not for children under 13. We don't ask for anyone's name, age, or contact details, and we remove names and other personal details from questions before saving them. There are no accounts, no ads, and no way for visitors to contact one another. If you're a parent or guardian and believe your child under 13 used the site, contact us at the address below, and we'll delete anything about your child on request.
Your choices
Because nothing we keep is tied to who you are, we can't look up a person's questions by name or device. What you can do:
- leave personal details out of your questions;
- close the tab to clear your questions and results from your device;
- clear this site's data in your browser to remove everything else it keeps there.
There are no cookies to turn off.
Do Not Track. We don't track visitors across websites or over time, so we treat everyone as if Do Not Track (or Global Privacy Control) were on. We never sell or share information for advertising.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what information we hold about you, and to have it corrected or deleted. Because what we keep isn't tied to who you are, we usually can't tell which records are yours. But if you tell us roughly when you asked a question and what it said, we'll look for it and delete it. Write to us at the address below; we reply within 45 days.
Security
We protect the site with standard safeguards: connections to the site are encrypted, stored data is encrypted, and only a few DCP staff can open the database. No website can promise perfect security, which is one more reason we keep so little. We share information only when the law requires it.
Where your data is kept
The site's records are stored in the United States.
If something is weighing on you
This site points you to responses that have already been published. It can't take the place of fellowship with people who care for you. If a question is troubling you, or you're going through something difficult, please talk with someone you trust, such as a parent or an older brother or sister in the church. If you or someone else is in danger, call 911 or your local emergency number.
Contact us
Defense and Confirmation Project, [postal address]. Questions about this notice or your privacy: [privacy email address].
Changes to this notice
When we change this notice, we post the new version here and update the date at the top. Earlier versions stay available from this page.