Privacy Policy

Last updated: 16 June 2026

DCLM Jotter is built for Deeper Christian Life Ministry members. This page describes what the app stores on your device, what (only if you opt in) it stores in the cloud on your behalf, what Google Play handles for in-app purchases, and which third-party services the app communicates with — so the brethren can decide what they're comfortable with.

Anonymous-first. The app is fully usable without any account. Nothing about you, your jottings, or your reading leaves your phone unless you choose to sign in for cloud backup via Jotter Plus (see the "Cloud backup" and "Jotter Plus" sections below). Even when signed in, no data is shared with any third party for advertising or analytics.

What stays on your device

By default — i.e. while you are not signed in — every piece of content you create or download inside DCLM Jotter is stored locally on your phone and nowhere else. That includes:

  • Your jottings (the notes you write in the jotter)
  • Your Bible bookmarks and highlights
  • Your favorited hymns
  • Your text-size, theme, font, and reminder preferences
  • Your "walk" (daily-rhythm) count
  • Any hymn or Bible chapter audio you've downloaded for offline listening

If you uninstall the app without ever signing in, this data is removed with it and nothing remains.

Cloud backup (optional, sign-in only)

DCLM Jotter offers an optional cloud backup. It is turned on only when you tap "Sign in" in Settings and successfully authenticate with Google. While you are signed in:

  • Your jottings, Bible bookmarks, Bible highlights, and favorited hymns are written to Google Cloud Firestore, in a per-user folder at users/{your-uid}/…. Only you (the brother authenticated with that Google account) can read or write this folder; Firestore security rules enforce this server-side.
  • Your Google account email and display name are stored by Firebase Auth as part of the sign-in record.
  • Your Google profile photo URL is stored by Firebase Auth. The photo itself is cached locally on the device for fast display; we do not re-upload it anywhere.

What is not stored in the cloud, even when signed in: hymn and Bible audio you've downloaded for offline playback (these stay on the device), your preferences (text size, theme, font, reminder times), your walk count (derived locally), and any cached pages or images.

Sync is one-shot at sign-in, then debounced after each local edit, then again when you re-open the app. The app does not use Firestore's realtime listeners; it does not stream your data continuously.

Signing out clears the auth session on this device. Your local jottings stay where they are — sign-out does not delete anything from the device, and it does not delete the cloud copy either. You can sign back in any time and continue.

Deleting your account (Settings → profile card → "Delete account") removes the cloud copy of everything attached to your account — jottings, bookmarks, highlights, favorites — and then deletes the auth user. Jottings already on this device stay (so you don't lose what you wrote in your own jotter). To remove the local copy too, uninstall the app or clear its storage in Android settings.

Shared-device protection. If a different brother signs in on the same device, the app marks any of the previous brother's local "not yet uploaded" rows as already synced before doing anything else, so their offline edits cannot leak into the new account's cloud copy. This guard is on by default and cannot be turned off.

Firebase Auth and Cloud Firestore are Google products. Google's handling of the auth + Firestore data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy and the Firebase Privacy & Security terms.

Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics)

When the app crashes or hits an unhandled error, the technical details of the crash are sent to Google Firebase Crashlytics so it can be fixed. This includes the device model, the Android version, and the line of code that failed. It does not include your jottings, your highlights, your name, your email, or anything you typed.

Crash reporting can be turned off any time in Settings → Privacy → Crash reports. With it off, nothing is sent on a crash.

Jotter Plus (in-app purchase)

Jotter Plus is a one-time, lifetime in-app purchase that unlocks cloud backup, the worship-themed themes, the beautiful image shares, PDF export, and the weekly walk chart. The purchase is processed entirely by Google Play. We never see, store, or transmit your payment card details, billing address, or any financial information — Google Play handles that side end to end. Refunds, billing questions, and chargebacks are governed by the Google Play refund policy.

