Privacy Policy

Overview

Lyra Bible ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your information when you use our mobile application and website.

Information We Collect

When you create an account, we collect your email address, your name, and a password. If you sign in with Apple or Google instead, we collect an account identifier from Apple or Google, along with the name and email address you choose to share. Either way, we give your account a unique identifier of our own, which links what you save to your account. If you add a profile photo, we store it.

As you use the app, we store your reading plan enrollments and progress, plan reflections and journal entries, saved verses, verse highlights and notes, named bookmarks, and, outside reading plans, the chapters you open and the ones you listen to all the way through, which count toward your reading streak and badges. We also store your badge and streak progress, Verse of the Day interactions, your theme, translation, and haptic feedback preferences, your notification and reminder settings, and feedback you submit on verse insights and on the app's notes about people, places, and events (thumbs up/down).

The app sends your device's time zone with most of its requests, and we save it with your account, so your reading days and reminders follow your local time. On iOS, unless you've turned off notifications for Lyra Bible, the app also sends us your device's push token, which we store with your account to send you notifications.

When you search the Bible, the app sends the text of your search to our server in the body of the request, not in its address, so our hosting provider's request logs don't keep it. We don't save your searches to your account, but if our server hits an error while handling a search, the error report can include its text, and a search in a licensed translation is passed on to API.Bible, as described below. Older versions of the app send the text in the address of the request instead, until you update the app. From those versions, the text can also appear in our hosting provider's request logs and in the app's error reports.

When the app or your browser contacts our server, our server receives your IP address and your device or browser type, and our hosting provider keeps them in its request logs, along with the address requested. The app also creates random IDs for your installation of it. One is sent with its error reports, one with its registrations with Expo, and one with its reports to API.Bible, along with a random ID for each launch of the app.

When the app crashes, hits an error, or freezes on iOS, or when our server or website hits an error, we can collect an error report, as described under Error and Crash Reports.

On our website, if you join the waitlist, we collect your email address through Kit. If you give a gift, you enter your payment details on Stripe's checkout page, and Stripe keeps a record of your gift for us, which shows us your card's type and last four digits but never its full number, and the IP address you paid from, as described under Optional Support Payments.

If you email us, we receive your message and your email address. When you open our support page from the app's Profile tab, the app passes the page your app's build number, your iOS version and, once the app has confirmed you're signed in, your account's identifier, and the page adds them to the email it starts for you, and shows them to you first. The page itself sends them nowhere: tapping the button hands them to your email app, which may save the unsent email as a draft with your email provider, as it would any email you start.

How We Use Your Information

We use your information to provide and maintain the app, save your reading progress and preferences across devices, improve insight and study content quality through aggregated feedback, diagnose and fix crashes and errors, and send essential account-related communications.

Content Processing

Lyra Bible uses a content processing provider, OpenAI, to prepare the app's study content, such as verse insights, entity summaries, and contextual information, along with cover art and the app's audio narration of the Bible. We send OpenAI Bible text and our own content, such as our instructions and the titles, descriptions, and tags of our reading plans. We do not send your personal information to OpenAI, or anything you write in the app.

Error and Crash Reports

We use Sentry, an error-reporting service, to find and fix problems in the app, on our server, and on our website. When the app crashes, hits an error, or freezes on iOS, or when our server or website hits an error, a report can be sent to Sentry. A report describes the problem and where in our code it happened, and what else it includes depends on where it comes from. A report from the app includes your device model, its operating system and language settings, and a short record of what happened just before, such as the requests the app made and what you tapped. The app's reports of a freeze on iOS include your time zone too, and a report from the app can note a change in your device's offset from UTC, giving the old and new offsets. A report from the website includes your browser, its operating system, language settings, and time zone, the address of the page and the page you came from, and a short record of what happened just before, such as the requests made and what you clicked.

When our server hits an error while handling a request, the report includes the address of that request and its headers, which show your device or browser type, and a short record of what our server did while handling it, such as the calls it made to other services. It can also include what that request sent, such as your email address, your name, the text of a verse search, or the text of a note, reflection, or journal entry, with passwords, sign-in tokens, and codes blanked out. For a request from the app, the report can also include your device's time zone, which the app sends with most of its requests to our server. Older versions of the app send a search's text in the address of its request instead, so until you update the app, reports from the app and from our server can also include it as part of that address. A report from one of our scheduled jobs, such as the one that sends notifications, or from a script we run by hand has no device model, browser, or request address, and its record of what happened just before is the job's own log and its calls to other services. Reports from our server, its scheduled jobs included, can include identifiers for your account and, when a notification fails to send, your device's push token. Reports from the app carry random IDs created for your installation of the app.

The app and the website also send Sentry session records, so we can see how often crashes happen. The app's session records say when you started and stopped using it and whether it crashed, and carry a random ID for your installation of the app. The website's session records say when a page loaded or you moved to another page on the site and whether an error happened on that page, and include your browser type. We set up Sentry not to record your IP address, and we use these reports and records only to diagnose and fix problems.

