Privacy

The bishopric of the Provo 1st Ward runs this site for the ward. It has two parts: the ward’s page, which anyone with the address can open, and Leader Tools, which only ward leaders with a sign-in code can open.

The ward’s page

It shows the Sunday program, announcements, groups and the ward’s history, this week’s birthdays (a name and the day only; anyone can ask to be left off) and the missionaries serving from the ward.

It has no accounts, no cookies, no advertising and no tracking, and nothing on it comes from another company. It keeps a few counts, with nothing about who: how many phones added a notice to a calendar, and each day how many opened the page and how long each kept it open. For that last, a phone makes up a random tag each day and a new one the next, so no phone can be followed from one day to the next. When a ward activity has a vote, such as the chili cook-off, a phone makes up one random tag for that evening so its ballot counts once and can be changed; the votes are numbers only, and they are deleted a month after the activity. Settings such as light or dark stay on your own device.

If you propose a group, the bishopric reviews it, and it appears on the page only if they approve it. If you fill in the ward survey or sign up for an activity, what you type goes to the bishopric and the clerks, not onto the page; a sign-up sheet shows names and what people are bringing, never a phone number. Survey answers are filed onto your record in Leader Tools; a sign-up is deleted about three months after the activity. Those two pages note the connection an answer came from for a short while, only to stop floods.

Leader Tools

It holds what the ward’s membership records hold — name, birth date, phone number, callings and move-in date — with what members share on the survey, whether they are free to take a calling, and the bishopric’s confidential notes. No home addresses.

Each leader sees only what their calling needs, and the server enforces it. Phone numbers and birth dates: the bishopric, the clerks, the executive secretary and the Relief Society and Elders Quorum presidents. Confidential notes: the bishop, the bishopric and those two presidents, though the clerks and the executive secretary, who send each leader their sign-in, could reach them too. Survey answers: the bishopric, the clerks, the executive secretary and the presidents of the Relief Society, Elders Quorum, Young Women, Primary and Sunday School; whether someone will speak or pray, the bishopric and the shared sign-in on the clerk’s office computer, which the clerks use too; any message a leader sends the bishopric about a member, the bishopric alone. A meeting agenda may name members who need support. The bishopric meeting’s agenda is read by the bishopric, the clerks and the executive secretary. The ward council’s, where each presidency now keeps its list of members who need support, is read and commented on by the bishopric, the clerks, the executive secretary, every member of every organization presidency, the Relief Society and Elders Quorum activity coordinators, and the stake high councilor the bishop adds. A presidency’s own agenda is read by that presidency, and the Relief Society’s and Elders Quorum’s by their activity coordinators too. To show each leader what is new to them, Leader Tools notes when they last opened those two agendas; that is never shown to anyone else or recorded.

When a member moves out, their notes, messages and survey answers are deleted for good. Leader Tools records who changed what, and counts how many devices open it each day and for how long in all, with nothing about who. A leader’s sign-in is removed when they are released.

A leader can suggest a change to Leader Tools from inside it. That emails the app’s builder, who has no sign-in, the leader’s words, name, level and calling, which page and kind of device they were on, their own phone number if they leave that box ticked, and a picture of the page with every name, number, note and typed word covered before it left their device. The bishopric see every suggestion sent.

Where it lives

On Cloudflare’s servers in North America, over an encrypted connection. We do not sell, rent or share ward information with anyone. If we ever learn that ward information has been exposed, we will tell the members affected.

Your choices

Speak to the bishop or a ward clerk to see what Leader Tools holds about you, correct it, keep your birthday off the page, or change or remove your survey answers or a sign-up.

If this page changes, the date at the top changes with it.