Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information hopesdact.org collects, how it is used, and the choices you have. It describes what the website actually does today. If you have a question, please contact us using the details at the end of this page.

Who we are

This website is operated by Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church, 1052 Blue Hills Avenue, Bloomfield, CT 06002 (“HOPE,” “we,” “us”). The website is hosted on the BoxCast Sites platform.

Information you choose to give us

Prayer Request form

Our Prayer Request form asks for your prayer request and whether you would like someone from HOPE to contact you. Your name, email address, and phone number are optional, and you may submit your request anonymously. If you ask us to contact you, the form also asks how you prefer to be contacted. An optional question asks whether we may share your request (see below).

Connect With Us form

Our Connect With Us form asks for your first and last name and email address. You may also share your phone number, whether this is your first time connecting with HOPE, how you heard about us, topics you would like to learn more about, your preferred contact method, and any questions or comments.

Phone and email

If you call or email us, we receive the information you choose to share.

Prayer requests

Prayer requests often include personal matters such as health, family, grief, or faith. Please share only what you are comfortable sharing, and please do not include another person’s private details without their permission.

Prayer requests are confidential by default. Our Prayer Ministry Team is the group responsible for reviewing and praying for requests. We share a request with the congregation or anyone else only when you clearly give permission, and never more widely or in more detail than you allowed.

• Online form: the optional question “May we share your prayer request?” lets you choose to keep your request confidential, to share it with the congregation including your name, or to share it with the congregation without your name. If you leave this question blank, your request stays confidential.
• Phone or email: your request stays confidential unless you clearly ask us to share it.

Online form submissions are currently received by the church’s website administrator. Arrangements for the Prayer Ministry Team to review requests directly are still being set up.

This website is not monitored around the clock. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911. If you are in emotional crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

How the forms work

Both forms are provided by Google Forms and appear on our pages from Google. You do not need a Google account to use them, and the forms do not collect your email address automatically. Responses are stored in Google Sheets in a Google account managed by the church’s website administrator, and only authorized people can see them. Google processes this information under its own Privacy Policy.

How we use information

• To pray for the requests you send us, keeping them confidential unless you give permission to share them.
• To contact you when you have asked us to.
• To welcome visitors and answer questions.

We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising.

How long we keep information

We keep Prayer Request and Connect With Us submissions for up to 12 months, unless you ask us to delete yours sooner or we have a legitimate reason to keep it longer.

Information collected automatically

When you visit, our hosting provider (BoxCast Sites) and the services that deliver our pages may automatically receive basic technical information, such as your IP address and browser type, so the website can load and stay secure.

We have turned off our hosting platform’s optional visitor-statistics cookies and the analytics built into our video player. We do not use Google Analytics or other analytics of our own, and we do not run advertising on this website. Some embedded services, such as Google Forms, may set their own cookies. Our Cookie Policy explains which cookies may be used and how to control them in your browser.

Content and services from other providers

Some parts of the website come from other services. These services may collect information, including through their own cookies, under their own policies. We do not control their privacy or payment practices.

• BoxCast — our livestream and video player.
• Google — our Prayer Request and Connect With Us forms, and the map on our home page.
• FlipHTML5 — our Digital Bulletin.
• AdventistGiving — online giving. Payment information you enter there is handled by AdventistGiving, not by this website.
• Zelle — giving through your own bank’s app. We do not receive your banking login.
• Open-Meteo — the current Bloomfield temperature shown on our home page. Your browser requests it directly from Open-Meteo, which receives your IP address as part of that request. It sets no cookies, and your own location is never requested.
• YouTube and Facebook — links to our pages on those sites.

Please review those services’ own policies before using them.

Children

This website is not designed to collect information from children.If a child under 13 needs to submit a prayer request or other form, we ask that a parent or guardian submit it on the child’s behalf.

Your choices and privacy requests

You may ask us to access, correct, or delete information you submitted through our forms, or raise any privacy concern, by emailing hopeannouncements@hotmail.com or calling (860) 243-3426. We may need to confirm that a request is yours before acting on it, especially if you submitted it without your name.

We aim to acknowledge privacy requests within 10 business days and to resolve them within 30 days. Some requests may take longer, and in some cases we may be unable to fully complete a request (for example, if we cannot confirm it is yours or if information must be kept for a legitimate reason). If so, we will explain why.

We take reasonable care to protect the information you share, but no website or online service can guarantee complete security.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the website changes. The effective date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.