Privacy Policy
Coptic Way is made to keep your prayer life private. The short version: we collect nothing. Your prayers, habits and preferences live on your devices and in your own iCloud. If you join a circle, the people in it see only what you choose to share.
What we collect
Nothing. Coptic Way has no accounts, no servers of our own, no analytics and no advertising, and it contains no third-party code. We, the developer, cannot see your name, your picture, your habits or what you pray and read. Everything described below happens on your device, in your own Apple Account's iCloud, or in Apple's own services, never on a server we run.
The prayers and the Bible
The Agpeya, the Bible and the Coptic calendar are built into the app. Reading them happens entirely on your device and sends nothing anywhere.
What iCloud keeps for you
If you are signed in to iCloud, Coptic Way keeps a copy of the following in your own private iCloud database so your devices stay in step:
- the name and picture you set in the app;
- your habits and reading plans, and which you have kept;
- this week's prayers and psalms, and where you are reading;
- your preferences, such as the clock format, the date you keep the Nativity and the days you go to the Liturgy;
- the circles you belong to.
How the app looks, such as the theme and the text size, stays on each device. Your private iCloud database is governed by Apple's iCloud terms, and the developer cannot access it. Everything is also kept on your device, so if you are not signed in to iCloud the app works the same, and nothing is sent.
Circles
Circles are optional. A circle is a few people keeping their habits together. When you start one, Coptic Way creates a shared area in your own iCloud and gives you a link and a short code to pass to the people you choose. Anyone who has the link or the code can see the circle's name, the name on its founder's Apple Account (where Apple provides it), how many people are in it and which hours it keeps, and can join it. So share them only with people you want in the circle, and use a new code if one goes further than you meant it to.
The people in a circle can see:
- the name you set in Coptic Way (not your picture);
- for this week, what you choose to share: that you kept your habits that day, which habits you kept, or nothing at all;
- which of the circle's psalms you have read, if the circle shares out the psalms;
- the circle habits you agree to or pass on, whether you have kept them this week, and a goal's count added up with everyone else's;
- the habits you suggest to the circle.
Apple's iCloud sharing also lets the person who started a circle see who has joined. Your picture, your other habits and everything else in your own iCloud are never shared. The circle's information is kept by Apple's CloudKit, and the developer cannot see it.
Circle codes and invitation pictures
So that a code can lead to its circle, Coptic Way stores a small record in the app's public iCloud database: the code, the circle's link, the circle's name and the hours it keeps. It holds no names of members and nothing about anyone's habits. It is deleted when the founder gives the circle a new code or ends the circle. The picture shown with a circle's link in Messages carries the circle's name, its hours, its members' initials and its code.
Leaving a circle
When you leave a circle, your record in it is deleted and you stop seeing it. When the person who started a circle ends it, the whole circle and its code are deleted for everyone.
Notifications
Reminders for your habits and for a circle's prayer together are scheduled on your device. No notification server of ours is used. Apple's push service is used only to tell Coptic Way that something changed in your iCloud or in a circle, so it can bring your devices up to date.
This website
This website sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads no external fonts, scripts or trackers. It is hosted on GitHub Pages, and GitHub may keep standard server logs under its own privacy statement.
Deleting your data
You can delete habits in the app, leave or end a circle in Settings > Circles, and delete the app to remove its data from a device. Because Coptic Way syncs through your own iCloud, data kept there stays until you remove it: in iPhone Settings > your name > iCloud > Manage Account Storage, choose Coptic Way and delete its data. Leave or end your circles first, so the people in them no longer see your record.
Your rights
Under laws such as the GDPR, the UK GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act, you may have the right to know what personal data a company holds about you, to correct it, to delete it, and to opt out of its sale. We hold no personal data about you: we do not receive it, so there is nothing for us to give you, correct or delete, and we never sell or share it. The data Coptic Way creates is under your control in the app and in your own iCloud (see Deleting your data above). If you would like to make a request anyway, or have a question, email us and we will point you to the right control or answer you.
Children
Coptic Way does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, including children. Parents should know that circles let the people in them see a child's name in the app and what the child chooses to share about their habits.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new "Last updated" date.
Contact
Questions? Email marcog@stmaryaz.org.