1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how Christia ("the Service") collects, uses, stores, and protects information about its users. The Service is operated by Andrew Stringer ("we," "us," or "our"), an individual based in the United States. By creating an account or otherwise using the Service, you agree to the practices described in this Policy.

If you do not agree with this Policy, do not use the Service.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Account information. When you create an account — whether by email and password or through Google sign-in — we collect your email address, any display or preferred name you provide, and (if supplied through Google) a profile picture URL. We also collect information you volunteer during onboarding, such as time zone, spiritual background, and personal preferences that shape how the Service responds to you.

2.2 Service content. In the ordinary course of using the Service, you create content that we store on your behalf, including: conversations with "The Teacher" (our AI companion), journal entries, scripture annotations, reflections, prayer records, reading session history, quest progress, and messages or posts you contribute to groups you belong to. This content is attributed to your account and is used to personalize the Service for you over time.

2.3 Payment information. If you subscribe to a paid tier, payment is processed by Stripe, Inc. We do not collect or store your full payment card number. We receive from Stripe only the subscription status, the last four digits of the card, and billing-transaction metadata required for account management and tax compliance.

2.4 Technical and activity data. We log authentication events, login and last-active timestamps, message and feature-usage counts (for cost accounting and rate-limiting), IP address at the time of requests, and standard server logs. We store diagnostic error records when the Service encounters unexpected failures.

2.5 Referral data. If you arrive at the Service through a referral link, we store a time-limited cookie that associates your signup with the referring user so referral credits can be awarded. See Section 8.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information described in Section 2 for the following purposes:

• Providing and personalizing the Service. Your conversations, memories, preferences, and longitudinal activity are used to generate responses and features tailored to you. Personalization is the core of the Service; without it, the Service has little value.
• Account and billing administration. Authenticating your sessions, enforcing free-tier limits, managing subscriptions, and issuing receipts.
• Communication. Sending transactional email (account verification, password reset, billing notices) and, where you have opted in, broadcast announcements. You may opt out of non-essential email at any time from your Profile settings or via the unsubscribe link in any such email.
• Safety and integrity. Detecting and responding to abuse, preventing fraud, enforcing our Terms of Use, and protecting the security of users and systems.
• Legal compliance. Complying with applicable laws, responding to lawful requests from government authorities, and defending legal claims.

4. Artificial Intelligence Processing and Training

4.1 Processing. To generate responses from The Teacher and related AI features, your input and relevant conversation context are transmitted to third-party AI model providers: Anthropic, PBC (Claude models) and Google LLC (Gemini models). These providers process your content solely to return a response to the Service. Their handling of that content is governed by their respective data processing and privacy terms, which we select for their commitments to API customer data.

4.2 No training on user content. We do not use your content to train, fine-tune, or otherwise develop artificial intelligence models, and we do not permit the Service's AI providers to do so. API traffic to Anthropic and Google is submitted under terms that exclude user content from model training by default. If that ever changes, this Policy will be updated and affected users will be notified.

4.3 AI output is not professional advice. The Teacher is a spiritual companion. It is not a licensed counselor, physician, therapist, pastor, attorney, or financial advisor. Do not rely on AI-generated output for medical, legal, financial, or crisis decisions. If you are in crisis, contact a qualified professional or emergency services.

5. Third-Party Service Providers

We share information with the following categories of service providers, each of whom processes data on our behalf under contractual confidentiality and security obligations:

• Anthropic, PBC — AI model inference (Claude).
• Google LLC — AI model inference (Gemini) and, if you sign in with Google, identity verification through Google OAuth.
• Microsoft Corporation (Azure) — application hosting, managed SQL database, and transactional email delivery through Azure Communication Services.
• Stripe, Inc. — payment processing for paid subscriptions.

We do not sell, rent, or otherwise disclose personal information to third parties for their independent marketing purposes.

6. Disclosures Within the Service

Certain features of the Service are inherently social and disclose information to other users:

• Groups. If you join a group, your display name, profile picture (if set), and activity within that group are visible to other members. Group administrators may additionally see member-level activity metrics.
• Public posts. Content you mark as public — such as group discussions in public groups — may be visible to anyone, including visitors who are not signed in.
• Referrals and lineage. Users you refer are associated with your account for the purpose of awarding Spirit Credits. Referring users can see that a referral converted; they cannot see the activity of their referees.

