The short version: We collect only what's needed to run this service. We don't sell your data, share it with advertisers, or do anything creepy with it. Apart from Google Analytics (only with your consent) and basic visit counting on our landing page, there is absolutely no tracking whatsoever on this website — no ad networks, no profiling, no third-party cookies.
Who we are
The Simple Church Rota is a volunteer scheduling service for churches, operated from Great Britain. You can contact us at .
What data we collect and why
1. Account information
When a church registers or a volunteer accepts an invitation, we store:
- Name and email address
- Church name, and optionally: contact name, address, telephone, website
- A securely hashed password (we never store your actual password)
- Account preferences (e.g. email notification settings)
This is the information needed to run your rota, send email notifications about assignments and swap requests, and manage your account. We have no lawful way to provide the service without it.
Legal basis: Performance of a contract (providing the service you signed up for).
2. Rota and scheduling data
The service stores rota assignments, availability, swap requests, messages, and service dates that you and your church create. This data belongs to your church and is used solely to operate the rota system.
Legal basis: Performance of a contract.
3. Payment information
Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card details — Stripe handles that entirely. We do store your Stripe customer ID so we can manage your subscription. Stripe's privacy policy is available at stripe.com/gb/privacy.
Legal basis: Performance of a contract.
4. Landing page visit statistics
When you visit our landing page, we record an anonymised visit in our own database. This stores:
- A one-way hash of your IP address (the original IP is never stored and cannot be recovered)
- The referring website or search engine, if any
- Approximate time spent on the page
- UTM campaign parameters if you arrived via a link in our email
No personal data is stored. This data is used only to understand how many people visit our landing page and where they come from.
Legal basis: Legitimate interest (basic, anonymised website analytics).
5. Google Analytics (optional — with your consent)
We use Google Analytics 4 to understand visit patterns, device types, and geographic regions. This only loads if you click "That's fine" on our cookie banner. If you decline, Google Analytics does not run at all.
You can change your mind at any time by clearing your browser's local storage for this site, which will show the banner again on your next visit.
Legal basis: Consent.
What we absolutely do not do
- Sell your data to anyone, ever
- Share your data with advertisers or marketing companies
- Use ad networks, retargeting pixels, or behavioural tracking
- Profile volunteers or church members
- Set any third-party cookies (other than Google Analytics, with consent)
- Send unsolicited marketing emails to your volunteers
Email communications
We send emails to account holders for the following purposes:
- Rota assignment notifications
- Swap and cover request notifications
- Church-wide messages sent by your admin
- Account-related emails (email verification, password reset)
- Service-related updates (subscription, billing)
You can turn off rota notification emails from your account settings. Account and billing emails cannot be turned off as they are necessary for the service.
Data retention
We keep your data for as long as your account is active. If you cancel your subscription and wish your data to be deleted, email us and we'll remove it within 30 days.
Your rights under UK GDPR
As a UK-based service, we operate under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). You have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Correct inaccurate data
- Request deletion of your data ("right to be forgotten")
- Object to processing based on legitimate interest
- Withdraw consent for analytics at any time
- Lodge a complaint with the ICO (ico.org.uk) if you believe we've mishandled your data
To exercise any of these rights, email us at . We'll respond within 30 days.
Third-party services
The only third-party services we use are:
- Stripe — for payment processing
- Google Analytics 4 — for website analytics (consent required)
- Google Fonts — for typography (loaded from Google's CDN)
- Font Awesome — for icons (loaded from Cloudflare's CDN)
- Your email provider — we send rota emails via our own mail server
Changes to this policy
If we make significant changes to this policy, we'll notify account holders by email. The "last updated" date at the top of this page will always reflect the most recent revision.