PRIVACY POLICY
Last updated September 22, 2026
This Privacy Notice for Ascend ("we," "us," or "our"), describes how and why we might access, collect, store, use, and/or share ("process") your personal information when you use our services ("Services"), including when you:
Visit our website at https://ascendmeditation.app or any website of ours that links to this Privacy Notice
Download and use our mobile application (Ascend), or any other application of ours that links to this Privacy Notice
Use Ascend. Ascend is a subscription-based Christian daily meditation app. Users complete a short guided audio meditation each day, build a streak, and unlock milestone badges for consistency. The app includes daily scripture, a choice of narrator voices, and optional daily reminders.
Engage with us in other related ways, including any marketing or events
Questions or concerns? Reading this Privacy Notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. We are responsible for making decisions about how your personal information is processed. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at hellosupport.ascendapp@gmail.com.
SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
This summary provides key points from our Privacy Notice, but you can find out more details about any of these topics by clicking the link following each key point or by using our table of contents below to find the section you are looking for.
What personal information do we process? When you visit, use, or navigate our Services, we may process personal information depending on how you interact with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. Learn more about personal information you disclose to us.
Do we process any sensitive personal information? Some of the information may be considered "special" or "sensitive" in certain jurisdictions, for example your racial or ethnic origins, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs. We may process sensitive personal information when necessary with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law. Learn more about sensitive information we process.
Do we collect any information from third parties? If you use Google sign-in, we receive the account information needed to sign you in. Stripe provides subscription and payment-status information so we can manage your access and billing.
How do we process your information? We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent. We process your information only when we have a valid legal reason to do so. Learn more about how we process your information.
In what situations and with which parties do we share personal information? We may share information in specific situations and with specific third parties. Learn more about when and with whom we share your personal information.
How do we keep your information safe? We have adequate organizational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Learn more about how we keep your information safe.
What are your rights? Depending on where you are located geographically, the applicable privacy law may mean you have certain rights regarding your personal information. Learn more about your privacy rights.
How do you exercise your rights? Email hellosupport.ascendapp@gmail.com with your request. You can also manage available preferences and request account deletion from Profile. We will consider requests in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
Want to learn more about what we do with any information we collect? Review the Privacy Notice in full.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
3. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
4. DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?
5. DO WE OFFER ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-BASED PRODUCTS?
6. HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?
7. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
8. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?
9. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?
10. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?
11. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES
12. DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
13. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?
14. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?
15. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?
1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
Personal information you disclose to us
We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register on the Services, express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when you participate in activities on the Services, or otherwise when you contact us.
Personal Information Provided by You. The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect may include the following:
names
email addresses
billing addresses
subscription and payment-status information; payment card details are handled by Stripe
contact or authentication data
Sensitive Information. When necessary, with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law, we process the following categories of sensitive information:
information revealing religious or philosophical beliefs
Onboarding Quiz. Before you create an account, we may ask you a short set of onboarding questions, including questions about your faith, what you are facing and when you would like to practice. Your answers are stored temporarily in your browser so you can finish the quiz, and are saved to your account once you sign up. We use them to suggest a guided journey and to personalize your experience, such as your result screen and a suggested reminder time.
Quiz Analytics. Separately from your saved answers, we record internal analytics events about your progress through the quiz, such as which step you reached and whether you completed it. These analytics events do not include the questions' wording or the answers you selected.
Pre-Signup Activity. Activity recorded anonymously before you sign up, such as pages viewed and quiz progress, may later be associated with your account once you create one.
Payment Data. Stripe collects payment-card and billing details through checkout. Ascend receives customer and subscription identifiers, subscription status, billing dates and payment-result information to manage the service. Ascend's application database does not store your full payment-card number or security code. Stripe's privacy notice is available at https://stripe.com/privacy.
Social Login Data. You can choose Google sign-in instead of email and password. We receive the identity information needed to create and authenticate your account, as described in section 6.
Push Notifications. We may request to send you push notifications regarding your account or certain features of the application(s). If you wish to opt out from receiving these types of communications, you may turn them off in your device's settings.
This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our application(s), for troubleshooting, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.
All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.
Information automatically collected
Aggregate website delivery. When enabled, our website server adds to a daily total when it returns the public landing page successfully. This counter stores only a UTC date and a number. It does not store visitor or account identifiers, IP addresses, browser details, cookies, referring pages, query parameters, or individual event records, and is not linked to accounts or sent to advertising platforms. It operates independently of optional-cookie choices. Reports cover the latest 35 UTC dates; older daily totals are removed by an hourly cleanup. Hosting security and operational logs are separate from this counter.
