The Importance of Owning Your Digital Presence

The Importance Of Owning Your Digital Presence knowledge has come via 25+ years of experience in network design and IT security; along with 20 years ministry experience helping churches succeed – there is one common thing that we must look at in this day and age. It was back in 2004 when I was approached by someone with a business idea to create a system that does data-mining. If you do not know what that is, well it is happening right under you right now. If you are reading this on your mobile phone, your physical location is being stored, what you are reading is being stored, and how much times you spend on your mobile app is being stored.

Notice they frankly say, “according to recent data.” That data is from data mining. Although the idea seemed promising financially when I was approached by that friend back in 2004, and very doable using a database, after prayer I did not feel comfortable doing it.

If you still don’t believe it – go to the supermarket and use that “discount card” and by some ice cream, then don’t buy ice cream for 2 months and go back there. Watch and see what coupon you get – yup a coupon for ice cream. They know what you buy, how often you buy it, your phone#, address and any other questions they ask on that “intake form”.

This lead me on a campaign to promote ownership of data. Many do not know that the moment you post a photo or video on social media – you retain copyright ownership, but public use is authorized by that social media with no requirement to let you know. And if they decide to cancel your account – guess what those images unless you saved it off of social media – is now GONE. They are under no obligation to return data to you.

In the church this is VERY true when using outside vendors for church data, member data, and even donation reporting. When was the last time you read the Terms and Conditions of your church management system vendor.

Here is a snapshot from a key vendor in the church management space.

Now data in this day and age is going to be collected – there is truly no way around it unless you go “off the grid”. Which if you are pastoring a church may not be the best idea on how to grow the ministry.

But why cant YOU own that data? The only thing stopping this is a solution that you host and manage- at least when it comes to church management systems and even websites.

If you were to ask our clients both business and non-profit we advocate for them to own their data and websites. We tell them to purchase their domain from google using https://domains.google.com, the reason why we explain in detail on this blog.  The website should be hosted on a hosting company that controls more than just serving the site. When you have control over these things – you control what data is collected by any visitor.

When it comes to your church management system – in the IT world this data is KING. Names, addresses, family members, how often they visit church (when they’re not home), where they access the CMS from, when they check in. All of this data most churches host it on a vendor that has the privacy policy listed above.

The statement shared above from this vendor seems innocent enough however there are many ambiguous statements such as “in the good faith belief” or “to protect and defend the rights or property of the company”. Later in that privacy policy they mention how they do not support “DNT” which is do not track technology. As well as statements like, “Data processed by Planning Center can be classified in two ways: Data that has been collected by us for our own purposes;…” Yet they never define that “their purpose are”.

When a church is able to host their own church management system and maintain it on their own – not using a third party vendor there are still privacy policy challenges but you decide how data is collected and shared.

Data ownership is security at its best. When you own it – then you have control over how and what is being collected.

This concept also goes into the very basics of marketing as well. Why do you have to advertise another company when the data is all yours? For example, WIX is infamous for this. Here is a snippet of code from a WIX site – this is on EVERY WIX hosted and designed site. 

Now I know it make look like a mess of stuff, but let me share. One item is the meta information. This is used by google for search engine optimization (how you show up in search engines). Them putting WIX in there creates a referral link which is GOLD in SEO. This site is referring WIX to the world. Now as a designer there is a lot more superfluous code in there to include even Microsoft licensing since they use Microsoft’s design codex (method of presenting the site).

When you use a church management software – it is their logo showing up on the top or yours? There have been some legal cases decided based on the logo presented to the user and who is responsible for the data and who owns the data.

Aside from security issues that may arise from lack of ownership there is one other key item. Fidelity and vendor sustainability. What happens if the vendor stops doing business? What happens is you decide that the relationship has ended? What happens if you cannot pay them due to a pandemic? They own the data, and they will not release it until you are paid up, or have resolved any legal issues, or never if they just cease to exist. Which we all know they are not obligated to let you know they are stopping their business activity before hand so you can backup your data.

The other potential issue would be if there is an investigation by a government entity. The vendor IS NOT PROTECTED under the same laws of a 501C3 organization. This is why in the above example they say they will disclose information based on legal requirements. They are not protected like a 501C3 organization is or a church entity is. They are a business, for profit.

Our Church Management System provides you the right to data ownership. Let your members feel secure that you are stewarding not only the tithes and offerings given but also their personal data properly. And because the data is YOURS – and you are a church entity, possibly 501c3 your data is protected under such laws. (IRS: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1828.pdf Federal law: https://www.justice.gov/crt/page/file/1006786/download)

iPowered Church is here to empower you to enter the digital age with clear ownership of your entire digital footprint.