Palaio is made by Palaio LLC, an Ohio limited liability company ("Palaio," "we," "us"). This policy covers our website at palaio.co, the Palaio app at my.palaio.co, and the Palaio apps for iPhone and Android. It explains what we collect, why, who helps us handle it, and what you can do about it.
The short version: what you write is yours. We use it to run Palaio for you, we never sell it, we never use it for advertising, and we share it only with the companies listed below that need it to make a feature work.
What We Collect
- Account data: your email address and display name, and the choices you make when you set up (your study method, preferred translation, and that you confirmed you are 13 or older). When you sign in, our database provider records your IP address and browser for security.
- Study data: the reflections, annotations, journal entries and answers to prompts you write; the passages you have studied and when; trails of cross-references you save; and the dedication and notes you add to a printed book. When you use polishing, we keep both your original words and the polished version so you can go back.
- Voice reflections: when you answer by speaking, we send the recording to OpenAI to turn it into text, then keep the text, not the audio.
- Photos you scan: if you photograph a page of your own Bible to bring your markings into Palaio, the photo is sent to Anthropic to read the page. We keep what it finds, not the photo.
- Groups and churches: the groups you join, what you choose to share with them, and, if you join your church on Palaio, which church and what you have chosen to let it see.
- Purchases: what you bought and when. Payments are handled by Stripe on the web and by Apple on iPhone; we never see or store your card number. For a printed book we collect the shipping name, address and phone number you give at checkout. For a gift we collect the first name you give for the person it is for, and the name you sign it from.
- Founders' board: suggestions you post and the ones you vote for.
- Website analytics (palaio.co): we use PostHog to see which pages people visit, which links and buttons they click, and a recording of how visitors move through the site. Recordings mask anything you type into a form. PostHog also records your browser and device type, and your approximate location (such as your city and postal code), which it works out from your IP address. These analytics start when you arrive; press "No thanks" on the notice at the bottom of the page and we stop, and collect nothing further on that browser.
- App analytics (my.palaio.co and the phone apps): only if you say yes when the app asks, and you can change your answer at any time in Settings. We then use PostHog to record which features you use: for example, that you opened a chapter (and which one), started or finished a recording, opened a commentary, or joined a group. We link these to your account's ID number, never your name or email address, so we can understand how Palaio is used over time. PostHog also records your browser and device type, and your approximate location (such as your city and postal code), which it works out from your IP address. The app does not record your screen, and we never send PostHog the words of your reflections, your recordings, or your transcripts.
- AI usage records: our database notes each time you use an AI feature (which feature, how long a recording was, and what it cost us), linked to your account, because that is how daily usage limits work. Whether or not you allow app analytics, an anonymous count of the same use, with nothing that identifies you, is sent to PostHog so we can track what the AI features cost.
- Error reports: when something breaks, the app sends a crash report to Sentry with the error, the page you were on, and your device's IP address. It never includes what you wrote.
- Email data: whether you opened an email we sent you and which links in it you clicked, along with the email app or browser you opened it in. Opens are measured with a small invisible image in the message, and links are routed through our email provider before sending you on to where you were going. We use this to work out which emails are worth sending. We do not keep your location or IP address from these events. Our welcome, milestone and group emails carry an unsubscribe link at the bottom; using it stops those emails and this tracking together.
- Advertising data (palaio.co only): when you visit our website at palaio.co, we may use the Meta Pixel, the Google tag and Google Analytics to see how people find and use the site, and to measure whether our ads on Instagram, Facebook, Google and YouTube lead to signups. These tools set cookies and tell Meta and Google that a browser visited a page, clicked through to checkout, joined the waitlist, or bought a founding membership. We do not send them your email address, your name, or anything you write. Meta and Google may combine this with what they already know about you under their own privacy policies. None of this runs inside the Palaio app at my.palaio.co or on iPhone and Android.
Your Faith Is Sensitive Information
What you write in Palaio, what you read, and the church you belong to can reveal your religious beliefs. We treat all of it as sensitive. We use it only to provide Palaio to you, we never sell it or use it for advertising, and we share it only as this policy describes.
How We Use Your Data
- To run Palaio for you: saving your study, transcribing and polishing your reflections when you ask, showing your groups what you have chosen to share, and making your printed books.
- To process payments, deliver gifts, and ship books.
- To email you about your account and orders, and, unless you unsubscribe, occasional emails about your progress, your groups and new features.
- To understand how Palaio is used and make it better, as described under analytics above.
- To keep Palaio secure, fix problems, and manage what the AI features cost.
- To measure whether our ads work, on palaio.co only.
- We do not sell your data. Ever.
AI Features
Some features send what you give them to an AI provider, which returns a result to us:
- Voice reflections: the recording is sent to OpenAI to turn it into text.
- Polishing, proofreading and page scanning: the reflection you ask to polish, the writing in a study you proofread before printing it, or the photo of a Bible page you scan is sent to Anthropic, the maker of Claude.
These companies process this data for us, only to return the result. Under their business terms they do not use it to train their models, and they keep it only for a limited time to watch for abuse before deleting it. We do not use your writing to train AI models either. The first time you use one of these features, we ask before anything is sent, and you can change your answer at any time in Settings. If you say no, you can still type everything, and your writing is left out when a group you belong to proofreads its book.
