Gloo bills itself as a personal growth platform that aims to "reshape how churches, ministries, and people communicate with one another."
According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, the company intends to empower churches with big data, which is defined as "very massive data sets that may be examined to show patterns, trends, and relationships, especially relating to human behavior and interactions." The idea is to target people in the same manner that Amazon, Google, and Netflix target consumers with goods and services based on their data.
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“We believe this is the right thing to do. And Gloo is committed to doing it the right way,” the company said in a written statement to WSJ.
Gloo users are divided into two categories: free and premium. According to the firm, the average premium user pays $1,500 each year.
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People in crises, according to churches, are the most responsive to their outreach attempts. Gloo uses big data to assist churches in identifying people who may be having marital problems, suffering from depression or anxiety, or struggling with drug addiction, for example.
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Westside Family Church, a nondenominational Christian church near Kansas City, told the Wall Street Journal that it used Gloo to target those with financial troubles and those suffering from the epidemic through web ads.
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“The church is committed to going out at whatever cost to find that one lost sheep that needs help,” Randy Frazee, lead pastor of Westside, said. “There are a lot of people who are in pain and isolated. If you don’t come to church, the church will come to you.”
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According to a survey produced by Gloo for Westside in September, 25% of marriages within a 5-mile radius of the church are on the verge of divorce. Another 26% of people were at danger of becoming addicted to opioids, and 3% of households had worried or depressed members.
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Gloo demonstrated how data might be "co-serving" in marketing materials showcasing how churches may use data.
“Let’s examine the following example to explain this clearly. Analyzing data may reveal that a person is spiritual and has a high propensity for depression. With these insights, they may decide to take part in a small group at church, work with a therapist, and interact weekly with a personal trainer. Each of these Champions play an important role in the growth and development of that individual,” Gloo said.
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When The Christian Post phoned Westside on Monday with inquiries regarding the ethics of this strategy to proselytizing, no one was immediately accessible. Gloo, on the other hand, told the Wall Street Journal that it complies with California and other state privacy regulations, as well as the privacy rules of Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google.
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“We call ourselves a trusted personal growth platform,” Gloo co-founder Scott Beck said. After the WSJ reported on its work, Gloo assured the publication that it was no longer using mental health data in its research, but it also declined to reveal how it determined who had mental health or addiction issues. The corporation also refused to identify where the information came from, claiming confidentiality agreements with third-party data providers as an excuse.
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According to Tal Frankfurt, founder and CEO of Cloud for Good, a consulting firm that works with faith-based organizations and other nonprofits, churches are looking for more information to help them target members more effectively.
“They want to know who you are, they want to predict your capacity to give, your likelihood of dropping out of a program — it’s the same concepts that apply to a bank,” he said.
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According to Sam Neves, an Adventist pastor and official at the church's global headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, they use social media marketing to reach out to vulnerable people in distress. According to Neves, sending out general ads has gotten them more responses than trying to target certain groups.
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