Privacy Policy
Effective as of: July 17, 2026
FaithBot is a place to explore faith and ask honest questions — privately and without judgment. This Privacy Policy explains how FaithBot collects, uses, and discloses information, and the choices and rights you have. We collect as little as possible, and you can use FaithBot without giving us your name.
FaithBot is developed and operated by the Innovation Team of the International Mission Board (IMB) ("we," "us," or "IMB"). By using FaithBot, you consent to the practices described here.
Information we collect and how we use it
- Your conversations. The messages you send and FaithBot's replies are stored so the conversation can continue, so we can improve quality and safety, and — if you sign in — so you can return to them. Conversations are automatically deleted after 90 days. From them we derive de-identified statistics (such as language, general region, and topic) that are not linked to you and that we keep to understand overall usage and trends.
- An anonymous identifier. We place a random ID in your browser (a cookie) so your session works and — if you're a guest — so your usage allowance is tracked. It is not linked to your name or identity.
- Approximate location and network data. We do not store your raw IP address — we keep a one-way, salted hash of it, plus an approximate location (such as country or region), which we use to analyze trends, administer the service, prevent abuse, and understand where FaithBot is reaching people, on an aggregate basis. Note that your IP address is nonetheless visible to the third parties listed below, including Google Analytics and our hosting provider, as it is to any website you visit.
- An optional account. If you choose to sign in with Google, we receive your name and email address so we can save your conversation history and let you return to it. You may use FaithBot fully as a guest without ever signing in.
- Optional prayer or follow-up requests. Only if you choose to share contact details to talk with a real person do we store that information, and we use it solely to follow up with you. Once someone has followed up, your name and contact details are erased within 30 days; the request itself is deleted after 180 days at the latest. A team member can also delete it immediately at any point.
- Basic usage analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand aggregate usage, such as how many people visit and which languages are used. It loads when the page opens, before you type anything, and Google receives your IP address, the page address (which includes your chosen language), and the analytics cookies described below. We do not send Google your conversations.
Cookies
A cookie is a small piece of data stored by your browser. FaithBot sets these:
Functional — needed for the service to work. Not linked to your name or identity.
- fb_anon — a random, anonymous session identifier, kept for up to 90 days (the same period as your conversations, after which there is nothing left for it to refer to).
- fb_user — set only if you sign in, to keep you signed in for up to seven days. Signing out ends it immediately, on our side as well as yours.
- fb_human — a short-lived token confirming a browser (not an automated bot) passed our security check.
Analytics — set by Google Analytics, not by us, and kept for up to two years:
- _ga and _ga_<id> — Google Analytics identifiers used to count visits and returning visitors. Unlike the cookies above, these are set by Google and can be read by Google across other websites that also use Google Analytics.
We also store a few settings in your browser's local storage — your chosen language, your Bible translation preference, and whether you have seen the introduction. You can remove all of this, and delete your conversations from our server, using Clear my data on this device in Settings.
Third-party services
To provide and protect FaithBot, a limited amount of data is processed by trusted providers:
- AI model providers. Your messages are processed by AI language models accessed through OpenRouter. We restrict this to vetted providers and request that your data not be retained or used to train their models.
- Cloudflare Turnstile. We use Cloudflare Turnstile to protect FaithBot from automated abuse. Cloudflare processes limited technical signals from your browser to distinguish humans from bots. See Cloudflare's Turnstile Privacy Policy.
- Google. Google Analytics (usage measurement) and, if you use it, Google Sign-In.
Sharing of information
We will not sell or rent your personal information to other organizations. We may disclose information to service providers who help us operate FaithBot (as described above), and where required to comply with the law, respond to lawful requests, or protect the rights, safety, and security of users and the public.
Security
We take reasonable measures to protect the information in our care, including transport encryption (HTTPS), storing only a salted hash of network addresses, and limiting access. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Protection of children
FaithBot is not directed to children under the age of 13. In keeping with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 — with or without parental consent. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
Your rights and choices
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or port your personal data, to object to certain processing, and to withdraw consent (without affecting processing already carried out). You can also:
- Use FaithBot as a guest, without an account.
- Decline to share any contact information.
- Delete any conversation at any time — whether or not you are signed in. Deleting permanently removes that conversation and its messages from our server. We keep only de-identified statistics (such as language, general region, and topic) that are not linked to you.
- Erase everything this browser holds, and every conversation it started, with Clear my data on this device in Settings. This also forgets the anonymous identifier, so a later visit is not connected to this one.
- Request deletion of your account data, or exercise any of the rights above, by contacting us.
To make a request or lodge a concern, use the form below. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.
Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "effective as of" date above. Your continued use of FaithBot after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Contact
Questions about this Privacy Policy or your data? Send them to the FaithBot team (Innovation Team, International Mission Board) with the form below. We use what you enter only to answer you, and we do not store this form — the email it sends is the only copy.
Prefer email, or the form is not working for you? Write to innovation@imb.org directly. You have the right to reach us either way.
FaithBot is a companion and a first step — never a replacement for the Bible, a local church, or real relationships. This policy is provided in English, which is the authoritative version. Please also review our Terms of Use.