The Deeper Why
Privacy Policy
Effective date: October 1, 2026
This policy explains what information The Deeper Why collects when you use www.thedeeperwhy.com, why we collect it, and the choices you have.
Who We Are
The Deeper Why is run by Deeper Why Ministries Inc., a Wisconsin nonprofit corporation ("we", "us"). You can reach us about anything in this policy at hello@thedeeperwhy.com, or through the contact form on the home page.
You Can Read without an Account
Every public page on the site can be read without signing up. If you don't create an account, your reading progress, your settings (your default translation, theme, verse numbers, and reading mode), and the verses and doctrines you save to My Library are saved only in your own browser's storage. They are never sent to us, and clearing your browser data erases them.
What We Collect
If you create an account, we collect:
- your name and email address;
- your password, which we store only in hashed form, so we can never see it;
- your reading progress and settings;
- the verses and doctrines you save to My Library, the collections you make (their names and what you put in them), and the notes you write on verses, so they follow you from device to device.
What you save and write may reflect your faith. We use it only to provide these features to you, and never to profile you or for advertising.
If someone invites you to a private resource, we receive your email address from them so we can send the invitation.
If you send us a message through the contact form, we collect your name, your email address, and what you write. We also use your IP address for up to an hour to limit how many messages can be sent from one place, which keeps spam out. Only include what you're comfortable sharing with us.
When you visit any page, we collect:
- Analytics from Google Analytics: pages viewed, how you arrived, approximate location (country or city, from your IP address), device and browser type, and time on the page. We only do this if you agree to analytics cookies.
- Session data from Microsoft Clarity: how you scroll, click, and move through a page, which Clarity can replay as a session recording and summarize as heatmaps. Clarity masks text you type into forms, your notes, My Study (your collections and what you have saved), the collection names on Save buttons, and your email address. A replay can show which verses on a page are shaded as saved, but not your notes or collections. We only do this if you agree to analytics cookies.
- Server logs: our host automatically records IP addresses, the pages requested, and the time, for security and troubleshooting.
We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising.
Why We Use It
| Purpose | Information | Legal basis (for visitors in the EU/UK) |
|---|---|---|
| Running your account, syncing progress and what you save, keeping your collections and notes, granting access to private resources | Account information, progress, settings, saved verses and doctrines, collections, notes | Performing our agreement with you |
| Sending password-reset and invitation emails | Name, email address | Performing our agreement with you |
| Reading and replying to your message | Name, email address, message | Our legitimate interest in answering people who write to us |
| Understanding which pages help readers and fixing what doesn't work | Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity data | Your consent |
| Keeping the site secure and available | Server logs, security cookies, and the contact form's rate limit | Our legitimate interest in running a safe site |
Cookies and Similar Technologies
When you first visit, a banner asks whether you allow analytics cookies. Until you accept, Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity don't load. You can change your choice at any time with Cookie Settings at the bottom of every page.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Type | How long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Session cookie (the-deeper-why-session) |
The Deeper Why | Keeps you signed in | Necessary | 2 hours after your last page view, or until you sign out |
XSRF-TOKEN |
The Deeper Why | Protects forms from forgery | Necessary | 2 hours |
remember_web_* |
The Deeper Why | Keeps you signed in between visits, only if you tick "Stay signed in" | Necessary | 400 days, or until you sign out |
cc_cookie |
The Deeper Why | Remembers your cookie choice | Necessary | 6 months |
Browser storage (localStorage) |
The Deeper Why | Saves your progress, your settings, and the verses and doctrines you save to My Library on your device | Necessary | Until you clear it. Signing out removes your progress and saves from this browser (your account keeps them) |
Browser storage (sessionStorage) |
The Deeper Why | Keeps a copy of your notes while you are signed in, so pages don't have to ask for them again | Necessary | Until you close the tab or sign out |
_ga, _ga_* |
Google Analytics | Tells visits apart and measures use | Analytics (only with your consent) | Up to 2 years |
_clck, _clsk, and Microsoft cookies such as MUID |
Microsoft Clarity | Links page views into sessions for replays and heatmaps | Analytics (only with your consent) | Up to 1 year |
Who We Share It With
We use a small number of service providers, each of which handles your information only to provide its service to us:
- SiteGround: hosts the website and its database, and delivers our emails whenever Resend can't.
- Resend: delivers password-reset and invitation emails, and delivers contact form messages to our inbox.
- Our email provider: holds the messages you send us, and our replies, in our inbox.
- Google (Google Analytics): Google Privacy Policy and how Google uses data from sites that use its services.
- Microsoft (Clarity): we use Microsoft Clarity to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay. Microsoft collects this data through first- and third-party cookies. See the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
We may also disclose information when the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of our readers or others.
Where Your Information Is Stored
Our providers may store and process information in the United States and other countries. When information about people in the EU, UK, or Switzerland is transferred, we rely on our providers' approved transfer mechanisms, such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses.
How Long We Keep It
- Account information, reading progress and settings, saved verses and doctrines, collections, and notes: until you delete your account. We then delete them from the site at once, and from our backups within 30 days, except where the law requires us to keep them.
- Contact form messages: as long as we need them to answer you and follow up, and then we delete them, both from the site and from our inbox. You can ask us to delete yours sooner.
- Analytics data: Google Analytics keeps it for 2 months. Microsoft Clarity keeps it according to Microsoft's retention periods.
- Server logs: according to our host's standard log rotation.
Your Choices and Rights
- Change or withdraw cookie consent any time via Cookie Settings in the footer.
- See or update your account information on your Profile page.
- Clear your reading progress, saved verses and doctrines, collections, or notes from Settings, under Clear Data.
- Remove anything you've saved, delete a collection, or delete a note at any time in My Study.
- Delete your account at any time from your Profile.
Depending on where you live, including in the EU, the UK, and several U.S. states such as California, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your information, and to object to or restrict how we use it. To make a request, email us. We'll respond within 30 days and may need to confirm your identity first. If you're in the EU or UK and aren't satisfied with our response, you can complain to your local data protection authority. We never add anyone who writes to us to a mailing list.
Children
The Deeper Why is not directed to children under 13, and you must be 13 or older to create an account. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, email us and we will delete it.
Changes to This Policy
If we change this policy, we'll post the new version here and update the effective date above.
Contact
Questions or requests: hello@thedeeperwhy.com, or the contact form on the home page.