We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Services. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our Services, and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.
Like many businesses, we also collect information through cookies and similar technologies. You can find out more about this in our Cookie Notice: https://ascendmeditation.app/cookie-policy.
The information we collect includes:
Log and Usage Data. Log and usage data is service-related, diagnostic, usage, and performance information our servers automatically collect when you access or use our Services and which we record in log files. Depending on how you interact with us, this log data may include your IP address, device information, browser type, and settings and information about your activity in the Services (such as the date/time stamps associated with your usage, pages and files viewed, searches, and other actions you take such as which features you use), device event information (such as system activity, error reports (sometimes called "crash dumps"), and hardware settings).
Device Data. We collect device data such as information about your computer, phone, tablet, or other device you use to access the Services. Depending on the device used, this device data may include information such as your IP address (or proxy server), device and application identification numbers, location, browser type, hardware model, Internet service provider and/or mobile carrier, operating system, and system configuration information.
Google API
If you choose Continue with Google, we use the identity information supplied during sign-in, such as your email address, name and profile image, to authenticate and manage your Ascend account. The sign-in screen describes the permissions requested. You can instead create an account using email and a password.
2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our Services, including:
To facilitate account creation and authentication and otherwise manage user accounts. We may process your information so you can create and log in to your account, as well as keep your account in working order.
To deliver and facilitate delivery of services to the user. We may process your information to provide you with the requested service.
To respond to user inquiries/offer support to users. We may process your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the requested service.
To send administrative information to you. We may process your information to send you details about our products and services, changes to our terms and policies, and other similar information.
To request feedback. We may process your information when necessary to request feedback and to contact you about your use of our Services.
To deliver targeted advertising to you. We may process your information to develop and display personalized content and advertising tailored to your interests, location, and more. For more information see our Cookie Notice: https://ascendmeditation.app/cookie-policy.
To protect our Services. We may process your information as part of our efforts to keep our Services safe and secure, including fraud monitoring and prevention.
To evaluate and improve our Services, products, marketing, and your experience. We may process your information when we believe it is necessary to identify usage trends, determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, and to evaluate and improve our Services, products, marketing, and your experience.
To identify usage trends. We may process information about how you use our Services to better understand how they are being used so we can improve them.
To determine the effectiveness of our marketing and promotional campaigns. We may process your information to better understand how to provide marketing and promotional campaigns that are most relevant to you.
To comply with our legal obligations. We may process your information to comply with our legal obligations, respond to legal requests, and exercise, establish, or defend our legal rights.
3. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
We may need to share your personal information in the following situations:
Service providers. We use hosting and database services to operate Ascend, Stripe to process payments and manage subscriptions, and email and browser push services to deliver account messages and optional reminders. These services receive the information needed to perform those functions.
Advertising measurement. On our public pages — the landing page, the sign-in and sign-up page, and the checkout confirmation page — we use Meta cookies to measure visits, trial-start clicks, account creations and trial starts unless you decline. When you start a trial or a subscription payment is made, our server may also send that event to Meta, with the payment amount, the Meta browser and ad-click identifiers saved at checkout, and your browser type. Advertising measurement never runs inside the app, including your meditations, library, progress, quiz answers or journal. If you decline, or your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we stop and send nothing further. Events may include identifiers used to match and deduplicate activity. We do not include quiz answers, religious preferences, meditation topics or private journal content in these advertising events. You can decline or withdraw through Cookie preferences in the website footer or Profile without losing access to Ascend.
Regional privacy controls. Our hosting provider may supply an approximate country and state based on your network connection to select the applicable cookie controls. The controls do not request device location permission or send your IP address to an additional geolocation service. Location estimates can be inaccurate. Today the same advertising-measurement rules apply in every region.
Business Transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.
4. DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?
We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to gather information when you interact with our Services. Some online tracking technologies help us maintain the security of our Services and your account, prevent crashes, fix bugs, save your preferences, and assist with basic site functions.
We also permit third parties and service providers to use online tracking technologies on our Services for analytics and advertising, including to help manage and display advertisements or to tailor advertisements to your interests. The third parties and service providers use their technology to provide advertising about products and services tailored to your interests which may appear either on our Services or on other websites.
To the extent these online tracking technologies are deemed to be a "sale"/"sharing" (which includes targeted advertising, as defined under the applicable laws) under applicable US state laws, you can opt out of these online tracking technologies by submitting a request as described below under section "DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?"
