Ummah Guide
Privacy Policy
Last Updated: December 7, 2025
Effective Date: December 7, 2025
Formerly known as "Muslims Essentials"
Effective Date: December 7, 2025
Formerly known as "Muslims Essentials"
✔ Your Privacy is Sacred
Ummah Guide (formerly Muslims Essentials) is built with your privacy as a core principle. We believe in transparency and keeping your data completely secure. This app is:
- 100% Free - No hidden costs, no premium features
- Ad-Free - No advertisements or tracking pixels
- No Data Collection - We don't collect, store, or sell your information
- Open Source Minded - Built with transparency and community in mind
📱 App Overview
Ummah Guide is a comprehensive Islamic companion app designed to help Muslims practice their faith with ease. The app provides essential tools for daily Islamic practice without compromising your privacy.
Core Features:
- Prayer Times (Salah): Accurate prayer time calculations based on your location with customizable calculation methods (Muslim World League, ISNA, Egyptian, Umm al-Qura, Karachi, Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore, Moonsighting Committee) and Asr juristic methods (Standard Shafi'i and Hanafi). Includes automatic regional detection, manual time adjustments, and prayer notifications with customizable Adhan sounds
- Qibla Compass: Real-time compass showing the direction to the Kaaba in Makkah using device sensors and GPS, with visual indicators and bearing information
- Digital Tasbih Counter: Multi-counter dhikr tracker with customizable presets, target goals, sound/vibration feedback, and history. Includes default counters for common adhkar (Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar, La ilaha illallah, Astaghfirullah) and support for custom dhikr with Arabic text
- Zakat Calculator: Comprehensive calculator supporting 90+ global currencies, multiple asset types (cash, savings, gold, silver, business assets, stocks, cryptocurrency, rental income, loans), automatic live gold/silver price fetching, manual price entry mode, Nisab calculation by gold or silver standard, and hawl (one lunar year) tracking for each asset
- Halal Food Scanner: Multi-method ingredient checker with barcode scanning, photo OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for ingredient labels, manual text entry, regional product database integration (OpenFoodFacts with support for 20+ countries), ingredient analysis against halal/haram database, E-number identification, scan history with search and filtering
- Ramadan Mode: Special features for the holy month including Suhoor/Iftar times, Iftar countdown timer, and dedicated notifications for Ramadan-specific times
- Multi-language Support: Currently supports English, Arabic, and Bengali with more languages planned
🔒 Information We DO NOT Collect
We want to be crystal clear about what we don't do. Ummah Guide respects your privacy completely:
- No Personal Information: We don't collect your name, email, phone number, age, gender, or any personally identifiable information
- No Location Tracking: We don't track, store, or transmit your location history or GPS coordinates to any server
- No Financial Data: Zakat calculations happen entirely on your device - we never see your wealth, assets, or financial information
- No Usage Analytics: We don't track which features you use, how often you use them, or when you use the app
- No Behavioral Tracking: We don't monitor your prayer habits, dhikr counts, or any religious practices
- No Third-Party Sharing: We never share, sell, or rent any data to advertisers, data brokers, or third parties
- No Account Required: You don't need to create an account, sign in, or provide credentials
- No Cloud Backup: Your data stays only on your device - we don't back it up to cloud servers
- No Device Fingerprinting: We don't create unique identifiers to track your device
- No Social Media Integration: We don't connect to Facebook, Google, or any social networks
- No Advertising IDs: We don't use or access your advertising identifier
📊 Data Stored Locally on Your Device
To provide functionality, some information is stored locally on your device using Android's secure SharedPreferences system. This data never leaves your phone and is completely under your control:
1. Prayer Times Settings
- Selected calculation method (Muslim World League, ISNA, Egyptian, Umm al-Qura, Karachi, Dubai, Moonsighting Committee, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore)
- Asr juristic method (Standard Shafi'i or Hanafi)
- High latitude rule preference (Middle of Night, Seventh of Night, Twilight Angle)
- Automatic regional detection preference
- Manual location coordinates (if you choose not to use GPS)
- City, country name, and timezone information (for display purposes)
- Prayer time manual adjustments (offset minutes for each prayer)
- Notification preferences (enabled/disabled for each prayer: Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha)
- Ramadan mode notifications (Suhoor, Iftar, and reminder alerts)
- Notification sound preferences and Adhan audio settings
- Prayer time display format (12-hour or 24-hour format)
- Last calculated prayer times cache (to reduce API calls)
2. Tasbih Counter Data
- Current count for each dhikr type (Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar, La ilaha illallah, Astaghfirullah)
- Custom tasbih presets you create (name, Arabic text, target count)
- Target numbers and goals for each counter
- Counter names, descriptions, and Arabic text
- Active counter selection
- Sound and vibration feedback preferences
- Note: Counter data persists until you manually reset it or uninstall the app
3. Zakat Calculator Preferences
- Preferred display currency (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.)
