Profile of Gloo, which has ~245M profiles on Americans and is used by 30K+ churches, or 10% of US churches, to target ad campaigns at people facing a crisis
Khadeeja Safdar / Wall Street Journal : Tweets: @amywebb , @anthony , @hypervisible , @benjaminpdixon , @brianstelter , @uhactually , @evilgalprods , @zoebritton , @tonyajoriley , @bethblackshire , @dannydougherty , @verambergen , @ryanburge , @tpcarney , @patiencehaggin , and @antoniogm Tweets: Amy Webb / @amywebb : Struggling with grief? Too much debt? On the verge of divorce?Churches are using big data to cultivate new members, who are vulnerable to hyper-targeted digital ads and marketing. Depending on your perspective this @WSJ story is horrible/heartening https://www.wsj.com/... Anthony DeRosa / @anthony : Churches are using personal data and online activities to predict marriages in trouble, people suffering from depression or anxiety to reach those most likely to be open to their messages and join their congregations https://www.wsj.com/... Surveillance Killjoy / @hypervisible : Company claims it “can predict the characteristics of people who might have a marriage in trouble, be suffering from depression or anxiety, or have a propensity for a drug addiction, based on data analysis.” Over 30k churches have joined the platform. https://www.wsj.com/... Benjamin Dixon / @benjaminpdixon : Jesus, comet or aliens...ion even care which comes first at this point. Cause these devils done learned the algorithm https://twitter.com/... Brian Stelter / @brianstelter : On Page One of today's @wsj: “Struggling with grief? Too much debt? On the verge of divorce? Churches are ready to deliver a digital intervention, with help from Big Data.” What a story by @khadeeja_safdar https://www.wsj.com/... Glengarry Bob Ross w / @uhactually : Anyone want to join me in making the Catholic version of this? With funding from the people who made Hallow! https://twitter.com/... Mere Smith / @evilgalprods : “a surgical method of evangelization” everything about this screams horrific overstep https://twitter.com/... @zoebritton : That's not a church. That's a cult. https://twitter.com/... Tonya Riley / @tonyajoriley : “Exactly what data is being collected, and how it's being used, remains opaque to most consumers. There are no comprehensive federal laws regarding data privacy, though some states are pushing their own.” https://www.wsj.com/... Elizabeth Blackshire / @bethblackshire : Struggling with grief? On the verge of divorce? Churches are ready to deliver a digital intervention, with help from Big Data. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ Danny Dougherty / @dannydougherty : I think there are a lot worse ways that data miners could target folks in crisis, but this also doesn't feel like the witnessing I've known https://www.wsj.com/... Vera Bergengruen / @verambergen : “Gloo said it was started with a moral imperative to give churches access to the same kind of data and technology used by major corporations.” “If you don't come to church, the church will come to you.” Fascinating piece by @khadeeja_safdar https://www.wsj.com/... Ryan Burge / @ryanburge : What's funny about this tweet is that a key theory in our field is that religion is a marketplace. They compete for consumers just like Nike courts new shoe buyers. This leads churches to innovate as a means to gain market share. When a religion gets complacent, it declines. https://twitter.com/... Tim Carney / @tpcarney : Christianity is really one of the worst business propositions ever. https://twitter.com/... Patience / @patiencehaggin : Churches are turning to targeted ads too. Fascinating dive by @khadeeja_safdar https://www.wsj.com/... @antoniogm : These Protestants do religion like others do business, and business like others do religion. https://www.wsj.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The pandemic pushed congregations online — faith leaders adopted streaming services and virtual counseling — and platforms followed them there, with Facebook building a prayers feature and dedicated faith-group outreach. Gloo is the infrastructure layer beneath that shift: rather than serving existing members, it sells churches the ability to find new ones, holding profiles on roughly 245M Americans.
The WSJ profile lands amid a broader pattern of granular religious data collection — New Republic's reporting on Bless Every Home, an app that maps neighbors by religion and ethnicity shows the same instinct at street level. What distinguishes Gloo is scale and trigger: 10% of US churches targeting people precisely when a crisis makes them receptive.
First-order effects
- More than 30,000 US churches gain ad-targeting capability previously reserved for commercial marketers, aimed at individuals flagged for grief, debt, or divorce who never opted into religious profiling.
Second-order effects
- Adjacent faith-tech products like Bless Every Home validate and extend the model, pushing religious data collection from church databases down to neighborhood-level mapping of individuals' beliefs.
Third-order effects
- If crisis-triggered proselytizing normalizes, US privacy debates will have to grapple with targeting based on life crises — a category most regulatory frameworks still treat purely as a commercial-marketing question — just as scrutiny of growth-pressured digital health firms like BetterHelp and Cerebral shows how vulnerable audiences attract regulatory attention.
The trend: Faith outreach is becoming a data business, with congregations buying the same profiling and hyper-targeting infrastructure that commercial advertisers use.