Privacy statement

This English text is a translation. Only the German version is authoritative.

In short

The website uses no tracking or advertising cookies and no third-party analytics services. Visits are only counted; nothing about you is stored for this (sections 3 to 5).
The research database uses published sources only. It stores which Bible passages are used and details of the source, but no sermon texts (section 10).
A Bible citation is not a statement about a person's religion. Living persons are not published by name by default, only with their consent or after a documented release reviewed with the data protection officer (section 10).
Accounts for the project team are created by the project owner. Adults can create their own account through public registration once it is open; while it is closed, the registration page says so (section 6a). The reading diary and data donation are switched off until the data protection officer has approved them (section 12).
You can request access, rectification and erasure and object to the processing. You can lodge a complaint with the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of North Rhine-Westphalia (section 11).

1. Controller

The controller responsible for the processing of personal data on this website is:

Joel Rabi Frank
Eichendorffstraße 2b
51702 Bergneustadt
NRW, Deutschland
kontakt@bible-verse-project.org

2. Data protection officer

An external data protection officer has been designated for LogoStats. You can reach the data protection officer at:

dsb@bible-verse-project.org

Data subjects can contact the data protection officer directly with any question about the processing of their personal data and about exercising their data protection rights. We have appointed an external data protection officer (appointed in writing on 30 October 2026; notified to the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of North Rhine-Westphalia on 30 October 2026).

3. What this website is about

LogoStats is a non-commercial research project. It measures how people use the Bible – in sermons, devotionals, lectionaries, publications and other sources – and publishes statistics on it. The website is under construction.

The website uses no tracking or advertising cookies, no third-party analytics services and no third-party content (no external fonts, scripts, maps or videos). There is no automated decision-making and no profiling.

3a. Limited operation: what currently runs

The website currently runs in a limited operation. In it we process personal data only as follows:

Visiting the website: server logs, abuse protection, usage counting and page views per area (section 4) and the necessary cookies (section 5).
Accounts for the project team (section 6) and, once public registration is open, public accounts with the confirmation of the e-mail address and "Report content" (section 6a).
E-mails: password reset links, notices on role applications and e-mails about a sign-in from a new browser (section 7) and operational alerts to the project owner (section 8).
Hosting, backups and availability monitoring (section 8) and contact by e-mail or telephone (section 9).
Research database (section 10): the website shows names only of persons whose death is established (a date or record of death from a source, or a birth more than 130 years ago) and of biblical persons. Living persons, and persons of whom it is not known whether they are alive, do not appear on the website. We currently do not add details about living persons from sermon and devotional sources; details of this kind already stored are removed before the limited operation starts.

Not active are the reading diary with ranking, public reading statistics, research donation and the public sharing of donated readings, "this is me" and own person records, the suggestion form (section 9) and any publication of details about living persons. Each of these functions is switched on only after its own review by the data protection officer (section 12).

4. Visiting the website (server logs)

Whenever a page is requested, the server processes technically necessary data:

Web server access log: time, requested address without query parameters, method, status code, amount of data, processing time and a shortened IP address (for IPv4 only the first two of four blocks, for IPv6 only the first 32 bits). Browser identification, referrer and cookies are not logged. The log file is rotated once it reaches 50 MB; rotated files are deleted after 14 days.
Application log: error messages and slow requests with a random request ID, the kind of page requested (without the specific address) and the duration or the type of error, without IP address and without form contents. Deleted after at most 90 days; technical error events in the database after at most 365 days.
Web server log in the system journal: error and operating messages of the web server (e.g. "application not reachable") are stored in the server's system journal, with the same limits as the access log: shortened IP address, address without query parameters, no browser identification, no referrer, no cookies. Deleted after at most 90 days.
Protection against abuse: to limit excessive requests from one connection, a non-reversible value is derived from the IP address (for IPv6, from the /64 prefix) using a secret key; the IP address itself is not stored for this. The counters are deleted after one day.

Purpose: secure and error-free operation, defence against attacks. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure operation).