Optional Support Payments

Lyra Bible is free, with no ads and no paid features. You can support it with an optional one-time or monthly gift on lyrabible.com, which the app links to from its Profile tab. Gifts are processed securely by Stripe. When you choose a gift, your browser goes to Stripe's checkout page, so Stripe receives your IP address, your browser type, that you came from lyrabible.com, and the amount you chose and whether it's one-time or monthly. On that page, you enter your payment details, and Stripe receives them along with the contact details you enter there. Stripe keeps a record of your gift in our Stripe account, which we can see. It includes the amount, the date, whether it's one-time or monthly, the name and email address you entered, your card's type and last four digits, and the IP address you paid from. We use it to keep track of gifts and to answer questions about them. We never see your full card number, and our own systems store none of your payment details – all payment processing is handled directly by Stripe in accordance with their privacy policy.

Data Sharing

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties. We may share anonymized, aggregated data for analytics purposes. We use the following service providers to operate the service.

Render hosts our server, our database, and our website, so your account information and what you save in the app are stored on its systems. Our server runs on Render, so every request the app or your browser sends to it is processed on Render's systems, and Render handles what the request contains, such as your sign-in details, the text of your searches, what you write in the app, and any profile photo you add, including what our server doesn't keep. Render keeps logs of the requests our server receives, including your IP address, your device or browser type, and the address requested. The address doesn't include the text of your searches, except from older versions of the app, which send it there until you update the app.

Cloudflare's network sits in front of our server and our website. Every request the app or your browser sends to them passes through Cloudflare on its way to us, so Cloudflare receives your IP address and your device or browser type, and handles what the request contains, such as your sign-in details and what you save in the app. Cloudflare also stores and delivers the app's images, audio, and downloadable text, including your profile photo if you add one, and receives your device's IP address when the app downloads them.

OpenAI receives Bible text and our own content to prepare study content, cover art, and audio narration, as described under Content Processing, and no personal information.

Sentry receives error and crash reports and session records, as described under Error and Crash Reports.

Resend sends our account emails, such as password reset and email verification codes, and receives your email address and the message.

Google hosts our email, so when you write to us, Google receives your message, your email address and anything the message carries, such as the details our support page adds.

Expo and Apple deliver our push notifications. On iOS, while you're signed in and haven't turned off notifications for Lyra Bible, the app registers with Expo directly each time your sign-in starts or renews: when you sign in or create your account, when you change your password, each time the app starts, and regularly while you use the app. Once the app has registered on your device, it also updates that registration with Expo on its own when Apple changes your device's notification address, and when the app starts and hasn't updated it in the past week, even if you have since signed out or turned off notifications. Each time, Expo receives your device's IP address, a random ID for your installation of the app, and the address Apple uses to deliver notifications to your device. When we send you a notification, Expo receives your device's push token and the notification's content, such as the day's verse, or which of your reading plans and which day a reminder is for. Expo passes the notification to Apple's push notification service, which delivers it to your device, so Apple receives its content too, along with the address Apple uses to deliver notifications to your device.

You can sign in with your Apple or Google account. If you do, the app opens Apple's or Google's own sign-in, so Apple or Google receives your device's connection, including its IP address, and your request to sign in to Lyra Bible, and their own privacy policies govern what they do with it. Apple or Google then shares an account identifier with us, along with the name and email address you choose to share. If you delete an account that signs in with Apple, we ask Apple to revoke Lyra Bible's access to your Apple Account.

Apple also provides the maps in the app. When the app shows a place on a map, it loads the map directly from Apple, so Apple receives your device's IP address and the area of the map shown, and Apple's privacy policy governs what it does with them.

API.Bible provides some licensed Bible translations. Our server gets their text from API.Bible without sending your account details or IP address, and when you search one of them, it sends API.Bible your search text. Licensed text comes with a usage token from API.Bible, and the app reports the tokens for the licensed text it shows back to API.Bible, so API.Bible can count use of its text. The app reports a token once rather than each time it shows the same text, though it can report it again later, such as when that text appears on a new screen. These reports come directly from your device, so API.Bible receives your IP address with them, along with random IDs for your installation of the app and for each launch of it.

Stripe processes optional gifts, as described under Optional Support Payments.

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) runs the waitlist on our website. If you join it, Kit receives your email address and sends you the waitlist's emails. Our home page loads Kit's sign-up form script from Kit, so Kit also receives your IP address and browser type when you visit that page.

Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including encrypted passwords (bcrypt hashing), secure token-based authentication (JWT), and HTTPS encryption for all data in transit.

Your Rights

You may request access to the personal data we hold about you, request deletion of your account and associated data, and update your email or display name through the app. To exercise these rights, contact us at the email address below.

Children's Privacy

Lyra Bible is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at [email protected].