Privacy Policy

Who we are

This policy is issued by Christians in Politics Australia Ltd (ABN 93 697 747 630), a public company limited by guarantee, registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) and based in New South Wales.

It applies to the CiP Network — our member web portal at network.christiansinpolitics.com and the CiP Network mobile apps for iOS and Android — and to this website.

We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

Sensitive information

Two things you can record on your profile are treated as sensitive information under Australian privacy law: your political party affiliation, your church tradition or denomination, and the church you attend.

Both are entirely optional. We collect them only with your consent, which you give by choosing to enter them, and you can remove them at any time. We store them separately from the rest of your profile, with stricter access rules, and you control whether other members can see your party affiliation.

What we collect

When you create an account and use the network, we collect:

• Account details — your email address, an optional mobile number, and your password. Passwords are hashed by our authentication provider; we never see them.
• Profile — first and last name, profile photo, job title, employer, biography, state, and federal and state electorate.
• Sensitive information (optional) — political party and church tradition, as described above.
• Content you create — posts, comments, reactions, poll votes, events you create or register for, groups you create or join, and images you upload.
• Messages — direct messages between you and members you are connected to.
• Connections — connection requests you send and receive, and your group memberships.
• Preferences — your notification and privacy settings, and a device push token if you turn on push notifications.
• Support and reports — support requests you raise, and reports you make about content or members.

We do not collect payment details through the app. We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.

How we use it

• To operate your account and show your profile to other members as your settings allow.
• To deliver the feed, groups, events, messages and connections.
• To send transactional email — confirming your address, resetting your password, event reminders and notifications you have opted into.
• To respond to your support requests.
• To moderate content and keep the network safe: reported content is reviewed by CiP moderators, assisted by automated monitoring of posts and comments for conduct that may breach the Member Conduct Agreement. We do not use your information to train AI models.

Who can see your information

The CiP Network is a members-only network — it is not public, and it is not indexed by search engines. Within it:

• Your name, photo, job title, biography, state and electorate are visible to other members.
• Your party affiliation is visible only if you choose to show it. Your church tradition is used to determine eligibility for tradition-restricted groups.
• Direct messages are visible only to you and the member you are messaging.
• You can block any member: blocked members cannot message you or send you connection requests, and you will not see each other's content.
• Posts in a group are visible to that group's members; posts in the main feed are visible to all members.
• Administrators can access member records where necessary to run the network, investigate reports, or meet a legal obligation.

You can review and change what you share at any time under Privacy settings.

Where your information is stored

Member data is stored in Sydney, Australia (our database provider's ap-southeast-2 region). We use a small number of service providers to run the network, and they may process data outside Australia:

• Supabase — database, authentication and file storage (data hosted in Australia).
• Vercel — hosting and content delivery for the web portal and this website.
• Resend — delivery of transactional email.
• Apple and Google — distribution of the mobile apps through their app stores.

These providers act on our instructions. We do not authorise them to use your information for their own purposes.

Accessing, correcting and deleting your information

You can edit your profile and preferences yourself at any time. You can also delete your account from Settings in the app or web portal.

Deleting your account permanently removes your profile, posts, comments, reactions, messages, connections, group memberships, event registrations and notifications. It cannot be undone. Copies may persist briefly in encrypted backups before those expire.

Content that is inherently shared — for example a message you sent, as it appears in the other person's conversation — may remain visible to that person. Where you have created something others rely on, such as a group or an event, we may need to transfer or archive it rather than delete it outright.

To request a copy of your information, ask us to correct it, or have us delete your account on your behalf, email contact@christiansinpolitics.com from the address on your account.

Security

Access to member data is restricted at the database level, so members can only reach records they are entitled to see. Traffic is encrypted in transit. No system is perfectly secure, but if a data breach occurs that is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify affected members and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

Children

The CiP Network is intended for adults engaging in Australian political life. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has created an account, please tell us and we will remove it.

Complaints

If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information, email contact@christiansinpolitics.com and we will respond. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the network changes. The date at the top shows when it was last revised. If we make a significant change, we will tell members through the app.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about your information, go to contact@christiansinpolitics.com or by post to Christians in Politics Australia Ltd, PO Box South Hurstville, NSW 2221, Australia. For help using the network, see our support page.