Usage count: to know how much the website is used in each of its languages, the server counts, per day (UTC) and interface language:

Page views and language choices: how many pages were shown in that language and how often that language was chosen. Nothing about you is stored for this: no IP address, no browser identification, no cookie and no requested address.
Visitors: to count visitors per day, the server briefly processes your IP address and the browser identification your browser sends: together with a random key that is created anew every day (UTC) and discarded at the end of that day, it forms a hash value (SHA-256) from them. The IP address and the hash value are kept only in the server's memory, for that day at most; they are never stored, logged or passed on.

Only the numbers per day and language are stored. No cookie is used for this. Signed-in accounts, obvious bots and pages the browser loads in advance are not counted. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in knowing how much the website is used in each of its languages).

Page views per area: for the public page "Website statistics", the server also counts, per day (UTC) and area of the website, how many pages were shown. The area is only the first part of the address (for example "/books"), never the full address or its search parameters. It is counted separately whether the page was viewed without signing in or by a signed-in account; which account is not stored. It is also counted separately how many of these views came from a browser ("People"): these are the views whose request carries the headers every current browser sends when it opens a page (Sec-Fetch-Mode and Sec-Fetch-Dest, for a move within the website also Sec-Fetch-Site) together with an Accept-Language header; the server checks these headers only at the time of the request and never stores them. Only the day, the area, the signed-in distinction and the two numbers are stored: no IP address, no browser identification, no cookie, no hash value, no referring page and no account. The browser identification is read only briefly in memory to leave out obvious bots. Signed-in areas, sign-in pages and pages the browser loads in advance are not counted. The public page "Website statistics" shows only the total and the number of views by people. The number of signed-in views is shown only to signed-in members of the project team: as long as there are only a few accounts (sections 6 and 6a), it could show on which days and in which areas individual members of the project team used the website. Legal basis: the stored numbers contain no direct identifiers. Where the number of signed-in views allows conclusions about members of the project team, and for the brief processing of the request itself, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR applies (legitimate interest in knowing which areas of the website are used how often).

5. Cookies

The website sets only cookies that are strictly necessary for the functions you use (Section 25(2) no. 2 of the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act, TDDDG); no consent is needed for them. All cookies apply to this website only, cannot be read by scripts and are sent over HTTPS only.

Cookie	Purpose	Storage period
`__Host-bvp_pre`	protects forms against forgery by other websites (CSRF protection)	until the browser is closed
`__Host-bvp_lang`	remembers the language, only if you choose one yourself	1 year
`__Host-bvp_session`	keeps signed-in people signed in	until the browser is closed; with “stay signed in” 30 days
`__Host-bvp_mfa`	intermediate step of signing in with a second factor	5 minutes
`__Host-bvp_device`	recognises whether an account has signed in with this browser before, so that we can tell you by e-mail about a sign-in from a new device; holds a random device identifier and a check value per account, neither a name nor an e-mail address	1 year, renewed at each sign-in
`__Host-bvp_reminder`	remembers which notices on the account pages you closed: the notice about the second factor (for the current sign-in only; it stores a short check value of the sign-in, not the sign-in itself) and the notice about "this is me" (only when that function is switched on; currently not active)	until the browser is closed

Legal basis for the related processing: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

6. Sign-in and accounts of the project team

Accounts for members of the project team are created only by the project owner on the server; for accounts from public registration, section 6a applies as well. For these accounts the following is processed: e-mail address, display name, the roles in the project, the time zone as a setting, the password only as a hash (argon2id; the password itself is never stored), where set up an encrypted second factor, sign-in sessions and security events (e.g. sign-ins, password changes). Changes to account details such as the e-mail address and display name are logged in encrypted form; when the account is erased, the key is destroyed so that these details can no longer be read.

Sessions end after 12 hours or after 2 hours without activity; with “stay signed in” after 30 days. Session data is deleted 30 days after the session ends, security events 90 days after they occur. If someone signs in to your account from a browser or device not used for it before, we send you an e-mail with the time of the sign-in, without an IP address or device details.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (use of the account) and (f) (security).

6a. Public accounts

This section applies to accounts you create yourself through public registration. While registration is closed, the registration page says so.

