Advance OS
Version 1.0 · 25 August 2026 · applies to Advance OS on iOS and Android
Every [[ ]] below must be filled in, and this document should be read by a lawyer familiar with POPIA and the GDPR before it goes live. It is written to be accurate about what the app actually does — that part has been checked against the code — but accuracy is not the same as legal sufficiency.
Advance OS is operated by Kingdom Advancers (“we”, “us”), a non-profit company registered in South Africa under registration number 2025/408077/08, with its registered office at 2 Leeuwberg Estate, Koedoeberg Road, Faerie Glen, Pretoria, Gauteng, 0181. Under POPIA we are the responsible party for the personal information described here.
This policy explains what the app collects, why, who else sees it, and what you can do about it.
We do not sell your personal information. We do not show advertising. There is no analytics SDK, no crash-reporting SDK and no advertising identifier in the app.
You must be 13 or older to create an account. The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, write to us and we will delete it.
| What | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Name, profile photo, email address | Always | Your account and how other members recognise you |
| Phone number | If you sign in by phone, or use contact discovery | Sending your one-time sign-in code; matching contacts |
| Date of birth or birth year | Optional | Birthdays, and pairing you with an appropriate Advance Minister |
| Location | When you place a Kingdom Group on the map, or record a Prayer Walk | Showing groups near you; tracing and saving your walk route |
| Location while the app is in the background | Only during a Prayer Walk you have started | Continuing to trace your route while your screen is off |
| Photos, video and files you choose to send | When you send them | Delivering them to the conversation or post you chose |
| Voice notes and call audio/video | When you record or call | Delivering the message or the call |
| Messages, posts, comments, prayer requests | When you write them | They are the product |
| Your Kingdom Group, community and activity | As you use the app | Levels, streaks, the Kingdom Tree, and your group's life together |
| Push notification token | If you allow notifications | Sending you notifications |
| Device contacts | Only if you turn on contact discovery | See below — these are not uploaded |
If you use “find friends from my contacts”, the matching happens on your device. Your address book is not uploaded to our servers, and we do not keep a copy of it. We only learn which existing Advance OS members you chose to connect with.
Location is only read when you ask for something that needs it. A Prayer Walk records your route and saves it to your account, because the route is the point of the walk. You can delete a saved walk at any time. Background location is used only while a walk you started is running, and stops when you finish it.
We use a small number of service providers to run the app. They act on our instructions and are not permitted to use your information for their own purposes.
| Provider | What they handle |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Our database, file storage and sign-in. Substantially all of the data above. |
| Expo, Apple (APNs), Google (FCM) | Delivering push notifications: your notification token and the text of the notification. |
| Mapbox | Map and globe imagery. Requests for map tiles for the area you are looking at. |
| LiveKit | Connecting voice and video calls. Call setup only — see the note on calls below. |
| Twilio | Sending your one-time sign-in code by SMS: your phone number. |
| Resend | Sending account email such as password resets: your email address. |
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or where we believe in good faith that it is necessary to protect someone from serious harm.
Advance OS is a movement, not a private notebook. Your name, photo, level and Kingdom Group are visible to members you connect with, and content you post to a group or community is visible to that group or community. Your privacy settings in the app control the rest. Direct messages are visible to the people in the conversation.
Advance OS is not end-to-end encrypted, and we will not say that it is.
Everything is encrypted in transit between your device and our servers, and call media is encrypted in transit using SRTP/DTLS. But group calls pass through a server that can see the media, and messages and files are stored on our servers in a form we can read. That means we could in principle access them, and that a lawful order could compel us to.
The app carries this same explanation on its Privacy & Protection screen. We would rather tell you the truth than borrow a claim we have not earned.
We keep your information for as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, we delete your profile, your messages, your posts, your prayer walks and your uploaded files. Some records may remain for a short period in encrypted backups, and we keep what we are legally required to keep. Content you sent to another member's conversation may remain visible to them, in the same way a letter you posted remains with its recipient.
In the app: Profile → Account → Delete my account. It is immediate and it is permanent.
Without the app, or if you can no longer sign in, use the account deletion page.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the information we hold about you, to correct it, to have it deleted, to object to certain processing, and to receive a copy in a portable form. Under South Africa's POPIA and the EU/UK GDPR these rights apply directly. Write to hugo@kingdomglobal.org and we will answer within 30 days.
If you are in the EU or UK and are not satisfied with our answer, you may complain to your data protection authority. In South Africa, you may complain to the Information Regulator.
Your account, your messages, your posts and the files you upload are stored by Supabase in Paris, France (the AWS eu-west-3 region). That is inside the European Union, whichever country you live in.
Some of our other providers operate from elsewhere, including the United States: push notifications reach you through Expo, Apple and Google; sign-in codes are sent by Twilio; and account email is sent by Resend. Each receives only the narrow piece of information listed in the table above — a notification token, a phone number, an email address.
Your information leaves South Africa and is stored in France. POPIA permits this where the receiving country's law provides protection substantially similar to POPIA's own principles. European data protection law does, which is why the EU was chosen over a cheaper region.
Your account data stays in the European Union and is not transferred out of it by us. For the providers listed above that operate from the United States, we rely on their standard contractual clauses.
If we change this policy in a way that materially affects you, we will tell you in the app before the change takes effect. The version and date at the top always reflect the current text.
Under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, every organisation has an Information Officer who is answerable for how it handles personal information. Ours is Hugo van Niekerk, reachable at the address below. You may raise any question or complaint about this policy with him directly.
Kingdom Advancers
2 Leeuwberg Estate, Koedoeberg Road, Faerie Glen, Pretoria, Gauteng, 0181, South Africa
Privacy: hugo@kingdomglobal.org
Support: the support page