Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Worship Scout is a marketplace connecting churches with musicians, worship leaders, and other production/media talent ("Talent") for paid bookings. Operating that marketplace means handling personal information — account details, profile content, booking and payment information, and messages between users. This policy describes what we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have about it.

2. Information we collect

Account and profile information. When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and phone number. Depending on your role, your profile may also include: for churches, a church name, denomination, description, website, one or more locations, and service/promotional videos; for Talent, a bio, the skills/instruments you offer, rates, availability, experience, equipment preferences, photos, and performance videos. Most profile content is shown publicly on the Service by design, since it's how the other side of the marketplace finds and evaluates you.

Booking and messaging information. We collect the details of booking requests you send or receive (dates, locations, rates, and any notes), the messages you exchange with the other party about a booking, and any reviews you leave or receive.

Payment information. Card details are collected and processed directly by our payment processor — we don't receive or store your full card number. For Talent, payout account details (used to receive payment for bookings) are collected and held by our payment processor's connected-account system, not by us directly. We do retain records of the transactions themselves — amounts, dates, and status — as part of your account and booking history.

Information collected automatically. Like most websites, we (and analytics and advertising tools we use) automatically collect some information as you use the Service — your device and browser type, IP address, pages viewed, and general usage patterns — to help us understand how the Service is used, keep it running well, and measure our advertising. See Section 5 for the specific tools involved.

Information from connected third-party accounts. A church may optionally connect a third-party planning/scheduling account to link its service plans to bookings. If you do, we access and store limited information from that account — for example, service types and plan or team names — only as needed to provide that linking feature, along with the access credentials needed to keep the connection working (stored separately from the rest of your profile and never shown to other users).

What we don't collect. We don't collect government identification numbers (Social Security, driver's license, or passport numbers), biometric information, health information, precise geolocation, or the contents of your email or text messages outside the Service. Location information we hold is approximate — derived from the ZIP code you enter and, coarsely, from your IP address — and is used to match bookings by distance, not to track you.

This section, together with Section 12, serves as our notice at collection for California residents. It is linked at the point where you create an account, before we collect anything.

3. How we use information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide the Service — create and display profiles, process booking requests, enable messaging, and process payments and payouts;
• Send transactional communications — booking updates, receipts, verification codes, and account notices;
• Verify identity, secure accounts, and prevent fraud or abuse;
• Understand how the Service is used so we can maintain and improve it;
• Respond to support requests and enforce our Terms of Service; and
• Comply with legal obligations, such as tax and financial recordkeeping.

4. How we share information

We don't sell your personal information. We share information in these circumstances, including with Meta for advertising — see "With advertising partners" below:

With other users, as part of how the Service works. Profile information is generally public. Talent profiles set to "Available for search" can also appear in search engines such as Google — showing your first name and last initial, photo, city, skills, rates, availability and reviews; turning that setting off removes your profile from them over time. Church profiles are not offered to search engines. When you request or accept a booking, the other party sees your relevant contact and booking details; messages you send are visible to the recipient; reviews are shown publicly once revealed.

With service providers who help us operate the Service, under confidentiality and data-protection obligations, including for payment processing, identity verification and SMS delivery, transactional email delivery, website hosting and infrastructure, and website analytics and performance monitoring. These providers only receive what they need to perform their function and may not use it for their own independent purposes.

With advertising partners. We use the Meta Pixel on our website, which tells Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram) which pages you viewed, along with your browser details and IP address. It never runs on talent or church profile pages, including the pages for booking or editing a profile, so Meta isn't told which profiles you look at. Meta may use this for its own purposes, including to show you Worship Scout ads and to measure how they perform. We don't send Meta your name, email address, phone number, or anything you type into a form or message. Under California law this counts as "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising; you can opt out at any time on our Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information page.

For legal and safety reasons — to comply with a law, regulation, or valid legal process; to enforce our Terms of Service; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Worship Scout, our users, or the public.

In connection with a business transfer — if Worship Scout is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy (or a successor policy we notify you about).

If we ever work with marketing partners to promote the Service, we'll only share what's reasonably necessary for that purpose and you'll be able to opt out.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

We use a small number of cookies and similar technologies: essential ones that keep you signed in and let the Service function (from our authentication provider); analytics/performance tools — currently Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights, and, where enabled, Google Analytics — that help us understand usage and page performance in aggregate; and the Meta Pixel, an advertising tool described in Section 4 that sets cookies of its own.