What we store: for an account we process your e-mail address, a display name of your choice, your password hash (argon2id) and the session and security data needed for signing in and for security (section 6). If you set up a second factor, we store its key encrypted. The website offers it after registration and on the account pages; it is optional. You do not have to give your real name; you may use a pseudonym as display name. We also store as settings your time zone (optional; without a choice UTC applies) and the interface language, the link to confirm your address (only as a hash, valid 48 hours, used once) and the version of the terms of use you accepted.

Adults only: when signing up you confirm: "I confirm that I am at least 18 years old." We do not ask for a date of birth for this.

Legal bases: the legal basis for providing the account and the contribution functions you ask for, including the review of your contributions, is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Security and anti-abuse measures, e.g. limits on sign-ups per network and per address, which are stored only as keyed hashes, never as IP addresses, are based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Accepting the terms of use is not a consent under data protection law. Voluntary functions such as public attribution and contact about research are based on your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR); using the account does not depend on these consents.

Contributions: internally your contributions are linked to a pseudonymous contributor id. Your display name is shown with published contributions only if you have consented to this; otherwise they appear under the pseudonymous id. Your profile is not public.

Voluntary consents: functions that your account does not need are switched off by default. You decide separately for each purpose whether you want to use it. Your decision does not affect whether you can use the normal account. For data that may reveal religious beliefs or religious practice we ask for your explicit consent under Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR; you give it by ticking a box and confirming the text shown once more.

Consent text and record: for every consent we show you the full text before you confirm, with the purpose, kinds of data, visibility, recipients, storage period and what a withdrawal does. As a record we store the purpose, the date, the way you confirmed and the exact text version (Art. 7(1) GDPR). After a withdrawal or after your account is deleted, we keep only this record until the end of the third year (Sections 195, 199 BGB) and then delete it automatically.

Withdrawal: you can withdraw any consent at any time in your account area with one click. Withdrawing is as easy as giving consent. From that moment the processing based on it ends for the future; processing before the withdrawal remains lawful. Publications are blocked at once; dependent entries in search, statistics and caches are removed or updated within 15 minutes at the latest. Unless another legal basis applies, the data concerned are deleted without undue delay. Encrypted backups are overwritten on a regular cycle after 35 days at the latest.

Unconfirmed sign-ups: until you confirm your address, the account cannot be used. A new sign-up with the same address replaces an unconfirmed one. If you do not confirm your address, we delete the sign-up automatically seven days after the last sign-up with this address; the deletion runs once a day.

Deleting your account: if you ask for your account to be deleted, you can undo this for 14 days. After that we delete the account data; changes logged in encrypted form become unreadable because the key is destroyed. Encrypted backups are overwritten within at most 35 further days. Records of consents are kept as proof (Art. 7(1) GDPR) in pseudonymised form. Published contributions remain in the research database without your name.

Reading diary and research donation (still switched off)

The personal reading diary and the research donation are built but switched off; the switch in the database (gate tracker) is closed. Sharing donated readings publicly is not built yet. These functions will be switched on only once the data protection officer has reviewed and approved them (gate B.5), independently of registration. The donation and the sharing each get their own switch; they open only in the order reading diary, donation, sharing. Reading data may reveal your religious practice and thus your religious beliefs; they are special categories of personal data (Art. 9 GDPR). There are therefore five separate, explicit consents (Art. 6(1)(a) and Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR), whose full text is shown before you give them:

