Privacy Policy

Welcome to Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (“we,” “us,” or “our”), available at https://rightlydividingthewordoftruth.com/ (the “Site”). We are committed to respecting your privacy and handling your information with honesty and care.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you visit the Site, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices and rights available to you. By using the Site, you acknowledge the practices described in this policy. If you do not agree, please discontinue use of the Site.

Information you provide to us

• Contact messages: When you email us or use a contact form, we receive your name, email address, and the content of your message.
• Comments: If you leave a comment, we collect the data shown in the comment form along with your IP address and browser user-agent string to help detect spam. An anonymized string created from your email address (a “hash”) may be provided to the Gravatar service to check whether you use it; once your comment is approved, your profile picture may be visible publicly next to your comment.
• Newsletter or updates (if offered): If you subscribe, we collect your email address and, optionally, your name.
• Prayer requests or questions (if offered): Anything you choose to share with us. Please avoid sending sensitive personal details you do not wish us to hold.

Information collected automatically

• Log and device data: IP address, browser type, operating system, referring page, pages visited, and the date and time of your visit.
• Approximate location: Country or city-level location derived from your IP address.
• Cookies and similar technologies: Small files and identifiers placed on your device by us and by third parties such as Google. See Cookies & Similar Technologies.

We do not intentionally collect sensitive personal information (such as financial account numbers or government ID numbers) through the Site.

• To operate, maintain, and deliver the Site and its Bible study content.
• To respond to your messages, questions, and requests.
• To publish and moderate comments, and to protect the Site from spam, fraud, and abuse.
• To send newsletters or updates you have requested (you may unsubscribe at any time).
• To understand how visitors use the Site so we can improve articles, studies, and navigation.
• To display advertising that helps fund the Site, including through Google AdSense.
• To comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis to do so:

• Consent — for example, for personalized advertising cookies and newsletter subscriptions. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests — for example, keeping the Site secure, preventing spam, and understanding site usage, where those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Performance of a request — for example, replying to a message you send us.
• Legal obligation — where processing is required by law.

Cookies are small text files stored on your device that help websites function and remember information about your visit. We and our partners also use similar technologies such as web beacons, pixels, and local storage.

Managing cookies

Where required by law (including in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland), we will ask for your consent through a consent banner before placing non-essential cookies. You can change your choices at any time through that banner or by adjusting your browser settings to block or delete cookies. Blocking some cookies may affect how parts of the Site work.

We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on the Site. Advertising helps us keep our Bible study resources free to everyone.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this Site or other websites.
• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this Site and/or other sites on the Internet.
• Google and its partners may collect and process data such as your IP address, device identifiers, and browsing activity for ad delivery, measurement, and fraud prevention.
• Where personalized ads are not permitted or you have opted out, Google may still show non-personalized ads, which use cookies for frequency capping, aggregated reporting, and fraud prevention.

To learn more about how Google uses data, please see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and Google’s advertising policies.

For visitors in the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, we use a Google-certified consent management platform to request your consent for the use of cookies and personal data for ads. For visitors in U.S. states with applicable privacy laws, we honor opt-out requests and may enable Google’s restricted data processing where appropriate.

We may use Google Analytics and similar tools to understand how visitors use the Site, such as which studies are most read and how people arrive at our pages. These tools collect information in aggregated or pseudonymous form and may use cookies.

You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting your data by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Articles on the Site may include embedded content (for example, videos, images, or Scripture tools). Embedded content from other websites behaves exactly as if you had visited that website, and those sites may collect data about you, use cookies, and track your interaction with the embedded content.

The Site may also link to external websites. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those sites, and we encourage you to review their privacy policies.

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only in the following circumstances:

• Service providers: Trusted partners who help us run the Site, such as our web hosting provider, email and newsletter services, spam-protection tools, and analytics providers. They may use your information only to provide services to us.
• Advertising partners: Google and its partners, as described in Google AdSense & Advertising.
• Legal reasons: When required by law, court order, or government request, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Site, our visitors, or others.
• Site transfer: If the Site is transferred to a new owner, visitor information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy.

• Comments: Comments and their metadata are kept indefinitely so we can recognize and approve follow-up comments automatically, unless you ask us to remove them.
• Messages: Emails and contact form submissions are kept only as long as needed to respond and for reasonable record-keeping.
• Newsletter: Your email address is kept until you unsubscribe.
• Analytics and advertising data: Retained according to the settings and policies of the respective providers.

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information, including encrypted (HTTPS) connections, secure hosting, and restricted access to site administration. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Our service providers, including Google, may process information in countries other than where you live, including the United States. Where required, such transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards, such as Standard Contractual Clauses or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights regarding your personal information:

EEA, UK & Switzerland (GDPR)

You have the rights listed above and the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

United States (California and other states)

Residents of California and other U.S. states with comprehensive privacy laws may have the right to know what personal information we collect, to request deletion or correction, and to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information for targeted (cross-context behavioral) advertising. We do not sell personal information for money; however, the use of advertising cookies may be considered “sharing” under some laws. You can opt out by using the Google Ads Settings link above, enabling Global Privacy Control in your browser, or contacting us. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

Philippines (Data Privacy Act of 2012)

Data subjects in the Philippines have the right to be informed, to access, to object, to erasure or blocking, to rectification, to data portability, to damages, and to file a complaint with the National Privacy Commission.

The Site is intended for a general audience and is not directed at children under the age of 13 (or under 16 in the EEA and UK). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will promptly delete it.

Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” (DNT) setting. Because there is no common industry standard for DNT, the Site does not currently respond to DNT signals. Where required by law, we treat a valid Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as a request to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for that browser.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this page periodically.