Privacy Policy
- Your journal entries and prayers belong to you. They're saved on your device and, if you choose, in your own Google Drive. They are never sent to us, and we can't read them.
- We don't use ads, tracking, or analytics in this app, and we never sell or share your information.
- If you sign in with Google, the app can use only its own private folder in your Drive. It can't see anything else there.
Who we are
My Quiet Time is made by Jen Kramer of Thankful Heart Ministries, author of the Thankful Heart blog. If you have questions about this policy or your information, email thankfulheartministries@gmail.com.
Your journal entries
Everything you write in the journal, including entries, prayers, gifts, verses, struggles, topics, and settings, is saved in your web browser on your device. It stays there unless you delete it, clear your browser's data, or uninstall the app.
If you sign in with Google, the app also saves a copy of your journal to a private, hidden app folder in your own Google Drive, so it can be the same on all your devices. Your entries travel directly between your device and your Google Drive. They do not pass through any server of ours, and we cannot see them.
Downloaded backups and book PDFs are created on your device and saved wherever you choose. They are not sent to us.
Signing in with Google
Signing in is optional. If you sign in, the app asks Google for:
- Your name and email address, to show which account you're signed in with. These are kept on your device and are not sent to us.
- Access to the app's own folder in your Google Drive (Google calls this "drive.appdata"), to save and sync your journal. This permission lets the app see and change only the files it creates there. It cannot see, open, or change any of your other Drive files.
Google gives the app a temporary access key so it can reach that folder. The key is kept on your device and expires after about an hour.
My Quiet Time's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use the information only to provide the journal's sign-in and Drive sync features. We don't transfer it to anyone, use it for advertising, or allow anyone to read it.
Gifts
Gifts are handled by Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe and are never seen or stored by us. Stripe shares the gift's amount and your email address with us so we can thank you and help with any question about it. If you're signed in with Google when you give, we also keep a simple record that your Google account gave (when, and the amount), used only to thank you in the app.
Contact us
If you send a note from the journal's Contact us page, what you type there is sent to Thankful Heart Ministries: your note, what it's about, and your name and email address if you give them (your email is needed for us to write back). If you leave "Include details about my device" checked, it also includes the app's version, your kind of device and browser, whether you're signed in and have reminders on, and how many Reflections and prayers you have (the numbers only). Nothing you've written in your journal is included. Notes are kept on the journal's server (hosted by Cloudflare) for 90 days and then deleted; the email copy stays in our inbox like any other email. We use your note and email address only to answer you, and never share them with anyone.
Reviews
If you leave a review in the journal, what you type on the review page is sent to Thankful Heart Ministries: your rating, your words, the name you'd like shown, and your email address if you give one. Nothing from your journal is included. We keep reviews on the journal's server (hosted by Cloudflare).
- What others can see: only your star rating, counted in the journal's public star totals (just the numbers, such as how many reviews gave five stars). Nothing else about your review, or you, is shown.
- Your words: shared only if you tick "You may share my review," and then only with the name you chose to give. Without it, your review is seen only by Thankful Heart Ministries.
- Everything else: we never share your email address or any other information with anyone. Your email is used only to reply to you, if you asked for a reply.
- Signing in: to keep reviews genuine, reviewing requires signing in with Google. Google confirms to our server that the sign-in is real; we keep only a scrambled code for your account (so a new review replaces your earlier one), never your Google name or email address.
To remove your review, open the review page while signed in and tap "Delete my review." It's removed from our server, along with its stars in the totals. You can also email us to have it removed.
Bible readings
When you read in Today's Quiet Time, the app asks the journal's server for that day's passage, and the server asks YouVersion for it. Only the passage and translation are requested; nothing about you or your journal is sent. Which plan you follow, and how far along you are, is kept with your settings, on your device and in your own Google Drive.
Writing and prayer reminders
Reminders are optional. If you turn on reminders on a device, the journal's reminder service keeps only what it needs to send them: the notification address your phone or browser provides (from Apple, Google, Mozilla, or Microsoft), the days and time you chose, and your time zone. It never receives your entries, your name, or your email address. Turn reminders off in Settings, or turn off notifications for the journal on your device, and that device's reminder details are deleted.
If you add your writing time to your calendar instead, the event is created by your calendar app, and nothing is sent to us.
Journal Aloud (speaking instead of typing)
Journal Aloud is optional. When you tap it, your browser's own speech service turns what you say into text in your entry: on iPhone, iPad, and Mac that's Apple's, and in Chrome and Edge it's Google's or Microsoft's. Your browser asks for permission to use the microphone first. The audio goes to that service, not to us; the journal only receives the words it writes into your entry, which stay private like the rest of your journal. Tap Stop, or leave the page, and listening ends.
Services the app uses
To work, the app connects to a few outside services. Like any website, these services can see basic technical details such as your IP address when your device contacts them:
- Blogger (Google), to load the Thankful Heart posts used as prompts and any announcements.
- Google Fonts, for the handwritten heading font.
- YouVersion, through the journal's server, for the Bible text in Today's Quiet Time and when you tap a verse. Only the passage and translation are requested. "Read in another version" opens YouVersion's website or app.
- Cloudflare, which hosts the journal website and runs the gift, reminder, review, and Bible services.
- Google, for sign-in and Google Drive, if you choose to sign in.
- Apple, Google, Mozilla, or Microsoft, whichever delivers notifications to your device, if you turn on reminders.
- Apple, Google, or Microsoft, whichever provides your browser's speech service, if you use Journal Aloud.
Each service handles information under its own privacy policy.
Links to the Thankful Heart blog, such as "Read on the blog" and "Comment on this post," open the blog itself, which has its own advertising and analytics under Blogger's policies.
Your choices
- Delete an entry from the journal at any time. If you're signed in, it's removed from your Google Drive copy too.
- Sign out in Settings. Your entries stay on that device.
- Remove the journal from your Google Drive: in Google Drive, open Settings → Manage apps, find My Quiet Time, and choose "Delete hidden app data."
- Remove the app's access to your Google account at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
- Remove everything from a device by clearing this site's data in your browser, or uninstalling the app. Download a backup first if you want to keep your entries.
Children
The journal is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we'll post the new version here with a new effective date. If a change affects how your information is used, we'll also announce it in the app.