Privacy policy

Last updated: 15 May 2011

This website does not collect any infomation from visitors except those statistics which are gathered through our use of Google Analytics. Google Analytics collects information about website traffic, but does so anonymously. The information it reports does not identify individuals. To learn about Google Analytics' privacy policy, please see the Google Privacy Center. 

If you're familiar with other websites' privacy statements, the rest of this page is different in that it primarily addresses information about our church.

If there are points or issues which you feel should be covered here but are not, please feel free to contact us.

Congregational privacy and electronic communications

Given that Brentwood Oaks is a church, the treatment of information given by its members is crucial. It is important that information given in confidence remain confidential, and it is important for us as a church family to know some things about each other so we can be of good help and encouragement. The information entrusted to Brentwood Oaks by its members is not collected through this website, except for occasional online registrations for activities. Brentwood Oaks does not give away nor sell the information given to it.

Member directory: The main information shared through this website is the Member Directory. It is accessible only to Brentwood Oaks members after they have logged into the site. Brentwood Oaks' Member Directory is for the personal use of its members to make it easier for us to contact each other as needed. It is not to be used for marketing or commercial contacts, and any effort to do so will be addressed quickly. The directory is the most-used portion of the website. Even so, if you are uncomfortable having your contact information available to other members, contact us and we will remove your entry in whole or part.

Bulletins and prayer lists: These will be accessible under the Media tab, only to members after login. We rely on prayer, but we purposefully do not put great detail in the prayer lists.

Email: When you become a member of Brentwood Oaks, we ask for an email address. We use your email address in ways as noted below. For any of these, if the emails seem too frequent or annoying, contact us and we will be happy to remove you from any or all lists.

  • Announcements: These are infrequent one-time mailings of general interest, such as cancellation of services due to weather, or a short note about daylight savings time. 

  • Periodic emails: We send you information about our congregational life. In particular, the bulletin may be sent once a week, and prayer concerns are sent daily.

  • Specific-purpose email lists: These are email lists which you opt-in to receive, such as the women's ministry SisterTalk list, a list for announcements regarding Camp Agape, or the men's minstry Battle Call gatherings.

Identification of people on this website

On this website we may list or refer to staff, adult members, youth and missionaries. The information of concern includes names, email addresses, phone numbers and photos. The items below refer to publically accessible areas of this website.

  1. For staff, we list names, email addresses, office phone numbers, and may include photos, which is consistent with their roles as the public face of the congregation.

  2. For adult members, we may list names when they are leaders or are involved in some activity. We will generally not list phone numbers or email addresses on pages available to anonymous website visitors, but contact information is often available to members after logging in, through the Member Directory as mentioned above.

  3. For youth and children, we will not generally give names on open pages; rarely we may just use first names. Photo captions of youth or youth activities will not include names, and nametags (if any) will have names obscured.

  4. For missionaries, we consider their situation before posting anything. Some parts of the world are inhospitable to Christians, and we do not want to put any in danger. We will generally take our cues from the missionaries.

Photos on the website

Having photos on our website is an enjoyable privilege for us which we intend not to abuse. We will on occasion take photos of Brentwood Oaks activities and post them on the website. If you know in advance that you do not want to appear in such photos, please notify the church office. When using photos of Brentwood Oaks events and members on the website, we will use the following guidelines:

  • We try not to post anything that would be embarrassing, objectionable or hurtful to anyone in the photo.

  • We don't put names of children or youth in photo captions, and we minimize how often we use full names of adults.

  • We will not use a photo without the permission of the photo's owner; we will credit or remove a particular photo if desired by the photographer.  

  • We honor copyrights and we will abide by any restrictions placed by the owner on the photo.

  • If a photo includes you or your child, we will gladly remove the photo as quickly as possible, upon request.

These guidelines are adapted from similar guidelines used by many other churches for their websites. It would be nice to credit the originators, but similar guidelines and language have appeared in so many places that it is not immediately clear who came up with them.
 

While it is our intention to follow the above guidelines, mistakes may happen. If you see something in conflict with the above, please contact us.
 

These guidelines will be updated on an irregular basis.