Privacy Policy
- Your journal entries 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
The Thankful Heart Journal 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, 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.
The Thankful Heart Journal'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.
Purchases
When purchasing is available, payments will be handled by Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe and are never seen or stored by us. To remember what you've unlocked, we keep a simple record of your purchases (which themes or features you bought, when, and the email address of the Google account you used). We use this record only to give you access to what you bought and to help if you contact us with a question about a purchase.
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.
- bible-api.com, to show the text of a verse when you tap a reference. Only the verse reference you tapped is sent.
- Bible Gateway, only if you tap "Read in another version," which opens their website.
- Cloudflare, which hosts the journal website.
- Google, for sign-in and Google Drive, if you choose to sign in.
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 Thankful Heart Journal, 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.