Effective Date: April 16, 2026 | Last Updated: May 7, 2026
PrayerNexus ("the App," "we," "us," or "our") is a gamified prayer-habit application for Android developed and published by Five Cats Development Studio LLC. For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the UK GDPR, and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, Five Cats Development Studio LLC is the data controller for personal data processed through the App. This policy explains what data the App collects, where it is stored, which third-party services it is shared with, and what choices you have over your data.
PrayerNexus is designed to be offline-first: personal prayer items, journal entries, gratitude entries, photos, voice transcriptions, and gamification progress are stored on your device and never transmitted to us. However, some optional features — including Prayer Groups, Friends, optional cloud backup of certain settings or lists, and the optional web companion when you sign in with the same account — and several Google services embedded in the App do transmit data off your device. This policy describes both categories in full.
| Category | Collected / Shared? | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Personal prayer items, journal entries, voice transcripts, gratitude entries, photos, gamification progress | Stored locally only | Your device — app-private Room database and app-private file storage |
| Account email, display name, and user ID from the sign-in method you choose (only if you sign in for Firebase-backed features such as Groups, Friends, or optional cloud sync) | Collected | Firebase Authentication (Google LLC) — Google, Apple, Facebook, or email/password as offered in the App |
| Shared prayer requests, group names, group membership, "I prayed for this" activity | Shared with other group members | Cloud Firestore (Google LLC) |
| Optional Friends: friend requests, friend connections, opt-in public handle for discovery, and text-only prayer handoffs a premium user sends to a friend’s inbox | Shared with the friend(s) you connect with | Cloud Firestore (Google LLC); mutations validated by Cloud Functions |
| The PrayerNexus (global public wall): posts, anonymous toggle, moderation status, and user flags | Shared with signed-in community members (subject to moderation workflow) | Cloud Firestore + Cloud Functions + Firebase AI Logic moderation pipeline (Google LLC) |
| App events, session duration, device model, OS version, approximate location (from IP), app instance ID, crash events | Collected automatically | Firebase Analytics (Google LLC) |
| Push notification registration token | Collected automatically | Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google LLC) |
| Advertising ID, approximate location (from IP), ad-interaction events | Collected (free tier only) | Google AdMob (Google LLC) |
| Purchase status for the ad-free upgrade (monthly subscription, annual subscription, or one-time purchase for the life of the app) | Collected | Google Play Billing (Google LLC) |
The following data is created by you and stored locally on your device in an app-private Room database and app-private file storage. We cannot see it, and it is not transmitted anywhere unless you turn on optional cloud features (for example Prayer Groups, Friends, or settings/content backup described in this policy) or otherwise explicitly share it:
Photos and voice recordings, when attached, live inside app-private storage on your device (the directory
returned by Context.filesDir), which is not accessible to other apps and is not uploaded to any
server by PrayerNexus.
Important — please read carefully.
Prayer Groups, Friends, and other optional online features use the same Firebase project and require you to sign in. Sign-in is available with Google, Sign in with Apple, Facebook, or email and password, depending on what we enable in the App. The provider you use determines which of their identifiers and profile fields Firebase receives; we store the resulting Firebase user record (including email and display name where the provider supplies them) as described below.
If you choose to sign in, PrayerNexus uses Firebase Authentication (a Google service) to identify you. Depending on the sign-in method, this typically includes:
Provider privacy notices: Google, Apple, Meta (Facebook). Email/password accounts are verified and stored by Firebase according to Google’s Firebase privacy documentation.
You do not need to sign in to use the rest of the App (personal prayer, gratitude, library, gamification). If you never sign in, none of the authentication data in this subsection is collected.
When you create or join a group, or add a prayer item to a group, the following is transmitted to Google's Cloud Firestore service and stored on Google's servers so that your fellow group members can see it:
Prayer Groups are strictly invite-only: there is no public directory, and groups can only be joined by entering the correct invite code. Anyone who possesses the invite code can join — treat invite codes like passwords and share them only with people you trust.
Group data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS) and at rest using Google's default encryption. It is not end-to-end encrypted, meaning it is accessible to Google as the infrastructure provider, subject to Google's contractual commitments to us, Google's own privacy policy, and applicable law. Your private prayer journal entries are not shared with Prayer Groups. Personal (non-group) prayer items are not placed in group Firestore documents; optional solo backup or mirroring, if you enable it, is described in §3.3.
This data is subject to the Google Firebase Terms of Service and Google's Privacy Policy.
If you opt in, certain app settings (such as reminders, tradition choices, and onboarding preferences) and, where the App explicitly offers it, selected lists or solo content may be mirrored to Cloud Firestore under your Firebase UID so you can recover them on a new device or use the optional PrayerNexus web companion with the same signed-in account. This is separate from Prayer Groups: you control these toggles in the App, and you can use the App fully offline without enabling them.
Premium web trial: Eligible accounts may receive a one-time, two-week complimentary trial of Premium web features (cloud Prayer Groups and Wall of Praise) before subscription; trial times are stored with your Firebase user record.
If you choose to post to The PrayerNexus (the global public prayer wall), your submitted prayer request is stored in Firestore and may be visible to other signed-in users in the web companion and related app surfaces. You can choose anonymous posting where available.
