Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Last modified: April 13, 2023

Introduction

At Lakewood Church, Joel Osteen Ministries and Joel Osteen Ministries, Canada, and Joel Osteen Ministries, Australia (the “Church or “Ministry”), we respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy. In this privacy policy, the words “we”, “our” and “us” mean and refer to Lakewood Church, Joel Osteen Ministries, Joel Osteen Ministries, Canada, and Joel Osteen Ministries, Australia.

This policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit any of our family of websites, including,www.M3missions.com; www.lakewoodchurch.com; www.joelosteen.com; www.victoriaosteen.com; www.lisacomes.com; www.paulosteen.com; orwww.iglesialakewood.com and any other website owned or operated by us, (collectively our “Website”) and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting and disclosing that information. This policy applies to information we collect:

  • when you contact us by mail, telephone, e-mail, text, social media or other electronic means.
  • through our mobile applications (the “Application”).
  • when you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services.
  • when you support us through donations or purchase products.
  • when you attend certain of our events.
  • when you otherwise access our products, programs and services or communicate with us.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. By accessing or using this Website, you agree that you have read, understand, and accept this privacy policy.

  • Are Children Allowed to Use our Site?
  • What Information Do We Collect About You through our Website and How Do We Collect It?
  • What Information Do You Provide to Us through our Website?
  • What Information Do We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies?
  • Third-party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
  • What information do We Collect Offline?
  • How Do We Use Your Information?
  • Disclosure of Your Information/Use of Service Providers
  • International Ministry
  • What Choices Do You Have About How We Use and Disclose Your Information?
  • How Do You Access and Correct Your Information?
  • Data Security
  • Changes to Our Privacy Policy
  • Additional Information for Mobile Users
  • Inquiries and Complaints

Are Children Allowed to Use our Site?

Our Website and Application are not intended for children under 18 years of age. If you are under 18, you may use the Website and Application only with the involvement of a parent or guardian. No one under age 18 may provide any personal information to us or on the Website or Application. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18 on our Website and Application. If you are under 18, do not use or register, make any purchases, or use any of the interactive or public comment features on this Website or the Application, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 on our Website or Application without verification of parental or guardian consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us privacy@lakewoodchurch.com or in Canada at privacycanada@joelosteen.com.  

What Information Do We Collect About You through our Website and How Do We Collect It?

We collect several types of information from and about users of our Website and Application, including information:

  • By which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number or any other information the Website collects that is defined as personal or personally identifiable information under an applicable law, and any other identifier by which you may be contacted online or offline (“personal information”);
  • That is about you such as behavioral tracking information;
  • About your usage on our Website, including shopping cart details; and/or
  • Aggregate information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website and usage details.

We collect this information:

  • Directly from you when you provide it to us.
  • Automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.
  • From ministry affiliates and third parties service providers.

What Information Do You Provide to Us?

The information we collect on or through our Website and Application may include:

  • Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website and Application. This includes information provided at the time of registering on our Website or Application, registering to participate in a Ministry activity, requesting any of our subscriptions, posting material, and making a financial transaction, and may include when you enter a contest or report a problem with our Website.
  • Records and copies of your correspondence with us, including e-mail addresses.
  • Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
  • Details of transactions you carry out through our Website or Application and of the fulfillment of your orders. You may be required to provide financial information before placing an order on our Website.
  • Your search queries on the Website or Application.
  • Information you provide to be posted on public areas of the Website or Application, or transmitted to other users of the Website or Application (collectively “User Contributions”). These might be contributions such as Prayer Requests, Shouts of Praise, or Testimonials.

What Information Do We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies?

As you navigate through and interact with our Website or Application, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including:

  • Details of your visits to our Website or Application, including traffic data, location data, logs and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
  • Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system and browser type.
  • Information about the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device unique device ID, its IP address, operating system, and internet browser, and information the way you use the Application.

We also may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking), including but not limited to Google Analytics. Such technologies utilize unique analytic advertising features and implements cookie data collection which is then transferred to third parties. All information as collected and shared by Google Analytics regarding your visits to this Site is governed by Google’s Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from tracking your site activity by following the steps outlined at: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/181881?hl=en.

