Scripture Reader Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 13, 2026

In short

Scripture Reader is a free Discord app with two parts: a voice bot that reads the Bible aloud in voice channels, and the study Activity, a shared Bible that people in a voice channel open together. Any server can add it: a server's managers choose to add the bot and the study. You can also add it to your own Discord account and read on your own in any server, even one that hasn't added it; nothing is posted to or kept for that server. It is run by Matt, one person who publishes as BilbroSwagginz; it is not run by a company or a church.

• Ages. Scripture Reader is for people aged 13 and up, the same minimum age Discord sets, and it is not directed at anyone younger. Typing in the study is switched on only in a few servers Matt chooses, so nothing typed is stored anywhere else.
• Kept for each server. The voice bot keeps three settings chosen by the server's managers. The study keeps the server's ID, study rooms and the group's studies, with what the group shares, and deletes a study 12 months after its last session.
• Kept for each person. The voice bot keeps nothing about you. The study keeps your Discord user ID, name and avatar, settings, highlights, bookmark, takeaways and reading progress, for 30 days to 12 months after your last visit. It also keeps a usage record, never of what you read. Your "Just me" highlights, bookmark, takeaways and reading progress go with your Discord account to every server.
• Deleting. In the study, open Settings, then Your data, then Delete my data, which deletes your data in every server. Removing the bot from a server deletes that server's data: the bot's at once, the study's 30 days later, its usage record when 12 months old. What goes with your account stays. Or ask Matt; requests are handled within 30 days.
• Reporting a problem. In the study, open Settings, then Report a problem. The report names the server and the reason, never you.
• Outages. The voice bot runs on a computer in Matt's home. When it is down, readings stop and the shared Bible stays open.
• Support. Questions and problem reports: message bilbroswagginz on Discord. You can also email menoachcoach@gmail.com.
• The Bible. The Bible text is shown as published, with its words unchanged.

The voice bot on its own

Scripture Reader is a Discord bot, run by BilbroSwagginz, that reads the Bible aloud in voice channels. Use of the bot is governed by the Scripture Reader Terms of Service. Everything else we run is covered by our main Privacy Policy.

What the bot stores

For each server, the bot saves three settings, chosen by that server's managers:

• the default volume;
• the Reader role, if a manager has picked one;
• whether continuous play is on by default.

Nothing else about servers or users is stored.

What it never stores

• Message content.
• User IDs.
• Anyone's voice. The bot joins voice channels deafened, so it never receives or records audio from users.

What it uses while running

To answer commands, the bot uses the commands you send, your display name (shown on the queue and the now-playing card) and who is in its voice channel. This is held in memory only, and it is gone when the reading session ends or the bot restarts.

Logs

The computer that runs the bot keeps short rotating logs, at most 30 MB in total, to fix problems. They hold server IDs, channel IDs and command names. They hold no message content and no user IDs.

Deleting your server's data

Remove the bot from the server, or have a server manager run /settings reset. Either one deletes the server's stored settings at once. In a server where Matt has blocked Scripture Reader, the bot doesn't answer /settings reset, so remove the bot instead. Backup copies of the settings file, when made, are deleted after 14 days.

Children

Scripture Reader is used through Discord, so Discord's age requirements apply to everyone who uses it. The bot collects nothing beyond what this page describes.

Credits

Scripture: Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. Text file: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Unless /about in your server names another recording, the audio is read by Barry Hays and dedicated to the public domain (CC0 1.0), and its verse timings also come from the Free Use Bible API. A recording named in /about is not covered by that dedication; its credit is the one /about shows, and its verse timings are made by Scripture Reader. Please do not record or share it.

• BSB audio (CC0 1.0): bereanbible.com/audio and the CC0 1.0 dedication
• BSB text (public domain): berean.bible/terms.htm and berean.bible/licensing.htm
• Free Use Bible API data: the project README, helloao.org/terms.html and bible.helloao.org/docs

Changes to this policy

If what the bot stores changes, this page changes with it. The date above shows the latest version.

Contact

Questions, deletion requests and problem reports: message bilbroswagginz on Discord, or email menoachcoach@gmail.com.