The Service doesn't currently show a cookie-consent banner — analytics tools and the Meta Pixel run by default rather than after an opt-in prompt. California law does not require prior consent for analytics cookies, but some jurisdictions outside the United States do; if we begin offering the Service in one of those, we will add a consent mechanism before doing so. Most browsers let you block or delete cookies through their own settings; doing so may affect parts of the Service that rely on staying signed in.

Opt-out preference signals. We treat a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as a valid request to opt out of sharing: if your browser sends one, the Meta Pixel never loads. You can also opt out in any browser on our Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information page.

6. SMS and phone communications

We use a third-party provider to send verification codes by text or call during sign-up, and, if you opt in, booking-related text messages. See our SMS Communications Consent page for what that covers and how to opt out. Phone numbers are used for account verification and, where you've opted in, notifications — not for marketing calls or texts unrelated to your account.

7. Data retention

We keep your information for as long as your account is active, plus as long as needed afterward for legitimate business or legal purposes — for example, financial and tax recordkeeping for past bookings. If you request deletion from your account settings, your account enters a 30-day countdown (which you can cancel any time by logging back in) before we permanently remove or anonymize your personal information, except where we're required or permitted to retain certain records longer (for example, transaction records for tax purposes).

We don't keep any category of personal information longer than reasonably necessary for the purpose it was collected for. In practice that means:

• Account and profile information — for the life of the account, then removed or anonymized after the 30-day deletion window;
• Booking, review, and message records — kept after account deletion in a form that no longer identifies you, because the other party to a booking has their own record of it and reviews are part of a public history;
• Transaction and payout records — retained for as long as tax and financial recordkeeping law requires, typically seven years;
• Verification codes and session data — minutes to hours; and
• Analytics and log data — retained in aggregate or short-lived form according to each provider's standard retention period.

8. Your rights and choices

You have several ways to control your information:

• Access and update most of your profile information directly from your edit page at any time;
• Manage notification preferences (which emails you receive) from your account settings;
• Opt out of SMS at any time by replying STOP to any text, or from your account settings;
• Opt out of advertising tracking on our Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information page, or by turning on Global Privacy Control in your browser;
• Deactivate your account temporarily, or request deletion, from your account settings (see Section 7 for what deletion does); and
• Contact us with any other request regarding your information — see Section 14.

9. Children's privacy

The Service is intended for users 18 and older, consistent with our Terms of Service. We don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we'll take steps to delete it.

10. Data security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect your information, including encryption in transit and access controls on our systems. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, though, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

11. State privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights over your personal information — for example, the right to know what we've collected about you, to request a copy or deletion of it, to correct inaccurate information, and to opt out of certain uses (we don't sell personal information; to opt out of the advertising tracking described in Section 4, use our Do Not Sell or Share page). To exercise any of these rights, contact us as described in Section 14; we won't discriminate against you for doing so. We handle every request the same way regardless of which state you live in, using the process described in Section 12.

California residents have a specific, more detailed set of rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act — see Section 12.

12. California privacy rights (CCPA/CPRA)

This section applies to California residents and supplements the rest of this policy. Terms like "personal information," "sensitive personal information," "sell," and "share" have the meanings given to them in the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (together, the "CCPA").

Categories of personal information we collect

In the twelve months before the date at the top of this page, we have collected the following statutory categories. For each, we collect it from you directly unless noted, we collect it for the business purposes listed in Section 3, and we disclose it only as described in Section 4.

• Identifiers — name, email address, phone number, city/state/ZIP, account identifier, and IP address (the last collected automatically). Disclosed to service providers, and — for the parts of your profile that are public by design — to other users.
• Customer records (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80) — contact details and financial information in the form of transaction and payout records. Card and bank details are collected and held by our payment processor, not by us. Disclosed to our payment processor and, where legally required, to tax authorities.
• Commercial information — booking requests and history, rates, and reviews given and received. Also collected from the other party to a booking. Disclosed to that other party and to service providers.
• Internet or other electronic network activity — device and browser type, pages viewed, and usage patterns, collected automatically. Disclosed to our analytics and hosting providers, and shared with Meta for cross-context behavioral advertising.
• Geolocation data — approximate only, derived from the ZIP code you enter and coarsely from your IP address. Used to match bookings by distance and calculate travel. We do not collect precise geolocation.
• Audio, electronic, visual, or similar information — profile photos and logos, links to performance or service videos, and messages you send through the Service. Disclosed to other users as the Service requires.
• Professional or employment-related information — skills, instruments, experience, rates, and availability. Public on your profile by design.
• Inferences — limited internal signals derived from your activity, such as ratings and response metrics. We do not build advertising or behavioral profiles ourselves; Meta may use visits to our website in its own advertising profiles (see Section 4).

