Sakinah Privacy Policy

Last updated: 17 October 2026

Sakinah is a free Muslim companion app for iPhone and Android (Qurʾān, prayer times, adhkār, qibla and more). It is published by Hamza Lachehab El Hilali ("we"), who is responsible for the data the app collects. This policy explains what data the app handles, where it goes, and the choices you have. It covers both versions of the app; where they differ, the difference is stated.

1. Data that stays on your device

Everything you record in Sakinah is kept in the app's storage on your phone. That includes your journal of prayers, your adhkār and tasbīḥ counts, your ḥifẓ progress, notes you write in the Hijri calendar, bookmarks, your reading and listening position, your prayer place and all your settings. On Android, it also includes what you record in the Muslim Calendar: your fasts, fasts to make up, your plans and reminders and, if you use it, the cycle tracker, which never leaves the phone except in your own backup (below). Downloaded Qurʾān editions and recitations are cached on the device too.

This data is never sent to us, to advertisers or to analytics services. Deleting the app deletes this data from the device. Like any app's data, it can be included in your own device backup, which belongs to your account, not to us:

• iPhone. It is included in your iPhone backup (iCloud or computer) if you back up your device; that backup belongs to your Apple account.
• Android. Sakinah uses Android's automatic backup. If backup is turned on for your phone, Android copies the app's data, including the cycle-tracker record, to your Google account's backup storage, and restores it when you set up a new phone or reinstall the app. It is also copied when you transfer your data to a new phone. Google stores this backup under your Google account; on Android 9 and later it is encrypted with your phone's screen lock (PIN, pattern or password) when you have one. We cannot read it. You can turn backup off in Android Settings (usually Settings → Google → Backup, or Settings → System → Backup).

2. Advertising (Google AdMob)

Sakinah shows ads from Google AdMob on a small number of screens: Home, the More tab, the Hijri calendar and Settings, one sponsored row in the list of nearby mosques, and a page of its own after the last step (and in longer guides sometimes between two steps) of the step-by-step guides. It also shows an occasional full-screen ad when you close certain screens (for example the Hijri calendar, Settings, the Muṣḥaf or Nearby) or finish a set of adhkār, never more than once every three minutes. No ad is ever shown on a screen where worship is in progress (the Muṣḥaf, adhkār, tasbīḥ, ruqyah, a step of the prayer and wuḍūʾ guides, and similar), there is never an ad between the postures of the prayer guide, the ruqyah never carries an ad, and no full-screen ad appears while a recitation, a dhikr, the ruqyah or the adhan is playing.

To choose and measure ads, Google's software in the app collects information such as your IP address (and the approximate location derived from it), device model, operating-system version, language, ad interactions, and your device's advertising identifier — on iPhone the IDFA, only if you allow it; on Android the advertising ID, unless you have deleted it. The ad requests Sakinah makes contain nothing from your worship data, notes or precise location.

• Consent. Where the law requires it (for example in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland), Google's consent message asks you before ads are personalised. If you do not consent, ads may still appear, but they are not personalised.
• Tracking on iPhone. iOS asks whether Sakinah may let Google use your advertising identifier. If you decline, ads still appear but are not based on tracking across other companies' apps and websites.
• Advertising ID on Android. Android has no such prompt. The app declares Android's advertising-ID permission so that Google's ad software can read the ID. You can reset it, or delete it, in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads (on some phones Settings → Google → Ads). Once it is deleted, apps receive no advertising ID and ads still appear, but are not based on it.
• Unsuitable ads. We block ad categories that do not suit a Muslim worship app, including dating, sexual content, astrology and gambling-style casino games.
• No ads for supporters. If you hold a monthly supporter subscription, the app requests no ads at all.

Google's use of this data is described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and the Google Privacy Policy.

3. Usage statistics and crash reports

To find crashes and understand which features are used, Sakinah uses Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics. On iPhone it also uses Google Tag Manager and Apple's MetricKit performance reports.

• Usage statistics come from a fixed list of feature events, for example that a screen was opened, a reciter was chosen or a supporter subscription was bought. These events cannot carry text you wrote, counts, dates, places or positions in the Qurʾān. Saving a Hijri-calendar note is recorded only as "a note was added", never its text or day.
• Crash and performance reports contain technical details: device model, operating-system version, app version and where in the code a problem happened. On Android, Crashlytics also reports when the app stops responding.
• Firebase also records standard device information (such as model, operating-system version, language and a country derived from your IP address) under a random app-instance identifier. We never attach a name, email or user ID.

This information is used to keep the app working and to improve it. It is shared with Google's advertising services only if tracking is allowed — on iPhone, if you allowed it when iOS asks; on Android, if your advertising ID has not been deleted and you have not opted out of ad personalisation in Android settings — and, where the GDPR applies, you consented to it in Google's consent message. Without both, Sakinah tells Google Analytics that this data may not be used for ads or ad personalisation. Crash reports are never used for advertising.

Firebase Crashlytics deletes crash reports after 90 days. Google Analytics keeps event-level statistics for at most 14 months; the reports built from them contain only totals.

You can turn all of this off in Settings → Share usage & crash reports. When it is off, Firebase does not run and no statistics or crash reports are sent. On iPhone, Google Tag Manager may still ask googletagmanager.com whether the app's configuration has changed; that request carries no statistics about you. See the Firebase privacy information.