What DCLM Jotter does store about your purchase, locally on your device:

  • A small boolean flag in the app's private SharedPreferences storage (key: plus_lifetime_entitlement) recording that Plus is active. This flag stays on the device.
  • A short-lived cache of the localised product details (name, description, currency-formatted price) returned by Google Play when the purchase sheet opens, so the brother isn't waiting on a network call to see the price.

Plus entitlement is tied to your Google Play account, not your DCLM Jotter account or device — so brethren who change phones, uninstall and reinstall, or factory-reset can recover Plus instantly by tapping "Restore purchase" inside the Plus sheet. Restoring re-asks Google Play whether the account already owns jotter_plus_lifetime and re-enables the local flag if so.

Signing out of your Google account inside the app clears the local Plus flag on that device — a privacy nicety for shared devices, since Plus is tied to the Play account that bought it, not the Firebase account the app uses for cloud sync. The brother can always tap "Restore purchase" after signing back in to re-enable Plus surfaces.

Morning & Evening devotion

The Morning & Evening devotion shown on the home screen is Charles Spurgeon's classic reading, bundled with the app and stored entirely on the device. Opening the devotion does not contact any server. Tapping "Save to Jotter" creates a new jotting locally; that jotting then follows the same rules as any other (local-only unless you've signed in for cloud backup).

DCLM Radio (audio)

When you tap Play on the radio card, your device connects directly to DCLM's audio streaming server (airtime.dclm.org) to receive the live broadcast. The connection is not relayed through any server we operate. Your IP address is visible to DCLM's audio service in the same way it would be if you visited any website.

DCLM Radio (video / webcast mode)

Toggling the Radio full player to "Video" mode mounts an embedded YouTube IFrame Player pointed at DCLM's live webcast URL (youtube.com/embed/live_stream?channel=…). From that point on, YouTube's privacy policy applies to the video stream. The app does not log who watched, when, or for how long.

Hymn audio downloads

When you tap the download icon next to a hymn, your device connects directly to DCLM Florida's website (dclmfl.wordpress.com) and downloads that hymn's MP3 file. The file is then stored on your phone for offline listening — we don't keep a copy on any of our servers, and we don't see who downloaded what. DCLM Florida's website may log the request the same way any web server logs visits.

Bible chapter audio downloads

The KJV chapter audio in the app is the public-domain narration by Alexander Scourby, hosted on the Internet Archive (archive.org). When you tap the download icon on a chapter, your device connects directly to archive.org and downloads that single chapter's MP3. The file is stored on your phone for offline listening. The download is not relayed or proxied through any server we operate.

YouTube links for hymns without audio

For hymns we don't yet have a hosted MP3 for, the app shows a YouTube logo button. Tapping it opens YouTube (in your browser or YouTube app) with a search for that hymn. The app does not embed YouTube content for this path, does not load YouTube while you're inside the app, and does not see anything you do once you're on YouTube. From that point on, YouTube's privacy policy applies.

App update check (Google Play)

When you open the app, it asks Google Play whether a newer version of DCLM Jotter is available. This check is made by Google's official Play Core library and goes directly between your device and Google's servers — we don't see the response. If a newer version exists, the app shows a small banner with an Update button. Tapping it opens the Play Store listing. Google's handling of this is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.

Reminders

If you turn on the morning and evening devotion reminders in Settings, the notifications are scheduled and delivered entirely by your phone's operating system. No push notifications are sent from any server we operate, and we don't know whether you've opened them.

Sharing and external apps

When you tap Share on a hymn, verse, jotting, or devotion, the system share sheet opens and you choose where the text goes. The text leaves DCLM Jotter only when you make that choice. We don't see what you share or whom you share it with.

Children

DCLM Jotter is appropriate for all ages. The app does not request personal identifying information from anyone. Cloud backup is sign-in-gated; signing in requires a Google account, which Google's own age policies govern.

Changes to this policy

This policy describes the current version of the app. Future versions may add features that change the data flow. When that happens this page is updated with a new "Last updated" date, and the change is surfaced in the app's release notes before any new data flow turns on.

Contact

Questions about this policy? debelbuilds+dclmjotter@gmail.com