How we handle your data.

In short

Reading, searching, the browser extension and most of the site need no account, and without one nothing you read is tied to your name.
Signing in with Google is optional, except for the AI Bible study companion, which needs it so we can keep daily limits. We receive only the standard openid, email and profile details.
AI questions and answers are processed by Google's Gemini API or Anthropic's Claude API, depending on the conversation, and neither company trains its models on that content. We store your conversations encrypted at rest under your account, and our admin tools never show your questions.
We measure how the site is used with Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and a Matomo server of our own (section 4). Gifts are handled by Stripe, which keeps your card and name; we keep only the amount and date (section 8).
We never sell your data. You can delete a single conversation, one kind of saved data, or your whole account yourself at any time, and deleting removes it from our servers.

1.Introduction

Welcome to TrulyRandomVerse. This Privacy Policy applies to our Website (trulyrandomverse.com), our Progressive Web App (PWA), and our Browser Extension.

Most of the site can be used without an account — random-verse browsing, search, verse pages, articles, and the extension all work anonymously. The AI Bible study companion at /ai is the one exception: it requires Google Sign-In so we can enforce usage limits and prevent abuse. Section 2 covers what we collect when you use it.

You can also sign in by choice, to have your reading plan, saved verses and preferences follow you between devices. That is optional and changes nothing for anyone who doesn't; section 7 covers what an account holds and how to see or delete it.

2.AI features

The AI companion needs a Google sign-in. Since October 15, 2026, it is for supporters. A supporter is a reader who has given a gift of $5 or more, which comes with a number of AI conversations. The gift is taken by Stripe, our payment processor (section 8), and we do not receive or store your card number, name or email address. We keep the amount, the date, and a reference that links the gift to your account so the conversations can be added to it. The AI Terms spell out the deal in plain language, and the clauses below are the legal version.

What we collect when you use AI features

Your Google account info (Google sub-id, email, name, profile picture) via Google Sign-In.
The questions you ask and the AI's answers — both stored encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM) — plus tool-call metadata (which curated tools the AI consulted, with what arguments).
Approximate language (auto-detected from your browser, then stored on your account so future sessions skip detection).
A one-way hash of your IP address, and the browser's user-agent text kept with each sign-in session, for abuse detection (rate limits and repeated sign-ups). Abuse logs are deleted after 30 days, and an expired sign-in session is deleted a week after it ends.

How we use it

Operate the service: return answers, enforce daily caps, persist conversation history so you can return to it.
Debug quality issues and improve prompts/tools.
Detect abuse via anomaly detection and rate limits.

Third parties

Google Gemini API (paid tier). Most questions and answers transit Google's API. We use the paid tier; per Google's Gemini API Additional Terms of Service, Google does not use paid-tier API prompts or responses to train their models. Content is processed transiently and may be retained briefly for abuse monitoring per Google's terms.
Anthropic Claude API. Some conversations are answered by Anthropic's Claude instead, such as the free conversations offered over the holidays. Those questions and answers transit Anthropic's API. Under Anthropic's Commercial Terms of Service, Anthropic does not train its models on content sent through the API. Content may be retained for a limited time for safety and abuse monitoring per Anthropic's terms.
Google Sign-In. Handles authentication; we receive only the standard openid email profile claims (no contact-list or Drive access, ever).

Retention

Conversations: kept until you delete them or your account.
Sessions: auto-purge after 30 days of inactivity.
Abuse and sign-in logs: 30 days, then deleted automatically.

Deletion

One conversation: from Conversations, with one click and a confirmation. The conversation and all its messages are permanently deleted.
Whole account: from Account, in the Danger Zone. Every conversation and its messages, all sign-in sessions, and your name, email, picture and language are permanently deleted. Anonymous totals of what the AI cost us are kept, with no link back to you and no content.