What Other People Can See
- Study groups: the other members of a group see your display name and whatever you choose to share with the group. If your group prints a book of a finished study, it includes each member's name and shared writing. If you leave a group, what you shared stays in any book that was already printed.
- Reports: if someone in your group reports you, we read their report and a copy of what you shared on that chapter, so we can decide what to do. We don't tell the person reported who sent the report. We keep the report and that copy until you delete your account, or for as long as we need to deal with a serious problem.
- Churches: joining your church on Palaio is optional, and so is what it can see. It starts at nothing. If you choose to share your activity, your church's leaders can see your display name, when you joined, when you last wrote, and how many chapters you have written. They never see your email address or what you wrote. If you subscribe through your church's partnership, part of what you pay goes to the church. You can change what your church sees at any time in Settings.
- Gifts: the names on a gift card are printed on the card and shown to whoever redeems the code.
Companies That Process Data for Us
We use these service providers to run Palaio. Each one handles your data on our behalf, only for the purpose listed:
- Supabase: our database, sign-in and file storage. It holds your account and study data, encrypted at rest and in transit.
- OpenAI: turning voice recordings into text.
- Anthropic: polishing, proofreading and page scanning.
- Stripe: payments on the web, including books and gifts. Stripe receives your name, email, payment details, and for books your shipping address and phone number.
- Apple: purchases in the iPhone app. Apple tells us a purchase belongs to your account; it handles payment itself.
- DocRaptor: turning a book's contents into a print-ready file. It receives the full text of the book, including the names and shared writing of a group's members for a group book.
- Lulu: printing and shipping books. It receives the book file, the shipping name, address and phone number, and your email for delivery updates.
- Resend: sending our emails and telling us whether they were opened.
- PostHog: website and app analytics, as described above.
- Sentry: crash reports.
- Netlify: hosting palaio.co and my.palaio.co. Like any web host, it logs the IP address and browser of each visit.
- Expo: delivering updates to the phone apps. It sees your device's IP address, platform and app version.
- bible-api.com: a free public service that supplies some Bible translations. It sees your device's IP address and the chapter requested.
- Meta and Google: ad measurement and analytics on palaio.co only, as described above.
We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or as part of a sale or merger of Palaio, in which case this policy would continue to apply to your data.
Your Choices About Advertising
We do not sell your data. Some US state laws, including California's, describe sharing website activity with ad platforms for advertising as "sharing," and give you the right to opt out of it. You can do that in any of these ways:
- Press "No thanks" on the notice at the bottom of palaio.co. This switches off both analytics and ad measurement on that browser.
- Turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser. We treat it as an opt-out, and the ad tools never load.
- Email hello@palaio.co and we'll handle it for you.
You can also manage ad settings directly with Meta and Google. The Palaio app has no advertising tracking to opt out of.
How Long We Keep Your Data
We keep your account and study data until you delete your account. Deleting it permanently removes your profile, reflections, annotations, saved trails, group memberships, printed-book files, the record of emails we sent you, any waitlist entry, and your analytics history in PostHog, and cancels any subscription you bought on the web. A subscription bought on iPhone has to be cancelled in your iPhone's Settings, and the app reminds you before you delete.
A few things are kept after you delete your account:
- Records of purchases, such as founding memberships and gifts, and Stripe's own payment records, which we need for tax and accounting.
- Your email address on our do-not-email list, if you unsubscribed, so that we never email you again.
- Usage records for the AI features, with your account removed from them.
- Copies in our database provider's backups, which are overwritten on a rolling basis.
- Crash reports in Sentry, which aren't linked to your account and are deleted automatically after a limited time.
If you joined the founders' waitlist, we keep your email address to tell you when places open, until you ask us to remove it.
Your Rights
You can delete your account at any time from Settings in the app. You can also email hello@palaio.co to ask for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, or to ask what we hold about you. We'll reply within 30 days, and we won't treat you differently for asking. Depending on where you live, the law may give you further rights, and we will honour them.
Children
Palaio is not meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, email hello@palaio.co and we'll delete it.
People in the EU and UK
Palaio LLC is the controller of your personal data. We process it on these legal bases:
- To provide Palaio to you (performance of our contract with you): your account, your study, groups, purchases, books and gifts.
- With your consent: app analytics, and website analytics and ad measurement where the law requires consent. You can withdraw it at any time, as described above.
- Our legitimate interests in keeping Palaio secure, fixing errors, managing costs, and sending relevant emails you can unsubscribe from.
- Legal obligations, such as keeping tax records.
Where what you write reveals your religious beliefs, we process it only because you have chosen to record it in Palaio, and only to provide the service to you.
Palaio and its service providers are based in the United States, so your data is transferred there. Where the law requires it, we rely on the safeguards our providers offer for these transfers, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our processing of your data, and to receive it in a portable form. Email hello@palaio.co to use any of them. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. In the EU, some countries set the age at which you can agree to online services on your own between 13 and 16; if you are under that age where you live, you need a parent's permission to use Palaio.
Changes to This Policy
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll email you before the change takes effect and update the date at the top of this page.
Contact
Palaio LLC, Ohio
hello@palaio.co