The study Activity

The study Activity is the shared Bible you open from the Activities menu (the rocket) in a voice channel. It runs on a separate server from the voice bot.

A server's managers choose to add Scripture Reader to their server, which brings the voice bot and the shared study. You can also add Scripture Reader to your own Discord account. Then you can open the study in any server, even one that hasn't added it, and read on your own there: the Bible, its notes, the older commentaries and search, with your own highlights and bookmark, and you can listen to the Bible read aloud on your own device, alone or in step with others in the call (below). A study room, raised hands and the voice bot reading aloud need the server to add Scripture Reader. In a server that hasn't added it:

• Nothing is posted to the server, and nothing is kept for it apart from its ID in the usage record (below): no study room, no study and no group highlights.
• What is kept is your own, as below: your Discord user ID, display name and avatar, your settings, your "Just me" highlights, your bookmark and the usage record of your visits (below).
• To check whether you are in one of that server's voice channels, the study's web server asks the voice bot, which answers from what Discord shows it and keeps nothing. If the server adds Scripture Reader later and you join a voice channel, you join that channel's study.
• Discord itself may show others in the channel that you opened the Activity, as it does for any Activity.

Listening on your own: whenever you read on your own, in any server, you can play the Bible read aloud on your own device: the Berean Standard Bible, read by Barry Hays, a recording its publisher dedicated to the public domain. It is not offered in a study room, where the voice bot reads to the group.

• The recording comes through the study's web server. The first time anyone plays a chapter, the server fetches that chapter from the publisher's host (audio.bible.helloao.org, or openbible.com), checks it, and keeps a copy for the next person. The publisher's host sees the study's web server, never you.
• Nothing about what you play is kept: not which chapters, not when, not whether you listened. The usage record (below) keeps only when you had the study open. The address your device uses for a chapter holds a random code that names nobody and stops working within a few hours. Until then the study's web server keeps, in memory only, which sign-in the code belongs to, so only you can use it.

Listening together: in a server that hasn't added Scripture Reader, people who open the study together in one call can listen in step. Each device plays the recording, and the study's web server keeps everyone's players at the same place. Anyone there can play, pause or move it, and the others see who did.

• While the group lasts, the study's web server keeps in memory only who is in it (the names you signed in with) and where the reading is. It is forgotten when the last person leaves, or when the server restarts.
• Nothing about it is stored for you or for the server beyond the usage record of your visit (below), which doesn't show that you listened, and nothing is posted to the server.

What it stores, and for how long:

• Your Discord user ID, display name and avatar, so others in your study see who highlighted a verse or raised a hand. Removed 30 days after your last visit unless you still have a highlight, a bookmark or a study you own, and in any case 12 months after your last visit. Removing it also removes your settings, highlights, bookmark and reading progress, and takes your name off anything the group keeps.
• Your settings (text size, theme, whether new highlights start as just for you or for the group, and the like), kept as long as your name is (above).
• Your highlights and your bookmark. Highlights you share with the group stay with the study where you shared them, and only people in that study see them, for as long as the study exists or until your name is removed (above). A study is deleted 12 months after its last session, archived or not. Highlights marked "Just me" and your bookmark (My place) are kept with your Discord account, not with a server: you see them in every study of every server you use and when you read alone, and they stay if a study is deleted or a server removes the bot, until you delete your data or your name is removed (above).
• Your reading progress: which chapters, or which verses of them, the voice bot read aloud while you had the study open in a voice channel, and when, so Read so far can show what you have heard. It is kept with your Discord account, not with a server: you see it in every server and when you read alone, and it stays if a study is deleted or a server removes the bot, until you delete your data or your name is removed (above). On its own it doesn't keep your name past 30 days (above). Chapters read before reading progress began are counted only where the study's records already showed you were there.
• Studies: the group's place, which passages were read, parked questions (the verse and who raised it, for up to 90 days), studies you own, cards you showed everyone and recaps you posted (marked with your account until you delete your data or your name is removed), and when you last joined each study (to show "You missed").
• Raised hands and the group's place, for up to 7 hours, so an update to the server doesn't drop them.
• Which study rooms you joined, for up to 21 days, so your group can keep studying if the voice bot is offline.
• Each study room's voice channel: its ID, and its name from the voice bot, to label the room, until the room has no study left and nobody has used it for 12 months.

