Privacy Policy
Last updated: March 16, 2026
PewNeighbor is built on a simple promise: your personal information stays private, belongs to you, and will never be sold. This policy explains exactly what we collect, why we collect it, and how you can control it.
1. Who We Are
PewNeighbor (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the website at pewneighbor.com and the PewNeighbor service. To ask questions or exercise your rights, contact us at privacy@pewneighbor.com.
2. What We Collect
Information you provide
- Account information: Your email address when you sign up.
- Profile information: Your display name (first name only), age range, gender, a short bio, interests, availability, and whether you are joining as an individual or a couple.
- Church membership: The church you join, established by entering a join code provided by your church administrator.
- Messages: The content of private messages you send to other members through our platform.
- Meetup suggestions: Activity, date, and location details you enter when suggesting a meetup.
- Reports: Information you submit when reporting a member for a policy violation.
- Church registration: If you register a church, we collect the church name, location, denomination, website, and your contact email.
Information collected automatically
- Session data: We use secure, server-side sessions to keep you signed in. Session tokens are stored in httpOnly cookies inaccessible to JavaScript.
- Basic server logs: Standard web server logs (IP address, browser type, pages visited) retained for up to 30 days for security and debugging purposes.
What we do not collect
- Your last name
- Your exact date of birth or age (only an age range)
- Your phone number
- Your precise location or GPS data
- Payment information (handled directly by our payment processor, Stripe)
- Information from third-party data brokers
3. How We Use Your Information
We use your information only to operate and improve PewNeighbor:
- To authenticate you and maintain your session
- To display your profile to other members of your church community
- To match you with compatible members based on interests and preferences
- To deliver messages between connected members
- To send you transactional emails (sign-in links, wave notifications, connection alerts)
- To allow church administrators to manage their community
- To investigate reports of policy violations and enforce our Terms of Service
- To comply with applicable law
We do not use your information for advertising, behavioral profiling, or any purpose unrelated to operating the service.
4. Who Can See Your Information
Other members of your church
Members of your church community can see your display name, age range, interests, availability, looking-for type, and bio. Your profile photo is only visible to members you are mutually connected with. Your exact email address is never shown to other members.
Church administrators
The administrator of your church can see your display name and the date you joined. Church administrators cannot see your profile photo, read your private messages, or see who you have waved at.
PewNeighbor staff
PewNeighbor staff can access your account information and, where necessary to investigate a report or policy violation, message content. Staff access is logged and limited to what is necessary.
No public profiles
Your profile is never publicly visible. It is not indexed by search engines. No one outside your church community can see your information.
Third-party service providers
We share limited data with the following service providers, solely to operate the service:
- Neon (database hosting): Stores your encrypted data on servers in the United States.
- Microsoft Azure (cloud hosting): Hosts the application and profile photo storage.
- Resend (email delivery): Receives your email address to deliver transactional emails.
- Stripe (payment processing): Processes church subscription payments. Stripe's privacy policy governs payment data.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party.
5. Message Encryption
Private messages on PewNeighbor are encrypted using AES-256-GCM encryption before being stored in our database. The encryption keys are stored separately from the message data. This means that even in the unlikely event of a database breach, message content is not readable without the separate encryption keys.
6. Data Retention
We retain your information for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account:
- Your email address and profile information are permanently deleted within 30 days.
- Your profile photo is deleted from our storage immediately.
- Your messages are anonymized — the content is deleted and the sender reference is replaced with a tombstone marker.
- All active sessions are immediately invalidated.
- A deletion audit log (containing only a hashed identifier and timestamp, no personal data) is retained for 90 days for security purposes.
You can request deletion of your account at any time from your account settings.
7. Your Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:
- Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction: Update inaccurate information in your profile settings.
- Deletion: Delete your account and all associated data from your settings page.
- Portability: Export your profile data and message history as a JSON file from your settings page.
- Objection: Object to certain processing of your data.
To exercise any of these rights, use your account settings or contact us at privacy@pewneighbor.com. We will respond within 30 days.
8. Cookies
We use one essential cookie: a secure, httpOnly session cookie that keeps you signed in. We do not use advertising cookies, tracking pixels, or third-party analytics cookies. You cannot opt out of the session cookie as it is required for the service to function.
9. Children's Privacy
PewNeighbor is intended for users 18 years of age and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has created an account, please contact us at privacy@pewneighbor.com and we will delete the account promptly.
10. Security
We protect your data with industry-standard safeguards including TLS encryption in transit, AES-256-GCM encryption for messages at rest, private (non-public) blob storage for profile photos, httpOnly and Secure cookie flags, and regular security reviews. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Continued use of PewNeighbor after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
12. Contact
Questions, concerns, or requests regarding your privacy should be directed to: privacy@pewneighbor.com.