Privacy Policy

1. Scope and operator

This Privacy Policy applies to the DeenConnect mobile application, the deenconnect.app website, and related services (together, the "Service"). In this policy, "DeenConnect," "we," "our," and "us" refer to the operator of the Service. Questions and privacy requests can be sent to the Privacy Contact at deenconnect.help@gmail.com.

2. Information we collect

We collect the following categories of information when they are relevant to the features you use:

• Account and age information: email address, password authentication record, name, username, birth month and year, account creation date, verification and administrative status, and legal-policy acceptance records.
• Profile information: profile image, biography, city, country, follower and following relationships, blocked-account choices, and account preferences.
• User content: social posts, photos, videos, clips, captions, comments, likes, saved-content activity, marketplace listings and reviews, donation-campaign information, and related metadata.
• Communications: direct and marketplace messages, message requests, support communications, notifications, reports, appeals, and copyright notices. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted.
• Moderation information: screening decisions and categories, short-lived screening tickets, private review-queue submissions, reviewer decisions and reasons, content hashes, reports, and enforcement records.
• Marketplace and donation information: listing area, seller and buyer activity, campaign details, and, if withdrawal tools are available and you request a withdrawal, the contact, identity, banking, or payment information you submit for review.
• Location: precise device location when you grant permission and request location-based prayer times, and an approximate area for marketplace features. Precise coordinates may be sent to the prayer-time provider to calculate results. DeenConnect is designed to display an approximate area rather than a precise address on marketplace listings.
• Photos, videos, and device files: media you select for upload or editing and copies you choose to save. We do not upload your entire photo library.
• Device and usage information: device and operating-system information, app instance identifiers, IP address and general network information, feature interactions, search and watch activity, notification tokens and status, crash logs, diagnostic events, security signals, and performance information.
• Advertising information: consent choices, advertising identifiers where permitted by your device settings and law, ad interactions, and information used to provide, measure, limit, and protect advertising.
• Local app information: theme, prayer settings, reminders, calendar entries, cached media, and other preferences stored on your device. Some local information may not be sent to DeenConnect.

3. How we collect information

• Directly from you when you create an account, build a profile, post, message, list an item, submit a report, or contact us.
• Automatically from the app, device, and integrated services when you use the Service.
• From other users when they interact with you, mention you, send you content, or report content or conduct.
• From service providers that support authentication, hosting, analytics, crash reporting, notifications, security, advertising, location-related features, or payments.

4. Why we use information

• Provide accounts, profiles, feeds, media, messaging, marketplace, prayer, Quran, dua, calendar, and other requested features.
• Apply age-based access rules and record acceptance of current legal terms.
• Store, deliver, rank, cache, and display content and communications.
• Send service and safety notifications when you permit them.
• Review reports, moderate content, enforce rules, prevent abuse, and protect users and the Service.
• Diagnose crashes, measure use, maintain performance, and develop or improve features.
• Provide and measure advertising, subject to consent and device controls where required.
• Administer marketplace, donation, and payment-related functions if those functions are available.
• Respond to support, privacy, legal, and copyright requests and comply with applicable law.

Where applicable law requires a legal basis, we rely on performance of our agreement with you, consent, compliance with law, and legitimate interests such as security, moderation, service improvement, and fraud prevention. You may withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, but that does not affect earlier lawful processing.

5. Content screening, review, and visibility

Your name, username, profile image, biography, verification status, follower information, and content you publish may be visible to other users or the public, depending on the feature. Marketplace listings and donation campaigns are intended for broad visibility. Other people may save, copy, share, or record public content. Do not publish information you want to keep private.

Text submitted in profiles, posts, media descriptions, comments, messages, marketplace listings and reviews, and donation campaigns is processed by server-side rules designed to detect high-confidence safety violations, scams, spam, and other Community Guidelines risks. Content may be rejected before it is accepted. Social posts containing media, media videos, and new profile photos are not displayed publicly while authorized administrators review them; they are not published unless approved. Reviewers can inspect the queued text and media and record an approval or a rejection reason. Automated screening and human review can make mistakes and do not detect every violation.

To prevent a screened text submission from being replaced before it is written, DeenConnect stores the exact screened fields in a private ticket designed to expire after about ten minutes and deletes expired tickets periodically. For non-allow decisions, we may also retain the account identifier, affected feature, decision, risk categories, screening version, and a one-way content hash without storing another copy of the text in the screening-event record. A pending review record keeps the submitted payload and uploaded-file paths until a decision; those fields are removed after review, and rejected queued media is deleted. Direct messages are not ordinarily placed in this manual media queue solely because of automated screening, but they may be accessed when reported or when reasonably necessary for safety, operations, or law. To appeal a moderation decision, email deenconnect.help@gmail.com.