Reviewing AI responses

We may review the AI's responses to debug quality, identify abuse, and improve our prompts and tools — review is answers-only: our admin tools never decrypt or display your questions. This is not a promise we ask you to take on trust; it is how the tool is built. The admin conversation view decrypts assistant messages only, and renders every question you asked as “hidden by policy.” The AI's responses are never made public.

Never

We do not sell your data.
We show no ads anywhere on the site (section 5).
We do not use your AI conversations for advertising profiles anywhere on the site.

Children

The AI companion is intended for users 13+ (or the applicable minimum age in your jurisdiction). Google handles age gating on the sign-in side.

The study tools in your own AI app

You can add the site's study tools to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or another AI app (see /connect). That needs no account, no sign-in and no cookies, and the conversation stays with your AI app, under its own privacy terms.

What reaches us: only what a tool needs, such as the verse, word or search phrase it is asked about. We never see your conversation or who you are. For Claude, ChatGPT and other web apps the request comes from that company's servers, not from your device.
What we keep: nothing you asked. To see how the tools are used, we count requests per hour by AI app (Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT or other) and by tool name, with no address or other detail attached. To limit how often each caller can ask, we note a one-way hash of the network address (or the AI company's name) with the time, and delete it within an hour. Our host's server logs record the address and time like any page visit (section 7).

3.Cookies & consent

When you first visit our site, a consent banner allows you to choose which types of cookies and data collection you allow:

Essential Only: Only the technical cookies and storage the site needs to function (theme preference, font size, dismissed popups), and no Google Analytics or Microsoft Clarity cookies. The visit counter on our own server (Matomo, section 4) keeps its own first-party visitor ID whatever you choose.
Accept All: In addition to essential cookies, this enables analytics tracking (Google Analytics), which may set its own cookies.

You can change your choice at any time: . The banner returns on this page, and your new choice replaces the old one. Clearing your browser's Local Storage for this site does the same.

4.Analytics

We use three analytics services to understand how visitors use our site:

Google Analytics 4 (GA4): When you consent to analytics cookies, Google Analytics collects anonymized usage data such as pages viewed, session duration, and approximate geographic region. We use Google Consent Mode v2, which means even without consent, limited anonymized data is collected without cookies. Google may process this data on servers in the United States. Google's Privacy Policy.
Microsoft Clarity: Clarity records anonymized interaction data (clicks, scrolling, page structure) so we can find and fix usability problems — it is how several bugs on this site have been caught. Text you type is masked by Clarity before it leaves the page. Clarity receives a consent signal from the banner: if you choose Essential Only, it is told not to use cookies. Data may be processed by Microsoft in the United States. Microsoft's Privacy Statement.
Matomo (Self-Hosted): We run Matomo analytics on our own server. It sets a first-party cookie on your device that holds a random visitor ID, which lets us count returning visitors and see how a visit moves through the site. It sets this cookie whatever you choose on the consent banner, because the banner does not switch Matomo off. Nothing from it is sent to any other company, and IP addresses are anonymized before they are stored. You can remove the cookie at any time by clearing your browser's cookies for this site.

5.Advertising

This site displays no advertising. There are no ad units on any page.

One technical detail, in the interest of accuracy: the Google tag that powers our analytics also carries a Google Ads conversion ID, so page views make requests to Google advertising domains (googlesyndication.com, doubleclick.net) as part of Google's consent-mode measurement. If you choose Essential Only, these requests are cookieless and Google states they are not used for ad personalization; advertising storage is only enabled if you choose Accept All. No ads are shown to you in either case.

6.The Browser Extension

Our Browser Extension is designed to function entirely within your browser environment, unless you deliberately connect it to an account.

