Privacy policy

HidayahHub is an Islamic companion app (the "app") with an information website at hidayahhub.com (the "site"). The app and the site are operated by HidayahHub (hidayahhub.com) ("we", "us"). You can reach us about anything in this policy at salam@hidayahhub.com.

• You can use the app without an account.
• What you record in the app is stored encrypted on your own phone.
• Backup to an account is optional, is off by default, and only happens if you sign in and agree to it.
• You can export your data and delete it at any time.
• There are no ads and no trackers in the app or on this site, and we do not sell personal data.

When you use the app without signing in, what you create stays on your device. This includes your prayer records, your Qaza (make-up prayer) count and history, Quran bookmarks, notes, reading position and reading goals, Tasbeeh counts, your record of fasts, your saved duas, and your settings such as city, alert choices, language and theme.

The app keeps these records in an encrypted database on your phone. As a guest, they are not sent to us, and we cannot see them or recover them for you. If you uninstall the app or lose the device, guest data is lost unless you exported it first.

You may create an account so that your records can be backed up and restored on another phone. This is never required. You sign in with your email address and a one-time code we send to it. There is no password.

If you create an account, we process:

• Account details: your email address and the technical information needed to keep you signed in.
• Backed-up records: only if you agree to backup, a copy of your prayer records, Qaza counts and history, Tasbeeh totals and Quran bookmarks, so they can be restored to your devices. You can withdraw this agreement at any time, and backup then stops.

We use this information only to provide sign-in, backup and restore, and to keep accounts secure. Access by our own staff is limited: the administration tools show a masked form of your email address, and the full address is opened only for a specific support reason, which is recorded.

Most of the app works on your phone alone. These features involve our server:

• Prayer times: to fetch the times for your area the app may send the centre of an area of about five kilometres around you, never your exact position, and no account detail.
• Optional announcements: if you switch on notifications from us, the app registers a notification address for your phone, with the app version, language, time zone and the topics you chose. You can switch topics off, or all of them, at any time.
• Community chat: if you join the chat, your display name and the messages you post are stored on our server and are visible to other members. Messages can be reported and are moderated. Do not post personal information there.
• Quran recitation: audio is played from the recitation provider's servers, so your phone connects to them directly while you listen.
• Optional purchases and donations: if these are offered and you use them, payment is handled by the app store or the payment provider. We receive a confirmation and what was bought or given, never your card details.

Some features ask for a permission on your phone. Each one is optional, and you can change your choice in your device settings.

• Notifications and alarms: used for the prayer alerts you choose, which are set on your own phone and need no connection, and for the optional announcements described above. We do not send advertising.
• Approximate location: if you allow it, used to work out prayer times for your area and the Qibla direction. The app asks only for approximate location, never precise or background location. You can pick a city by hand instead.
• Compass and motion sensors: used by the Qibla compass, on your phone only.

• We do not show advertising.
• We do not include analytics or tracking tools in the app or on this site.
• We do not sell or rent personal data.
• We do not build profiles of your religious practice. Your prayer and Qaza records exist to serve you, not us.

Account and backup data is kept on our own server, which runs in a data centre in Mumbai, India. If you live elsewhere, using an account means your data is sent to and stored in India. Data travels over an encrypted connection and the server's storage is encrypted.

We rely on a small number of service providers:

• Amazon Web Services: the data centre our server runs in.
• Google Firebase Cloud Messaging: delivers the optional announcements to your phone.
• Cloudflare: directs traffic to our domain and runs the check, when you sign in, that a person and not a program is asking for a code.
• An email delivery service: sends the sign-in codes to your email address.

These providers handle data only as needed to do that job. The app stores, and any payment provider you choose to use, have their own privacy policies.

This site is a set of static pages. It has no login, no forms that store data, no analytics, no trackers and no cookies.

If you use the light and dark theme switch, your choice is saved in your own browser's local storage so that the site remembers it. It is not sent to us.

Like any website, our server keeps standard technical logs (such as IP address, time and page requested) for security and reliability. They are kept for a limited time and are not used to identify visitors.

Export: you can export your data to a file from inside the app, whether it is held on your device or in your account.

Delete: you can delete your account from inside the app. The account and the data backed up with it are removed from our live system when you confirm. Copies held in routine backups are overwritten within 30 days. A record that a deletion took place is kept, without your email address or your prayer data. The steps are on the delete your account page.

Data held only on your device is removed by clearing the app's data or uninstalling it. If you cannot reach the app, write to salam@hidayahhub.com and we will help.

• Guest data stays on your device until you remove it.
• Account and backup data is kept for as long as your account exists and is deleted when you delete the account.
• Messages you send us by email are kept for as long as needed to answer you and to keep a record of the request.
• Technical and security logs are kept for a limited time and then deleted.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, export, restrict or delete your personal data, to object to its use, to withdraw an agreement you gave, and to complain to a data protection authority. The export and delete tools in the app are the quickest way to use most of these rights, and you can always contact us at salam@hidayahhub.com.

We use personal data on these grounds: your agreement, for the account, the backup and the optional notifications and location; and our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure and working. Records of prayer can show a person's religious belief, so we store them on our server only when you have clearly agreed to backup, and you can withdraw that at any time.

HidayahHub has no age limit and is meant for the whole family. As a guest, the app can be used without giving any personal information. An account needs an email address, so an account for a child should be created by, or with the permission of, a parent or guardian. If you believe a child has made an account without that permission, write to salam@hidayahhub.com and we will delete it.

If this policy changes, the new version will be published on this page with the date it was updated. Significant changes will also be announced in the app.

Questions about privacy: salam@hidayahhub.com. See also the privacy first overview and the terms.