Privacy and consent

The short version

Nothing is kept without your permission, and nothing is shared until a person on the project team has listened to it and approved it.
You decide who may hear your recording. It is never shared more widely than you chose.
Your email address and phone number are never published.
You can ask us to remove your recording at any time, and we will delete every copy.
Anyone under 18 takes part only in person, with a parent or guardian's permission.

What we collect

When you record a memory

Your recordings, which questions you answered, and how long each answer is.
Your name, and your email address and phone number if you give them. Both are optional.
Your connection to St. Theresa and the years you have been part of it.
Who may hear your recording, and how you would like to be named.
A photo, if you add one.
The consent you agreed to: its exact wording, the choices you made, and when you agreed. You also confirm that you are 18 or older.

When you nominate someone

Nominations go through the parish's Google Form, not through this website's own database. The form asks for:

The name of the person you are nominating, or your own name if you are nominating yourself.
An email address or phone number to reach them, if you give one. For a young person under 18, we ask for a parent or guardian's, not the young person's own.
Whether their stories are about the church, the school, or both.
Anything else you want us to know. For a young person under 18, that includes a parent or guardian's name and phone number.

Your answers are kept in the parish's Google Workspace account, and only the project team sees them. The form does not ask you to sign in to Google. Nominations sent through this website's earlier form stay in its private database, where only the project team can see them too.

When you share photos or keepsakes

The files you send, what you tell us about them, your name, and how to reach you.
Whether you would like your things back, and whether you asked for a pickup.

When you ask us to remove a recording

Your reference code if you have it, your name, how to reach you, and anything else you tell us.

Behind the scenes, on the record, share, and removal forms

An anonymous sign-in for your device, so the files sent from one phone stay in that phone's own folder. There is no account and no password.
The type of browser and device you used, and an anonymous session number that helps us fix problems. We do not keep your internet (IP) address.

While you record, your answers are saved on your own phone or computer, so nothing is lost if the page closes. They are cleared from your device once they have been sent. The text size you choose is remembered on your device only.

Who can see it

The project team. The project lead and a small team of volunteers, who sign in with their Google accounts and must be on the team's list. Team members review and transcribe recordings. Only project leads can publish or delete them.
Everyone, only if you allowed it. If you chose "Anyone" and the team approved your recording, the Stories page shows your name the way you chose, your connection, the years you gave, the answers that were approved, their written transcripts, and your photo if you added one.
Never published: your email address, your phone number, and anything you sent through the nominate, share, or removal forms.

When a recording, photos, or a removal request arrives, the project team gets an email notice. If you give us your email address, we send you a receipt with your reference code. Nominations go through the parish's Google Form, which is run by Google, so Google's own privacy policy also applies to it.

Where it is kept, and for how long

Recordings, photos, and files are stored with Google Firebase, a Google Cloud service, along with the details you give us. Everything is private by default: only the project team can read it, apart from stories that were approved for everyone.

We keep what you share in the parish archive unless you ask us to remove it. Files that start uploading but are never sent with a form are deleted automatically within about two days.

Your choices

Who may hear your recording? You choose one. There is no answer chosen for you.

Anyone: After the project team reviews it, it may appear on this website and in parish publications.
The St. Theresa community: It may be played or quoted at parish and school events, displays, and in printed parish history, but it will not be posted on the public website.
Only the parish archive: It is kept safely for history and is not shared or played publicly.

If your recording is shared, how should we name you?

My full name (chosen for you unless you change it)
My first name and last initial
Don't use my name

Changed your mind about who may hear it? Tell us, and we will talk it through with you.

Removing your recording

You can change your mind at any time. Use the Remove my recording page, email us, or call the parish office. A person on the project team will confirm with you first, then permanently delete the audio, the transcript, and every copy we made from it, including anything shared on this website.

Young people under 18

Contributors under 18 share their stories with a trained volunteer, in person, with a parent or guardian's permission, under the parish's safe-environment rules. Ask a parent to nominate you and we will be in touch.

Parents and guardians can nominate a young person here.

Logs that help us fix problems

While you use this site, it keeps a short technical log on your device: which page you are on, which buttons you pressed, how long things took, and any error messages. It never contains your recordings, what you said, your name, your email address, or your phone number.

When something goes wrong, the error details, without anything personal, are sent to the project team and kept for 30 days. If you write to us for help, the Copy debug log button at the bottom of every page copies this log so you can paste it into your email.

Questions

Email hello@st-theresa.org or call the parish office at (512) 451-5121 and ask about the Oral History Project.