1. Who is responsible for information
Each participating church determines why and how its ministry records are used. Zionel provides the platform and processes those records for the church under its service arrangement. Questions about an individual record should normally begin with the church that collected it.
2. Information the platform may process
Depending on the features a church enables and a person’s role, Zionel may process:
- Account and contact details, role assignments, authentication state, and security events.
- Member, household, attendance, first-time guest, follow-up, ministry team, pastoral-care, prayer, testimony, and communication records.
- Giving designations, contribution status, fee and ledger details, and provider references needed for reconciliation. Zionel does not intentionally collect full payment-card numbers or card security codes through its own forms when a hosted payment provider is used.
- Technical diagnostics, audit records, device and browser information, approximate network information, and support correspondence needed to secure and operate the service.
3. Why information is used
Information is used to deliver authorized church workflows, maintain account and tenant security, provide records and statements, communicate with people, prevent abuse and duplicate operations, resolve support issues, meet legal obligations, and improve platform reliability. Zionel does not currently sell personal information or build advertising profiles.
5. AI-assisted features
Where an authorized church enables an AI-assisted workflow, the platform should send only the context needed for that request to the configured provider. AI output is advisory and requires human review; it must not replace pastoral judgment, financial authorization, or safeguarding decisions. Provider processing is governed by the applicable service terms and data-protection arrangements.
7. Security safeguards
Production traffic is required to use TLS. The platform applies role separation, tenant boundaries, signed sessions, request forgery protections, restrictive browser policies, rate controls, audit records, and least-privilege operational practices. Hosting, database, and backup encryption depend on the approved production deployment. No online service can promise absolute security.
8. Retention and deletion
Records are retained according to church instructions, operational recovery needs, contracts, and legal obligations. Some audit, financial-ledger, security, and backup records may need to remain for integrity or compliance. When deletion is appropriate, it is performed through authorized processes rather than by bypassing historical controls.
9. Choices and privacy rights
Depending on applicable law, a person may ask to access, correct, delete, or restrict use of their information. Contact the church that maintains the record first so it can verify identity and authority. The church or Zionel support team may retain information where legal, safety, financial, or security duties require it.
10. Children and safeguarding
Churches must collect and use children’s information only with appropriate authority and safeguarding controls. Zionel does not knowingly invite children to create independent public accounts outside a church’s approved process.
11. Changes and contact
Material policy changes will be posted here with a revised effective date. For a record held by a church, contact that church’s administrator or privacy lead. For platform questions, use the Zionel support channel identified in the church’s service agreement or visit the support section of the FAQ.