Store my reading history: the readings you record yourself (date, Bible passages and, if you give it, the translation), for your private reading diary and your private reading statistics. Only you see them. They are stored until you withdraw or delete the readings or your account. Withdrawal deletes the whole reading history at once and ends the four following releases.
Ranking: only your consistency is computed from your reading history and compared with other participants. A ranking is computed only from 20 participants on; the public sees only a distribution without names, and groups of fewer than 5 people are hidden. These data are aggregated, but not anonymous in the legal sense.
Public reading statistics: summary figures with your display name on a public profile page, never your individual reading history. Public profile pages do not exist yet.
Research donation: for each reading only the Bible passage and the calendar week, under a random donor id, without your name, e-mail address, account id, the exact date, your spelling of the reference, the translation, the reading medium and your notes. The copy is made once a week, after the end of the calendar week. The donation stays in the research area. Its purpose is to check the method and the counting rules of LogoStats and to prepare research questions under the research protocol. Only named members of the core team work with donations; every query is logged, without its result. The donated data are pseudonymised, not anonymous, so that you can take the donation back at any time. They appear in no public number, list, statistic or file, including published research results, citable data releases and snapshots. They are stored until you withdraw or delete your account; withdrawal deletes the donated details from the research data at once and ends any public sharing.
Share donated readings publicly (from 18 only): only in addition to the donation, with a consent of its own that is offered only after the donation; the choice "No, research only" is of equal weight. You confirm that you are at least 18 years old. When you should not share: if people around you must not know that you read the Bible, or if it could bring you disadvantage or danger, for example after a change of religion or in a country with religious persecution. For each Bible passage read, one entry with the passage and the calendar week becomes public under "Donated data", only for readings from the week of your consent on. No entry shows your name, your ids or whom it comes from. There is no minimum number per passage; but a calendar week appears only once more than 10 people who shared before that week have read in it. The entries appear only on the continuously updated public pages, never in citable data releases or published snapshots. They are public to everyone, search engines included; search engines and web archives may store versions of the page. The entries are not anonymous: anyone who knows some of your readings and knows that you share can recognise entries as yours, especially while only a few people share, for rarely read passages and by comparing the page before and after a withdrawal or a weekly run. You can withdraw the sharing at any time, also without ending the donation: your entries then disappear from the public pages at once, the public statistics follow within 15 minutes at the latest, and your donation stays in the research area. We cannot retrieve copies that third parties made independently while the entries were public, for example in web archives.

Your own person record and "this is me" (still switched off)

Anyone who appears in the research data can ask with their account for their person record to be shown publicly with their name ("this is me"). This function, too, will be switched on only after the data protection officer's review, separately from the other functions. It needs its own explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) and, as far as special categories are concerned, Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR). Only your name with its public name forms and the approved uses of Bible passages assigned to you become public; all other details of your record, such as description, organisations, occupation, gender, nationality, mother tongue, denomination and year of birth, stay non-public. Before you consent, a preview on your account page under "Privacy" shows you exactly these details. Before publication the project team checks that the record really belongs to you. You can withdraw the consent there at any time with one click; the publication then ends at once. We cannot recall copies that third parties made independently while it was public.

We store details of your own denomination only with a separate explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) and Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR). They are never shown publicly, not even with "this is me", and are used only in analyses whose results are published without reference to you. If you withdraw this consent, the details are hidden at once and deleted from your record within one month.

Reports of content and statements of reasons (still switched off)

Once registration opens, anyone can report content they consider illegal or against the terms of use with "Report content" (Art. 16 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Digital Services Act). We then store the address of the reported content, your explanation, whether it concerns illegal content or the terms of use and whether it concerns the sexual abuse of children, your name and e-mail address, your confirmation that you report in good faith, the interface language and the time. Name and e-mail address are required for illegal content, except for the sexual abuse of children; otherwise they are optional. We do not store your IP address or details of your browser with a report. We send an acknowledgement and our decision to your e-mail address. The person whose content you report does not learn your name from us.

When we hide or remove content or restrict or suspend an account, we send the person concerned a statement of reasons to the e-mail address of their account (Art. 17 of the Regulation): the measure, the facts, the legal provision or the section of the terms of use, that no automated means were used, and how to object. For this we store the decision with the number of the account concerned.

The legal basis is, for reports of illegal content, for the decisions and for the statements of reasons, Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR together with Art. 16 and 17 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065; for reports of breaches of the terms of use, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in a service without abuse). If content suggests a criminal offence that threatens people's life or safety, we pass the information needed to the police (Art. 18 of the Regulation; Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR). Only members of the project team with the role moderator see the reports; every access is logged. The e-mails are sent through Scaleway SAS (section 7). We delete reports and decisions at the end of the second calendar year after the decision.

Your rights: on your account pages you can export your data, withdraw consents and request the erasure of your account; for everything else (section 11) please contact the controller.

