Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 20, 2026.

Emmaus OCIA supports parish OCIA formation, participant care, records, communication, and related workflows. This Privacy Policy explains the information Emmaus OCIA may collect, how it is used, and the choices available to people who use the website, mobile app, and related communication tools.

Emmaus OCIA may collect information provided directly by users or parish staff, including names, contact information, parish affiliation, OCIA role, account credentials, formation records, document review status, attendance records, communication preferences, and consent records.

The service may also collect technical information needed to operate and secure the application, such as device, browser, log, session, diagnostic, and security-event information.

Emmaus OCIA uses information to:

• Provide parish OCIA recordkeeping and formation workflow tools.
• Support participant, guardian, sponsor, godparent, teacher, and staff communication.
• Send account, event, reminder, due-work, and operational notifications when enabled.
• Maintain security, auditability, troubleshooting, and service reliability.
• Respond to support, setup, and contact requests.

Emmaus OCIA stores communication preferences, consent records when applicable, message delivery records, and related audit details needed to operate account, event, reminder, due-work, and operational notifications.

Information is shared only as needed to operate the service, support the parish workflow, comply with legal obligations, protect the service, or use service providers such as hosting, email, captcha, storage, analytics, or security vendors.

Emmaus OCIA does not sell personal information.

Emmaus OCIA retains information for as long as needed to provide the service, support parish records, meet operational and legal needs, resolve disputes, and maintain audit history. Retention may vary by parish record type and applicable requirements.

Users may update account information, notification preferences, and communication choices where those controls are available in the application.

You can request deletion of your account or personal data without signing in. Emmaus support at bhaack@emmaus-ocia.org verifies the request and coordinates with your parish. Eligible account/profile data and optional uploads can be removed following review. Login removal and parish record deletion are separate actions.

Sacramental records, required parish records, audit history, security records, and backups may need to be retained. Before completing a request, support explains the data being retained, the reason, the applicable retention period or criteria, and the handling of existing backups. You can also ask about correction, access, or withdrawal of consent through the same support address.

Mobile self-service uses account-linked formation and religious/sacramental information, identifiers, assessment responses, and selected photos or documents. Camera access is used for still document photos; photo selection lets you choose a headshot. The app does not request microphone access or access your device address book.

When enabled, Expo provides push delivery and Sentry receives error/crash diagnostics with minimized technical app, device, and operating-system context. Error monitoring is configured to exclude form values, participant documents, screenshots, session replay, and ordinary interaction tracking. These service providers process information for service delivery and reliability.

Emmaus OCIA uses administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information. No internet service can guarantee absolute security, but the service is designed to limit access according to role, parish affiliation, and operational need.

For privacy questions, contact Emmaus support at bhaack@emmaus-ocia.org or the parish that invited you. For a deletion request, follow the data-deletion guidance.