- Nisab calculation method (gold-based or silver-based)
- Price mode preference (automatic or manual)
- Manual gold/silver prices (if you enter them)
- IMPORTANT: Asset amounts, wealth values, and calculation results are NEVER saved
- Privacy by Design: Each Zakat calculation is ephemeral - cleared immediately after viewing
4. Qibla Compass Settings
- Compass calibration status
- Display preferences (degrees, direction names)
- Last known direction (for faster loading)
5. Halal Scanner History and Preferences
- Previously scanned barcodes with timestamps (for quick re-checking and history)
- Scan results including product name, verdict (Halal/Haram/Doubtful), and flagged ingredients
- Analyzed ingredients text from scans
- Captured images from ingredient label photos (stored locally, never uploaded)
- Regional product database preference (for OpenFoodFacts lookups)
- Scan history statistics (total scans, Halal count, Haram count, Doubtful count)
- Custom ingredient database additions (if you mark specific ingredients)
- Privacy Note: All scan data stays on your device. Photos are never uploaded to any server
- Your Control: You can clear scan history anytime in the History tab
6. App Preferences and Settings
- Terms and conditions acceptance timestamp
- Privacy policy acknowledgment and first-time warnings shown status
- Language selection (English, Arabic, Bengali)
- Regional database preference for product lookups (user-selected or auto-detected country)
- Ramadan mode toggle (enabled/disabled)
- First-time setup completion status
- App version information (for database migrations and feature updates)
- Update notification preferences
- Firebase Remote Config: Minimum app version requirements for update prompts (no personal data sent to Firebase)
⚠️ Critical Privacy Notice: ALL data mentioned above is stored exclusively on YOUR device using Android's secure local storage. We have ZERO access to this information. If you uninstall the app or clear app data, this information will be permanently lost. We cannot recover it because we never had it.
📍 Permissions Explained in Detail
The app may request specific permissions to function properly. You have complete control over granting or denying these permissions:
📍 Location Permission (Optional)
Android Permission: ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
- Why Needed: To determine your geographical coordinates for accurate prayer time calculations, Qibla direction, and regional product database selection for Halal Scanner
- When Used:
- When you open Prayer Times or Qibla Compass features
- When enabling automatic regional detection for Halal Scanner database
- When using auto-detect for prayer calculation method selection
- How It's Used: GPS coordinates are used for local calculations only - never transmitted to our servers
- Timezone Detection: Location is used to automatically detect your timezone for accurate prayer times (critical for travelers)
- Regional Auto-Detection: Location helps select the best regional product database for Halal Scanner (e.g., UK database for UK users)
- Alternative Options:
- Prayer Times: You can manually enter your city name - the app works perfectly without GPS
- Halal Scanner: You can manually select your region in settings
- Not Used For:
- Tracking your movements or location history
- Zakat calculations (no location needed)
- Tasbih counter
- Analytics, profiling, or advertising
- Your Control: You can revoke this permission anytime in Android Settings → Apps → Ummah Guide → Permissions
📷 Camera Permission (Optional)
Android Permission: CAMERA
- Why Needed: To scan product barcodes and capture photos of ingredient labels for OCR (text recognition) in the Halal Scanner
- When Used: Only when you actively tap the scan button in Halal Scanner (Barcode or Photo tab)
- How It's Used:
- Barcode scanning: Camera frames are analyzed locally on device to detect barcodes (EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E, Code 128, QR codes)
- Ingredient photos: Captured images are processed with Google ML Kit OCR (on-device) to extract text
- Advanced Privacy Protection:
- Photos/videos are NEVER saved to your device gallery
- Images are NEVER uploaded to any server (ours or third-party)
- OCR (text recognition) happens entirely on your device using Google ML Kit - no cloud processing
- Camera is immediately released after scanning
- Only the extracted text is used for ingredient analysis - the actual image is discarded
- For barcode lookups, only the barcode number is sent to OpenFoodFacts API - never the image
- Alternative Options:
- You can manually enter product barcodes instead of scanning
- You can manually type ingredient lists instead of taking photos
🔔 Notification Permission
Android Permission: POST_NOTIFICATIONS (Android 13+)
- Why Needed: To send you reminders for prayer times (Adhan notifications)
- When Used: Only if you enable prayer time notifications in settings
- What You'll Receive:
- Prayer time reminders (e.g., "Fajr time in 10 minutes")
- Current prayer notifications
- Notification sound/vibration based on your preferences
- Your Control: You can disable notifications anytime in app settings or Android notification settings
- No Spam: We NEVER send promotional, marketing, or non-prayer notifications
🌐 Internet Access
Android Permission: INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE
- Why Needed: For specific features that require online data
- When Used:
- Halal Scanner: Looking up product information and ingredients in OpenFoodFacts database (multiple regional databases supported)
- Zakat Calculator: Fetching live gold and silver prices from metal price APIs
- Zakat Calculator: Fetching live currency exchange rates (supports 90+ currencies)
- Prayer Times: Searching for city names using Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) geocoding service
- App Updates: Checking Firebase Remote Config for minimum supported app version
- What Is Sent (with complete transparency):
- Halal Scanner:
- Product barcode numbers (e.g., "5000159484695") to OpenFoodFacts regional APIs (uk.openfoodfacts.org, us.openfoodfacts.org, world.openfoodfacts.org, etc.)