What you type, in servers where typing is switched on:

• A note with a raised hand. While your hand is up, the note is kept in memory only. If a leader parks your hand, the note is saved with it, for up to 90 days.
• Questions, for up to 90 days. If you ask anonymously, your name is hidden from everyone in the study, leaders included, but the app keeps your account with the question so you can delete it, and Matt, who runs the app, can see who wrote it. If you let a question into the recap, it stays, without your name, in a recap a leader posted to Discord, even after you delete it or your data, or Matt deletes it after a report.
• Prayer requests, for the 7, 14, 30 or 60 days you pick. They are never in a backup copy.
• Takeaways, in your Journal. They are kept with your Discord account, not with a server: you see them in your Journal in every server where you open the study, and they stay if their study is deleted or a server removes the bot, until you remove them, delete your data or your name is removed (above). If you post a takeaway card, the voice bot posts it with your name to the voice channel's chat, as a normal Discord message, until you remove the takeaway, delete your data or your name is removed (above). A card the voice bot could not confirm, or can no longer reach, stays until a server moderator deletes it.

Deleting your data, or the removal of your name (above), also deletes everything you typed and takes down the takeaway cards you posted. A leader can hide a typed item; a hidden item is deleted 30 days later unless the study's owner, or someone with the Reader role or Manage Server, shows it again.

In servers where detours, study pins and Read together are switched on:

• Study pins, with who set each, for as long as the study exists. Your name comes off a pin when you delete your data or your name is removed (above). A question pin is a question, kept and removed as questions are (above).
• Read together: who opened it and who claimed each part, kept only while it is open; when it ends, the names are removed from it. Whether you are up for reading or just listening is kept in memory only, and shown only to the study's owner, the Reader role and server managers.
• Detours: the verses the group went to, with no names. Who started each detour, who suggested one and who pressed +1 are kept in memory only.
• Whether a leader turned on Pause at pins, and who, with the room's live state, for up to 7 hours.

In servers where the map, scheduled sessions, Compare and Words are switched on:

• Scheduled sessions: when a leader schedules the next session, the study keeps its time, passage and voice channel and who scheduled it, for as long as the study exists. Their name comes off it when they delete their data or their name is removed (above).
• The voice bot creates each scheduled session as an event in the server's Discord Events list. The event names nobody (the voice bot is its creator). It shows the study's name, the passage and the time to anyone who can see that voice channel, and it stays, also after a deletion, until Discord ends or cancels it or a server manager deletes it.
• The map, Compare and Words show only Bible data and store nothing.

Reports: anyone can report a typed item. Matt then sees the item, who wrote it, the server and the reason, never who reported it, and can delete the item and stop its author typing in that server for 30 days. The app keeps who reported an item, only so it stays hidden for them, and deletes that with the item or with their data.

What it does not store: your voice, what you listen to, or who pressed "I'm lost" (the app remembers that for 3 minutes, only to count each person once).

What the voice bot shares with it: while anyone has the study open in a voice channel, the voice bot tells the study's web server who is in that channel (Discord user IDs, server nicknames, avatars, and whether each person can control or move the reader or has the Reader role or Manage Server), so the study can check who belongs in it. The study's web server keeps this in memory only and saves only the people who open the study themselves. For every server that uses the voice bot, the voice bot also tells the study's web server what it is reading there and where (the voice and text channels, the voice channel's name, the passage and the next few readings), so a study opened in that server can follow it. This is kept in memory only too, apart from the name of a voice channel where someone opens the study, which is saved with that room (above). The voice bot also tells the study's web server which chapters it can only read as a whole and, for a detour, who started it, in memory only. The voice bot's card in the voice channel's chat names the person whose request started each reading or detour; for the parts of Read together that the reader reads, that is the leader who opened it, or else a study leader in the voice channel (the study's owner, someone with the Reader role, a server manager, or whoever started the reader's session). The card is a normal Discord message.