4. Location

With your permission (on iPhone "While Using the App"; on Android "While using the app", precise or approximate), Sakinah uses your location to calculate prayer times, point the qibla and find nearby mosques and parking. Sakinah never asks for your location in the background. Most of this is calculated on your phone. Location leaves the device only in these cases:

• Apple Maps (iPhone). Searching for nearby mosques or parking, getting directions, showing the map, and looking up the name of your city go through Apple's MapKit and geocoding services. See Apple's Privacy Policy.
• Mapbox and Geoapify (Android Nearby). When you open Nearby, Mapbox downloads the map for the area shown. Searches send an area centre (rounded to roughly a kilometre for the nearby-mosque search), your chosen language and any search words to Geoapify. Parking searches use the selected place’s coordinates. Directions send your starting point and destination to Mapbox. Mapbox also processes device, IP address and usage information, and its Maps SDK can send unidentified location and usage telemetry. Use the map’s information/attribution button to choose whether to participate in Mapbox telemetry. See the Mapbox Privacy Policies and the Geoapify Privacy Policy. The Android Nearby screen does not use your phone’s system geocoder. If you explicitly open a destination in Google Maps, that destination is passed to the Google Maps app or website.
• Official prayer timetables. When your prayer times follow an official timetable (for example Morocco's Ministry of Habous), the app downloads a month of times from AlAdhan (api.aladhan.com). The request includes your prayer place's coordinates, rounded to two decimal places (about 1 km), and your chosen calculation settings.

Sakinah does not include your location in its advertising or Firebase Analytics requests. Mapbox’s own location and usage telemetry, and the choice to opt out of it, are described above.

Saved places on Android. Nearby saves place-search results, parking and place information in private storage on your device, outside Android automatic backup. Returning to a saved area can reuse that data without another Geoapify request. Snapshots are normally refreshed after 30 days, and older snapshots may be used offline with an on-screen notice. You can refresh or delete saved places from Nearby. Storage is limited to 128 snapshots or 16 MB, so older entries may be removed. Deleting saved places does not erase Mapbox’s separately managed map-image cache. Saved places are not uploaded to Sakinah, advertisers or analytics. They do not contain your worship records. Stored snapshots describe places and areas searched; Sakinah does not record a continuous GPS track.

5. Content downloads

Some content is downloaded when you first use it: Qurʾān editions, recitations, the recordings of the adhkār, and gold and silver prices for the zakāt calculator. These come from public servers such as everyayah.com, quranicaudio.com, quran.com, huggingface.co, hisnmuslim.com, github.com, cdn.jsdelivr.net, raw.githubusercontent.com, gold-api.com and currency-api.pages.dev. As with any download, those servers see your IP address and the file requested. Sakinah sends them no other information about you.

6. Purchases

Supporter subscriptions and one-time gifts are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store on iPhone, and by Google through Google Play Billing on Android. We never see your payment details. The app only learns from Apple or Google whether you currently hold a supporter subscription, so that it can turn ads off. On Android, Google Play keeps the record of your purchases under your Google account, and the app checks each purchase it receives from Google Play on your phone; no server of ours is involved.

7. Photos and notifications

• Photos. On iPhone, if you save an āyah picture, the app asks for permission to add it to your photo library. On Android, an āyah picture is handed to the Android share sheet and the app asks for no photo or storage permission. It never reads your photos.
• Notifications. Adhan and reminder notifications are scheduled on your phone. No server is involved. On Android, the app asks for permission to post notifications and to schedule exact alarms, so that the adhan sounds on time.

8. Children

Sakinah is a general-audience app and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

During setup the app asks your age; the question is optional, and you can change the answer in Settings → Age. If you say you are under 13, the app never shows the tracking prompt on iPhone, ad requests ask Google to treat you as a child (no personalised ads and no remarketing), and usage statistics are never shared with Google's advertising services. Your answer itself stays on your phone.

9. Your choices and rights

• Ad consent: Settings → Privacy & ad choices lets you review your consent for personalised ads where the law requires it.
• Tracking: on iPhone, iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking; on Android, Settings → Privacy → Ads (or Settings → Google → Ads) to reset or delete your advertising ID.
• Usage statistics and crash reports: Settings → Share usage & crash reports.
• Location: on iPhone, iOS Settings → Sakinah → Location; on Android, Settings → Apps → Sakinah → Permissions → Location.
• Backup: on iPhone, your iCloud or computer backup settings; on Android, Settings → Google → Backup (or Settings → System → Backup).
• Deleting your data: deleting the app removes everything it stored on your phone. We hold no copy of it. A device backup you made (see section 1) is kept by Apple or Google under your account until it is replaced or you delete it there.

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR), you may have the right to access, correct or delete personal data, or to object to its processing. Because we do not hold data that identifies you, most requests concern Google; you can manage those at My Ad Center or contact us below and we will help. You may also complain to the data protection authority where you live.

10. Legal bases and transfers

For readers in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland:

• Personalised ads, and sharing usage statistics with Google's advertising services, happen only with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time in Settings → Privacy & ad choices.
• Usage statistics: Google Analytics stores its identifier on your device only if you agree to "Store and/or access information on a device" in Google's consent message. Without that agreement it sends statistics without the identifier.
• Non-personalised ads and crash reports rely on our legitimate interest in keeping a free app funded and working. You can switch crash reports and statistics off at any time in Settings → Share usage & crash reports.
• Supporter purchases are handled by Apple or Google to provide what you bought.
• Nearby on Android uses Mapbox for maps/directions and Geoapify for places, as described in section 4. Your device’s location permission controls access to location; Mapbox telemetry choices are available from the map’s information/attribution button.

Google may process this data outside your country, including in the United States. Google takes part in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, its UK Extension and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change how the app handles data, we will update this page and the date at the top before the change reaches the app.

12. Contact

Hamza Lachehab El Hilali
Questions about privacy: hwteach2018@gmail.com