Your private content — Teacher conversations, journal entries, annotations, and non-public reflections — is not visible to other users.

7. Public Word Pages

7.1 What they are. When you submit a question through "Ask The Teacher" without an account, the Service generates a publicly-visible page at a URL of the form www.christia.ai/word/{token} ("Word page"). The page contains a scripture passage The Teacher has chosen, a brief reflection, and a short framing of the question. Word pages are intended to be sharable links that introduce others to the Service.

7.2 What is removed before publishing. Before any Word page becomes visible, an automated AI sanitization step rewrites the question and the response to remove personal details, including: names of people, employers, schools, neighborhoods, cities, dates, ages, and any other specifics that could identify you or another person you mentioned. The published page contains a generalized version of the exchange, not what you typed verbatim. While this sanitization is in progress, the page renders a "Preparing your Word…" placeholder and is not indexed by search engines.

7.3 What is retained internally. Your original typed question is retained on our servers, associated with the Word page record, but is never displayed publicly. It is preserved so that, if you later create a Christia account from that same browser, your conversation can continue with the actual phrasing you used rather than the sanitized version.

7.4 Retraction. You may remove a Word page you submitted at any time. The "Remove this Word" control on the page is visible only to the browser that created it, or to the authenticated account associated with it. Removed pages return a not-found response and are excluded from the sitemap and from social-media share previews.

7.5 Visitor cookie. When you submit a Word, we set a first-party signed cookie (christia_visitor) that lets your browser retract Word pages it created and, if you later create an account from the same browser, attach those Word pages to that account. The cookie's value is a random identifier; it contains no personal information and is not shared with third parties.

7.6 Indexing. Word pages are public and may be indexed by search engines once sanitization is complete. The verse reference and the sanitized framing of the question are designed to be appropriate for public discovery.

8. Cookies and Local Storage

The Service uses cookies and browser local storage solely for session management and feature functionality. We do not use third-party analytics, advertising cookies, or cross-site tracking technologies.

• Authentication cookies — required to keep you signed in. These are first-party session cookies.
• Functional local storage — stores interface preferences such as resizable sidebar widths and accordion expansion state, plus autosaved drafts of in-progress notes and reflections so that a network interruption does not lose your work.
• Referral cookie — a first-party cookie set when you arrive through a referral link, expiring after 30 days, solely for attributing the referral at signup.
• Visitor cookie (christia_visitor) — a first-party signed cookie set when you submit a question without an account, expiring after one year, used to enable retraction of Word pages you create and to associate those Word pages with a Christia account if you later sign up. See Section 7.5.

9. Data Retention and Deletion

We retain your information for as long as your account is active. You may export a copy of your content, or delete your account, at any time from your Profile settings or by contacting us. Upon account deletion, your personal information and content are removed from active systems within thirty (30) days, except where retention is required by law, needed to resolve disputes, or necessary to enforce our agreements. Routine system backups are overwritten on a rolling basis.

10. Your Rights

Regardless of jurisdiction, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you;
• Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
• Export your content in a portable format;
• Delete your account and associated personal information;
• Opt out of non-essential communications.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at admin@christia.ai. We will respond within a reasonable period, typically within thirty (30) days.

11. Children's Privacy

The Service is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you are under 13, do not use the Service or provide any personal information. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 without verified parental consent, we will promptly delete that information. Parents or guardians who believe their child has provided personal information may contact us at admin@christia.ai.

12. Security

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal information against loss, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These include encryption of data in transit, encrypted storage at the database layer, least-privilege administrative access, and standard operational controls provided by our hosting platform. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

13. International Users

The Service is operated from the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States and other jurisdictions where our service providers operate. By using the Service, you consent to such transfer and processing.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will post the revised Policy on this page with an updated "Last updated" date and, where appropriate, notify affected users by email or in-app notice. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy.

15. Terms of Use

This Policy operates alongside our Terms of Use, which govern your use of the Service.

16. Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns regarding this Policy or our handling of your information should be directed to:

Andrew Stringer
Operator, Christia
admin@christia.ai