Our commitment to privacy
Rooted Word is a Bible reading, study, audio, and discipleship application provided by Rooted Truth Ministries. We seek to collect only the information reasonably necessary to provide and maintain the app.
An account is not required for Bible reading, word studies, offline search, or other core reader features. You must sign in to create or save a sermon in Sermon Companion, including a Listen Along session, or to participate in the Rooted in Prayer community. Accounts can be created with an email address and password or through Google or Apple sign-in.
Accounts and community features
If you create an account, Rooted Word stores your email address, chosen display name, authentication/provider identifiers, and account metadata. Rooted in Prayer content you submit is sent to our servers and may be reviewed by moderators before it appears to other users. If you opt into prayer notifications, an Expo push token associated with your device and app installation is stored for delivery; turning notifications off or deleting your account disables the registration. Account-based Sermon Companion records are stored separately from local Bible-reading and study data.
Information stored on your device
Rooted Word may store app preferences and user-created or activity-related information locally on your device so the app can function as expected. Depending on the features you use, this may include:
- theme and display preferences;
- reading or listening position;
- saved notes, highlights, bookmarks, or study progress;
- Bible audio playback progress and listening history; and
- other settings needed to preserve your experience between app sessions.
Information listed here is generally stored on your device. This does not apply to account-based features or to content you choose to submit to an online service. Listen Along audio and saved sermon records are described below.
Network requests and third-party content
Some Rooted Word features require an internet connection. The app may request Bible audio, podcast feeds or media, app resources, or other hosted content from Rooted Truth Ministries or third-party content providers. Account-based features also send the information needed to provide those features to Rooted Word services and the service providers described below.
When your device connects to an online service, that service may receive standard technical information necessary to deliver the request, such as an IP address, request time, device or browser information, and the requested resource.
Sermon Companion — Listen Along
Listen Along requires a signed-in account and microphone permission. When you start recording, Rooted Word captures microphone audio in short, approximately one-minute AAC/M4A chunks. The microphone may pick up the sermon and other nearby sounds or voices. On supported devices, recording may continue while the app is in the background or the screen is locked.
Chunks are stored temporarily in private app storage on your device and uploaded to private server object storage so a session can be recovered and uploads or transcription can be retried. Local chunks are excluded from device backups. After a chunk has been transcribed successfully, the app deletes that local chunk. If a local chunk remains pending, the app checks for chunks older than seven days at startup and when it returns to the foreground. This check is not a background timer, so a chunk may remain beyond seven days until a later check runs.
Listen Along audio chunks are sent to Gemini through Replit's managed AI integration for transcription; the resulting transcript is analyzed to identify Scripture and build sermon notes. Other uploaded audio or video is sent to Gemini for transcription and analysis. When you add a YouTube link, its URL is sent to Gemini for video analysis and is also saved with the sermon record. Pasted transcripts or notes submitted for Sermon Companion analysis are sent to Gemini as text. This policy does not make a claim about Gemini's own data-retention or model-training practices. Server audio is scheduled for deletion seven days after the upload is accepted. Ordinary Sermon Companion audio or video uploads are private, used for processing, and scheduled for deletion after seven days; saved transcripts, analysis, and notes remain until you delete the sermon or account. Discarding a session requests immediate deletion of its uploaded audio and removes local chunks when the discard is accepted; if server deletion fails, it is queued for retry. Cleanup failures or service outages can delay deletion, so this is not a guarantee of a fixed physical-erasure time.
When you finish a session, the transcript and sermon notes are saved as a Sermon Companion record. They are separate from the temporary audio and are not deleted by the audio cleanup schedule. You can delete a saved sermon and its transcript and notes from Sermon Companion. Account deletion queues private Listen Along and uploaded Sermon Companion media before account records cascade, then attempts immediate deletion; failures remain in the durable retry ledger.
Ask Rooted
If Ask Rooted is enabled, your questions, conversation messages, bounded conversation context, and usage records are stored on our servers to provide chat history, safety controls, and usage limits. Questions and relevant conversation context are sent to Gemini through Replit's managed AI integration to generate answers; prayer-board data is not included. These records are deleted when you delete your account. This policy does not make a claim about Gemini's own data-retention or model-training practices.
Word-pronunciation audio
Pronunciation audio for word studies is generated using Microsoft Azure AI Speech from word data; user prayer, sermon, and chat content is not sent for this feature.
Analytics and diagnostic information
Rooted Truth Ministries does not sell personal information. We also do not use the current public release to build advertising profiles or serve targeted advertisements.
If diagnostic or crash-reporting services are enabled for a particular release, they are used to identify technical problems and improve reliability. We do not intentionally place the text of private notes or other sensitive user-created content into diagnostic logs.
Donations and external websites
Rooted Word may provide a link that allows users to support Rooted Truth Ministries. Donations are optional and do not unlock app features.
Donation transactions are handled outside Rooted Word by the third-party fundraising provider shown on the donation page. Rooted Word does not directly receive or store your payment-card information.
Children's privacy
Rooted Word is intended for a general Christian audience and is not directed to children under 13. Rooted in Prayer and Sermon Companion require an account. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13; contact us if you believe a child has created an account.
Security
We use reasonable administrative and technical measures appropriate to the information handled by the app. No method of electronic storage or transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
Retention and deletion
Information stored only on your device remains there until you delete it through available app controls, clear the app's data where supported, or uninstall the app.
Account-based community content and saved Sermon Companion records are stored separately from local reader data. You can delete a saved sermon, including its transcript and notes, in Sermon Companion. Under the current database cascade, deleting an account deletes its profile and Rooted in Prayer posts; posts are not retained or anonymized. Account deletion also deletes Ask Rooted conversations, messages, and usage records.
Listen Along's temporary audio follows the cleanup process described above. Account deletion queues owned private audio before account records cascade and attempts immediate deletion; failures remain in the durable retry ledger.
Links to other services
Rooted Word may open external websites or services, including ministry resources, podcast or audio resources, and donation pages. Some app features also use service providers to process information, as described above. External websites have their own privacy practices.
Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as Rooted Word changes. When changes are material, we will update the effective date above and make the revised policy available at this same public URL.
Contact us
Questions about Rooted Word or this Privacy Policy can be sent to Rooted Truth Ministries: