Lineage by Cura · Hellocura (Pty) Ltd
Privacy policy
Version 1.1 – 10 November 2026
Lineage is a church app run by Hellocura (Pty) Ltd. This policy explains what personal information Lineage holds, why, where it is kept, how long, and what you can ask us to do with it, as the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) requires.
1. Who we are
Back to contents| Company | Hellocura (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2026/164195/07 |
|---|---|
| Product | Lineage by Cura (the Lineage app and website) |
| Information Officer | Nevana Phalynn Pillay, Managing Director, registered with the Information Regulator on 3 November 2026 |
| hello | |
| Physical address | 47 707 Road, Montford, Chatsworth, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, 4092 |
| Postal address | 47 707 Road, Montford, Chatsworth, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, 4092 |
| Phone | 065 861 6164 |
Write to the Information Officer at the email above for any question or request about your personal information.
2. Who is responsible for your information
Back to contentsYour church is responsible for its members’ information; Hellocura looks after it on the church’s behalf. POPIA calls the church the responsible party and Hellocura its operator.
| Information | Responsible party | Hellocura’s role |
|---|---|---|
| Members, children, consent forms, attendance, giving records, rosters, prayer requests and everything else a church records in Lineage | Your church | Operator: stores and processes it only on the church’s instructions, under a written operator agreement |
| A pastor’s application to bring a church onto Lineage | Hellocura | Responsible party |
| Messages sent to Lineage (Contact Lineage, emails), and the Lineage website | Hellocura | Responsible party |
| Sign-in details and app security logs | Hellocura | Responsible party, to keep the app secure |
Each church has its own Information Officer, usually the pastor. Questions about what your church records about you go to your church first; Hellocura helps the church answer them.
One church can never see another church’s information. Churches on Lineage are kept apart in the database itself, not only on screen.
3. What information Lineage holds
Back to contentsLineage holds only what a church needs to run its ministry and keep children safe. Your church decides which of these it uses.
| Kind of information | Examples | Whose |
|---|---|---|
| Identity and contact | Name, email, phone, date of birth, membership dates | Members, visitors, parents |
| Church life | Departments, roles, rosters, attendance, fellowship registers, Bible study progress | Members |
| Children’s records | Room, check-in and pickup, lesson attendance and marks, parent consent forms, named collectors | Children and their parents |
| Safeguarding | Clearance checks (Child Protection Register Part B, Sex Offenders Register), incident reports | Leaders, children |
| Health notes a parent chooses to give | Allergies or medical notes on a paper or digital form | Children |
| Giving | Designated-fund contributions, s18A tax receipts | Givers |
| Private notes | Bible study answers and journal notes | Readable only by the member who wrote them |
| Prayer requests and care | Prayer requests, pastoral follow-up notes | Members |
| Applications | A pastor’s details and church details when asking to join Lineage | Pastors |
| Technical | Sign-in codes, security and audit logs | Everyone who signs in |
Lineage does not hold card or bank account numbers, and never holds or moves church money. Lineage does not store song lyrics, and does not use members’ information for advertising.
4. Why it is used, and the legal grounds
Back to contentsInformation is used only to run church life and keep people safe. It is never sold, and never used for marketing.
| Purpose | Legal ground under POPIA |
|---|---|
| Running membership, rosters, services, groups and Bible study | The church’s legitimate interest in running its own ministry for its members (s11(1)(f)); for religious information, s28(1) – a religious body processing information about its own members |
| Children’s records by name | A parent’s or guardian’s consent (s35(1)(a)); without a signed “Yes”, a child is checked in by tag number only |
| Members aged 18 and over in youth groups | Their own consent |
| Clearance checks and incident reports | Legal duties to protect children (Children’s Act 38 of 2005) and the church’s legitimate interest in safeguarding |
| Giving records and tax receipts | Legal duty to keep tax records (Income Tax Act, s18A receipts kept 5 years) |
| Health notes on a child’s form | The parent’s consent, given on the form |
| Visitors and welcome cards | The visitor’s own consent (a visitor does not yet belong to the church) |
| Pastor applications | The pastor’s consent, ticked on the application |
| Sign-in and security logs | Hellocura’s legitimate interest in keeping the app secure |
Giving information is voluntary. If a parent does not consent, their child can still attend: the child is checked in by tag number and not recorded by name.
5. Children’s information
Back to contentsA child under 18 is recorded by name only when a current parent or guardian has said Yes on the Next Gen consent form (NG-C1).
If any current guardian says No, or withdraws, the child is not recorded by name until that same guardian signs a new Yes.
Without a Yes, a child still takes part: they are checked in by tag number, and nothing about them is stored by name.
A signed consent form can never be changed afterwards. Changing your mind means signing a new form; the old one is kept as the record.
Young people aged 18 to 20 in a youth group give their own consent.
Consent follows the child’s age, not the room they are in.
Only leaders who hold both a current Child Protection Register (Part B) check and a Sex Offenders Register check can see children’s records.
Pickup is proved by a matching tag pair. A child is collected only by a guardian or an adult a guardian has named in writing.
Families can use the family page (lessons and memory verses at home) without anything about the child being saved.
6. Where it is stored
Back to contentsLineage’s database is in Ireland, in the European Union, so your information is transferred outside South Africa.
| Service | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | The database and sign-in | Ireland (EU, region eu-west-1) |
| Vercel | Runs the app and website; pages pass through it | Dublin, Ireland (EU), with a worldwide network for page delivery; Vercel is a company in the USA |
| Brevo | Sends sign-in codes and reminder emails | France (EU) |
| Cloudflare R2 | Encrypted nightly backup copies | European Union (EU jurisdiction) |
POPIA section 72 allows this because each service is bound by data protection law at least as strong as POPIA (the EU’s GDPR) or by a written agreement with Hellocura. Backups are encrypted before they leave the database. Each backup is kept for 30 days, cannot be erased early, and is then deleted automatically.
7. Who it is shared with
Back to contentsYour information is shared only with the services in section 6, which run Lineage for us and may not use it for anything else.
Never sold, and never used for advertising.
Never shared between churches. A message refusing to add someone never says which church they belong to.
Inside your church, people see only what their role needs: for example, adults’ contact details are seen by the pastor, second in charge and church admin, and department heads see only their own team.
The authorities: only when the law requires it, for example a church’s duty to report abuse of a child (Children’s Act s110).
8. How long it is kept
Back to contentsLineage removes information automatically every night once its keeping period ends; the church’s pastor sees a list 7 days before, and a count-only record afterwards.
| Information | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Children’s records (NG-C1) | While the child attends, plus 12 months |
| Children’s named marks after consent is withdrawn | Removed within 30 days |
| Adults who have left the church | 12 months, then names removed (counts kept) |
| Fellowship registers | 2 years, then names removed (head count kept) |
| Private Bible study notes | Until the member deletes them; on leaving, the member can download them, then they are deleted after 30 days |
| Giving records and s18A receipts | 5 years (tax law) |
| Ordinary incident reports (injury, illness) | Until the child turns 21, or 3 years after the incident if later |
| Safeguarding incident reports | Not removed automatically (claims about abuse of a child do not expire) |
| Audit log | 5 years (except entries about incidents) |
| Pastor applications not approved | Removed within 30 days; unanswered ones after 90 days |
| Encrypted backup copies | 30 days, then deleted automatically; a backup cannot be erased early |
| Visitor cards | 6 months, unless the visitor joins the church |
9. How it is protected
Back to contentsAccess rules are enforced inside the database itself, so a screen can never show someone more than their role allows.
Sign-in uses a one-time code sent by email; there are no passwords to steal.
Every change to sensitive records (children, consent, clearances, incidents) is written to an audit log.
Information is encrypted while it travels and in backups; backups are copied off-site nightly.
People who are not signed in cannot read any table.
If personal information is lost or accessed by someone who should not have it, Hellocura tells the affected church and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible (POPIA s22), and the church tells the people affected.
10. Your rights
Back to contentsYou can ask what information is held about you, and have it corrected or deleted; you get an answer within 30 days.
See what is held about you (POPIA s23).
Correct anything wrong, or delete what is no longer needed (s24).
Object to your information being used, where the law allows (s11(3)).
Withdraw consent at any time, for example a parent withdrawing NG-C1. This does not undo what was done before.
Download your own Bible study notes when you leave.
How to ask: for anything your church records, ask your church’s Information Officer (usually the pastor). For a pastor application, or if your church cannot help, write to Hellocura’s Information Officer at hello
11. Complaints
Back to contentsIf you are unhappy with how your information is handled, tell us first; you can also complain to the Information Regulator at any time.
Online: Information Regulator eServices portal (how to lodge a complaint)
Email: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
Phone: 010 023 5200, toll-free 0800 017 160
Address: Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191
12. Changes to this policy
Back to contentsThis is version 1.1, published 10 November 2026. When it changes, the new version and its date appear here, and churches are told by email before it takes effect. Lineage records which version each pastor accepted at sign-up.