Privacy policy

Who we are

This website, ststephencypresstx.org, belongs to St. Stephen Coptic Orthodox Church, 18937 Kz Rd., Cypress, TX 77433. It includes the parish hub, where members sign in. We never sell your information, and we never use it for advertising.

What you send us

The website collects only what you type into its forms:

• Contact form: Your name, email address, subject and message. They are emailed to the church so we can answer you, and they are not saved on the website.
• Prayer requests: Your request, and your name and email address if you choose to give them. They are emailed to Fr. Abraam Kamal only, and never saved on the website or in the parish hub.
• Stay connected: Your email address, added to the church’s announcements list so you receive the weekly email. Every announcement has a link to leave the list.
• Volunteer sign-ups: Your name, and your phone number and email address if you give them, so the volunteer lead can reach you. After 30 days the phone number and email address are removed, and only your first name stays.

Our email provider keeps a copy of each message it sends for about 30 days.

What the website collects on its own

• Bot check: When you start filling in a form, a security service checks that you are a person and not a program. It sees your device’s internet address and basic browser details, not what you type.
• Spam limits: To stop floods of messages, the website counts form submissions from each internet address. It keeps only a scrambled version of the address, and deletes it within about a day.
• Cookies: Small cookies remember your language and text size. Signing in to the parish hub adds the cookies that keep you signed in. There are no advertising or tracking cookies, and no outside analytics.
• Maps, videos and giving: The map, the video thumbnails and the giving form come from outside services, which receive your device’s internet address when they load.

Signing in with Apple or Google

The parish hub lets you sign in with your Apple or Google account instead of a password. Nothing is shared until you choose one and agree on Apple’s or Google’s own screen.

• Google: Google shares your name, email address and Google profile picture with us, and nothing else: no contacts, email, calendar or files.
• Apple: Apple shares your email address, or a private relay address if you choose to hide yours.

We use this only to create your account, sign you in, and suggest your name when you first set up your profile. Your email address is how the hub recognizes you. Your Google profile picture is not shown in the hub.

We never sell this information, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone else. It is kept with your sign-in record until you delete your account, which removes it.

Our use of information received from Google APIs follows the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

The parish hub

Members who sign in to the parish hub can join groups, post and share files. The hub is for people 14 and older; parents can add their children’s names to their own family, and children have no accounts.

The parish hub is not open yet. Its own privacy notice will be linked here when it opens.

Who we share it with

Only the services that run the website for us: hosting, the database, email delivery and the bot check. They may use your information only to provide those services. We share it with anyone else only if the law requires it.

How long we keep it

Messages from the contact and prayer forms are not saved on the website. You stay on the announcements list until you leave it. Volunteer sign-ups lose their phone number and email address after 30 days. A parish hub account is kept until you delete it.

Your choices

• Leave the announcements list with the link in any announcement email.
• Delete your parish hub account at any time in Me › Delete account. This also removes what Apple or Google shared with us.
• Remove the hub’s access to your Google account at any time in your Google Account, under Security, then Your connections to third-party apps and services.
• Ask for a copy of what we keep about you, or for it to be removed, by emailing help@ststephencypresstx.org.

Questions

Email help@ststephencypresstx.org, or write to St. Stephen Coptic Orthodox Church, 18937 Kz Rd., Cypress, TX 77433. For pastoral matters, speak with Fr. Abraam Kamal at church.

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page.