Recipients: e-mails (confirmation links, notices, research requests with your consent) are sent through Scaleway SAS as a processor (section 7); hosting and backups as in section 8.

7. E-mails from the website

For resetting a password, for notices of the decision on a role application (role and result, without reasons) and for telling you about a sign-in from a new browser or device (section 6) the website sends e-mails via Scaleway SAS, Paris, France (data centre in the EU, Paris region), as a processor under Art. 28 GDPR. The recipient address and the content of the e-mail are processed; the e-mails are handed to Scaleway through an encrypted interface (HTTPS). Scaleway keeps the sending metadata (sender and recipient address, subject, IP address, timestamps) for one year as its own controller, under a legal obligation and for security (see Scaleway's privacy policy, www.scaleway.com/en/privacy-policy). Operational alerts to the project owner take the same route (section 8). Links for resetting a password are valid for one hour and work only once.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR.

8. Hosting, backups and monitoring

Server: netcup GmbH, Karlsruhe; data centre in Nuremberg, Germany (processing on behalf under Art. 28 GDPR).
Backups: encrypted backup copies (AES-256) at Hetzner Online GmbH, Gunzenhausen; storage location Germany (processing on behalf under Art. 28 GDPR). Backups run daily, in full on Sundays and as the changes on the other days, plus the database's change logs continuously. The last five weekly full backups are kept, i.e. about 35 days; only then have deleted data also disappeared from the backups. So that an erasure is carried out again after a restore, a list of executed erasures and objections is also kept there, containing only pseudonymous check values (no names, no e-mail addresses). Once a month the latest backup is restored on the server as a test, checked and deleted again.
Availability monitoring: an external service (Better Stack) calls the status address /readyz of the website at regular intervals, which only reports whether the website is ready, and notifies the project owner of an outage. The service receives no data about visitors.
Operational alerts: failures of the server's services, such as a backup, are reported by the server to the project owner by e-mail through Scaleway SAS (section 7). The alerts contain technical details such as the service, the time and the error message, where applicable with internal reference numbers of the records concerned, and, when a service fails, the last lines of its log; for the web server these can be lines with shortened IP addresses and requested addresses without query parameters (section 4). The alerts contain no form contents and no passwords.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure and available operation).

The website can be reached only over HTTPS; backups are transferred over an encrypted SSH connection (SFTP).

9. Contact

If you contact us by e-mail or telephone, we process your details to deal with your request. E-mails are stored at Proton AG, Plan-les-Ouates (Geneva), Switzerland (processor under Art. 28 GDPR). The European Commission has found that Switzerland ensures an adequate level of data protection (adequacy decision, Art. 45 GDPR). We delete your details once your request has been dealt with and no statutory retention obligations apply.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; for enquiries about an account, (b).

Suggestion form: with the button "Suggestion" you can send us a mistake or an idea. The form has no contact fields; please do not enter personal data in it. Only the chosen kind (mistake, idea for a new feature, something else), your text, the page you came from (without query parameters), the interface language and the hour of arrival are stored; no IP address, no browser identification, no cookie and no account. To protect against mass submissions, a non-reversible value is derived from your IP address and kept in memory only, to allow at most five submissions per hour; it is discarded as soon as the memory is needed for newer entries or the application restarts. The project team reads the suggestions; they are deleted after 365 days; suggestions with personal data we delete as soon as we notice them. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in hints for improving the website).

10. Research database: details from published sources

Research database and published sources: LogoStats studies scientifically which Bible passages are used in published contexts of communication; the research questions, method and release rules are set out in the research protocol. We record in particular the passage, source, date, context and – as far as the research question at hand requires – the person who made the statement, for instance with name or designation, role and organisation. The details come from published sources (e.g. sermon archives, devotional books, lectionaries, works of historical authors); which ones, with their scope and selection method, is listed under Sources, and every entry cites its source.

We process personal details from published sources only for the scientific research questions described in our research protocol. For each source class, before the processing, we determine a legal basis under Art. 6 GDPR and – where special categories of personal data are concerned – additionally a condition under Art. 9(2) GDPR. Where we do not inform you individually under Art. 14 GDPR, we document for the source class concerned the statutory exemption, the actual circumstances on which it rests and the safeguards in place.

