1. Purpose and scope
This Data Processing Agreement forms part of the relationship between MinistryCount and each church or organisation that uses the platform. It explains how MinistryCount processes personal data on behalf of churches that use the service.
This agreement applies to data entered into MinistryCount by churches, church administrators, authorised users, members or visitors, including records used for membership, attendance, visitor management, communications, reporting, billing and support.
2. Roles of the parties
The church is normally the primary controller of its member, visitor, user and ministry records because the church decides what information to collect, why it is collected, who may access it and how it should be used.
MinistryCount acts as a service provider and processor for church data when it stores, organises, displays, transmits or processes data to deliver the platform features requested by the church.
3. Categories of data processed
Data processed through MinistryCount may include names, phone numbers, email addresses, photographs, dates of birth, gender, marital status, residence, occupation, church assembly, ministry, attendance records, visitor records, communication history, user accounts, activity logs and billing-related details.
Churches should avoid entering unnecessary information and should only collect data that is relevant to legitimate church administration, pastoral care, communication and reporting purposes.
4. Processing instructions
MinistryCount will process church data only to provide, maintain, secure and support the platform, unless otherwise required by law or authorised by the church.
- Provide church management features and dashboards.
- Store and retrieve records entered by the church.
- Send SMS, email or platform communications when configured by the church.
- Provide reports, exports and administrative tools.
- Investigate support, billing, security or technical issues.
5. Confidentiality and access
MinistryCount will take reasonable steps to ensure that people with platform-level access treat church data confidentially and access it only for support, maintenance, security, billing, compliance or authorised operational purposes.
Churches are responsible for controlling the access they give to their own church users and for reviewing user roles regularly.
6. Subprocessors and third-party services
MinistryCount may use trusted third-party services for hosting, SMS delivery, email delivery, domain/DNS, payment support, backups, analytics or other platform operations.
Where a third-party service is used, only the information needed for that function should be shared. More information is provided in the Third-Party Services/Subprocessors page.
7. Security measures
MinistryCount will use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect church data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse or disclosure. These may include authentication, role-based access, tenant scoping, activity logging, session controls, hosting controls and operational review.
No online system can guarantee absolute security. Churches should also use strong internal practices, including careful user management and proper handling of exported files.
8. Data subject requests
If a member, visitor or church user asks MinistryCount directly about access, correction or deletion of church-controlled data, MinistryCount may refer the person to the relevant church administrator unless the request concerns platform account, billing or support records controlled by MinistryCount.
Churches are responsible for responding to requests about data they entered or manage, while MinistryCount may assist where technically possible.
9. Return, deletion and retention
When a church account is cancelled or terminated, MinistryCount may retain data for a limited period for recovery, legal, billing, audit, security or backup purposes. After that, data may be deleted, anonymised or archived according to the applicable retention rules.
The User Data Deletion Policy and Data Retention & Backup Policy provide more detail on deletion and retention handling.
10. Contact
For questions about this Data Processing Agreement, contact support@ministrycount.com.