Privacy policy

Cato (“we,” “us,” “our”) is a mobile app for Catholic learning and prayer. We respect your privacy and have designed Cato to collect as little personal information as possible while still letting your progress sync across devices.

This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and your rights. If you have questions, email us at support@thecatoapp.com.

What we collect

Account information. When you sign in with Apple, Google, or an email address, we receive your email (or, if you choose to hide it, an Apple-issued relay address) and the display name and username you choose. You may use Cato as a guest without signing in; we create an anonymous account for you and never receive your personal identifiers in that case.

Profile and practice data. We store the data needed to run the app: your display name, hearts, coins, XP, streak count, completed lessons, prayer log, battle results, Verbo results, your diocese, your friends, and notification preferences. This data lives in our authentication and database provider (Supabase) under your account.

Things you share with others. Your username, display name, patron saint, rank, and streak are visible to friends and to people in your diocese room. Messages, reactions, and prayer requests you post in the diocese chat are visible to everyone in that diocese for the week the room is open, and to us for moderation. Reports other people file about a message are kept with the message.

Purchases. If you subscribe to Cato Pro or buy a coin pack, the purchase is made through Apple or Google. We never see your card details. Our subscription provider (RevenueCat) sends us the transaction identifiers, plan, price, and any creator code attached to the purchase so we can unlock what you paid for and pay the creator.

Finding classes near you. If you ask Cato to find catechesis at a parish, your search runs by diocese or, if you allow it, by your phone's approximate location. The location is used for that search only and is not stored. If you then ask a parish to contact you, we pass your name, email, preferred language, the kind of class you are interested in, and any note you wrote to that parish through our partner Biblori, which handles parish sign-ups. If the parish isn't on Biblori, Biblori emails those details to the parish office (or, if it lists none, its pastor) so they can reply to you directly, and only after you tick the box agreeing to it. A parish that isn't on Biblori handles your details under its own practices, not ours. Nothing is sent until you tap the button.

Push-notification tokens. If you enable notifications, we store a device push token so we can deliver daily reminders. You can revoke this anytime in iOS or Android settings.

Diagnostic data. We may retain server-side error logs (timestamps, error type) to keep the service running. These logs do not contain the contents of your lessons or prayers.

What we do not collect

• We do not use third-party advertising or cross-app tracking SDKs.
• We do not sell your information to anyone, ever.
• We do not collect contacts, photos, microphone, or calendar data. Location is used only when you choose to search for parishes near you, and is not stored.
• We do not build advertising profiles based on your activity.

How we use your information

• To create and maintain your account.
• To sync your practice (lessons, streak, prayer log) across your devices.
• To send the notifications you have explicitly opted into (saint of the day, daily reminder).
• To diagnose crashes and improve the app. Error reports are not used to identify individual users.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of trusted infrastructure providers to run Cato. We share only what is required for these providers to perform their function, and they are bound by their own data-protection commitments:

• Supabase — authentication and database hosting.
• Apple Push Notification service and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging — delivery of push notifications you opt into.
• Apple App Store and Google Play — distribution of the app and billing for Cato Pro and coin packs.
• RevenueCat — subscription records, so Pro follows your account across devices.
• Biblori — only if you ask a parish to contact you about classes, and only the details listed above.

We do not share your information for marketing purposes with any third party.

Children

Cato is intended for users 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has created an account, please contact us and we will delete it.

Your rights

You can delete your account and all associated data at any time from Settings → Account → Delete account & data within the app (see how). Deletion is immediate and permanent. You may also email us at support@thecatoapp.com to:

• Request a copy of the data we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate information.
• Exercise rights under the GDPR, CCPA, or similar laws where they apply.

Data retention

We keep your account data for as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, we erase your records from our active databases promptly; routine backups containing your records are rotated out within 30 days.

Security

Connections between the app and our servers are encrypted in transit (TLS). Account data is encrypted at rest by our database provider. No system is perfectly secure, but we keep our practices up-to-date and will notify affected users if we ever discover a material breach.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top. For material changes that affect how we use your data, we will notify you in the app.

Contact

Email support@thecatoapp.com with any privacy questions or requests.