Something You Ought to Know about Hallow

I’m not saying you shouldn’t use the Hallow app.

That’s not what this post is about. It’s just about making people aware so they can be savvy consumers, especially in an election year.

I am a firm believer that consumers shouldn’t be shamed for using a product they find useful, even if that product is problematic in some ways. I don’t believe that being a purist about everything you buy and use can possibly fix the problems that are systemic in our society. I shop at Walmart and on Amazon. I sell my books on Amazon. I try not to buy Nestle but sometimes I do anyway. Everyone knows that I constantly have a tab open on Twitter/X and my X follower base are the vast majority of my audience, even though that means I create content for the terrible Elon Musk for free. We all get by any way we can. If using Hallow helps your prayer life, I’m not trying to take it away. You do you.

But I also believe in being informed about where the products we use come from, who profits from them, and what drawbacks there may be to using them. I’m glad the food I buy and the clothes I wear have the ingredients and the fibers clearly labeled, and everything we buy should be that clear. If we know what we’re getting into, we can make good choices.

That’s why I’m going to tell you what my friend Dawn Eden Goldstein mentioned about Hallow.

Her whole thread on her discoveries is public over on Twitter so you can check her work. Dawn is a journalist, a theologian and a canonist. She’s not a weirdo like me; she’s a very orthodox Catholic, she loves the Pope, and she’s a much better investigator than I could ever be.

Dawn points out the obvious, first of all: Hallow showcases Jim Caviezel who is into Q Anon and Russell Brand who stands accused of four cases of sexual assault. That would be a deal breaker for me right there, personally. I don’t want them leading me in prayer. She then provides the receipts about the investors in the Hallow App, which further alarmed me. She says that Hallow’s donors include J. D. Vance and also Vance’s puppet master, Peter Thiel. Thiel is an extreme libertarian and a transhumanist who’s given millions to research into creepy experimental anti-aging technologies, including some involving the blood of young people. And, more relevantly, Thiel is the chairman of Palantir Technologies, a massive data analysis company worth billions and billions. And Hallow’s privacy policy allows it to share your data with their investors.

Have you got that? Peter Thiel, the chairman of Palantir Technologies, who arranged for his protege to be the vice presidential candidate this year, is an investor in Hallow, and so is Vance himself. And Hallow reserves the right to share your data with investors.

Dawn found  that Hallow keeps information on your name, email, IP address, phone number,  and even your prayer journal entries. Maybe even which prayers you click on and which you don’t. And it seems that there’s no reason that information wouldn’t end up the property of a man deeply invested in the United States presidential election, who has a vested interest in marketing to devout Catholics– as well as one Catholic vice presidential candidate himself.

Or maybe they’d never do that. I’m not saying I know their intentions. Maybe they were just being generous.

For the record, I would deeply alarmed by this if I found someone who was up to his elbows in the Harris campaign, or the Kennedy campaign or any other political campaign had invested in a prayer app that could take your data. Our kingdom is not of this world. But part of good stewardship involves being a good citizen, which includes voting. That’s one of our duties under the fourth commandment. And Catholics are a coveted voting block who have been jerked around for our vote by politicians for as long as we’ve been American citizens. Make sure you’re voting based on good vetted facts and not propaganda being marketed to you– and it is being marketed to you, whether you’re using a certain app or not.  Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

And, as I’ve already said: if your information being used in that way is all right with you, I don’t judge you. Thiel is also one of the founders of PayPal, after all, and I live on gratuities for my work sent through PayPal and Venmo (a penny, if you please). I’m sure somebody equally unsavory can read it every time one of you write “thank you so much for writing about spiritual abuse!” in the comment box when tipping me five dollars.  What risks you take are up to you, but be smart.

Let’s all try to make it a more just world.