We do not store sermon texts. Personal information is limited to what the research question at hand requires.

The database stores Bible texts only as follows: public-domain, openly licensed or expressly permitted Bible editions that may be shown on the website; copyrighted editions only in an access-restricted internal store that serves the automatic recognition of Bible quotations, is not publicly accessible and is not included in public exports or data releases (it is part of the encrypted backups, section 8); quoted Bible texts from uploaded files without documented permission only as a check value (hash). Of uploaded files, the original is deleted as soon as the import has finished; only a non-public copy is kept, in which protected Bible texts are replaced by their check value. It is not part of the backups.

Bible citations and personal religiosity: that a person cites a Bible passage or appears in a source does not mean that they belong to a particular religion or denomination or hold a particular religious belief. Using a Bible passage is in itself no finding about a person's religious affiliation or personal religiosity. The project derives no personal denomination and no "religiosity score" from Bible citations. Depending on the context, however, the details may allow conclusions about religious beliefs and thus concern special categories of personal data (Art. 9 GDPR). We therefore treat data about living persons with particular restraint.

Living persons: details about living persons are not published by name by default. Persons of whom it is not known whether they are alive are treated as living.

Legal bases: where processing is based on legitimate interests, the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is the scientific study and traceable documentation of the use of biblical texts. For data that may reveal religious beliefs or other special categories of personal data, we additionally need an exception under Art. 9(2) GDPR. This may in particular be explicit consent under Art. 9(2)(a), details manifestly made public by the person concerned under Art. 9(2)(e) or – where the legal requirements are met – scientific research under Art. 9(2)(j) GDPR in conjunction with Section 27 of the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). In detail, by case group:

Deceased persons: the GDPR does not apply to them. Their details are public.
Living persons, ordinary details (e.g. name, role, organisation, date, place): Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. We carry out a documented balancing of interests for this.
Details that may reveal religious beliefs and that the person has made public themselves: in addition Art. 9(2)(e) GDPR. A source does not count as "manifestly made public by the person concerned" merely because it is freely available on the internet. We document whether, and on what grounds, the person concerned made the information available to the public themselves or demonstrably on purpose, for instance in a sermon on their own website or their own channel. That an archive, a church or another third party published a detail, or that it is in an official register, is not enough on its own.
Such details where this is not shown: in addition Art. 9(2)(j) GDPR in conjunction with Section 27 BDSG (scientific research). In plain words: without consent we may process these details only if they are necessary for the research, if the research interest considerably outweighs your interest in the processing not taking place, and if specific safeguards are in place (Section 27(1) BDSG). Features that allow details to be attributed to a person are stored separately and combined only as far as the research requires; as soon as the research purpose allows, we anonymise the details (Section 27(3) BDSG).
If you ask for publication yourself ("this is me", once there are public accounts): your explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) and Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR).
Aggregated statistics: where the research purpose can be achieved without reference to persons, we use and publish aggregated results in which small groups are suppressed.

Which legal basis applies to which group of persons and which processing has been decided by the project owner and recorded in the research protocol. Before details are taken in from a collection, the collection is assessed: the number of living persons and of persons whose status is unclear, the date, the person who assessed it and the legal basis. A collection that has not been assessed takes in nothing. At the assessment of 30 October 2026 no collection held details of living persons or of persons whose status is unclear.

Members of parliament and other elected office holders: for parliamentary speeches we study only the documented public political communication. A use of the Bible in a speech is not taken as evidence of personal religious affiliation or religiosity. Personal publications are reviewed beforehand against the research purpose, the necessity and the rights of the person concerned.

Publication: personal research results about living persons are published only if a documented basis for publication exists. Where Section 27(4) BDSG applies, publication by name takes place only with the consent of the person concerned or if it is indispensable for presenting research findings on contemporary events. Where the research purpose can be achieved without naming anyone, we publish anonymised, pseudonymised or aggregated results.

