Data collection & privacy
This notice describes what Exegetical collects and how its current features use that information. The operator is Kenneth Robertson. Effective November 3, 2026.
Information you choose to provide
| Information | Purpose and visibility |
|---|---|
| Email, password and authentication records | Account access and recovery, processed by Supabase Auth. Your password is handled by the authentication provider, not stored in profile fields. Your email is not shown to friends. |
| Study notes, highlights and reading preferences | Restore your study space across devices. Private to your account; friendship does not share them. |
| Username, display name and profile photo | Identify you to friends. If you enable discovery, exact-username searches can reveal these fields to signed-in people. Request participants also see these fields while a request is pending. |
| Optional bio, general location and study interests | Personalize your profile. Visible to you and accepted friends. Leave them blank if you prefer. |
| Friend requests, friendships and blocks | Manage who can contact you. Participants see their requests and friendships; your block list is visible to you. |
| Messages, verse references and timestamps | Deliver conversations to the participants. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted. Authorized operators can access stored records, for example to investigate abuse. |
| Reports and support/privacy requests | Manual handling by the operator. Other members cannot browse your reports. A reported message may be copied into the private report and reviewed. |
Notes and messages about Scripture may reveal religious beliefs or other sensitive information. Do not enter details you do not want this service to store. You control what you write, upload, send and remove. Do not include government identifiers, financial credentials, private medical information or another person’s confidential details.
Google sign-in
If you choose Google sign-in, Google and Supabase process the sign-in and provide your account identifier, email, name and profile picture. We request only basic identity, email and profile access, not Gmail, contacts or Drive. A Google photo is shown by default for a new profile. Saving your community profile imports a small WebP copy; an existing custom or removed photo is preserved unless you choose Use Google picture. Loading that photo contacts Google. Google sign-in is available only after the provider is configured.
Pictures
Profile pictures are center-cropped and resized to a small WebP image in your browser before upload. That conversion removes the original file’s embedded metadata; the original full-size file is not uploaded. The processed image is stored with your profile and follows the profile visibility rules. Removing a picture replaces the stored picture, though recipients may have saved a copy.
Technical data and providers
Vercel hosts this website and its server functions. Supabase provides authentication and the database. They may process IP addresses, request details, timestamps, security events and operational logs under their own policies. The app requests Bible data from AO Lab’s Free Use Bible API the official Crossway ESV API, and API.Bible through server functions. API.Bible translations also report Scripture views to its required Fair Use Management System (FUMS), including a passage request token and anonymous device and session identifiers stored by its tracker. The tracker loads only when API.Bible Scripture is displayed. We do not pass account IDs, emails, notes or messages to FUMS. These requests include passage information and, when you search the text of a licensed translation, the words you enter for that search; your private note text and private message text are not sent to Bible providers. Their licensing and privacy terms apply to their services.
The app uses Vercel Web Analytics for aggregate visits and Speed Insights for page-performance measurements. These tools may process page paths, referrer information, device/browser information and performance metrics. Our integration removes query strings and fragments from reported page URLs, excludes sign-in callbacks and the admin portal, and does not attach account IDs, note text, message text or form entries. Measurement runs only on the production site, honors Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track, and can be disabled on the Cookies & storage page. Vercel provides these measurements without analytics cookies. The app has no advertising trackers, does not sell your information, and does not send notes or messages to an AI service. It uses necessary cookies and browser storage described on the Cookies & storage page. No marketing email is sent by the app. Small per-account action counters are kept to limit spam and abusive requests.
Sharing and access
Content is sent to friends only when you choose to send a message or accept profile sharing through friendship. A shared verse is a reference and reading link; notes are not attached. Database access rules restrict private records to their owners or conversation participants. Infrastructure providers and authorized operators can still process stored data. We may preserve or disclose relevant records when required by applicable law or necessary to investigate abuse or protect the service.
Feedback and moderation
Bug reports, feedback, and ban appeals are visible to authorized administrators. Feedback may be linked to your signed-in account. Guest submissions use a hashed network identifier for daily rate limits. A ban deletes the account and keeps the blocked email, reason, delivery status, and appeal record for enforcement and review. A ban notice is sent to the blocked email with a private appeal link. An administrator can lift an email block to allow a new registration.
Retention and deletion
Account records are retained while your account exists unless you remove them. Retracting a message removes its content and verse attachment from the current conversation records; a timestamped placeholder remains. Unfriending does not erase old messages. Blocking stops new contact and removes the friendship; previously received messages can remain in history. Deleting your account removes its profile, notes, preferences, friendships, blocks and messages from the live database. Reports retain their text and any reported-message evidence, but account and message links may be removed. Provider logs and backups may persist under the providers’ retention policies; no immediate removal from every backup is promised.
Your controls and requests
In My account → Edit profile & privacy, you can change or remove optional profile details, disable exact-username discovery, manage blocks, download your account data, submit a privacy request or delete your account. Exports include your profile, study records, preferences, friendships, blocks, visible conversation records and your reports. The note-only export remains available in My notebook. Guest notes are local to the browser and can be removed by clearing its site data.
Requests for access, correction or other applicable privacy rights can be submitted through the Contact & requests page. We may need to verify account ownership. We do not promise a particular legal outcome or response time. The service is not intended for account use by people under 16; report an underage account through the same page. Provider processing may occur outside your country. We will date meaningful changes to this notice here.