Privacy Policy
Effective and last updated: September 15, 2026
Fahm ("we," "our," "the app") is an Islamic companion app providing prayer times, Qibla direction, Quran, Hadith, Dua, and related features. This policy explains what information Fahm collects, how it's used, and who it's shared with. By using Fahm, you agree to the practices described here.
Information We Collect
Account information
Fahm offers two sign-in methods, both handled by our authentication provider:
- Google Sign-In — we receive and store your name, email address, and profile photo URL.
- Email & Password — at registration we collect the name and email address you enter, plus a password. Your password is sent directly to our authentication provider, which stores it in salted, hashed form — we never see or store it in plain text, and it is never accessible to us. We send a verification link to your email address to confirm you own it before treating the account as fully active; tapping that link is the only verification step (Fahm never sends or asks for a numeric code by email).
We use this information to identify your account and personalize the app (e.g. displaying your name and photo, or a placeholder avatar built from your name). Your display name is sent to a third-party avatar-generation service solely to generate that placeholder avatar image when no profile photo is available.
Location data
With your permission, Fahm accesses your device's precise or approximate location to:
- Calculate accurate local prayer times and Qibla direction (processed entirely on your device — coordinates are not sent anywhere for this purpose)
- Resolve a human-readable place name (e.g. "Gaya, Bihar") — your coordinates are sent to a fallback geocoding service if Android's built-in location service can't resolve one
- Find nearby mosques — your coordinates are sent to a places / mapping service, with a fallback to an open-data mapping service if that fails
Only your coordinates are sent for these lookups — never your name, email, or account ID. Location permission is optional; without it, Fahm defaults to Makkah, Saudi Arabia for prayer time calculations. Moon-sighting votes and Jummah prayer times are different: your location is stored with your name and email when you submit one, as described below.
Moon-sighting votes and Jummah prayer times
If you are signed in, you can vote on whether the new crescent moon was sighted in your country, and submit the Jummah prayer time of a nearby mosque. Both are optional. When you submit either, Fahm stores it in our cloud database together with:
- your vote (sighted or not sighted) or the Jummah time you entered, the mosque it is for, and when you submitted it
- your account ID, name, and email address
- your location — the coordinates and place name Fahm uses for your prayer times. No new location request is made to submit. If you haven't granted location access and Fahm is using its Makkah default, no location is stored.
We use this to keep community results trustworthy — to verify submissions, and to find and remove duplicate, automated, or abusive ones. These details are not shown to other users: they see only combined results, such as how many people in a country voted each way or how many submitted each Jummah time. Your own submission is visible to you, and all submissions are accessible to the Fahm team.
AI Maulana (chat assistant)
Questions you type or speak to AI Maulana are sent to a third-party AI service to generate a response. Only your question text is sent — no location, name, or account information accompanies these requests.
Crash and diagnostic data
Fahm uses an automated crash-reporting service to collect crash reports, device model, OS version, and app version when the app crashes or encounters an error. This helps us find and fix bugs.
Usage analytics
Fahm uses an analytics service to understand which screens are used and where our users are located. This includes an approximate, IP-derived country/region (never precise coordinates or your device's actual GPS location), the screens you visit within the app, device model, OS version, and app version. This data is not linked to your name, email, or account ID, and is not used for ad personalization or targeting.
Information stored only on your device
Bookmarks, prayer tracking, app settings, cached prayer times, and downloaded content (Quran text, Hadith books) are stored locally on your device using Android's standard local storage. This data is not transmitted to us and is deleted automatically if you uninstall the app.
Third-Party Services We Use
| Service | Purpose | Data sent |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication provider | Sign-in / account management | Name, email, profile photo (Google Sign-In); name, email, password — securely hashed, never stored or readable by us in plain text (Email/Password sign-in) |
| Crash-reporting service | Crash reporting | Crash logs, device/app info |
| Analytics service | Usage analytics (screens visited, approximate country/region) | Screen names, approximate location (country/region), device/app info |
| AI response provider | AI Maulana chat responses | Your typed/spoken question text |
| Places / mapping service | Nearby mosque search | Coordinates |
| Geocoding service (fallback) | Reverse geocoding fallback | Coordinates |
| Open-data mapping service (fallback) | Mosque search fallback | Coordinates |
| Avatar-generation service | Placeholder avatar generation | Display name |
| Cloud database provider | Community moon-sighting votes and Jummah prayer times | Your vote or Jummah time, account ID, name, email, and saved location (coordinates and place name) |
| Audio hosting provider | Quran audio recitation | None (static file requests only) |
We do not sell your data to anyone. Each third party listed above processes data according to its own privacy policy.
Data Retention & Account Deletion
Your account data (name, email, profile photo) is retained for as long as your account exists. Locally stored data remains on your device until you clear the app's storage or uninstall it.
Moon-sighting votes and Jummah prayer times, including the name, email, and location stored with them, are kept for as long as your account exists and are deleted when your account is deleted.
To request deletion of your account and associated data, email us at support@fahmapp.in with the subject line "Delete My Fahm Account" from the email address associated with your account. We will process deletion requests within a reasonable timeframe and confirm once complete.
Children's Privacy
Fahm is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will remove it.
Permissions Fahm Requests
The first time you finish onboarding, Fahm shows an in-app screen explaining each of these before the system permission dialog appears, in your choice of English, Urdu, Arabic, or Bangla. Declining any of them is always an option and never blocks the app.
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Location (fine/coarse) | Accurate prayer times, Qibla direction, nearby mosque search. Without it, prayer times default to Makkah, Saudi Arabia. |
| Notifications | Local Athan (prayer call) reminders and daily reminders — scheduled entirely on-device, no push notification server involved. |
| Battery optimization exemption | Optional, requested once. Some phones aggressively pause background apps to save power, which can silently stop scheduled prayer notifications after a day or two. Exempting Fahm keeps Athan alerts arriving on time. The app functions normally if declined. |
Security
We use industry-standard practices to protect your information, including encrypted storage for sensitive data such as API keys you provide, and HTTPS for all network requests. However, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "last updated" date. Continued use of Fahm after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.
Contact Us
Questions about this policy or your data? Email support@fahmapp.in.