- Ingredient text extracted from photos (OCR text only, not the image)
- Your device's approximate region (for selecting the best regional database - can be manually overridden)
- Zakat Calculator:
- Anonymous API requests for current gold/silver prices (no identification)
- Currency pair for exchange rate conversion (e.g., "USD to PKR")
- Prayer Times: City name you type for location search (e.g., "London" or "Karachi")
- App Updates: Current app version number to Firebase Remote Config (no user identification)
- Halal Scanner:
- What Is NEVER Sent:
- Your financial information or Zakat calculations
- Your precise GPS location coordinates
- Your prayer times, settings, or prayer habits
- Your tasbih counts or dhikr data
- Photos or images from camera
- Any personal identifiers (name, email, phone, device ID)
- Your scan history or previous searches
- Offline Mode Capabilities:
- Prayer Times: Works completely offline once location is set
- Qibla Compass: Works offline with saved location
- Tasbih Counter: Fully offline
- Zakat Calculator: Works offline using default/cached prices
- Halal Scanner: Can use cached scan results offline
📳 Vibration Permission
Android Permission: VIBRATE
- Why Needed: To provide haptic feedback when using Tasbih counter and notifications
- When Used: When you tap the counter or when prayer notifications appear
- Your Control: Can be disabled in app settings
🌐 Third-Party Services (Full Transparency)
The app uses these external services only when you actively use specific features. We've chosen services with strong privacy commitments:
1. OpenFoodFacts API (Multiple Regional Databases)
- Service Type: Open-source collaborative food product database
- Used For: Halal ingredient database lookup when scanning products
- Regional Coverage: We search multiple regional databases for better accuracy:
- uk.openfoodfacts.org (United Kingdom)
- us.openfoodfacts.org (United States)
- world.openfoodfacts.org (Global database)
- Plus regional databases for: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, Egypt, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, and more
- Data Shared:
- Product barcode number (e.g., "5000159484695")
- Ingredient text extracted from photos (OCR text only, never the image)
- Your approximate region (for selecting best regional database - can be manually selected in settings)
- Data NOT Shared: Your location coordinates, device info, personal data, or camera images
- Privacy Policy: OpenFoodFacts Privacy Policy
- Why We Trust Them: Non-profit, open database, community-driven, no tracking or advertising
- How Regional Selection Works:
- Auto-detect mode: Uses LocationService (GPS → IP → Device Locale → Fallback) to select best regional database
- Manual mode: You can select your region in Settings → Product Database Region
- Multiple versions: If a product exists in multiple regional databases (different formulas for different countries), you can choose which one to view
2. Metal Price and Currency Exchange APIs
- Service Type: Financial data providers for precious metal prices and currency exchange rates
- Used For:
- Fetching current gold and silver prices per gram for Zakat Nisab calculation
- Converting prices between 90+ supported currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, SAR, AED, PKR, INR, MYR, IDR, and many more)
- APIs Used:
- Primary Metal Price API: gold-api.com (free, unlimited, provides prices in USD per gram)
- Backup Metal Price API: GoldPricez (with API key, provides troy ounce prices converted to grams)
- Primary Exchange Rate API: FloatRates.com (free, no key, supports all major currencies)
- Backup Exchange Rate API: Fawaz Ahmed Currency API (GitHub-hosted, free, comprehensive coverage)
- Data Shared: None - only anonymous API requests for public price data
- When Used:
- When you open Zakat Calculator with "Automatic Prices" enabled
- Prices are cached for 24 hours to reduce API calls
- Fallback Protection: If APIs are unavailable, app uses built-in default prices (last updated: November 2025)
- Financial Privacy Guarantee: Your wealth amounts, asset values, and Zakat calculations are NEVER sent to these APIs or any server
- Manual Mode Available: You can disable automatic pricing and enter gold/silver prices manually to avoid all internet connections for Zakat calculation
3. Google ML Kit (On-Device Processing)
- Service Type: Machine learning library for text recognition
- Used For: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) when scanning ingredient labels
- Data Shared: NONE - all processing happens on your device
- Privacy Benefit: Images never leave your phone
- How It Works: ML models are downloaded once and run locally
- Google's Commitment: On-device ML Kit does not send data to Google servers
4. Nominatim (OpenStreetMap Geocoding)
- Service Type: Open-source geocoding service
- Used For: Converting city names to coordinates for prayer time calculations when you use manual location entry
- Data Shared: Only the city name you manually type and search for (e.g., "London", "Karachi", "Jakarta")
- Data NOT Shared: Your current GPS location or coordinates
- When Used: Only when you choose manual location entry in Prayer Times or Qibla Compass and search for a city
