Privacy policy

Who we are

Zikra lil-Alameen is a free Quran app made by an independent developer in Egypt. Write to [email protected] about anything on this page.

What stays on your device

Your settings (text sizes, colours, reciter and translation), your search history, the Quran text, tafsir and audio you download, your athkar counts, the reminders the phone app sets, and everything in the children's app, including the child's name. None of this is sent to us unless a section below says so.

What reaches our server when you use the app

• A random device number the app makes when first opened. It is not linked to your name, phone number or advertising ID.
• What you choose to save with it: bookmarks, notes, your reading position and the days you read (for the reading calendar).
• An approximate place and time: when your device last used these features, and the city and country worked out from your internet address, with the position rounded to about 11 km. Your internet address is not stored with it (the visit log below keeps it for 30 days). We use this only to count readers by city; a city is shown, to the developer only, when at least five readers share it.

If you create an account

• Your email address, your password (stored only in a scrambled form we cannot read back), and a name if you add one.
• The country you pick when signing up, if you pick one, and the country your connection comes from.
• The settings that sync between your devices, such as your reciter, translation and prayer-time city.
• If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your email address from them, and from Google your name if your account has none yet. From Apple we never ask for your name.

Prayer times and reminders

Prayer times, the Qibla and the Hijri date are calculated on your device. Your location is asked for only when you press "Use my location", and it is rounded to about 5 km.

• If you are signed in, your chosen prayer city syncs to your other devices through our server.
• If you turn on notifications in a web browser, your city, rounded position, time zone and reminder choices are sent to our server so the notification arrives on time. This is not linked to your account; turning notifications off deletes it.
• In the phone app, reminders are set on the phone itself and nothing is sent.

Messages to the developer

When you use "Contact us", your message is stored with your device or account so we can reply. To read and answer messages in many languages, the message text and our replies are translated by Anthropic's Claude AI service. The developer can also ask the same service to summarise messages, and to summarise how one reader uses the app; for that it receives that reader's messages and usage figures (days and ayahs read, bookmarks and notes counted, settings, reciter and last reading position), never the email address.

Visits

Each time the app is opened (once per browser session), it notes the visit so we know how many people use it and where from: the time, which app and page, the site that led you here (its name only), your browser, the kind of device and its language, the city and country worked out from your internet address, a random visit number kept in your browser, and your internet address. The address is erased after 30 days and the visit after 13 months. None of it is linked to your account, email or device number, and it is seen only by the developer.

Cloudflare, which delivers the website, also counts page views for us without cookies.

Crash reports

If a screen fails, the app sends a crash report: the error, the part of the code it happened in, the screen's address, the app version, and your browser and system names. It carries a separate random number, not your device number, and never your account, email or internet address.

Services that help run the app

Render (United States)

Runs our server and database.

Cloudflare

Delivers the app and the recitation audio, counts page views without cookies, and forwards email to our address.

Anthropic (Claude)

Translates messages between you and the developer, and writes summaries of messages and of a reader's use of the app for the developer.

Resend

Sends password-reset emails.

Google, Apple

Sign-in, only if you choose it.

Your browser's push service

Delivers web notifications, only if you turn them on.

Sharing an ayah opens WhatsApp, X or another app only when you tap it; what happens there is that service's own policy.

How long we keep it, and how to erase it

• Without an account: Settings > Account > "Erase my data from the server" removes this device's bookmarks, notes, reading history and messages from our server.
• With an account: Settings > Account > "Delete account" removes your account, every device copy, your bookmarks, notes, reading history, settings and messages.
• Automatically: a device not used for 18 months is removed with everything saved under it; expired sign-ins and password-reset links are removed after 30 days; crash-report numbers after 30 days, and a kind of crash not seen for a year; the internet address of a visit after 30 days and the visit itself after 13 months.
• Turning off web notifications deletes what they stored. Clearing the app's data, or uninstalling it, removes what is on your device.

Children

The main app is for a general audience. The children's app keeps everything on the device and sends nothing personal to us.

Your choices and rights

You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, or ask a question, at [email protected]. We answer within 30 days.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes, and an important change is announced in the app.