Privacy Policy

Milk Before Meat · Last updated July 1, 2026

Milk Before Meat ("MBM," "the app," "we") is built to meet you where you are, privately and without pressure. This policy explains, in plain language, what the app does and does not do with your information. The short version: you can use almost the entire app without an account, without giving an email, and without your words ever leaving your phone — and we never sell your data or show you ads.

Milk Before Meat is an independent app made by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is not officially affiliated with any Church — it is not owned, endorsed, or sponsored by any church or religious organization.

No account, no sign-up

You do not create an account to use MBM. You are not asked for your name, email, phone number, or any login. If you choose to enter a first name inside the app, it is optional and stays on your device.

What stays on your phone

MBM is "local-first." The following are stored only on your own device — we do not keep copies of them on any server of ours:

Anything you write in the journal or in reflections.
Your conversations in the in-app chat.
Answers you give to the stories and questions, and the personal notes the app keeps to tailor what it shows you next.
An optional first name, if you enter one.

If you delete the app, this on-device information is removed with it. Note that being stored on your device is different from being processed to generate a reply: if you have turned on the AI conversation, some of this text is transmitted to Anthropic in real time so the app can respond, as the next section explains in full.

When you tap "talk to a real person"

The one time the app reaches the internet to store something is when you choose to message a real human. If you do, this is sent to our cloud inbox (hosted on Google Firebase) so a person on our team can read it and reply:

The message you write.
An optional excerpt of the conversation you said you wanted to talk about.
A general note about where you are in your journey, to help us respond with care.

To make a reply possible without ever asking you to sign up, your app is given a random, anonymous ID. There is no email or name attached to it. Our security rules are set so that this anonymous thread can only ever be read by you and by our small admin team — no other user can see it.

The AI conversation (Anthropic)

The app's conversational voice is powered by Claude, an AI service operated by Anthropic, PBC. The AI conversation is off until you turn it on: the app asks for your permission in plain words before anything you write is ever sent, and you can turn it off at any time on your Profile. When it is on, the following is transmitted securely to Anthropic, over an encrypted connection, so it can generate the response you see:

The messages you send in the in-app chat, and the conversation they belong to.
Answers you give to in-app questions and reflections, when the app offers a personal word of encouragement in response.
The text of content or notes you choose to keep, when the app writes a short summary of them for you.
Your discipleship reflections, if you use the members' tools and request a written summary of your walk.
Context the app has learned from your own words, sent along so the reply can meet you personally: your optional first name, what you have shared about your faith and background, and short excerpts of recent journal or reflection entries.

How this is collected: only from what you yourself type or choose inside the app — never from your contacts, location, photos, or anything outside the app. How it is used: solely to generate the app's responses to you, in real time. Anthropic processes this text as a service provider under its commercial terms, which prohibit it from using this data to train its models and hold it to confidentiality and data-protection commitments consistent with this policy. We do not use your conversations to advertise to you, we do not sell them, and they are not used for tracking of any kind.

If you decline or turn the AI conversation off, nothing you write is sent to Anthropic, and the app continues to work with its built-in offline voice.

What we do NOT do

We do not sell or rent your information to anyone.
We do not show ads.
We do not use third-party advertising or tracking pixels.
We do not require, collect, or store your real identity.

Service providers

We rely on a few trusted services purely to run the app: Google Firebase (the cloud inbox and anonymous identity), Anthropic (the AI replies), and Expo (app delivery and updates). Each handles only what is described above, under their own privacy terms.

Children

MBM is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us a message, contact us and we will remove it.

Your choices and deleting your data

Removing the app deletes everything stored on your device. If you have ever messaged a real person and would like that anonymous conversation deleted from our inbox, email us at the address below and we will remove it.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will update the date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email admin@milkb4meat.org.

Milk Before Meat · milkb4meat.org
This app points you toward Jesus Christ; it is not a substitute for prayer, Scripture, or the people who love you.