The information we collect automatically is statistical data and does not include personal information, but we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Website and Application and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

  • Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
  • Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website or Application according to your individual interests.
  • Speed up your searches.
  • Recognize you when you return to our Website or Application.

Occasionally a user’s behavior within our family of websites will trigger an automated response or series of responses that is designed to help the user further engage with our ministry or ministries.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

  • Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
  • Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our e-mails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages, opened an e-mail, and for other related website statistics like recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity.

Third-party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

Some content or applications on the Website may be served by third-parties, including ministry affiliates, content providers and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based or other targeted content.

We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. However these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) on the NAI’s website.

What Information Do We Collect Offline?

When you contact us by mail, telephone, or other means to support us through donations, attend events, access our products, programs or services, or otherwise communicate with us, we collect:

  • information by which you may be contacted, including mailing address, email address and telephone number;
  • financial information provided in connection with your donations and purchases; and
  • details of your donations and purchase transactions and other records of your activities and involvement with us.

How Do We Use Your Information?

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

  • to carry forward and manage our Ministry activities, which may include sending you materials about our programs or marketing materials.
  • to contact you by mail, telephone, email, text or other available communication channels for the purpose of processing, facilitating or confirming your donations and purchases, to inform you about our mission, our activities, products and services and provide you with further opportunities to support and partner with us;
  • to present our Website, Application, and its contents to you;
  • to provide you with information, products or services that you request from us and notices about your account;
  • to fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it, in any other way we may describe when you provide it, and for any other purposes with your consent;
  • to notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide though it;
  • to allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website, and other ministry email and mail outreach;
  • with your consent, we may also use your information to contact you about third-parties’ ministry related goods and services that may be of interest to you.; and
  • meeting any legal or regulatory requirements;.

Disclosure of Your Information

We will never sell your personal information to anyone.

We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

As a general rule, all information about our supporters and others who access our programs, products and services is held by us in strict confidence and, except in limited circumstances, is not disclosed to anyone without the consent of the individual to which it pertains, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

Each of the Joel Osteen Ministry affiliates (including Joel Osteen Ministries, Canada, and Joel Osteen Ministries, Australia) offers its programs, products and services in affiliation with Joel Osteen Ministries and Lakewood Church. Many of the affiliates’ administrative functions and certain other services are performed on their behalf by Joel Osteen Ministries and Lakewood Church and accordingly personal information collected by such affiliates will be disclosed and transferred to Joel Osteen Ministries and Lakewood Church in the United States for these purposes.

Notice Regarding Location of Records and Service Providers:

Electronic records for Joel Osteen Ministries, and Joel Osteen Ministries, Canada and their international affiliates, are transferred to and maintained in the United States by Lakewood Church. Lakewood Church uses suppliers and service providers in the United States to perform services on its behalf. When sharing information with third-party service providers we have measures in place to assure us that your information will be protected and handled in accordance with this policy. While located in the United States, your personal information will be subject to local laws, which may be less protective of your personal information than Canadian law, and it may be accessible to law enforcement and national security authorities. If you have questions about the collection, use, disclosure or storage of personal information by service providers please contact our Privacy Officer privacy@lakewoodchurch.com or in Canada privacycanada@joelosteen.com.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

  • to our subsidiaries and affiliates as described below,
  • to contractors, service providers and other third parties we use to support our ministry.
  • to fulfill the purpose for which you provide it,
  • for any other purpose with your consent,
  • to comply with any court order, law or legal process, including responding to any government or regulatory request,
  • to enforce or apply our terms of use, as permitted by law,
  • if we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Lakewood Church, Joel Osteen Ministries, our customers or others, as permitted by law;
  • as otherwise permitted by law.

International Ministry

We offer our programs and services in a common mission with our international affiliates within the Joel Osteen Ministries group, including Joel Osteen Ministries, Canada and Joel Osteen Ministries, Australia. Personal information of users of our Website outside of Canada and the United States may, unless you request otherwise, be shared with our international affiliates if their activities are more closely matched to your needs and requirements.

What Choices Do You Have About How We Use and Disclose Your Information?

