Privacy policy

Who controls the data

Your church is the data controller for everything it records in Fold: member names, phone numbers, attendance, giving, and vital records. Manuel Technologies is the data processor. We store and process that information on your instructions, and we do not decide what you collect or why.

That distinction matters in practice. If a member asks to see or delete their record, the request goes to their church, and the church uses Fold to act on it.

What we collect

From church staff: the name, email address and password you provide when creating an account, and a record of what your account does inside the software.

About members: whatever your church chooses to record. Typically a name, and optionally gender, date of birth, phone number, email, address, membership type, group, attendance, contributions and vital records such as baptisms.

We do not collect data about your members from anywhere except your church. There is no tracking of members across other websites, and we do not buy or sell data.

How your church’s data is separated

Each church’s records are isolated at the database level using Postgres row-level security, not merely hidden in the interface. A request carrying one church’s credentials cannot read another church’s rows, and this is enforced by the database itself rather than by application code that could contain a mistake.

Within a church, access follows the role you assign. A class leader cannot read the church’s giving records at all.

Who else sees it

We use a small number of processors, each for one purpose, and each receives only what that purpose requires.

• Supabase hosts the database and handles sign in. Data is stored in the European Union, in Ireland.
• Vercel serves the application.
• Paystack processes mobile money payments. It receives the payer’s phone number and the amount. It never receives your member list.
• Arkesel delivers text messages. It receives the recipient’s number and the message.

We do not share personal data with anyone else, and we do not disclose it to third parties for marketing.

Cookies and analytics

The public website sets no cookies. There is no consent banner because there is nothing to consent to: no advertising, no tracking pixels, and no analytics that follow you between sites.

We count page views with Vercel Web Analytics, which works without a cookie. Each visit is identified by a hash of the request that expires the same day, no IP address is stored, and what we see is a total, never a person.

When you sign up, send us a message or join the newsletter, the form also tells us which page of this site you were on when you did, the name of the website that sent you if you came from another one (google.com, for example, never the full address), and any campaign tags in the link. It is how we learn which of our articles are useful to churches. Nothing is stored in your browser to do this.

When you sign in, one cookie keeps you signed in. It is strictly necessary for the account to work and is removed when you sign out.

How long we keep it

For as long as your church keeps its account. Records a church archives, such as a member who has left, are retained rather than deleted, because a church’s history of baptisms, giving and attendance is often the reason it adopted the software.

When a church closes its account we delete its data within 30 days, except where we are required to keep financial records longer.

A church that tries Fold and does not choose a plan keeps full use for 60 days from the day it signed up, then read only access for a further 30 days, so its records can still be exported. On day 91 the church and everything it recorded are deleted. The pastor is told by text and email before each of those steps.

What you can ask for

Under the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), an individual may ask to see the personal data held about them, to have it corrected, and in some circumstances to have it erased.

Members should address such requests to their church. Churches can act on them directly in Fold, and may contact us for help at any time.

Security

Connections are encrypted in transit. Passwords are hashed and never stored in a readable form, including by us. Access to production data is limited to those who need it to operate the service.

No system is perfect. If we become aware of a breach affecting your church’s data we will tell you promptly and explain what happened.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or a request about your own data, can be sent to Manuel Technologies through manueltechnologies.com.