Privacy Policy

Last updated: 24 October 2026 · applies to the website heartword.app / herzwort.app, the web app at /go/ and the HeartWord apps for Android, iOS, macOS and Windows. The German version (Datenschutzerklärung) is the legally binding one; this English version is a translation.

1. Controller

DLS Software & Beratung GmbH
represented by its managing director Michael Baas
Kinzigstraße 10a, 63584 Gründau, Germany
Email: info@herzwort.app

Further details are in our legal notice (Impressum). For any privacy question or to exercise your rights, an email to the address above is enough.

2. Principles

HeartWord is an app for reading, collecting and memorising Bible texts. We only process the data these features need. We show no ads, sell no data and build no advertising profiles.

3. Hosting

The website, web app, API, database and mail server run on our own server, which we rent from Leo Skull GmbH (Heiligengeiststraße 6-8, 26121 Oldenburg, Germany). The server is located in a data centre of Hetzner Online GmbH (Industriestr. 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany) in Nuremberg, Germany. Leo Skull processes the data on our behalf (Art. 28 GDPR) and uses Hetzner as a sub-processor.

4. Server logs and abuse protection

When you open the website or the app, the server necessarily processes your IP address, date and time, the requested address, status code, amount of data transferred, referrer and browser identification (user agent). We use this data to keep the service secure and stable, to find errors and to fend off attacks.

Our hosting provider retains infrastructure logs containing full IP addresses for attack detection for seven days, and access logs for statistics and similar purposes for 30 days. Access logs on the Plesk server are anonymised and are currently retained for three months. Other system logs not managed by Plesk, such as mail server logs, are retained for ten days by default. If a system is visibly under attack or a server needs particular protection, the provider may enable enhanced logging; in that case all logs containing full IP addresses are retained for 30 days. Enhanced logging is not currently enabled for HeartWord.

To limit abuse (for example too many sign-in attempts), the API counts requests per IP address or account. These counters live only in memory and expire after a short time.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in secure operation (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

5. Your account

An account is required to save and sync your own content. We store:

Legal basis: performance of the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR); see our Terms of Use.

6. Sign in with Google

You can optionally sign in with your Google account ("Sign in with Google", Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland). We request only the scopes openid, email and profile. Google then sends us a signed ID token. We verify this token on our server and take from it:

We do not store the name and profile picture that Google includes with profile. We get no access to your Google password, Gmail, contacts, calendar, Drive or any other Google service, and we do not call any Google API on your behalf. The data is used solely to sign you in to HeartWord; it is not shared and not used for advertising. HeartWord's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

In the web app, the Google sign-in button loads a script from accounts.google.com; in the apps, Google sign-in opens in the system browser. Google receives technical data such as your IP address and processes it under its own responsibility (Google Privacy Policy). Google may transfer data to the USA; Google is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

The link ends when you delete your HeartWord account. You can also remove access at any time in your Google account under "Third-party apps & services". Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

7. Your content and sync

To make your content available on all your devices, we store it in our database and sync it between your devices. This includes in particular:

This content is private unless you share it yourself (section 9). You can view, change and delete it in the app at any time. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

8. Uploaded images

You can add images to companion texts. On upload, the server removes embedded metadata (EXIF, XMP, IPTC – e.g. GPS location, camera model and capture time); only the colour profile is kept. We store the cleaned original, a display version and a thumbnail.

Important: images can be retrieved via their image address (…/go/bilder/…) without signing in. The address contains a random identifier that cannot be guessed; anyone who has the link – for example because the image appears in a public share – can view the image. So do not upload images that must not become public. Deleted images and all images of a deleted account are removed from the server.

9. Public shares and groups

You can share collections, companion texts and read-aloud links with others – with a group or publicly via a link. Publicly shared content is visible to anyone with the link; publicly listed collections also appear on the /go/shared page and in our sitemaps and can be found by search engines. Your email address is not shown in shares. You can end a share at any time; we cannot recall copies that third parties or search engines have already made.

Group members see the content shared with the group. If you invite someone by email, we process their email address to send the invitation.

If someone reports content as inappropriate, the report and the reported content are sent to us; we use them only to review the report.

10. Read-aloud (text-to-speech)

Several kinds of voices are available for reading aloud:

Bible texts are the same for everyone, so we keep the generated audio files in a shared cache. If you have your own notes or companion texts read with a Microsoft Edge voice, that text is sent to Microsoft too. If you do not want this for private texts, choose a device, Piper or Kokoro voice. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Pronunciation suggestions

You can suggest corrections to how the read-aloud voices pronounce words. For this we store the word, pronunciation, format, language, your optional note, the time and your account, so you can see the status of your suggestion and we can detect abuse.

If a suggestion is accepted – after our review or, for trusted users, automatically – we add the word, pronunciation, format, language and note to the shared pronunciation list without any link to your account. This list is visible to all users and applied for everyone when reading aloud. So do not put anything personal in the note. 90 days after submission we also remove the link to your account from the submitted suggestion.

The legal basis is the consent you give when submitting (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw it at any time by email; as long as the suggestion is still linked to your account, we will then delete it.

11. Emails

We send emails to verify your email address, reset your password and confirm an account deletion, as well as group invitations and replies to feedback. They are sent by our own mail server (Postfix) on our server in Nuremberg; no external email service provider is involved. On its way to your inbox, the message is processed by your email provider. We do not send newsletters or marketing emails.

12. Contact form and feedback

If you write to us via the contact form or the feedback feature, we process your message, your email address and, if given, your name in order to reply. Feedback from the app is stored together with the current view, app version, browser identification, window size and – if you attach it – a screenshot of the app, so we can understand it. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR.

13. Error reports and usage statistics

If an error occurs in the app, it sends an error report to our server (error message, technical trace, app version, browser identification, current page and – if signed in – your account). We use these reports only to fix errors. Resolved reports are deleted after 90 days.

The app also records which features are used how often and evaluates this in aggregate to improve HeartWord. When you are not signed in, only a hash value that changes daily is used instead of an identifier; the IP address itself is not stored. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

14. Storage on your device, cookies

The app stores data needed for it to work in your browser (localStorage, IndexedDB, cache) or in app storage: your sign-in token, settings, recently used views, downloaded Bible texts for offline reading and a copy of your content until the next sync. In the apps, sign-in data is kept in the operating system's protected storage. This data is not sent to third parties. Signing out deletes the sign-in data; you can remove everything else via your browser or app settings.

The app sets no cookies and uses no tracking or advertising services. This storage is strictly necessary for the service you request (Section 25(2) No. 2 TDDDG).

15. Home page and information pages

The Moravian Daily Watchwords (Losungen) and the blog posts on the home page come from our own server.

16. Recipients and transfers to third countries

We only pass on personal data as described in this policy:

Google and Microsoft may transfer data to the USA. Both companies are certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, for which the European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision (Art. 45 GDPR). Transfers to Umami are covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR). All other data is processed exclusively on our server in Germany.

17. Retention and deleting your account

We keep your account and content data for as long as your account exists. You can delete your account yourself at any time in the app in the Account & data area. This permanently deletes your account, content, voice recordings and uploaded images; you then receive a confirmation by email. If you own a group or a shared collection, you need to delete or transfer it first. In the same place you can also export your data as a file.

Server backups are overwritten after [PLACEHOLDER: backup retention period]. Statutory retention obligations remain unaffected.

18. Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and to object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21). Contact us at info@herzwort.app.

You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, for example the authority responsible for us: Der Hessische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit, Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 1, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany.

19. Changes

If the app or the law changes, we will update this privacy policy. The version published here applies.