You do have choices about how we use and disclose your information. You may withdraw your consent at any time, and will no longer process or retain your information, subject to any applicable contractual or legal requirements. If you do not want your information used or shared in accordance with this notice:

  • You can choose not to provide your information, even though it might be needed to make a donation, purchase or transaction, or to take advantage of some of our Website’s features.
  • You may opt-out of all information collecting by the Application by easily uninstalling the Application.
  • If you do not want to receive e-mail or other electronic communication from us you can:
    • Click the “unsubscribe” or “take me off your mailing list” link at the bottom of any of our emails.
    • Sign in to your account and update your email subscriptions by navigating to the “Update Profile” page and selecting the “Email Subscriptions“ section on the Website; or
    • Call Customer Service at 1-800-278-0520 and request to be removed from our email lists.
  • If you do not want to receive mail and telephone contact from us, you can:
    • Sign in to your account and update your mail preferences by navigating to the “My Account” page and selecting the “Account Information“ section on the Website; or
    • Call Customer Service at 1-800-278-0520 and request to be removed from our mailing list.
    • Email our Privacy Officer at privacy@lakewoodchurch.com or in Canada at privacycanada@joelosteen.com.

How Do You Access and Correct Your Information?

If you would like to request that we review, update, correct, or change your personal information, you may do so by:

  • Signing in to your account and update your information by navigating to the “Update Profile” page and selecting the “Account Information” section on the Website; or
  • Sending us an email at privacy@lakewoodchurch.com or in Canada at privacycanada@joelosteen.com.

To close your account, please make your request by emailing us privacy@lakewoodchurch.com or in Canada at privacycanada@joelosteen.com.

Please note: we cannot delete your personal information except by also deleting your user account. We may not accommodate a request to delete or change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

In addition, if you delete your User Contributions from the Website, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other Website users. Proper access and use of information provided on the Website, including User Contributions, is governed by our terms of use.

For any other requests to access or review your information, please contact privacy@lakewoodchurch.com or in Canada at privacycanada@joelosteen.com

Data Security and Retention

We only retain your information for as long as it is needed to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, or as otherwise required by law (for example, to meet retention requirements under tax law).

We have implemented measures to help secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration and disclosure. All information you provide to us is stored either on our secure servers behind firewalls or cloud storage provided by a third party hosting company. Any payment transactions will be encrypted during transition.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given or you have chosen a password for access to certain parts of our Website or Application, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. And, we urge you to be careful about giving out private or any personal information in public areas of the Website like Pray Together, comments sections or message boards. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Website.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Website or Application. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

This policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of this Website and Application after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page.

If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you by e-mail to the e-mail address specified in your account and/or through a notice on the Website or Application home page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable e-mail address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this privacy policy to check for any changes.

Additional Information for Mobile Users

Our Application does not pull contact information, friends’ lists, contacts’ lists or check-ins.

Our Application does collect precise information about the location of your mobile device if you allow the Application to gather such information. We use your location information to provide requested location services, to connect you to local broadcast listings and/or to help you find a local church in your area. If you choose not to allow the Application to gather such information, you have the option to manually enter a zip/postal code. We also collect crash analytics data.

Inquiries and Complaints

To ask questions or comment about this Privacy Policy and our privacy practices, contact our Customer Service Manager at customerservice@lakewoodchurch.com. Our Privacy Officer is accountable for the privacy practices of Lakewood Church; Joel Osteen Ministries; and our affiliates in our global ministry. If you have a complaint about our collection, use, management, or disclosure of personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@lakewoodchurch.com, or

Privacy Officer
Joel Osteen Ministries
3700 Southwest Freeway
Houston, Texas
77027 USA

In Canada

Joel Osteen Ministries, Canada’s Privacy Officer is accountable for the privacy practices of Joel Osteen Ministries, Canada. If you have a question or a complaint about our collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Offer at privacycanada@joelosteen.com or by mail at:

Joel Osteen Ministries, Canada
PO Box 9000
STN Terminal
Vancouver, BC V6B 4E2

If you would like to make a complaint about the privacy of your data to a regulatory body, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at (toll-free) 1-800-282-1376.