Privacy Policy
The TFCI Church Portal (tfci.cledgesolutions.com) is the membership and finance portal of True Faith Church International (TFCI). It is built, hosted and supported for the church by Cledge Solutions. This policy explains what personal information the portal holds, why, who can see it, how long it is kept and the rights you have.
Who is responsible for your information
True Faith Church International decides what member information is recorded in the portal and how it is used: the church is the controller. Cledge Solutions runs the portal on the church's instructions as its processor (or "service provider") and does not use member information for any purpose of its own. Questions about your membership record should go to your branch or the church's administrators; you can also contact Cledge Solutions at support@cledgesolutions.com and we will pass your request on.
Information we handle
Account and sign-in information
- Name, email address, username, phone number, role and the branch or unit you work in.
- Your password, stored only as a one-way hash that cannot be turned back into the password.
- Sign-in times, the IP address and browser used, and a record of important actions (audit log), used to keep accounts secure.
Records the church keeps in the TFCI Church Portal
- member details: names, contact details, address, date of birth, photographs and family links
- membership status, branch and unit, transfers between branches and pastoral notes
- offerings, tithes, dues, funeral levies and other contributions, with receipts and statements
- SMS messages and announcements sent to members
- staff and administrator accounts and activity records
Because the portal holds church membership records, it reveals members' religious belief or affiliation (special category data under UK/EU GDPR, and sensitive personal information under US state laws). It is processed only for the church's pastoral and administrative purposes and is visible only to the church's authorised officers.
Information we create to keep the service running
- Technical and security logs (for example errors, failed sign-in attempts and the IP address they came from).
- Emails the system sends, such as sign-in details, password-reset emails and notifications, and the church's own emails to members from the Email Center (with a record of who was and was not reached, and whether a member has asked not to receive them).
How and why we use it
| Purpose | Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR) |
|---|---|
| Provide the TFCI Church Portal and its features to the church | Performing our contract with the church; for its records, its instructions to us |
| Sign you in, send sign-in details and password-reset emails, and sign you out after 10 minutes without activity | Contract; legitimate interests in keeping accounts secure |
| Protect the service: detect and stop fraud, abuse and attacks; keep audit logs | Legitimate interests; legal obligations |
| Answer support requests and tell you about changes to the service | Contract; legitimate interests |
| Bill customers and keep accounting records | Contract; legal obligations (tax and accounting law) |
| Improve the service using aggregated information that does not identify anyone | Legitimate interests |
| Comply with the law and respond to lawful requests | Legal obligations |
Where records include special category data, the church relies on its own lawful condition - here, the legitimate activities of a religious body with respect to its members - and we process that data only on its instructions.
We do not sell personal information, share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, use it to profile you for marketing, or make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects.
Who we share it with
- The people your church authorises - access inside the TFCI Church Portal is controlled by roles the church sets up.
- Our hosting provider, which runs the servers and databases the TFCI Church Portal uses.
- Our email delivery provider, to send sign-in details and notifications.
- An SMS gateway, when the church sends text messages through the TFCI Church Portal.
- Content delivery networks that serve parts of the app such as style sheets and fonts; they receive your IP address, as any website you load does, but no account information.
- Authorities or other parties when the law requires it, to protect people's safety, or to establish or defend legal claims.
- A successor business if Cledge Solutions is reorganised or sold, under the same protections as this policy.
Each provider may use the information only to provide its service to us, under a written contract that requires it to keep the information confidential and secure.
International transfers
Our servers, databases and backups are hosted in France, in the European Union. Cledge Solutions is based in Ghana, and our staff and some of our providers may also process information in other countries. When personal information from the UK, the European Economic Area or Switzerland is transferred to a country without an adequacy decision, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, together with the security measures described below. You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards that apply.
How long we keep it
- Records the church keeps in the TFCI Church Portal are kept while its subscription is active and for as long as it decides, so it can meet its own legal duties (for example record-keeping rules for church financial records). When a subscription ends, we delete or return the church's data within 90 days unless the law requires us to keep it longer.
- Account and billing records are kept while the account is open and then for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
- Signed-in sessions end after 10 minutes without activity.
- The audit log of sign-ins and important actions is kept for 30 days and then removed automatically.
- Other security logs and backups are kept for a limited period and then deleted or overwritten in the normal cycle.
How we protect it
- All connections are encrypted (HTTPS), with strict transport security.
- Passwords are stored only as one-way hashes and accounts lock after repeated failed sign-ins.
- One active session per account, and automatic sign-out after 10 minutes without activity (with a 2-minute warning).
- Role-based access, so people see only what their role needs; administrators cannot see passwords.
- Audit logs of important actions, protection against common web attacks, and regular security reviews.
No system is perfectly secure. If a personal-data breach is likely to put you at risk, we (or the church) will tell you and the regulators as the law requires.
Your rights (UK, EU and Ghana)
Subject to the law, you have the right to:
- access the personal information held about you and get a copy;
- correct it if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
- delete it, or restrict how it is used, in some circumstances;
- object to uses based on legitimate interests;
- receive information you gave in a portable format;
- withdraw consent where something is based on your consent (such as live location sharing), without affecting earlier use.
Send requests to the controller (the church) or to support@cledgesolutions.com. We will verify who you are and reply within one month (extendable by two more months for complex requests). You can complain to a data-protection authority: in the UK the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk); in the EU your local supervisory authority; in Ghana the Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.org.gh).
Your rights in the United States
In the last 12 months the categories of personal information handled were: identifiers and contact details, account log-in credentials, internet activity in the service (sign-in and audit records), commercial information (subscriptions and payments), professional information (staff records), religious affiliation. They come from the church, its users and you, and are used only for the purposes above. We do not sell or "share" personal information, and we use sensitive personal information only to provide the service, so there is nothing to opt out of; we also honour Global Privacy Control signals.
Depending on your state (for example California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and others), you may have the right to know, access, correct and delete your personal information, to appeal a decision about your request, and not to be treated differently for using these rights. Where we act as a service provider, we will pass your request to the church and help it respond. You or an authorised agent can make a request at support@cledgesolutions.com; we will verify the request before acting on it.
For the church: how we process member data
When we process personal information on your behalf, we:
- act only on your documented instructions, given through your use and settings of the TFCI Church Portal;
- make sure our staff are bound by confidentiality;
- apply the security measures described in this policy;
- use only providers bound by equivalent written obligations, and tell you about changes to them so you can object;
- help you respond to requests from individuals and meet your security, breach-notification and impact-assessment duties;
- notify you without undue delay after becoming aware of a personal-data breach affecting your data;
- delete or return your data at the end of the service, unless the law requires us to keep it; and
- make available the information needed to show compliance, and allow reasonable audits.
These commitments form our data-processing terms under Article 28 of the UK and EU GDPR and are part of our agreement with you.
Cookies
The TFCI Church Portal uses only the cookies and browser storage it needs to work and to remember choices you make. We use no advertising or analytics cookies. See our Cookie Policy.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the service or the law changes. The effective date above shows when it last changed, and we will tell account holders about important changes.
Contact us
Cledge Solutions · support@cledgesolutions.com · +233 203 222 172