1. Information We Collect
The information we collect depends on how you interact with gFree Church.
Information You Provide
You may voluntarily provide information such as:
Your name
Email address
Telephone number
Mailing address
Household or family information
Communication preferences
Event registrations
Ministry or volunteer interests
Connection Card responses
Prayer requests
Questions or messages submitted through contact forms
Donation or payment information
Any other information you choose to provide
Some information you provide may reveal religious, family, health, financial, or other sensitive personal circumstances. Please provide only the information necessary for your request and avoid submitting sensitive information about another person unless you have permission to do so.
Donations and Payments
Online donations, event fees, and other payments may be processed through third-party providers such as One Church Software and their payment-processing partners.
Full payment-card or bank-account credentials are generally collected and processed by those providers rather than directly through gfree.org. We may receive limited transaction information, such as your name, contact information, contribution amount, transaction status, designation, and information needed for receipts and accounting records.
Information Collected Automatically
When you use the website, we or our service providers may automatically collect information such as:
Internet Protocol address
Browser and device type
Operating system
Referring website
Pages viewed
Dates and times of visits
General geographic area
Website interactions
Cookie identifiers and similar technical information
Diagnostic, security, and error information
This information may be collected through server logs, cookies, embedded content, analytics services, and similar technologies.
2. How We Use Information
We may use information to:
Respond to questions and requests
Connect visitors with pastors, staff, ministry leaders, or volunteers
Provide pastoral care and ministry services
Process Connection Cards and prayer requests
Register participants for events and activities
Process donations and payments
Provide receipts, contribution statements, and transaction records
Communicate about church services, events, ministries, and opportunities
Manage volunteers and ministry participation
Maintain church, accounting, and administrative records
Operate, maintain, secure, and improve the website
Detect fraud, abuse, technical problems, or security threats
Comply with legal, financial, insurance, and regulatory requirements
Protect the safety, rights, and property of gFree Church and others
We may also use information for another purpose that is clearly explained when the information is collected.
3. Prayer Requests and Ministry Information
Prayer requests and requests for pastoral care may contain sensitive personal information.
Depending on the choices available on a form and the nature of the request, information may be shared with pastors, church staff, ministry leaders, or authorized prayer-team members. We will make reasonable efforts to handle this information respectfully and according to the selections you make, but electronic communications and online forms cannot be guaranteed to be completely confidential.
Please do not use a website form for an emergency or for information requiring immediate attention.
4. Cookies and Similar Technologies
Our website and third-party services may use cookies, pixels, local storage, and similar technologies.
Cookies may include:
Necessary Cookies
These cookies support essential website operations, security, consent preferences, form functionality, and basic navigation. The website may not function properly without them.
Functional Cookies
These cookies support optional features, remember preferences, or allow third-party forms, calendars, maps, and other services to operate.
Analytics Cookies
If analytics services are enabled, they may help us understand how visitors find and use the website. We may use this information to improve website content, navigation, reliability, and performance.
Embedded Media Cookies
Pages containing videos, livestreams, maps, calendars, social-media posts, or embedded forms may allow the provider of that content to collect information or place cookies.
Depending on your location and our cookie-consent configuration, nonessential services may not load until you provide consent.
You can manage available choices through the website’s Cookie Settings feature. You may also restrict cookies through your browser, although doing so may prevent forms, videos, calendars, or other features from working correctly.
5. Third-Party Services
We use third-party providers to operate portions of the website and church administration. These may include:
One Church Software
Payment processors
Website hosting and security providers
Email and text-message providers
Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta services
Google, YouTube, Google Maps, and reCAPTCHA
Calendar, form, video, and livestream providers
Analytics and website-performance providers
When you interact with a third-party form, video, map, calendar, social-media feature, donation service, or external link, that provider may collect information according to its own privacy policy and terms.
We encourage you to review the policies of services you use. gFree Church does not control the privacy practices of independent third parties.
6. How We Share Information
We may share information with:
Church Personnel and Volunteers
Pastors, employees, board members, ministry leaders, prayer-team members, and authorized volunteers may receive information when reasonably necessary to respond to your request, provide ministry care, administer an activity, or perform church responsibilities.
Service Providers
We may provide information to vendors that perform services on our behalf, including website hosting, forms, church-management software, payment processing, communications, security, analytics, and technical support.
These providers receive information necessary to provide their services and are subject to their own contractual and legal responsibilities.
Legal and Safety Purposes
We may disclose information when we reasonably believe it is necessary to:
Comply with law, legal process, or a valid government request
Protect a person from harm
Investigate suspected fraud, abuse, or unlawful activity
Enforce our policies
Protect the rights, safety, or property of gFree Church or others
Organizational Changes
If gFree Church restructures, merges, transfers operations, or changes service providers, relevant information may be transferred as part of that process, subject to applicable law and appropriate safeguards.
7. Sale and Targeted Advertising
gFree Church does not sell or rent personal information for monetary compensation.
We do not intentionally use personal information for targeted advertising. However, third-party videos, social-media embeds, maps, and similar services may collect information independently when they are loaded or used.
8. Communications
When you provide contact information, we may use it to respond to your request or send information relating to church services, ministries, registrations, donations, or events.
You may unsubscribe from promotional email messages by using the unsubscribe instructions in the message or by contacting us. You may still receive administrative or transactional communications relating to registrations, donations, safety matters, or requests you submitted.
Text-message frequency and charges may depend on the program and your mobile provider. You may follow the opt-out instructions provided with a text-message program.
9. Children’s Privacy
Our general website is intended for a broad audience and is not designed for children under 13 to independently submit personal information.
Parents and legal guardians may provide information about children for ministry registration, check-in, event participation, safety, communication, or other church purposes.
Children under 13 should not submit personal information through the website without the involvement and permission of a parent or legal guardian. If you believe a child has submitted information without appropriate permission, please contact us so we can review the matter.
10. Data Retention
We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to:
Provide ministry and administrative services
Respond to requests
Maintain donor, accounting, tax, and transaction records
Maintain attendance, registration, or safety records
Satisfy legal, insurance, and regulatory requirements
Resolve disputes
Protect the security and integrity of our systems
Retention periods vary depending on the type of information and the reason it was collected. We may retain certain information when required by law or when deletion would interfere with legitimate church, accounting, safety, or recordkeeping needs.
11. Information Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards intended to protect information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, loss, or misuse.
No website, database, electronic communication, or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You should use appropriate care when submitting sensitive information online.
12. Your Choices and Requests
Depending on the circumstances and applicable law, you may request that we:
Confirm whether we maintain information about you
Provide access to information you submitted
Correct inaccurate information
Delete information that is no longer reasonably needed
Update your communication preferences
Stop sending promotional communications
Some requests may be limited by legal, financial, safety, security, pastoral-care, or recordkeeping obligations. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.
Cookie preferences can be changed through the website’s Cookie Settings feature.
To make a privacy request, contact us using the information below.
13. External Websites
Our website contains links to websites and services operated by other organizations. We are not responsible for the content, availability, security, or privacy practices of those external services.
A link does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of every statement, product, policy, or practice found on the external website.
14. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as our website, ministry practices, service providers, or legal obligations change.
The revised policy will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. Material changes may also be communicated through the website or another reasonable method.
15. Contact Us
Questions, requests, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy may be directed to:
gFree Church
305 Keystone Hill Road
Philipsburg, PA 16866
Phone: 814-342-4520
Email: office@gfree.org