Privacy Policy

How Gatelist handles personal information on gatelist.com and in the Gatelist software.

Last updated: 5 October 2026

1. Who we are

Gatelist is provided by GATELIST. Contact for privacy questions: support@gatelist.com.

2. Two roles

• Church members' information in a church's Gatelist installation: the church is the data controller and decides how it is used. We process it on the church's behalf. Questions about your own record should go to your church first.
• Information about visitors to gatelist.com, and people who get in touch: we are the data controller.

3. What we process

• For churches (as processor): names, contact details, family groups, age groups, birthday and wedding anniversary dates (day and month only, never the year or a full date of birth), photos, ministries and roles, event attendance, giving records, messages sent, and the permissions members give for celebration flyers.
• For gatelist.com (as controller): what you send through the contact form (your name, email address, subject, message and which team it is for). We email you a confirmation that we received it. We also keep basic technical logs (IP address, browser) to keep the site secure.

4. Why

To provide and support the service, to reply to enquiries and set up churches, to invoice, to keep the service secure and working, and to meet legal obligations. Our lawful bases are contract, legitimate interests (security and running the service) and, where stated, consent.

5. Celebration flyers and OpenAI

If a member gives permission, their chosen photo and first name are sent to OpenAI to create a birthday or wedding anniversary flyer. OpenAI uses it only to make the flyer, does not use it to train its AI, and deletes it within 30 days unless the law requires it to be kept longer. During that time, it may be handled by OpenAI's own service providers and authorised staff for security and legal checks. The member can withdraw permission at any time through their church.

6. Who we share it with

Only the providers we need to run the service, under contract:

• Email from this website: sent from our own server. Emails to our @gatelist.com addresses are forwarded to our team by ImprovMX.
• Email from the Gatelist software: Postmark.
• Website fonts: Bunny Fonts (bunny.net, EU), which receives your IP address when a page loads its fonts. It sets no cookies.
• WhatsApp messages: through the church's linked WhatsApp account (WhatsApp/Meta).
• SMS: Twilio or Africa's Talking, depending on the church's settings (only if the church uses SMS).
• Card payments for support funds: Stripe, which handles card details directly.
• Celebration flyers: OpenAI (United States), only with permission.

We do not sell personal information.

7. International transfers

Where a provider is outside the UK (for example, OpenAI in the United States), we rely on the UK's approved safeguards, such as the International Data Transfer Addendum or the UK–US data bridge, as applicable.

8. How long we keep it

Church data is kept while the church uses Gatelist and deleted within 30 days of the service ending (on request, after an export). Daily backups are kept for up to 14 days and monthly backups for up to 6 months. Enquiries sent through gatelist.com are kept for 2 years.

9. Security

Role-based access, two-factor sign-in, encrypted connections, hourly health checks, and daily encrypted backups held off-site.

10. Your rights

You can ask to see, correct or delete your information, object to or restrict its use, and ask for a copy. For a church's records, ask your church; we will help them respond. You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

11. Cookies

gatelist.com uses only essential cookies:

• cookie-agreed: remembers your choice in the cookie banner, for 1 day.
• A sign-in cookie for staff who log in to manage the site.

We do not use analytics or advertising cookies. If we add optional cookies, we will only set them if you accept them in the cookie banner, and you can change your choice at any time with the "Privacy settings" tab.

12. Changes

We will post any changes here and update the date above. See also our Terms of Service.