Privacy Policy

Imago Dei is a free online Bible-study service operated by TK Studio (“Imago Dei”, “we”, “us”). This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, and what you can do about it. We process personal information in line with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

What we collect

• Account information — your email address and a securely hashed password, handled by our authentication provider (Supabase). We never see your password in plain text. Creating an account is optional — every study is free to read without one; an account just lets you save reading progress, follow other readers, and build reading paths.
• Your notebook, on your device — bookmarks, highlights, notes, collections, reading history and reading settings you make in the Bible reader are kept in your own browser's storage on your device. They are not sent to us unless you are signed in and choose to sync them, and nobody else can see them. Clearing your browser's site data deletes them; My Study lets you export a copy first.
• Technical information — a session cookie that keeps you signed in, and basic server logs (such as IP address and request times) used to operate and secure the service.

How we use it

• To create and manage your account and keep you signed in.
• To save your reading progress and, if you choose to use them, your profile, follows, and reading paths.
• To send essential account and transactional emails (for example, password resets).
• To keep the service secure and to meet our legal obligations.

Why we're allowed to (POPIA)

We process your information to provide a service you've asked for (performing our agreement with you), to meet legal obligations, and for the legitimate interest of running and securing the service. We do not sell your personal information, and we don't use it for advertising.

Who we share it with

We share information only with the service providers we need to operate, who act on our instructions:

• Supabase — authentication and database (your account, reading progress, and profile records, if you create an account).
• Vercel — hosting and delivery of the website.
• API.Bible (American Bible Society) — only if you choose to read the NIV, NKJV or NLT. The publishers license these translations on the condition that each display is counted, so your browser reports an anonymous usage token to API.Bible's fair-use service (with a random device and session identifier — never your name, email or account). The World English, King James and American Standard versions are served by us and involve no third party.

Some of these providers may store or process data on servers outside South Africa. Where that happens, we rely on providers that offer protections comparable to those required under POPIA.

Cookies

We use a small number of essential cookies, mainly to keep you signed in. We don't use advertising or third-party tracking cookies.

How long we keep it

We keep your account information for as long as your account is open. If you close your account, we delete or anonymise your personal information within a reasonable period, except where we're required to keep certain records to comply with the law.

Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections and trusted infrastructure providers. No online service can be completely secure, but we work to keep your information safe.

Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• ask what personal information we hold about you and request a copy;
• ask us to correct or update information that is wrong or incomplete;
• ask us to delete your information, subject to our legal obligations;
• object to certain processing; and
• lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) if you believe we've mishandled your information.

If you have an account, you can download everything it holds and delete the account yourself from your account page (“Your data”). Deleting removes your sign-in, profile, highlights, progress, follows and reactions permanently. For anything else, email us at hello@imagobearer.co.za.

Children

Imago Dei isn't directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18 without the consent of a parent or guardian.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We'll change the “last updated” date above, and for significant changes we'll take reasonable steps to let you know.

Contact

Questions or requests? Email hello@imagobearer.co.za. Imago Dei is an imprint of TK Studio, currently operated by an individual based in South Africa.