Privacy and Church Apps

How private are church apps? What are the security risks of getting a Church App for your church?  What legal ramifications should a church think through before getting a church app?

Privacy, security, and legal issues surrounding church apps is a new and growing field. For the sake of brevity, I want to direct church leaders to ask the following questions before purchasing or licensing their church app.

Will the church app store personal information of our members such as address, phone number, birthday, etc?  If so, who has access to this information?  -  It is fine if a church app stores this information.  The answer you are looking for here is whether the app limits the access to this information to church leaders or if everyone on the church app can see it.  Legally, a church likely will want to know this information but they will want to make sure the app puts the church member in control of who (besides the church itself) can view this information.  Double check to make sure that a church member has control of their personal profile and can easily edit and update it as she/he pleases.  Also, make sure that they can control who has access to see their personal information.  Often, this can be done similar to how Facebook does it by allowing members to approve “Connection Requests” inside the app. 

One of the best apps for providing a church member directory while also keeping that directory private is SmartChurch.com.  This app takes the legal responsibility off of the church (which is right) and moves it to the individual church member.  Each member’s profile is hidden until it is “shared” with another church member.  This is how online church member directories must be created in the future.