How Biblical Vault handles account and visitor information.

Information collected

When you create a reader account, Biblical Vault collects your name, username, email address, country, password hash, selected plan, and optional consent preference for library news and membership updates. A password is stored only as a secure password hash.

When you purchase, trial, or manage a paid membership, Stripe processes your payment method. Biblical Vault receives contact details, Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, membership tier, subscription status, trial dates, and renewal information. Biblical Vault does not store card numbers or full payment details.

The library stores books saved to your bookshelf, favourite and recommendation choices, reading status, bookmarks, study notes, book-opening events, PDF download events, print-edition requests, and private messages sent through the Gold member directory. Email addresses are not displayed to other members.

For visitor analytics, the server temporarily uses the public IP address associated with a request to estimate country, region, and city. New uncached addresses may be sent over HTTPS to the IP geolocation provider ipwho.is. Biblical Vault does not store the raw IP address. It stores a regularly rotated anonymous hash and approximate location. Location may be inaccurate when a visitor uses a VPN, proxy, mobile network, or privacy relay.

Why information is used

Account information is used to authenticate readers, provide appropriate library access, operate reading and community features, enforce fair download and trial limits, communicate requested print availability, prevent misuse, and maintain administration records. A recent activity time is used to calculate an approximate online-member count. Email marketing is sent only to readers who actively opt in.

Trial protection

To limit a Gold trial to one per person, Biblical Vault stores one-way hashes derived from the normalized email address, a first-party device token, network IP address, and the card fingerprint supplied by Stripe. It does not store the raw card number or raw IP address for this purpose. These hashes are used to identify repeated trial attempts.

Private content

Study notes, bookshelf details, bookmarks, reading status, and internal member messages are associated with the signed-in account. They are intended to be visible only to the reader, intended message recipient where applicable, and authorised administrators where necessary to operate or moderate the service. Do not place highly sensitive personal information in these fields.

Payment providers

Payments and subscription management are provided by Stripe. Stripe processes payment data under its own privacy terms. Biblical Vault uses signed Stripe webhooks to keep membership and trial access current.

Analytics retention

Approximate IP lookup results are cached for up to 30 days. Failed lookups are cached for a shorter period. Visitor analytics do not store query strings, account IDs, cookies, or raw IP addresses. Book views and PDF download records may be retained to operate limits and report aggregate usage.

Retention and contact

Account, subscription, trial-prevention, usage, and community records are kept for as long as needed to operate the service, prevent misuse, meet accounting obligations, resolve disputes, and comply with applicable law. To request account assistance or ask a privacy question, contact admin@biblicalvault.com.

Changes

This notice may be updated when the service changes. The current version is published on this page.