Your data, plainly

Formation Initiative tools are free and built to serve you, not to watch you. Here is exactly what we keep and why.

Without an account

Everything you do in Study and Greek is saved in your own browser on your own device. It never reaches our servers. Clearing your browser's data for this site removes it, so use the backup buttons in each tool's settings to keep a copy.

With an account

An account is optional. If you create one, we keep:

• Your email address, to send you sign-in links.
• Your sign-ins: when you signed in, and the browser and network address used, so we can keep you signed in and spot misuse. These expire after 60 days of inactivity.
• Your passkeys, if you add any. We store only the public half; the private key never leaves your device.
• Your work: your studies, answers, journal, memory verses, courses and Greek progress, so they can follow you between devices. Only you can see it. Group leaders never see your notes unless you share them.

In a group

• Everyone in a group sees the group's name, its notes, the names members chose for the group, and any answer a member taps Share with group on.
• The leader also sees which weeks of the group's course each member has started or finished. Never the answers themselves.
• If your group meets on a video call, the call happens on the service your leader chose (like Zoom), under that service’s privacy policy. We don’t see or record calls. During a live session your leader’s screen and yours show the same step; what you type stays private unless you share it.
• Leaving a group, or being removed, takes your shared answers out of it. Deleting a group removes its notes and shared answers.

Churches

• A group can belong to a church. If it does, you’re told before you join, and the church’s admins can see the group’s members and which weeks each has started or finished. Never the answers themselves.
• A church’s page lists its groups, their leaders’ names and when they meet. Anyone with the link can see it.
• If you ask to join a group from a church page, its leader sees your name and any note you add. If you ask for a church space or to lead in one, the people who decide see the same; when you ask for a church space, the Formation Initiative team also sees your email so we can check the request.
• Churches can’t email you through Formation Initiative. News from your church appears only in the app.

What we never do

• No ads, and no selling or sharing your data.
• No tracking or analytics scripts from other companies.
• No marketing email. We only email you when you ask to sign in.

Where it lives

The site and its database run on Cloudflare, which also delivers our sign-in emails. They process this data only to provide that service to us.

Your choices

From your account page you can download a copy of everything we hold about you, sign out, or delete your account. Deleting removes your account and all your synced work from our servers right away. A copy stays in each browser you used until you clear it there.

Questions

Email privacy@formationinitiative.org with any question about your data, or if you'd like us to remove something.

Last updated October 2026.