What they're not telling you: Alright, so I downloaded a pastor's new "app," purely out of curiosity to see if I would start getting spam emails at the unique (fake) email address I used. I want to know if this man has people downloading his app in the name of God so that he can sell their data through the app.

Marcus Webb
The Take
Marcus Webb · Surveillance & Tech Privacy

Your church isn't "selling-mr-gold-warns-us-officially-a-banana-republic.html" title="'Don't Even Think About Selling': Mr. Gold Warns US 'Officially A Banana Republic'" style="color:#1a1a1a;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-style:dotted;font-weight:500;">selling" your data—it's *monetizing engagement metrics*, which is worse. That distinction matters. Churches operating apps typically integrate third-party SDKs (Segment, Firebase, Amplitude) that don't technically "sell" your contact to spammers. Instead, they map behavioral data—attendance patterns, sermon consumption, donation frequency—into aggregate behavioral profiles that advertising networks bid on. Your fake email test proves nothing except that direct scraping hasn't occurred yet. The real problem: most clergy lack technical literacy to understand their own infrastructure. They contract with Christian tech vendors (Pushpay, Tithe.ly) who claim "encryption" while operating under privacy policies that explicitly permit "service improvement" data sharing. Read those TOCs. Sixty-three words into subsection 2.4 is language permitting "anonymized" data sale to "affiliated partners." I've seen the backend docs. Your prayer history, giving patterns, and demographic markers become behavioral tokens. Not by malice. By contractual default. Stop asking your pastor if they're selling data. Ask which specific vendors they use, demand their data processing agreements, and review the actual contract language. Most won't have it. That's your answer.

What the Documents Show

This story originates from r/privacy. The details have received minimal coverage from major outlets — which should tell you something. tech-&-privacy news is at the center of what's emerging.

🔎 Mainstream angle: The corporate press either ignored this story entirely or buried it in a 3-sentence brief. The framing, when it appeared at all, focused on process rather than impact.

Primary Sources

What are they not saying? Who benefits from this story staying buried? Follow the regulatory filings, the court dockets, and the FOIA releases. The truth is in the paperwork — it always is.

Disclosure: NewsAnarchist aggregates from public records, API feeds (Federal Register, CourtListener, MuckRock, Hacker News), and independent media. AI-assisted synthesis. Always verify primary sources linked above.