Local Data: Your history and favorites are stored using chrome.storage.local. Unless you connect the extension to a TrulyRandomVerse account, this data never leaves your specific computer.
Connecting an account (optional, from version 4.2): You can pair the extension with your account using a code from Your data. Once paired, the verses you save in the extension are stored on your account, so they are the same ones you see on the website and on your other devices. It reaches your saved verses and nothing else — not your reading plan, not your searches, not your account settings. Disconnect from either the extension or Your data, and it stops immediately. An extension that has never been paired sends us nothing about you at all.
Synced Data: Your preferences (like Bible version) are stored using chrome.storage.sync. This leverages your personal Google Account to sync settings between your computers. This data is encrypted by Google; we have no access to it.
API Usage: When you click "Random Verse," the extension sends an anonymous request to our server to retrieve the text. The request carries no account or personal identifier. Like any web request it reaches our host with your IP address, which the host's logs record (section 7).

7.Website & PWA data handling

When you use trulyrandomverse.com or install our PWA:

Local Storage: We use your browser's built-in LocalStorage to save your verse history, favorites, theme preference, and font settings. If you are not signed in, this data stays on your device and we have no access to it.
Service Worker: Our PWA uses a Service Worker to cache static assets (CSS, fonts, icons) for faster loading. No personal data is stored in this cache.
Server Logs: Our host automatically logs basic technical details (IP address, browser type, timestamp). These logs are used solely for security monitoring and are not used to build user profiles.

Verse notifications

Notifications are off unless you turn them on, at App settings, on each device you want them on. No account is needed. When they are on, we keep: the delivery address your browser's push service gives that device, your time zone, and the choices you made there (when, what and from where). If you choose to have a notification drawn from your saved verses, which verses those are is kept with it. None of this is tied to your name or your account.

Separately, if you are signed in on a device when a notification arrives, the verse or devotional it shows is added to your History, so you can find it later (see "If you sign in" below). You can pause that in Settings.

Each notification is sent through your browser's own push service (Google, Apple or Mozilla, depending on the browser) as an empty message; the verse itself is fetched from us by the app when it arrives. Turning notifications off deletes what we kept for that device straight away; if you remove the app instead, it is deleted the next time a notification finds the device gone.

If you sign in

Signing in is optional everywhere except the AI companion. When you are signed in, some of what used to live only in your browser is also kept on your account, so it follows you between devices: your reading plan, your saved verses and their notes and collections, a few display preferences, the verse pages you have opened (the most recent 50), your homepage sessions (the most recent 5, or 100 if you choose), and your History.

We ask before moving anything. Data already in your browser when you sign in is not swept up. You are shown what is there and asked once; if you say no, nothing moves, and you can change your mind later at Your data. Anything you save while signed in goes to your account as you do it, the same way a saved verse has always gone to your browser.
History. While you are signed in, the pages you open are kept on your account so you can go back to where you were on any device: the page, its title, where you were in it (a verse, a place in an article, a point in the chapter audio), when, how long it was open, how many times you opened it, and which of your devices it was on. The most recent 300 are kept. Notifications that arrive on a device where you are signed in are kept in History too, whether or not you open them: the verse or devotional, when it arrived and on which device. The most recent 300 of those are kept, counted apart from the pages, and the verses among them also appear in Recent verses on the homepage on your devices. Searches and AI conversations are never part of it. You can pause it in Settings, and remove entries or clear it at History. In the installed app without an account, the same History is kept in that app only.
Homepage sessions. While you are signed in, each sitting at the homepage is kept so you can see it as a map at Sessions: the verses you drew, in order, how long each stayed on the screen, what you did on each (a reaction and whether you took it back, a copy or share, a word you looked up, switching light and dark), which of your devices it was on, and whether a verse came from a notification. The most recent 5 are kept, or 100 if you choose, and you can delete one or all of them there.
Searches are separate, and off. Nothing you type into a search box is stored on your account unless you turn that on yourself at Your data. If you do, the last 10 searches are kept, encrypted at rest. Turning the setting off deletes them.

Everything above can be deleted from Your data — the searches, the verse-page history, History and the homepage sessions each have their own delete, separately from deleting your account. Deleting your account removes all of it.

