Ummah Guide Privacy Policy
Formerly Muslims Essentials
App Overview
Ummah Guide is an Islamic companion app that includes Prayer Times, Athan reminders, Qibla, Quran reading/audio, Word-by-Word and Tafsir views, Halal Scanner, Tasbih, Asma ul Husna, Adhkar, and Zakat tools.
The app is designed to work with minimal personal data and without mandatory account registration.
- Prayer Times and Qibla use location or manual city/location input.
- Halal Scanner supports barcode lookup, OCR ingredient reading, and manual ingredient checks.
- Quran supports online data and offline downloads for selected resources.
- Zakat calculator performs calculations on-device.
Data Controller and Contact
For privacy-law purposes, the data controller is the app publisher/developer of Ummah Guide as listed on the app store page.
For privacy requests, contact the support channel listed on the same app store listing. Please include your platform (Android/iOS), app version, and a clear description of your request.
If you are in the EEA/UK/California and want to exercise legal rights, use the support contact and title your message: Privacy Request.
Data Stored Locally on Your Device
To provide app functionality, we store certain settings and feature data locally on your device (for example in local preferences and app files):
Prayer and location settings
- Prayer calculation settings, juristic method, offsets, and display preferences.
- Manual location, last known location, saved location profiles, and region override.
- Notification toggles for prayers and reminder features.
Quran settings and offline files
- Selected reciter, translation language, repeat/speed preferences, and last read page/position.
- Downloaded translation files and offline mushaf page images (if you download them).
Halal Scanner and OCR history
- Scan history records, verdicts, analyzed text, notes/flags, timestamps.
- Local image file paths for ingredient scans where saved by the feature.
Tasbih and Zakat preferences
- Tasbih counters/presets and target preferences.
- Zakat calculator preferences (for example currency, nisab mode, auto/manual price mode).
We do not require a user account to use core features, and most core feature data is retained locally on your device.
Permissions Explained in Detail
Ummah Guide requests only permissions needed for specific features. You can deny or revoke permissions in device settings.
Location permission (optional)
Android: ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
iOS: NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription, NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription
- Used for Prayer Times accuracy and Qibla direction.
- Used for regional service selection when auto region detection is enabled.
- You can use manual location entry in supported flows.
Camera permission (optional)
Android: CAMERA
iOS: NSCameraUsageDescription
- Used for barcode scanning and ingredient label OCR.
Photo library permission (optional on iOS)
iOS: NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription, NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription
- Used when you choose to pick or export images in supported scanner flows.
Notification permission (optional)
Android: POST_NOTIFICATIONS
iOS: system notification permission prompt
- Used for prayer reminders, daily verse notifications, and optional content update notifications.
Vibration and network state
Android: VIBRATE, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE
- VIBRATE is used for haptic feedback and notification vibration behavior.
- ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE is used to improve network-aware behavior.
Internet Access
Android: INTERNET permission is required for online features. If you use only offline features, internet access is reduced accordingly.
Internet access is used for:
- Online Quran resources (text, translation mappings, audio and page/image resources).
- Halal barcode lookups in OpenFoodFacts regional databases.
- Country/region auto-detection and geolocation fallback services.
- Gold/silver and currency rates for auto-pricing in Zakat calculator.
- Remote update configuration checks.
- Optional push notification delivery setup and topic subscription.
Notification Permission
Notifications are optional and can be controlled both in-app and in device settings.
- Local notifications: prayer reminders and daily verse reminders are scheduled on device.
- Push notifications (optional): if enabled, the app may subscribe to content update topics through Firebase Cloud Messaging.
- If permission is denied, notification features may be unavailable or limited.
Third-Party Services (Full Transparency)
Depending on the feature you use, Ummah Guide connects to third-party services. These services process requests under their own policies.
1) OpenFoodFacts (regional)
- Purpose: product/barcode and ingredient lookup for Halal Scanner.
- Typical data sent: scanned barcode and product lookup requests; ingredient text queries where applicable.
- Policy: OpenFoodFacts Privacy Policy
2) Firebase Remote Config and Firebase Cloud Messaging
- Purpose: update messaging/configuration and optional push notifications.
- Typical data sent: app version/build metadata; push delivery token when push is enabled.
- Policy: Firebase Privacy and Security
3) Quran data services
- Purpose: Quran content and resources.
- Used services include AlQuran Cloud APIs and Quran Foundation APIs (via configured proxy endpoint in app settings/code).
- An image proxy endpoint may also be used for specific Quran image hosts for compatibility.
4) Location/geocoding services
- Purpose: location and country detection fallback, and place lookups used by location features.
- Includes services such as BigDataCloud reverse geocoding and IP-based fallback providers (for example ipapi/ipinfo), depending on availability.
5) Zakat price and exchange rate services
- Purpose: automatic gold/silver price and currency conversion rates.
- Services may include providers such as gold-api, GoldPricez, FloatRates, and Fawaz Ahmed currency endpoints.
We do not sell user data to advertisers or data brokers.
Children's Privacy (COPPA Compliance)
Ummah Guide is designed for general audiences and families, including younger users under parental guidance.
- We do not require account sign-up for core use.
- We do not intentionally collect personal contact details from children via in-app account forms.
- Parents/guardians can manage permissions and usage from device settings.
Data Retention and Deletion
Retention is primarily local-device based:
- Local settings and history remain until changed, cleared, or app data is deleted.
- You can clear feature data in-app where available (for example scan history).
- Uninstalling the app or clearing app storage removes local data from your device.
- Third-party services may retain request logs under their own policies.
Your Rights Under Privacy Laws
Depending on your jurisdiction (including GDPR/EEA, UK GDPR, and CCPA/CPRA), you may have rights related to personal data.
GDPR / UK GDPR
- Possible rights include access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, and data portability where applicable.
- Because core data is primarily local on your device, many actions can be completed directly by you (edit/reset/clear/uninstall).
- Where data is processed by third-party providers (for example push delivery metadata), requests may require verification and/or redirection to the provider.
- Legal bases used by the app can include: consent (for optional permissions), performance of a service you requested (feature operation), and legitimate interests (app reliability/security and compatibility updates).
CCPA / CPRA (California)
- You may have rights to know, access, delete, and correct personal information, and to limit certain use where applicable.
- We do not sell personal information for money and we do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising in the app.
- Categories that may be processed by third parties during feature use can include limited identifiers (for example push token), internet/network activity (API request metadata), and approximate location/country signals for regional services.
How to make a rights request
- Contact the official support channel shown on the app store listing.
- State your jurisdiction and request type (access/delete/correction/objection).
- Include enough details for us to understand which feature/provider your request is about.
We aim to respond within applicable legal timelines, subject to verification and legal exceptions.
Security Measures
- Local-first storage approach for many settings and histories.
- Use of secure transport for online services where supported.
- No mandatory in-app password/account database for core usage.
- Minimal permission model based on feature use.
- Ability for users to revoke permissions and clear local data.
- Feature-level fallback behavior when permissions are denied.
- No ad SDKs or ad profiling flows in the current app implementation.
No mobile app can guarantee absolute security. Please protect your device with a screen lock, OS updates, and trusted app sources.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this policy when app features, legal obligations, or third-party service usage changes.
- The "Last updated" date at the top will be revised when updates are made.
- Material changes may be communicated in app update notes, in-app notices, and/or store listing updates.
- Continued use of the app after an update indicates acceptance of the revised policy, where legally allowed.
Contact
For privacy questions, please use the official support channel listed on the app store page where you installed Ummah Guide.
If your store listing includes an email or website contact form, that is the preferred privacy contact point for this policy.