Internal research is not publication. That we may process details internally for research does not mean that we may publish personal results. We review this separately:

Details about living persons, and about persons of whom it is not known whether they are alive, are not public as a rule. Names and other direct identifiers of non-public living persons appear in no output; codes or roles stand in their place.
Research results relating to living persons or to persons whose status is unclear are not published merely because the underlying source is public or the person holds public office. A publication by name is made only on the basis of valid consent or after a documented individual decision that identifying the person is indispensable for presenting a specific research result about a specific event of contemporary history. The decision documents the legal bases under Art. 6 GDPR and – where special categories of personal data are concerned – Art. 9 GDPR, the less intrusive alternatives that were examined and the opinion of the data protection officer. Such a decision always covers one named publication only and gives the reason of indispensability for each person named; there is no release for a whole source class, members of parliaments included. At present no such decision has been made.
As an additional precaution, without their own consent only public figures come into question for publication. This is a safeguard of the project, not a legal basis.
In public statistics small groups are suppressed, so that individual persons can as far as possible not be recognised.

Purpose: scientific research and statistics on the use of the Bible, also over long periods. Safeguards (Art. 89 GDPR, Section 27 BDSG): pseudonymisation, separate storage of identifying features, access by role only, suppression of small groups.

Origin and source register: we publish the source classes used, their origin, the categories of data processed in them and the legal bases relied on in our source register. Until it is published after its review by the data protection officer, the sources are listed under Sources and the source classes with their legal basis in the research protocol.

Storage period: research data are kept as long as the documented research questions require (Art. 5(1)(e), Art. 89 GDPR). Personal details are erased or anonymised as soon as the legal basis for their source class ends, as soon as the research question is finished and its result published, or as soon as you object. Whether personal identifiers are still needed is also reviewed at least every two years. Special categories of personal data are anonymised or separated from identifying features as soon as the research purpose allows (Section 27(3) BDSG). An erasure at your request normally takes effect within one month (Art. 12(3) GDPR) and has also disappeared from the backups about 35 days later.

Storage locations: on the server in Germany (section 8). Source files that name living persons were removed from the code repository and its entire version history on 28 October 2026; they are kept only in a controlled store on the owner's computers and on the server. No personal research data are transferred to GitHub: the private code repository at GitHub, Inc. (USA) holds only program code, database schemas, synthetic test data and sources without details of living persons; an automatic check on every upload rejects source files that name living persons.

Duty to inform: individual information under Art. 14 GDPR is not omitted across the board because of the research purpose or because a source is publicly available. For each source class we examine and document, before the processing starts, whether informing persons individually is impossible, would involve a disproportionate effort or would seriously impair the research purpose. We take into account in particular the number of persons concerned and whether they can be reached, the age of the data, the effort, the possible effects on the persons concerned and the safeguards in place. Where Art. 14(5)(b) is applied, the information required by law is in any case made available to the public in a suitable way. We do this on this page and in the source register.

Your rights: you can request access, rectification, erasure or restriction and object to processing based on Art. 6(1)(f), where the legal requirements are met. At present we do not invoke any general restriction of your rights as a data subject under Section 27(2) BDSG. For rectification or an objection a message to the controller (section 1) is enough. If you object, we erase your details without undue delay, at the latest within one month.

11. Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18) and data portability (Art. 20). You can withdraw a consent at any time with effect for the future (Art. 7(3)).

Objection (Art. 21 GDPR): you can object to processing based on Art. 6(1)(f), such as the server logs (section 4) or the research database (section 10). For the research database: if you object, we erase your details (section 10).

How to proceed: write to the controller (section 1) and say what it is about, e.g. access, rectification, erasure or objection. If you appear in the research data, the source and your name as it appears there help us. We reply within one month (Art. 12(3) GDPR).

Competent supervisory authority: you can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), in particular with the authority responsible for the controller, the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen, LDI NRW), Kavalleriestraße 2–4, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany, www.ldi.nrw.de.

12. Changes

This statement will be updated when new functions are added (e.g. a personal reading diary, data donations). Such functions will only be switched on once the related privacy notices and consent texts are in place and the data protection officer has reviewed them, each function separately.

Last updated: 3 November 2026