Privacy Policy

Last updated: 13 September 2026

This policy covers nihov.org and directory.nihov.org, the Worldwide Directory of Coptic Orthodox churches, monasteries, dioceses and clergy. Both sites are operated by the same people and are covered by this one document.

What we collect

Information you choose to send us

  • The feedback form. If you use it, the name, email address, subject and message you type are sent to us by email. They are not stored in the site's database.
  • Corrections to directory records. If you submit a correction to a church or clergy record, what you submit is stored and placed in a queue for a moderator to review. Please note that these records are a public directory: anything you add to a record is intended for publication.
  • Moderator accounts. If you have an account, we store the username and password you signed up with.

Information collected automatically

  • Server logs. Our web server records the usual request information — your IP address, the page requested, the time, and your browser's user-agent string.
  • A session cookie. The site sets a PHPSESSID cookie. It keeps a signed-in moderator signed in, and holds the contents of a partly-filled form between pages. It is not used to track you across other websites.

Cookies and third parties

These sites use Google services, which set their own cookies:

  • Google AdSense serves the advertising on these pages. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies — including the DoubleClick cookie — enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to these sites and other sites on the internet. Serving an ad involves contacting Google domains other than the one in your address bar, including doubleclick.net and Google's ad-quality domains.
  • Google Analytics tells us which pages are read and roughly where readers are, in aggregate. We do not use it to identify individual visitors.
  • Google Maps loads on individual church pages to draw the map.
  • Google Hosted Libraries serves a JavaScript library used by the search box.

Google's own description of how it uses information from sites that use its services is at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Advertising choices

You can control or switch off personalised advertising without leaving the site unusable:

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you will be asked for your consent choices before personalised advertising cookies are used. That prompt is provided by Google's certified consent management platform, and you can change your answer later through the same prompt.

What we do not do

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share the contents of the feedback form with anyone outside the people who run these sites.

Children

These sites are a reference directory for a general audience. They are not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Your choices

About information you sent us — a feedback message, or a correction you submitted — ask through the feedback form and we will tell you what we hold, correct it, or delete it.

About a directory entry for a church or a member of clergy, which is published reference information rather than data about a visitor to the site, there are two different answers and they are worth separating:

  • We will always correct an entry that is wrong. You do not need to give a reason, and you do not need to be the person listed.
  • Requests to remove an entry altogether we consider individually. We do not refuse them as a matter of policy, and we do not promise in advance to grant them. Ask through the feedback form, say which entry you mean and who you are, and we will give you an answer.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the date at the top of the page changes with it.

Contact

Use the feedback form. It reaches the people who run both sites.