- Example: If you type "Birmingham, UK" and tap search, we send "Birmingham, UK" to Nominatim, receive coordinates (52.48°N, 1.89°W), and use those for prayer calculations locally
- Usage Policy: Nominatim Usage Policy
- Why We Trust Them: Non-profit, open-source, community-driven, operated by OpenStreetMap Foundation
💰 Zakat Calculator - Maximum Privacy
Your financial information is completely confidential and sacred:
- All calculations are performed locally on your device using JavaScript
- Asset amounts, wealth totals, and Zakat due are NEVER saved anywhere
- The app has no database to store financial data
- Results disappear when you leave the calculator screen
- We never see, store, log, or transmit your financial information
- Only your currency preference and nisab method are saved locally
- When fetching gold/silver prices, only an anonymous API request is sent
- You can use manual price entry mode to avoid any internet connection
- Islamic Principle: We treat your financial privacy as an amanah (trust)
👶 Children's Privacy (COPPA Compliance)
Ummah Guide is designed to be family-friendly and suitable for users of all ages, including children:
- Age Appropriateness: All content is Islamic and educational, suitable for children
- No Data Collection from Children: We don't collect personal information from anyone, including children under 13
- No Age Verification: We don't ask for birthdates or ages
- Parental Control: Parents can supervise usage as all features are transparent
- No Social Features: No chat, messaging, or interaction with strangers
- Educational Purpose: The app teaches Islamic practices in a safe environment
- COPPA Compliance: Fully compliant with Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
📄 Data Retention and Deletion
Since all data is stored locally on your device, you have complete control:
Automatic Data Retention:
- Settings & Preferences: Stored until you change them or uninstall the app
- Tasbih Counts: Stored until you reset them or uninstall the app
- Zakat Calculations: NEVER stored - cleared immediately after viewing
- Scan History: Stored until you clear it in settings or uninstall
How to Delete Your Data:
- Clear Individual Data: Use in-app reset buttons (e.g., reset tasbih counter)
- Clear All App Data: Android Settings → Apps → Ummah Guide → Storage → Clear Data
- Complete Removal: Uninstall the app from your device
⚠️ Important Backup Notice: Since we don't back up your data to the cloud, uninstalling or clearing app data will permanently delete your settings and tasbih counts. We recommend manually noting important information before device changes.
🌍 Your Rights Under Privacy Laws
We respect your rights under international privacy regulations. However, since we don't collect your data on servers, you automatically have maximum control:
GDPR Rights (European Union):
- Right to Access: All your data is visible within the app settings
- Right to Rectification: You can modify any settings within the app
- Right to Erasure: Simply clear app data or uninstall
- Right to Data Portability: Currently limited as data is minimal (preferences only)
- Right to Object: You control all permissions and features
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Revoke permissions anytime in Android settings
CCPA Rights (California):
- Right to Know: This policy discloses all data practices
- Right to Delete: Clear app data or uninstall as described above
- Right to Opt-Out of Sale: N/A - we never sell data
- Right to Non-Discrimination: All features are available to everyone equally
Other Jurisdictions:
We comply with privacy laws worldwide including Australia's Privacy Act, Canada's PIPEDA, and other regional regulations. The principle remains the same: we don't collect your data, so your privacy is inherently protected.
🔐 Security Measures
We take security seriously to protect your data even though it stays on your device:
- Local Storage Security: Data is stored using Android's secure SharedPreferences with default encryption
- No Server Storage: We don't maintain servers or databases that could be hacked
- HTTPS Encryption: All API calls use encrypted HTTPS connections
- Minimal Permissions: We only request permissions absolutely necessary for functionality
- No Authentication: No passwords or accounts means no authentication vulnerabilities
- Ephemeral Processing: Financial calculations are performed in memory and immediately discarded
- No Logging: We don't log errors or crashes with personal data
- Regular Updates: We keep the app updated with latest security patches
- Code Security: App is built with security best practices and regular security audits
📱 Device Security Recommendation: Your device security is important. We recommend using a screen lock, keeping Android updated, and downloading apps only from official stores (Google Play, Apple App Store).
📝 Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this privacy policy to reflect app improvements or legal requirements. We commit to transparency:
How We'll Notify You:
- Version Number: Updated "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy
- In-App Notification: Prominent notification if there are significant