Bakiif (“Bakiif”, “we”, “us”) provides the Bakiif website at bakiifmedia.com, the Bakiif Kids games and the Bakiif mobile app for iOS and Android (together, the “Services”). This policy explains what information we collect, why, who we share it with and the choices you have. We have tried to write it plainly, because trust matters more to us than fine print.
In short: we do not sell your data, we show no ads, and we do not use advertising trackers. Most of Bakiif works without an account, and much of what you do stays on your own device.
Information you give us
- Contact form — your name, email address, subject and message, plus the IP address the message was sent from (to help us block spam).
- Newsletter — if you sign up through “Stay Connected”, your email address and the IP address used to sign up.
- Donations — when you give to a cause in the app, we record your name and email (if you provide them), the amount, currency, the cause or category, the payment method and the payment status.
Accounts (Learn) — most of Bakiif works without an account. To enroll in a course, ask a teacher a question or join a live class you sign up with your name, email address and a password, which we store only in hashed form. We keep which courses you joined, your progress and your questions. Teachers also give us their specialty and a short biography, which are shown in the app. You can delete your account at any time from the Account screen in the app, which removes this information.
Payments in the app — when you pay for a course or give a donation in the app, you send the money yourself and upload proof of payment, along with the details the form asks for. We keep these privately so that the person receiving the payment can check it, and we show you your own payment history. When you pay for a course, you pay the teacher directly: the teacher sees your name, your proof of payment and the details you entered, and Bakiif does not hold the money. If there is a disagreement, either side can open a dispute. The messages and evidence are seen by the student, the teacher and our team, and our decision controls access to the course; Bakiif cannot return money paid to a teacher. Teachers' subject certificates are also kept privately for our review team.
Live classes — when you join a live class, you leave Bakiif for the meeting service your teacher chose, such as Zoom. That service's own privacy policy applies there.
Hifz AI (recitation practice) — when you use Hifz AI to practise reciting the Qurʾān, your voice is converted to text by your own device's built-in speech recognition (provided by Apple or Google), not by Bakiif. Your recitation audio is never sent to our servers; only the recognised text is compared, on your device, against the verse. We do not see, store or receive your voice or this transcript.
Card and bank details are entered directly with our payment processors — PayPal, Stripe, Paystack and Razorpay. Bakiif never sees or stores your full card number. Their handling of your payment is governed by their own privacy policies.
Information collected automatically
- App usage statistics — when the mobile app starts, our server records the device’s IP address, operating system and an approximate location (country, region and coordinates) estimated from that IP address, with a count of visits. We use this only in aggregate, to understand where Bakiif is used and to plan improvements.
- Bakiif Kids statistics — the games record anonymous events such as which game was played, scores and the type of device. Each browser is given a random identifier that we store only as an irreversible (hashed) code, and the country is estimated from network information or the device’s time zone. No names, email addresses or other personal information are collected from children.
- Server logs — like almost every website, our hosting keeps short-lived technical logs (such as IP address, browser type and pages requested) to keep the Services secure and working.
Your location
Prayer times and the Qibla direction depend on where you are. On the website, if you allow it, your browser shares your coordinates with our server so we can calculate today’s prayer times and look up the name of your city. We use your coordinates for that request only and do not store them. If you decline, we show prayer times for a default city instead.
In the mobile app, your location is used on your device for prayer times, the Qibla compass and to show nearby mosques on a map (provided by Google Maps). You can turn location access off at any time in your device settings.
Information stored on your device
Some features remember things for you using your browser’s local storage or the app’s on-device storage — for example your Qurʾān reader preferences (reciter, translation, text size), Bakiif Kids stars and best scores, and app settings. This information stays on your device; we do not receive it. Clearing your browser data or uninstalling the app removes it.
The website also uses a small number of essential cookies to keep forms secure and to keep you signed in to the admin area. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
How we use your information
- To provide the Services — prayer times, Qurʾān recitation, articles and games.
- To reply to your messages and send the updates you asked for.
- To process donations, keep the financial records the law requires, and prevent fraud.
- To understand, in aggregate, how the Services are used so we can improve them.
- To keep the Services secure and to comply with legal obligations.
We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.
Services we rely on
To deliver Bakiif we use a few trusted third parties. When your device or our server talks to them, they may receive technical information such as your IP address:
- Hosting — our website and database are hosted with a web hosting provider that processes data on our behalf.
- Qurʾān text, translations and audio — from Quran.com and mp3quran.net. Recitation audio and verse timings are loaded from their servers when you press play.
- Place names — OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) receives the coordinates of a prayer-time request in order to return your city’s name.
- Fonts — Google Fonts serves the typefaces used on the website.
- Maps — Google Maps, for the nearby-mosques map in the app.
- AI features — where Bakiif offers AI features (such as the AI Islamic Assistant and the Islamic name generator), the text you type is sent to our own server, which passes it to our AI provider, Groq, to produce a response. We do not save these conversations on our servers, and your device never holds or sends our AI provider's access key. Please avoid entering sensitive personal information.
- Payments — PayPal, Stripe, Paystack and Razorpay, as described above.
We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety and security of our users and of Bakiif.
Children
Bakiif Kids is designed for children aged 3–12 and to be safe by design: there are no accounts, no chat, no advertisements, no links to strangers and no collection of personal information from children. Stars and scores are saved only on the child’s device. Parents with any question can reach us through the contact page.
The contact form, newsletter and donations are intended for adults. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
How long we keep information
- Contact messages — for as long as needed to deal with your enquiry, and no longer than 24 months.
- Newsletter — until you ask us to remove you.
- Donation records — for as long as financial and tax laws require.
- Usage statistics — kept in aggregate; Bakiif Kids statistics never identify a person.
Security
The Services are served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, access to our systems is restricted to authorised staff, and payments are handled by specialised processors. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work hard to protect your information.
Your rights and choices
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, to have it deleted, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to receive a copy of it. You can also:
- turn off location access in your browser or device settings;
- unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time;
- clear the data stored on your device by clearing your browser data or uninstalling the app.
To make a request, contact us through the contact page. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we will reply as soon as we can, in shāʾ Allāh. You may also have the right to complain to your local data-protection authority.
International use
Bakiif is used around the world, so your information may be processed in countries other than your own, including by the service providers listed above. We take steps to make sure it remains protected.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as Bakiif grows. When we do, we will change the effective date at the top of this page, and for significant changes we will make a clear notice on the website or in the app.
Contact us
Questions about privacy? Send us a message through the contact page — we read every one.