Specific information about how we use such technologies and how you can refuse certain cookies is set out in our Cookie Notice: https://ascendmeditation.app/cookie-policy.
5. DO WE OFFER ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-BASED PRODUCTS?
As part of our Services, we offer products, features, or tools powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning, or similar technologies (collectively, "AI Products"). These tools are designed to enhance your experience and provide you with innovative solutions. The terms in this Privacy Notice govern your use of the AI Products within our Services.
Use of AI Technologies
We use AI services to help prepare meditation content and synthetic narration, including Anthropic for scripts, OpenAI audio through Lovable's gateway for daily narration, and ElevenLabs for Library narration. Content-generation requests contain the selected Scripture, topic or narration script. Listening plays stored recordings; it does not require sending your voice to an AI provider.
Our AI Products
Our AI Products are designed for the following functions:
Natural language processing
Machine learning models
How We Process Your Data Using AI
The content-generation workflows are operated by Ascend administrators. Your account email, password, quiz answers and listening history are not inputs to these script and narration requests. AI-generated content and voices are not a substitute for professional medical or mental-health support.
6. HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?
If you choose Google sign-in, we receive the account identity information provided in that sign-in flow, such as your email address, name and profile picture. Ascend uses it to create and authenticate your account. We do not request your Google contacts or friends list for sign-in.
We will use the information we receive only for the purposes that are described in this Privacy Notice or that are otherwise made clear to you on the relevant Services. Please note that we do not control, and are not responsible for, other uses of your personal information by your third-party social media provider. We recommend that you review their privacy notice to understand how they collect, use, and share your personal information, and how you can set your privacy preferences on their sites and apps.
7. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
We keep account information while needed to operate your account and provide the Services. Following deletion, some records may need to be retained for legal, tax, accounting, security or dispute-resolution purposes, and copies in backups may remain until normal deletion. Payment providers may retain records under their own obligations. Contact us for information about retention relevant to your request.
When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.
8. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?
We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.
9. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?
We do not knowingly collect, solicit data from, or market to children under 18 years of age, nor do we knowingly sell such personal information. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at hellosupport.ascendapp@gmail.com.
10. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?
Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, which may be express and/or implied consent depending on the applicable law, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?" below.
Account Information
Log in to your account settings and update your user account.
Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, we may retain some information in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our legal terms and/or comply with applicable legal requirements.
Cookies and similar technologies: Most Web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies. If you choose to remove cookies or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our Services. For further information, please see our Cookie Notice: https://ascendmeditation.app/cookie-policy.
If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at hellosupport.ascendapp@gmail.com.
11. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES
California law requires us to let you know how we respond to web browser DNT signals. Because there currently is not an industry or legal standard for recognizing or honoring DNT signals, we do not respond to them at this time.
Global Privacy Control (GPC) is separate from DNT. We treat an active GPC signal as a decline of optional analytics and advertising, even if you previously accepted. Where browser storage is available, we remember that decline after the signal is no longer present. You can make a new choice in Cookie preferences when GPC is off. For a signed-in account, we also attempt to update the account's advertising preference; a failed update is shown so you can retry.
12. DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
Categories of Personal Information We Collect
A. Identifiers
Contact details, such as real name, alias, postal address, telephone or mobile contact number, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, and account name
YES
B. Personal information as defined in the California Customer Records statute
Name, contact information, education, employment, employment history, and financial information
YES
C. Protected classification characteristics under state or federal law
Gender, age, date of birth, race and ethnicity, national origin, marital status, and other demographic data
NO
D. Commercial information
Subscription status, billing dates, payment results and transaction identifiers
YES
E. Biometric information
Fingerprints and voiceprints
NO
F. Internet or other similar network activity
Browsing history, search history, online behavior, interest data, and interactions with our and other websites, applications, systems, and advertisements
YES
G. Geolocation data
Device location
NO
H. Audio, electronic, sensory, or similar information
Images and audio, video or call recordings created in connection with our business activities
NO
I. Professional or employment-related information
Business contact details in order to provide you our Services at a business level or job title, work history, and professional qualifications if you apply for a job with us
NO
J. Education Information
Student records and directory information
NO
K. Inferences drawn from collected personal information
Inferences drawn from any of the collected personal information listed above to create a profile or summary about, for example, an individual’s preferences and characteristics
YES
L. Sensitive personal information
Quiz answers and use of Christian meditation content may reveal religious beliefs or personal concerns.