Before publishing, requests may go through a lightweight moderation pipeline that can include automated checks (including Firebase AI Logic tools) and user/community reporting. We use this pipeline to reduce spam, abuse, explicit content, scams, and similar policy violations while keeping spiritually vulnerable requests broadly permitted. Moderation metadata (for example, approval/flag status and timestamps) may be stored alongside the content for safety and audit purposes.
The PrayerNexus feed is currently delivered as a snapshot/paged read in the web companion; this reduces always-on live updates and unnecessary background data usage.
Even when you are not signed in and not using Prayer Groups, the following Google services embedded in the App collect limited technical data:
Firebase Analytics collects anonymized usage data that helps us detect crashes, diagnose performance issues, and understand which features are used. The data collected includes:
Firebase Analytics does not collect your prayer content, journal entries, or gratitude text.
To deliver push notifications (daily prayer reminders, streak alerts, group activity, etc.), the App registers with Firebase Cloud Messaging, which assigns your installation a registration token. This token is associated with your device so that notifications you've opted into can be delivered. It is not tied to your name or email.
Users on the free, ad-supported version of PrayerNexus are shown ads via Google AdMob. AdMob collects:
Users who have purchased any of the ad-free options (monthly, annual, or one-time) do not see ads and are not subject to this collection. You can also reset or limit use of your Advertising ID in Android Settings › Google › Ads.
PrayerNexus offers three ad-free upgrade options, all handled by Google Play Billing:
Google Play Billing handles all payment processing. We receive confirmation of your purchase or subscription status from Google; we never see your payment card number, CVV, or billing address. If you cancel a subscription or request a refund, that is handled entirely through your Google Play account. The one-time purchase keeps PrayerNexus ad-free for as long as the App continues to be available on the Google Play Store and supported by the developer.
If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, PrayerNexus uses Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP) to present a consent dialog on first launch (and whenever Google requires a refresh). This dialog lets you choose whether Google AdMob and Google's other advertising and analytics partners may process your data to deliver personalized ads and analytics, or only non-personalized ads and analytics.
This mechanism is how we comply with the GDPR, the UK GDPR, and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection for advertising-related processing. Users outside these regions are not shown the UMP dialog; the information in §4.1 and §4.3 applies to them by default, subject to the opt-out controls described in §8.
SpeechRecognizer API, which may use your device's Google speech service; PrayerNexus itself
only receives and stores the transcribed text.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. Data is shared only as follows:
If you are located in the UK, the European Economic Area, or Switzerland, data protection law gives you the following rights regarding personal data we process about you:
The legal bases on which we process your personal data are: (a) consent for personalized ads and analytics in the EEA/UK/Switzerland; (b) performance of a contract for Group-related data (so we can provide the Group service you asked for); (c) our legitimate interests in keeping the App stable and secure (crash and performance diagnostics); and (d) compliance with legal obligations, where applicable.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the email address in §13. We will respond within one month. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA gives you the following rights regarding personal information:
No "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. PrayerNexus does not sell your personal information and does not "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined by the CPRA. Ads shown in the free tier via Google AdMob are served based on in-app signals and (for users who consent) the Advertising ID; we do not authorize Google or any other third party to use data collected through PrayerNexus to build cross-site behavioral profiles of you. We have not sold or shared the personal information of California residents in the preceding 12 months, nor do we intend to.
To exercise these rights, contact us at the email address in §13. We will verify your identity by matching the email address you contact us from against the Google account you used to sign in (if applicable).
Local data is retained on your device until you delete it or uninstall the App. Prayer Groups data in Firestore is retained for as long as the group exists; once deleted from the group or via account deletion, it is removed from Google's active systems immediately and from Google's encrypted backups within approximately 180 days per Google's standard timeline. Firebase Analytics data is retained per Google's default retention (currently 14 months for event-level data).
PrayerNexus is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 in compliance with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, the age at which a child can consent to processing of personal data in connection with an online service is set by local law and ranges from 13 to 16 depending on the country; where the applicable age is higher than 13, parental or guardian consent is required below that age. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information through Prayer Groups or Prayer Partners, please contact us using the email address in §13 and we will delete the information and any associated Firebase Auth account promptly.
PrayerNexus does not knowingly sell, share, or use the personal information of anyone under 16 for personalized advertising.
PrayerNexus uses Google services (Firebase, AdMob, Google Play Billing). Your personal data may therefore be processed on servers operated by Google anywhere in the world, including in the United States and other jurisdictions that may not offer an equivalent level of data protection to your home country.
Where personal data is transferred out of the UK, EEA, or Switzerland, Google relies on transfer mechanisms recognized under the GDPR / UK GDPR / FADP (such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and/or Standard Contractual Clauses). You can review Google's current transfer disclosures at policies.google.com/privacy and at firebase.google.com/support/privacy.
The legal bases for this processing are those set out in §8.2. If you are not comfortable with these transfers, you can avoid them entirely by not using Prayer Groups or Prayer Partners and (in the EEA/UK/Switzerland) by declining the UMP consent dialog, which limits advertising- and analytics-related processing to the non-personalized minimum.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, the "Last Updated" date above will change. For material changes, we will notify you in-App. Your continued use of PrayerNexus after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your data, please contact us at:
Publisher: Five Cats Development Studio LLC
App: PrayerNexus
Email: nathan@5catsgamestudios.com