Data Privacy and Confidentiality

When someone calls your church or sends a message through your chatbot, they are trusting you with personal information — sometimes very personal. This article explains exactly what ChurchWiseAI records, where it goes, who on your team can see it, and what you should communicate to your congregation.

What Data Is Collected

Every Incoming Call

When someone calls your AI receptionist, the following is automatically recorded:

• Call date, time, and duration
• Caller phone number (from caller ID)
• Call transcript — a full text record of the conversation
• AI summary — a short summary generated after the call ends
• Recording — an audio recording of the call (if recording is enabled on your account)

Prayer Requests

When a caller submits a prayer request through the voice agent:

• Caller name (as given)
• Caller phone number
• The prayer request in their own words
• Whether they marked it confidential

Visitor Contacts

When a caller expresses interest in attending or learning more:

• Caller name
• Caller phone number
• The reason they gave for their interest

Callback Requests

When a caller asks to speak with the pastor or a staff member:

• Caller name
• Caller phone number
• The reason they gave for wanting a callback
• Preferred callback time
• Urgency level

Note on callbacks: The reason field often contains sensitive pastoral matters — someone going through a divorce, a mental health crisis, a faith struggle, or another deeply personal situation. This field is treated as pastoral-confidential and is only visible to Admin and Office Admin roles. All other roles see the caller's name and number but not the reason. See the role table below.

Chatbot Conversations

When someone uses your embedded chatbot:

• Chat messages and the AI's responses
• Any contact information they voluntarily provide (name, email)
• Questions they asked

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Who Can See What

The table below shows exactly which roles can access each type of data. For a full explanation of each role, see Team Members and Roles.

Data	Admin	Office Admin	Prayer Team	Care Team	Treasurer	Vol. Coord.	Worship Leader
Call logs and transcripts	✓	✓	—	—	—	—	—
Call recordings	✓	✓	—	—	—	—	—
AI call summaries	✓	✓	—	—	—	—	—
Prayer requests (non-confidential)	✓	✓	✓	✓	—	—	—
Prayer requests (confidential)	✓	✓	—	—	—	—	—
Visitor contact info and reasons	✓	✓	—	✓	—	✓	—
Callback: name and phone	✓	✓	—	✓	—	✓	—
Callback: reason (pastoral)	✓	✓	—	—	—	—	—
Activity overview (counts only)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Financial data (future feature)	✓	—	—	—	✓	—	—

"—" means the role cannot see this data at all — it is not hidden, it simply never loads or appears in their dashboard view.

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The Confidential Prayer Request Flag

When a caller submits a prayer request, they can say "please keep this private" or similar. The AI agent marks that request as confidential.

Confidential prayer requests are only visible to Admin and Office Admin. The Prayer Team and Care Team see the request exists (as a count) but cannot read its content. Their view shows: "Confidential — contact the pastor."

This mirrors the pastoral standard most churches already follow: confidential requests go to the pastor, not to a broader prayer list.

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The Pastoral Callback Principle

Callback reasons are treated like a private pastoral conversation. Someone who leaves a callback request saying they want to discuss a marriage crisis, a mental health struggle, or a faith doubt has shared something vulnerable with the expectation that it stays between them and the pastor.

ChurchWiseAI enforces this technically:

• Admin and Office Admin see the full callback reason
• Care Team and Volunteer Coordinator see the caller's name and phone number with the note "Pastoral inquiry — contact the pastor" — enough to route the call, not enough to expose the personal matter

If you assign a Care Team or Volunteer Coordinator member who genuinely needs to read callback reasons as part of their role, upgrade them to Office Admin.

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What Callers Are Told

The AI receptionist tells callers at the start of every call:

"This call is handled by an AI assistant and may be recorded."

This satisfies standard call recording disclosure requirements in most jurisdictions. However:

• In some states (e.g., California, Illinois), two-party or all-party consent is required for recording. If you operate in one of these states and have recording enabled, you should review your legal obligations.
• ChurchWiseAI does not provide legal advice. If you are uncertain about your jurisdiction's requirements, consult with an attorney before enabling call recording.

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Data Retention

Call logs, transcripts, prayer requests, and contact records are retained indefinitely unless you delete them manually. There is no automatic expiration.

Recommended practice:

• Archive or delete call records older than 12 months on a regular schedule
• Delete confidential prayer requests once the pastoral matter is resolved
• Review and clean up callback records after they are completed

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Protecting Your Congregation's Trust

A few things every church using ChurchWiseAI should communicate to their congregation:

Consider adding to your bulletin or website:

"When you call our church line or use our website chat, your conversation is assisted by AI and may be logged for pastoral follow-up. If you share a prayer request or ask to speak with the pastor, that information is handled with the same care as any private pastoral conversation."

Training your team:

• Remind staff that call transcripts and prayer requests are not for casual conversation
• Callback reasons should not be discussed outside the pastoral care context
• Team members should keep their dashboard access links private — if a link is shared, anyone with it can see that role's data

If someone asks to have their data deleted:

• Admin users can manually delete any specific call record, prayer request, or callback from the dashboard
• For a full account data deletion request, contact support@churchwiseai.com

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Summary: The Core Principle

ChurchWiseAI is built on the same trust principle as the pastoral relationship itself: the right information reaches the right person, and no further.

• The pastor sees everything they need to shepherd the flock
• The prayer team sees what helps them pray
• The care team sees what helps them care
• No one sees more than their role requires

If you have questions about how data is handled or want to request a data audit, contact us at support@churchwiseai.com.