Privacy Policy

1 What BrightHope Is

BrightHope is a platform that connects counselees with independent Christian pastoral counselors. You choose the counselor you want to meet with based on your needs, beliefs, and that counselor’s availability.

This Policy applies to visitors, account holders, counselees, counselors, and anyone who communicates with BrightHope through the app, website, email, or support channels.

2 Information We Collect

Account and profile information

We may collect your name, email address, phone number, role, location or state, language preferences, denomination or faith preferences, profile details, and login information.

Counselor information

For counselors, we may collect qualifications, credentials, designations, categories, availability, church information, profile images, certifications, and other information needed to evaluate and display a counselor profile.

Session and platform information

We may collect appointment details, selected counselor, session status, messages or support requests, device/session identifiers, authentication tokens, IP address, browser/device data, and general app usage logs.

Payment information

Payments may be processed by third-party payment providers. BrightHope does not intend to store full payment card numbers on our systems.

3 How We Use Information

We use information to operate the platform, create and secure accounts, match or connect users with selected counselors, schedule sessions, process payments, provide support, send service communications, improve reliability, prevent misuse, and comply with legal obligations.

We may also use limited contact information to send updates about BrightHope, devotionals, or product news where permitted. You may opt out of promotional messages, but we may still send transactional or safety-related notices.

4 Who Can Access Information

Your chosen counselor can access information reasonably needed to provide pastoral counseling, such as your session details, profile context you provide, and communications within the platform.

BrightHope personnel and service providers may access information only as needed to operate, support, secure, troubleshoot, or improve the platform, or where required by law.

5 Sharing & Disclosure

We do not sell your counseling conversations. We may share information with service providers who help us host, secure, process payments, send email, analyze platform performance, or provide support.

We may disclose information when required by law, to respond to legal process, to protect rights and safety, to investigate fraud or abuse, or where there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else.

6 Payment Data

Payment information is handled by payment processors subject to their own terms and privacy practices. BrightHope may receive transaction identifiers, subscription status, checkout status, and limited billing metadata needed to provide the service.

7 Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information. These may include encryption in transit, access controls, authentication, session management, logging, and limiting access based on operational need.

No system can be guaranteed completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials private and notifying us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised.

8 Retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably needed to provide the service, maintain records, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, comply with law, and protect the platform. We may retain limited backup, security, or transaction records after account closure where appropriate.

9 Choices & Requests

You may contact us to request access, correction, deletion, or other action regarding your personal information. We may need to verify your identity before responding, and some requests may be limited by legal, safety, security, or recordkeeping requirements.

10 Children

BrightHope is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided information to us, please contact us so we can review and respond appropriately.

11 Changes

We may update this Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will provide notice through the app, website, email, or another reasonable method. Continued use of BrightHope after an update means you accept the revised Policy.

12 Contact

Questions about privacy can be sent to support@brighthopeapp.com.