Effective date: 20 September 2026
Applies to: the globalprayerstorm.com website and the Global Prayer Storm mobile app for iOS and Android. Most of what follows is true of both. Where they differ, it says so.
Global Prayer Storm joins people to a 24/7 watch of prayer, one hour a week at a time. This policy explains what the website and the app collect, why, and who else sees it. We have tried to write it so that it can actually be read.
The short version
We collect your name and email so you can have an account, the hour you chose so we can remind you, and a way to reach you about it — a push token on the app, your email address on the website. Neither the website nor the app runs analytics, advertising or tracking of any kind, and neither one ever asks your device where you are.
What we collect
When you enlist on the website
The Enlist form asks for:
- Your first and last name
- Your email address
- Your cell phone number
- Your country, and — optionally — your city and state or province
- The day and hour you chose, and your time zone
- A password, if you are creating an account, sent over an encrypted connection and stored only as a one-way hash that no one at the ministry can read
- A record that you agreed to be contacted, and whether you want the newsletter
The shorter “join our notifications” form asks only for your name and email, and optionally your phone number and country.
When you create an account in the app
- Your first and last name
- Your email address
- Your password, sent over an encrypted connection and never stored on your device
- A record that you agreed to be contacted
- Optionally, your city, state or province, and country
- Optionally, whether you want the newsletter
The app does not ask for your phone number. One account works on both the website and the app, so whichever one you signed up on, you can sign in to the other with the same email and password.
When you commit to an hour
- The day and hour you chose, and the time zone you chose it in
- The time of each check-in, so your hour shows on the prayer wall
From your device, in the app
- Its time zone, so your reminder arrives at the right hour
- Its name, shown on your notification settings screen so you can tell your devices apart
- Its platform (iOS or Android) and the app’s version number
- A push notification token, if you turn reminders on
From your browser, on the website
- Your time zone, which the Enlist form reads from your browser so it can offer you the right hour.
- Your IP address, used to count how many times the Enlist form has been submitted from one address in the last fifteen minutes. We keep a count, not a list: the address itself is not stored with it, and the count is discarded after fifteen minutes. This exists because automated bots have signed real people up without their knowledge.
- If a submission is refused as automated, our server log records that, including the IP address it came from. Those logs are kept only for troubleshooting and are deleted on the ordinary server rotation.
- Our web server keeps standard access logs, as essentially every web server does.
What we do not collect
- We never ask for or read your device’s location. The app holds no location permission at all, and the website never asks your browser for your location. If you type a city, that is the only place information we have.
- No analytics, no advertising, no tracking. Neither the website nor the app carries an analytics service, a crash reporter, an advertising identifier, a social media pixel or tracking of any kind.
- We do not collect your phone number in the app.
- We do not sell or rent your information to anyone.
Cookies
The website sets no advertising or tracking cookies. It sets a cookie only when you sign in, which is what keeps you signed in as you move between pages, and a short-lived one when you visit the login page to check that your browser accepts cookies at all. Signing out clears the sign-in cookie. The app does not use cookies.
The prayer wall
The globe on the website and on the app’s home screen shows where prayer is rising. Those points are city-level and aggregated: everyone in the same place is collapsed into a single point with a count. No name, email or address is ever attached to a point.
To place your city on the globe we send the city, state or province, and country you typed — and nothing else about you, not your name or email — to Mapbox’s geocoding service, which returns coordinates for that city. We keep those coordinates. If you would rather not appear on the globe at all, leave the city blank or write to us and we will clear it.
Who else receives information
- Our own server at globalprayerstorm.com holds your account. The website and the app both reach it over an encrypted connection.
- Mailgun delivers the email we send you, which means it handles your email address and the contents of those messages.
- Mailchimp holds our mailing list. If you enlist or ask for the newsletter, we send Mailchimp your email address, your first and last name, your phone number, and a tag recording whether you took a prayer hour or only the newsletter. Every message it sends carries an unsubscribe link.
- Mapbox serves the map imagery for the globe and, as described above, turns the city you typed into coordinates. Loading map tiles reveals your IP address and which part of the globe is on screen. Mapbox’s mapping software also collects its own usage information about how the map is used, under its own privacy policy.
- Google Fonts serves the typefaces the website is set in. Loading a font reveals your IP address to Google. This applies to the website only; the app ships its fonts inside the app.
- Google Firebase Cloud Messaging delivers your prayer reminders in the app, which requires it to issue a push token for your device. We send Firebase nothing else about you. This applies to the app only.
- Expo hosts the app’s over-the-air updates. An update check sends the app’s version and platform, and nothing about you. This applies to the app only.
- Our video host serves the teaching videos on both the website and the app. Playing one reveals your IP address to them.
Links that open another site — a partner ministry, God Encounters Ministries, a social account — leave us, and those sites have their own policies.
What is kept on your device
In the app, your sign-in credential is held in the device’s secure keychain. Your push token, your reminder preference, and any check-in that could not reach the server yet are held in the app’s private storage, so a reminder still works when your signal does not.
Signing out clears your sign-in credential. Some of the other items above remain on the device until you turn reminders off or uninstall the app.
Reminders and email
If you allow notifications in the app, we send a reminder at your hour. A reminder can wake the app briefly in the background to record that you prayed, so your check-in is not lost if you tap it and set the phone down. You can turn reminders off at any time under More → Notifications, or in your device settings.
By email, we send you a confirmation when you enlist, which contains your personal check-in link. Treat that link as private — anyone holding it can record a check-in on your hour, though it reveals nothing else about you and cannot be used to sign in. If more than thirty days pass with no check-in, we send one note asking whether you would like to keep your hour. If you asked for the newsletter, we send that too, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.
Your choices
- See or change your details — My Account on the website, or More → My Account in the app.
- Change or release your hour — the same place, on either one. A change made on the website shows up in the app straight away, and the reverse.
- Forgot your password — use the lost-password link on the My Account page.
- Turn off reminders — More → Notifications in the app.
- Newsletter — change the opt-in whenever you like, or use the unsubscribe link on any message.
Deleting your account
You can delete your account yourself at any time: in the app under More → My Account, or on the website from My Account or the Delete Your Account page. It takes effect immediately. We delete your account, your prayer commitments and your check-in history, sign out every device you have used, remove you from our mailing list, and email you to confirm.
If you would rather ask us, or you signed up for the newsletter without creating a password, email gps@godencounters.com from the address on your account. We will delete everything above within 30 days and confirm when it is done.
Children
Neither the website nor the app is directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has given us information, write to gps@godencounters.com and we will remove it.
Changes
Any change to this policy will be posted on this page, with the effective date above updated.
Contact
Global Prayer Storm
God Encounters Ministries
PO Box 681965
Franklin, TN 37068
gps@godencounters.com