Sensitive personal information

Two things we handle may qualify as sensitive personal information. The first is your account log-in credentials — your email address together with the password that accesses your account, which is held in hashed form by our authentication provider and never visible to us. The second is the content of messages you exchange with the other party to a booking: we operate the messaging system but are not the intended recipient of those messages.

Separately, we want to be plain about something the statutory categories describe awkwardly. Worship Scout is a marketplace for church worship services, so the simple fact of holding an account here, and the churches and denominations associated with it, may reveal religious affiliation. We treat that information as sensitive. We use it to operate the marketplace — to show profiles, match bookings, and let the two sides find each other. We never use it to infer characteristics about you, and we never sell it. We keep the Meta Pixel (Section 4) off talent and church profile pages so it isn't told which churches you look at, but the fact that you visit our website at all may itself suggest a religious affiliation.

Right to limit. You can limit the use of your sensitive personal information to what the Service needs to work on our Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information page: opting out there stops the Meta Pixel, so nothing about your visits is sent to Meta. A Global Privacy Control signal does the same.

Selling and sharing personal information

We have not sold personal information in the twelve months before the date at the top of this page, and we don't sell it today. Since October 2026 we have shared internet or other electronic network activity (pages viewed, browser details, and IP address) with Meta for cross-context behavioral advertising, through the Meta Pixel described in Section 4 — never from talent or church profile pages. Because using a church marketplace may itself suggest a religious affiliation, see "Sensitive personal information" above. We don't share any other category. We don't knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16 — the Service is limited to users 18 and older.

You can opt out of this sharing at any time on our Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information page, linked at the bottom of every page, or by turning on Global Privacy Control in your browser. We won't ask you to opt back in for at least twelve months.

Your rights

• Right to know — the categories and specific pieces of personal information we've collected about you, where we got it, why we collected it, and who we disclosed it to;
• Right to delete — subject to the exceptions the CCPA allows, such as records we need to keep for tax or legal reasons, and information the other party to a booking holds in their own records;
• Right to correct — inaccurate personal information we hold about you;
• Right to data portability — a copy of the information you gave us, in a portable, readily usable format;
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing — we don't do either, as described above;
• Right to limit use of sensitive personal information — as described above, this doesn't apply given how we use it; and
• Right to non-discrimination — we will never deny you the Service, charge you a different price, or give you a lesser experience for exercising any of these rights. We don't offer financial incentives in exchange for personal information.

How to exercise these rights

You can handle much of this yourself without contacting us: your profile edit page lets you access and correct most of what we hold, and your account settings let you deactivate your account or request deletion. For anything else — a copy of your information, a full accounting of what we hold, or a deletion request that goes beyond the in-app flow — email privacy@worshipscout.com, the designated address for privacy requests. You can also reach us from the contact page, and we'll route it to the same place. We operate exclusively online, so a single email address is all the CCPA requires; the contact page is offered as a convenience, not because it's a separate process.

Verification. Before we act on a request to know, delete, or correct, we have to be reasonably sure you are who you say you are. Usually that means asking you to submit the request from the email address on your account, or to confirm details only the account holder would know. We ask for the least amount of information that will do the job, and we don't use anything you give us for verification for any other purpose. If we can't verify you, we'll tell you why rather than simply refusing.

Authorized agents. You may use an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf. We'll ask the agent for written permission signed by you, and we may still ask you to verify your own identity with us directly or to confirm that you gave the agent permission. An agent with a valid power of attorney under California Probate Code sections 4000–4465 doesn't need to provide the additional written permission.

Timing. We'll confirm we received your request within 10 business days, and respond substantively within 45 calendar days. If we need more time, we'll tell you why before the first 45 days are up and take up to another 45. There's no charge for this unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, in which case we'll explain the reason before doing anything.

Shine the Light

California's "Shine the Light" law (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83) lets California residents ask about personal information disclosed to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. We don't make those disclosures.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make a material change, we'll let you know — for example, by email or an in-app notice — before it takes effect. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent version.

14. Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy, or a request regarding your information? Email privacy@worshipscout.com, or reach out from the contact page. To exercise a privacy right specifically — a copy of your information, deletion, or correction — see Section 12 for what to expect and how long it takes.