Privacy Policy for Theology AI

Last Updated: August 20, 2026

In brief: Theology AI uses a free account so your text conversations can follow you across devices. Persistent conversation history is stored under your Firebase account. Uploaded documents and images are not saved in your Firestore history. AD IPSUM also keeps a short-lived text transcript for quality control and troubleshooting, described below.

About Theology AI

Theology AI is a free Catholic educational AI service provided by AD IPSUM, an Illinois nonprofit public benefit corporation and IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) public charity. It is designed to help users explore Scripture, doctrine, prayer, apologetics, Church teaching, and the spiritual life.

Account Information

Theology AI uses Firebase Authentication. When you create or use an account, authentication information may include your email address, Firebase user ID, display name, profile photograph, and sign-in provider (for example, Google or email/password). If you use Google sign-in, your Google account supplies the name, email address, and profile image that Firebase makes available to Theology AI.

Passwords for email/password accounts are handled by Firebase Authentication. AD IPSUM does not receive or store your plaintext password.

Persistent Conversation History

Text conversation history is stored in Google Cloud Firestore under your authenticated user ID so that your conversations can survive browser-data clearing and can be restored when you sign in on another device or browser. Theology AI also keeps a user-scoped local browser cache for faster display; clearing that local cache does not delete the copy stored in Firestore.

You can delete individual conversations in Theology AI. You can also export your conversations from the application.

Quality-Control Conversation Records

Separately from your Firestore history, the Theology AI backend keeps a short-lived text transcript of chatbot turns in Cloudflare storage for service quality, troubleshooting, safety review, and improving the user experience. These quality-control records automatically expire after up to seven days. The administrative transcript stores message text rather than uploaded file bytes.

AD IPSUM does not sell, rent, trade, or monetize chatbot conversations, and does not use Theology AI conversations to train or fine-tune its own AI models.

Documents and Images You Upload

If you choose to upload a document or image, the file is processed so Theology AI can answer your request. Raw uploaded file bytes and base64 attachment data are not written to your Firestore conversation history or to the quality-control transcript.

To support follow-up questions about an attachment during the same browser session, the backend may keep a session-scoped textual digest or working summary derived from the attachment. The browser uses a session identifier that changes when a new browser session begins and is cleared when you sign out. The backend working digest expires automatically within seven days and is not designed to make the original file available in a later browser session. If more exact detail is needed later, you may need to upload the file again.

Because uploaded content is sent to third-party AI services for analysis, do not upload private sacramental records, passwords, financial account information, government identification numbers, protected health information, or other highly sensitive material unless you are comfortable with that processing.

Voice Dictation

Voice dictation is optional and activates only when you choose the microphone feature. The audio recording is sent through an AD IPSUM transcription endpoint to OpenAI's transcription API and converted to text. The current AD IPSUM transcription service does not write the audio recording to Cloudflare KV, R2, Firestore, or another AD IPSUM storage database. The transcribed text is placed into the message box so you can review or edit it before sending.

AI, Search, and Infrastructure Providers

Theology AI relies on third-party infrastructure and AI services to authenticate users, operate the site, generate responses, transcribe optional voice input, and retrieve current or source-grounded information. Depending on the feature or request, processing may involve Google/Firebase, Cloudflare, OpenAI, DeepSeek, and research/search providers such as Perplexity, Exa, or Firecrawl. These providers may receive the portions of your request or retrieval query necessary to provide the requested function and process information under their own terms and privacy practices.

Voluntary donations are processed by Stripe on Stripe's own secure pages. AD IPSUM does not collect or store your full payment card number.

How We Use Information

AD IPSUM uses information to authenticate accounts, provide and synchronize conversation history, generate and improve Theology AI responses, maintain and secure the service, troubleshoot problems, review quality, process voluntary donations, and respond to support requests.

Data Retention

Firebase account: retained until you delete the account or it is otherwise removed.
Firestore conversation history: retained until you delete conversations or delete your account.
Cloudflare quality-control transcript: automatically expires within seven days.
Session-scoped attachment working digest: automatically expires within seven days and is scoped so a new browser session does not reuse it.
Optional voice audio: not intentionally stored in AD IPSUM databases by the current transcription Worker after the request is processed.
Third-party providers: may retain data according to their own policies, legal obligations, and service settings.

Deleting Your Account

The Account panel in Theology AI includes a Delete Account option. After you re-confirm your identity, account deletion removes your Firebase Authentication account and the persistent conversation history stored for that account in Firestore. Short-lived quality-control transcripts and other transient backend records may remain until their automatic retention period expires, and records that a third-party provider is independently required to retain are governed by that provider's policies.

Security

Theology AI uses HTTPS, Firebase Authentication, Firestore security rules that restrict account history to the authenticated user, and reputable infrastructure providers. No online service can guarantee absolute security, so please avoid submitting information that would cause serious harm if disclosed.

Children's Privacy

Theology AI is an educational resource and is not designed to knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without appropriate consent. Parents and guardians should supervise younger users and should not allow children to submit sensitive personal information. If you believe a child's personal information has been provided improperly, contact AD IPSUM so we can review the request.

Religious Content Disclaimer

Theology AI provides Catholic educational information using artificial intelligence. It is an educational tool and does not replace qualified clergy, spiritual directors, pastoral counselors, sacramental confession, or official Church authority.

Changes to This Policy

AD IPSUM may update this Privacy Policy as Theology AI changes. Material changes will be reflected by updating the date above.

Contact

Questions about this policy may be directed to info@adipsum.org.