Who sees it: highlights marked "Just me", your bookmark, your settings, "You missed", your reading progress, your takeaways and your Journal are visible only to you. Hand-up notes, and questions and prayer requests marked for leaders, are visible only to you and to the study's owner, the Reader role and server managers. A prayer request for the group is visible only to the people the voice bot confirmed in the room when it was added, and to those leaders. A takeaway card you post is visible to anyone who can read that voice channel's chat, including people who were never in the study. A reported item, with its author, is visible to Matt. A scheduled session's study name, passage and time show in the server's Events list to anyone who can see that voice channel, with no names. The usage record (below) is visible only to Matt. Everything else is visible only to people in the same voice channel's study. Recaps a leader posts to a Discord channel contain no names. Recaps go to the voice channel's own chat unless a leader picks another channel. Matt, who runs the app, can see stored data when fixing a problem or handling a report or a deletion request.

Deleting your data: open the Activity, then Settings, Your data, Delete my data. It works anywhere you can open the study, and deletes your data from every server. If you can't open it (for example after leaving the server), or you'd rather ask, message bilbroswagginz on Discord from your own account. You can also email menoachcoach@gmail.com; Matt will then ask you to confirm from your Discord account, so nobody can delete someone else's data. After you delete your data, a one-way fingerprint of your ID is kept for 8 weeks on the study's web server, with a daily copy on Matt's home server when copies are made there, only so that restoring a backup can't bring your data back. If a report led to a mute, the mute (your ID, the server and its end date) stays until it ends, at most 30 days, even if you delete your data. A one-way fingerprint of your ID, with the server and the end date, is also kept for 8 weeks, only so that restoring a backup can't lift the mute early. If you post a takeaway card, a one-way fingerprint of your ID with the card's Discord message IDs is kept for 8 weeks, only so that restoring a backup can't stop Delete my data from removing the card. These fingerprints are kept in the same deletion log, with the same daily copy on Matt's home server when copies are made there (if the study's web server loses its disk, a deletion or a mute made in its last day may have to be repeated, and a card posted that day may have to be deleted by a server moderator). Requests are handled within 30 days. If the bot is removed from a server, that server's study data is deleted 30 days later, apart from its usage record (below). If the voice bot or the study's web server was offline when it happened, it is deleted within 37 days of both being back online. Your "Just me" highlights, your bookmark, your takeaways and your reading progress are not that server's data, so they stay with you until you delete your data or your name is removed (above).

Where it runs and copies: the study's web server runs on Railway, in the United States. A copy of its database is made every night on Railway (7 kept) and, when copies are made there, every week on Matt's own server at his home (8 kept). Anything deleted, by you or by these time limits, is gone from every copy within 8 weeks; the usage record and its copy are described below. Railway keeps the server's logs, which contain no user IDs, names or typed text.

Usage record: the study keeps its own record of how it is used, to see how many people use it and to fix launches that fail.

• What it keeps: your Discord user ID; the server's ID; when you opened the study and for how long; whether you were in a study room (and whether the group's reading was playing) or reading on your own; the kind of device (computer, phone or browser); and whether a launch failed, and at which step. In a study room it also keeps the room's voice channel ID. A launch that failed is kept without your ID or the server's.
• What it never keeps: what you read or listened to (no book, chapter or verse, and no translation or recording), what you typed, your name or your avatar.
• How long: the study's web server keeps each entry for up to 12 months. It is not in the study's backup copies. Matt's own computer keeps a copy for his reports; that copy has no time limit of its own.
• Who sees it: only Matt, in his reports on his own computer. It is not shared or sold, and nobody else's analytics, trackers or scripts are involved.
• Deleting: Delete my data, or a request to Matt, deletes your usage record on the study's web server at once, and from Matt's copy the next time his reports read the study's record. So that his copy can find it, a one-way fingerprint of your ID is kept with the usage record for up to 12 months. If your other study data is removed sooner (30 days to 12 months after your last visit), your usage record still stays until it is 12 months old. If the bot is removed from a server, or a server never added it, that server's ID stays in the usage record until the entries are 12 months old.

The Bible text the study shows is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is public domain.

Sharing: no data is sold or shared. There are no ads, and no analytics, trackers or scripts from anyone else; the study keeps only its own usage record (above). Discord's own handling of your data is covered by Discord's Privacy Policy.