YES
We only collect sensitive personal information, as defined by applicable privacy laws or the purposes allowed by law or with your consent. Sensitive personal information may be used, or disclosed to a service provider or contractor, for additional, specified purposes. You may have the right to limit the use or disclosure of your sensitive personal information. We do not collect or process sensitive personal information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about you.
We may also collect other personal information outside of these categories through instances where you interact with us in person, online, or by phone or mail in the context of:
Receiving help through our customer support channels;
Participation in customer surveys or contests; and
Facilitation in the delivery of our Services and to respond to your inquiries.
We will use and retain the collected personal information as needed to provide the Services or for:
Category A - As long as the user has an account with us
Category B - As long as the user has an account with us
Category F - As long as the user has an account with us
Category K - As long as the user has an account with us
Category L - As long as the user has an account with us
Sources of Personal Information
We receive information directly from you when you create an account, answer the onboarding quiz, use Ascend or contact support; from your browser as you use the service; and from sign-in and payment providers as described in sections 1 and 6.
How We Use and Share Personal Information
Will your information be shared with anyone else?
We may disclose your personal information with our service providers pursuant to a written contract between us and each service provider. Learn more about how we disclose personal information to in the section, "WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?"
We may use your personal information for our own business purposes, such as for undertaking internal research for technological development and demonstration. This is not considered to be "selling" of your personal information.
We disclose information to service providers to operate Ascend. Limited advertising-measurement information may be disclosed to Meta under the choices and regional controls described in Advertising measurement above. Depending on applicable law, these disclosures may be considered sharing for targeted advertising. Decline or withdraw using Cookie preferences, and contact us with other privacy requests. This choice does not prevent you from using your account.
Your Rights
Right to know whether or not we are processing your personal data
Right to access your personal data
Right to correct inaccuracies in your personal data
Right to request the deletion of your personal data
Right to obtain a copy of the personal data you previously shared with us
Right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights
Right to opt out of the processing of your personal data if it is used for targeted advertising (or sharing as defined under California’s privacy law), the sale of personal data, or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects ("profiling")
Depending upon the state where you live, you may also have the following rights:
Right to access the categories of personal data being processed (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in Minnesota)
Right to obtain a list of the categories of third parties to which we have disclosed personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in California, Delaware, and Maryland)
Right to obtain a list of specific third parties to which we have disclosed personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in Minnesota and Oregon)
Right to obtain a list of third parties to which we have sold personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in Connecticut)
Right to review, understand, question, and depending on where you live, correct how personal data has been profiled (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in Connecticut and Minnesota)
Right to limit use and disclosure of sensitive personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in California)
Right to opt out of the collection of sensitive data and personal data collected through the operation of a voice or facial recognition feature (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in Florida)
How to Exercise Your Rights
Email hellosupport.ascendapp@gmail.com from the address associated with your account and describe whether you want to access, correct, receive a copy of, or delete your information, or exercise another applicable privacy right. You can also use Profile to manage available preferences and Delete account. Please do not send passwords or full payment-card details.
Request Verification
We may ask for information needed to verify that a request concerns your account, or that you are authorized to act for its owner, before disclosing or changing personal information. We use that information to handle the request and protect the account against unauthorized access.
Appeals
If you disagree with our response to a privacy request, reply to our response or email hellosupport.ascendapp@gmail.com with the subject Privacy appeal and explain what you would like reviewed. Where applicable law provides an appeal right, we will handle the appeal in accordance with that law. You may also contact your relevant privacy regulator.
California "Shine The Light" Law
California residents can contact hellosupport.ascendapp@gmail.com to request information about any disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, where applicable under California's Shine the Light law. Please identify your request as a California privacy request.
13. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Revised" date at the top of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.
14. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?
If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice, please contact us by email at hellosupport.ascendapp@gmail.com.
15. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?
Sign in and open Profile to review your account and manage the preferences available there. To request a copy of your information or a correction that is not available in the app, email hellosupport.ascendapp@gmail.com from your account email address. Describe the request without including your password or full payment-card details.
To request account deletion, use Profile → Delete account and read the confirmation carefully. The app first attempts to cancel any ongoing subscription and then remove your account data. Deleting your account is different from only cancelling your subscription. If deletion reports an error, follow the message shown or contact support; do not assume deletion or cancellation has completed.
If you cannot sign in, contact hellosupport.ascendapp@gmail.com for help with an access, correction or deletion request. Information that must be retained for legal, accounting or security purposes, or that remains in backups pending normal deletion, may be handled as described in section 7. You can withdraw optional analytics and advertising consent through Cookie preferences without deleting your account.