8.Third-party services

These are the outside services that handle some part of your visit. Each is described where it applies; this is the whole list.

Our hosting provider runs our server in the United States. Its logs record your IP address, browser type and the time of each request (section 7). It also holds the database, including the encrypted conversations and account data described above.
Cloudflare provides the CDN, security filtering and, for some visits, a human check (Cloudflare Turnstile). Requests pass through its network, and it may set essential security cookies. Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
Google supplies Google Sign-In for accounts (section 2), Google Analytics (section 4), the Gemini API that answers some AI questions (section 2), and the push service that delivers notifications to Chrome and Android browsers (section 7). Google's Privacy Policy.
Anthropic answers some AI questions through the Claude API (section 2). Anthropic's Privacy Policy.
Microsoft runs Clarity, the interaction-recording tool described in section 4. Microsoft's Privacy Statement.
Stripe takes gifts and monthly support on its own checkout page, so your card details never reach us. Stripe keeps the payment details and the receipt email address you give it, and we keep the amount, the date and Stripe's reference for the gift. Stripe's Privacy Policy.
Resend sends the email we are asked to send: your message from the contact page to us, and the link that lets a donor manage a monthly gift. It sees the address and the text of each message. Resend's Privacy Policy.
Apple and Mozilla run the push services for Safari and Firefox notifications, alongside Google's for Chrome (section 7).
OpenStreetMap draws the small map on the page of a biblical place. Your browser asks its servers for the map, so it receives your IP address. OpenStreetMap Foundation Privacy Policy.

Matomo (section 4) runs on our own server, so it is not a third party. The site's fonts and icons are served from our own server, and no font service is contacted.

If we link to external Bible reference sites, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those external websites.

9.Your rights & control

You possess full control over your information:

Cookie Consent: Choose "Essential only" on the consent banner to turn off Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity cookies (Matomo, on our own server, keeps its first-party visitor ID either way, as section 4 explains), and whenever you want to change your choice.
Delete Local Data: Clear your browser's Local Storage for this site to remove all preferences, history, and favorites. If you are signed in, this clears only this device — what your account holds is restored the next time you visit. Use Your data to remove it from the account, or delete your account entirely.
Google Opt-Out: Visit Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to block GA4 entirely.
Extension Data: Uninstall the Browser Extension or clear its storage to remove all local data.
AI account data: Manage and delete from Account, with a delete for each conversation on Conversations and a whole-account delete in the Danger Zone. See section 2 above for what's retained vs purged.
Synced account data: See and delete everything your account holds at Your data — what is stored, which devices you have signed in on, and separate deletes for your searches and your verse-page history. The searches setting is off until you turn it on. See section 7.

Under GDPR, CCPA, and similar regulations, you have the right to request information about what data we process. If you are not signed in, random-verse browsing, search, articles, and the extension stay anonymous — there is no profile to access for that traffic. Signing in creates a Google-Sign-In-backed account, which the AI companion requires and the rest of the site does not; what that account then holds is set out in sections 2 and 7. You can access, correct, or delete it yourself from Account and Your data, or contact us at the address in section 11 for any request the in-app controls don't cover.

Our server and the services in section 8 process data in the United States, so information about you is handled there. If you live in the European Union, the United Kingdom or elsewhere with a data-protection authority, you may complain to that authority if you believe your data has been handled wrongly, and we would be glad to hear from you first. To ask us to delete your data, use Your data to remove what your account holds or Account to delete the whole account, or write to the address in section 11 and we will do it for you.

10.Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last Updated" date. Continued use of the site after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Earlier changes that matter to how you read the sections above:

August 27, 2026: the public Beta of the AI companion ended. The answers-only review described in section 2 had applied during the Beta, and it continues on the same terms.
July 2026: Google AdSense and its ad units were removed from the site. Section 5 describes the site as it is now.

11.Contact us

If you have any questions about this policy or the privacy of our services, please contact us at [email protected].