Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 30, 2026

St. Augustine Catholic Church (“we,” “our,” or “the parish”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal information you share through the parish website. This policy explains how information is collected, used, retained, and safeguarded.

1. Information we collect

Personal information: Information you voluntarily provide, such as your name, email address, phone number, mailing address, household information, ministry interests, and sacramental-preparation information when you submit a parish form or request information.

Technical information: Information automatically processed for security or site operation, such as an IP address, browser type, pages visited, and the date and time of a request. Analytics information is collected only if the parish enables an approved analytics service.

2. How we use information

Respond to inquiries and requests.
Provide parish updates, newsletters, and event information when you opt in.
Support ministry and sacramental-preparation processes.
Improve the website and parish services.
Maintain website security and functionality.

The parish does not sell, trade, or rent personal information to third parties.

3. Cookies and analytics

The website may use cookies and analytics services, such as Google Analytics, to improve the user experience and understand site use. Visitors may configure their browsers to refuse cookies.

4. Third-party services

The site may link to external services, including the Archdiocese of Atlanta, the Vatican, and event-management tools. The parish is not responsible for those sites’ privacy practices.

Website translation: When a visitor chooses an automated translation, the site loads GTranslate and Google Translate resources and sends the page content needed to provide that machine translation. Google and GTranslate privacy terms apply to that interaction. Automated translations are provided for convenience and may not reproduce every parish or Catholic term exactly.

Spam protection: Parish forms use Cloudflare Turnstile. Cloudflare receives the information needed to evaluate whether a submission is legitimate, which may include technical information about the request. Cloudflare’s privacy terms apply to that check.

5. Form storage, delivery, and retention

Contact, Parish Membership, and Baptism form answers are encrypted in private website storage and are available only to authorized parish staff. Contact-form notifications contain a reference and a link to the protected record. Parish Membership and Baptism notifications may also include a PDF copy of the submitted answers for the approved parish recipient. Records are retained for the parish-approved period configured for each form and are then removed automatically.

Birth certificates, adoption decrees, payment information, and other sensitive supporting documents should be delivered only by the method approved by the parish office. They should not be uploaded to the public Media Library or sent through ordinary email.

Bulletin and newsletter subscriptions

The homepage email signup asks for your email address and explicit consent to receive bulletins and parish updates. You must confirm through an emailed link before joining the mailing audience; confirmation links expire after 48 hours. The subscription system stores your email address, subscription status, consent wording and timestamps, confirmation history, and delivery or unsubscribe records. An optional name is collected only when a signup form provides that field. A hashed network identifier is used to limit repeated signup requests.

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) processes recipient addresses and message content to deliver confirmation emails and parish communications. It reports delivery, bounce, complaint, and unsubscribe events so the parish can maintain its mailing audience and stop unwanted or undeliverable email. Newsletter open and click tracking are not enabled. Cloudflare Turnstile protects signup requests, as described above.

Subscription records are kept in the restricted website database and can be accessed only by authorized operators; they are separate from encrypted parish form-answer records. You can unsubscribe using the links in each email without a website account. A suppression record is retained to honor an unsubscribe, bounce, or complaint and prevent later imports from reactivating the address. Contact the parish office at office@staugcc.org to request assistance, review, correction, or deletion.

6. Data security

The parish takes reasonable administrative and technical measures to protect submitted information. No Internet transmission or storage method is completely secure, and absolute security cannot be guaranteed.

7. Children’s privacy

The website is not intended for a child to submit personal information independently. A parent, guardian, or authorized adult should complete forms that request information about a minor.

8. Your choices

Request review, correction, or deletion of personal information by contacting the parish office.
Unsubscribe using the links in parish emails, or contact the parish office for help.

9. Policy updates

Changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date.

10. Contact

St. Augustine Catholic Church
11524 Highway 278 East
Covington, GA 30014
(770) 787-1064
Use the parish contact form