Privacy policy

Who we are

Ayah is made by Qadam Studio and published by PharmGo LTD, under its Apple developer account. In this policy, "we" means PharmGo LTD.

For any question about this policy or your data, email uways@me.com.

What stays on your phone

Ayah keeps these things in its own storage on your phone. It does not send them to us or to anyone else.

• Your saved ayat: the reference of each ayah you saved, such as 13:28, and the day you saved it. Saved is never in your account.
• Your reminder: whether it is on, and the time you chose.
• Today's progress: which ayah is today's, whether you have listened to it, and whether you have opened its understanding.
• How many different days you have opened Ayah, up to 15, and whether you have answered the offer to leave a tip.
• Small settings: the look you last chose for a shared picture, the day the opening animation last played, and, if you are signed in, the circle you opened last and whether you signed in with Apple or with your email.
• The Qur'an text of the ayat for the next 7 days, and of your saved ayat, for less than 7 days (see below).

Ayah leaves this storage out of your phone's backups. A new phone starts with an empty Saved, and deleting Ayah deletes all of it.

The daily reminder

The reminder is off until you set it. When you set it, Ayah asks your iPhone for permission to send notifications. This is the only permission Ayah asks for.

Ayah then sets one reminder a day on your phone itself, at the time you chose, with the words "Today's ayah is ready". No server sends it, and Ayah does not sign up for push notifications.

Turning the reminder off in Ayah takes it off your phone.

The widgets

Ayah's widgets read from a space on your phone that only Ayah and its widgets share (an App Group). Each time you open Ayah, it writes the ayat for the next 7 days there, so the widget moves on at 00:00 with the app closed. This stays on your phone, and the widget stops showing any text that is 7 days old.

Sharing an ayah

Share makes a picture of the ayah on your phone and opens your iPhone's share sheet. You choose where it goes, and the app you choose handles it from there. Ayah sends nothing itself, and deletes the picture once the sheet closes.

What Ayah fetches, and from whom

Ayah fetches the Qur'an from Quran Foundation, and nothing from anyone else. Circles also use Qadam Studio's own server, described under "The Qadam account and circles".

Quran Foundation

When you open Ayah, it fetches the ayat for the next 7 days from Quran Foundation (api.quran.com): the Arabic text, each word with its transliteration and English, the Saheeh International translation and the links to the recitation. It fetches a saved ayah the same way when its text is no longer on your phone. Each request names only the verse, such as 13:28.

Ayah keeps this text for less than 7 days, as Quran Foundation's terms ask, then deletes it and fetches it again when you need it.

When you open the tafsir, Ayah fetches that ayah's passage from Quran Foundation in the same way. It is held only while Ayah is open and is never written to your phone's storage.

When you tap Listen, the recitation by Mishari Rashid al-Afasy plays from Quran Foundation (verses.quran.com). When you open a word, its own recording plays from Quran Foundation's audio service (audio.qurancdn.com). Ayah does not save either recording.

No request carries an account, a name or an ID for your phone. Like any website, Quran Foundation sees your phone's internet address when it connects. Quran Foundation's privacy policy covers what it does with it.

No app updates from Expo

Ayah is built with Expo's tools, but this version does not download updates to its code. It does not contact Expo's servers. New versions come only through Apple.

The tip

Leaving a tip is optional and unlocks nothing. Leave a tip opens Apple's own payment sheet, which shows the price and takes the payment. Apple handles the payment under Apple's privacy policy. We never see your card or your Apple account, and Ayah sends nothing about the tip anywhere.

Apple

Apple delivers Ayah to your phone, through TestFlight while Ayah is being tested. If you send feedback or a crash report through TestFlight, Apple passes it to us with the details Apple adds to it. If you have chosen in iPhone Settings to share analytics with app developers, Apple may also share crash reports with us. Apple's privacy policy covers both.

What Ayah does not do

• It asks you to sign in only for circles. Today, Saved, the reminder and the widgets work without an account.
• It shows no adverts, and has no analytics or crash reporting of its own.
• It does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and does not ask to.
• We do not sell data about you, or share it for advertising.

The Qadam account and circles

Signing in is optional. Ayah asks for it only to make or join a circle: a private group of up to 20 people who read the same ayah each day and can each write one note on it. You can be in up to 5 circles. Everything else in Ayah works without an account.

The account is one Qadam Studio account for all of Qadam Studio's apps, such as Husna. It is kept on our server, api.qadam.studio.

How you sign in

• With Apple. Apple sends us an ID for you that only Qadam Studio's apps use, and the email address you chose to share, which can be Apple's private relay address. If you share your name the first time you sign in, Apple sends that too.
• Or with your email address and a 6-digit code that we email to you. The code works once, for 10 minutes. We keep only a sealed copy of it while it works, and there is no password.

What your account holds

• An account ID, your email address, and your name if Apple shared it. Signing in with an email code adds no name.
• How you sign in: Apple's ID for you, or your email address.
• A sign-in key for each phone you are signed in on, named after the app, such as "Ayah", with when it was last used. On your phone, the key is kept in your iPhone's keychain, where Qadam Studio's apps share it.
• Your circles: the ones you are in, the ones you made, and when you joined each.
• Your notes: each note's words (up to 500 characters, text only), the circle, the day and the time you wrote or changed it.

Your account does not hold your saved ayat, your reminder or your progress. They stay on your phone.

What a circle holds, and who sees it

• A circle holds the name you give it, who made it, the people in it, its invite link and its notes. A note belongs to the day it was written on and stays until it is deleted.
• You invite people by sending the circle's link through your iPhone's share sheet, or by copying it. Anyone with the link can see the circle's name, how many people are in it and the first name of the person who made it, and can join while there is room. They see no notes and no people until they join.
• The people in a circle see its name, each person's first name, how many wrote today, and each note with its writer's first name and time. Nobody in a circle sees your email address.
• Only the people in the circle see its notes. Qadam Studio does not read them.
• You can delete your own note. The person who made the circle can remove any note, or take a person out of the circle with their notes, which also changes the invite link.

Who handles it for us

• Hetzner runs the server that holds the accounts, circles and notes, in Helsinki, Finland. Copies of its database, made each night, are kept on that server for 30 days.
• Cloudflare carries the connection between your phone and the server.
• Resend sends the sign-in code email, from [email protected], so it handles your email address and the code.
• Apple handles Sign in with Apple, under Apple's privacy policy.

Leaving, signing out and deleting

• Leaving a circle takes you out of it in every Qadam app, with your notes in it. If you made the circle, leaving it closes it and deletes it, with all its notes, for everyone.
• Sign out, in Ayah's You tab, takes the sign-in key off your phone and off our server. Saved stays on your phone.
• Delete my account, in Ayah's You tab, deletes straight away, in every Qadam app: your account, your email address and name, how you sign in, every sign-in key, your notes, the circles you made (for everyone in them), your place in other circles, and anything you kept in your account through another Qadam app. What Ayah keeps on your phone, such as Saved, stays.
• If you signed in with Apple, Apple's sheet opens once more when you delete, so we can also end Sign in with Apple for Qadam Studio's apps.
• The nightly copies that still hold your account are deleted within 30 days.

Your choices

• To stop the reminder, turn it off in Ayah's You tab, or turn off Ayah's notifications in iPhone Settings.
• To delete a note, delete it in its circle. To delete everything in your account, use Delete my account.
• To delete everything Ayah keeps on your phone, delete the app.
• To ask us anything about your data, email uways@me.com.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version goes on this page with its new date.