Direct messages are intended for conversation participants. Reports, withdrawal requests, authentication contact details, and device notification tokens are restricted to the account owner and authorized personnel or service providers, subject to operational and legal needs.

6. When we disclose information

We may disclose information in these circumstances:

• Other users and the public: for profiles, posts, comments, listings, campaigns, interactions, and other content you choose to make visible.
• Google Firebase: for authentication, database and file hosting, Cloud Functions, analytics, crash reporting, push messaging, and App Check security.
• Google AdMob: to request, deliver, protect, and measure ads in the mobile app, subject to the consent and privacy controls described below.
• Apple and Google platform services: for app distribution, device permissions, push delivery, security, and platform functionality.
• Aladhan: precise coordinates are sent when you request location-based prayer-time calculations from its API.
• Payment providers: such as Stripe if payment or withdrawal features are enabled. Payment providers process payment credentials under their own terms; DeenConnect does not intend to store full card numbers.
• Professional advisers and vendors: where reasonably necessary for hosting, security, support, auditing, legal advice, or operating the Service and subject to appropriate obligations.
• Legal and safety reasons: when reasonably necessary to comply with law, legal process, enforce our terms, investigate abuse, protect rights or safety, or respond to an emergency.
• Business changes: in connection with a financing, reorganization, merger, sale, or transfer of the Service, subject to applicable law.
• At your direction: when you ask us to share information or give consent.

We do not sell personal information for money. Some laws define personalized advertising or disclosure to advertising partners as "sharing" or a "sale." You can use the advertising privacy controls described below where available.

7. Advertising and consent choices

The mobile app may show Google AdMob ads. Where required, DeenConnect asks for advertising consent before requesting ads and provides an Ad Privacy Choices option in Settings when Google makes that option available. Device-level controls may also limit tracking or reset advertising identifiers. Users identified as under the applicable age of consent are tagged accordingly in ad requests, and ad content is limited to an appropriate rating. DeenConnect does not show ads to guest or administrator sessions.

8. Retention

We keep information only as long as reasonably needed for the purposes described here, including operating the Service, preserving account and content integrity, resolving disputes, enforcing agreements, preventing repeat abuse, maintaining financial or legal records, and meeting legal obligations. Retention varies by category:

• Account and profile information is generally kept while the account is active.
• Published content and messages remain until they are deleted, removed under our policies, or removed through account deletion.
• Reports, enforcement records, security logs, and copyright records may be retained to protect users, document decisions, and prevent abuse. Direct account identifiers are removed from retained in-app reports when an account is deleted.
• Screening tickets expire after about ten minutes and are deleted periodically. Queued text and media paths are removed from the review record after a decision; limited decision metadata may remain as an enforcement record.
• Financial, donation, or withdrawal records may be retained in de-identified form as required for accounting, fraud prevention, disputes, and law.
• After deletion, we retain a minimal internal Firebase account identifier and deletion-status record to complete retries, reject stale credentials, and prevent deleted accounts from recreating data.
• Analytics and diagnostic information is retained according to our service-provider settings and operational needs.
• Cached files and local preferences remain on your device until the cache is cleared, the app is removed, or the applicable feature deletes them.

9. Account deletion and privacy requests

You can start account deletion from Settings. After password confirmation, the deletion process removes your Firebase Authentication account, public and private profile records, username mapping, uploaded social and media content, marketplace listings, comments and replies, reactions, relationship references, notifications, saved-media records, watch progress, moderation tickets and pending submissions, message requests, and conversations involving your account. Those conversations are removed for all participants. Campaigns without financial activity are removed. If a campaign has financial activity, the campaign is made inactive and identifying campaign and withdrawal fields are removed while necessary amounts, statuses, and payment records may be retained. Safety reports and moderation events may retain limited evidence or decision metadata, but direct identifiers tying those records to the deleted account are removed. A minimal deleted-account identifier and status record is retained for deletion integrity and abuse prevention. Copies made by other users, provider logs, analytics or crash records, legally required records, and backup copies may remain until they are deleted under provider settings, retention schedules, or applicable law. To request access, correction, deletion of residual personal information, or another privacy action, email deenconnect.help@gmail.com from the address associated with your account. We may need to verify your identity and may deny or limit a request where permitted by law.

10. Your controls and rights

• Edit profile information and delete certain content through the app.
• Block users and report content or conduct.
• Ask support to review a moderation decision or suspected screening mistake.
• Control location, photo-library, notification, and tracking permissions in device settings.
• Use Ad Privacy Choices in app settings when required and available.
• Request access, correction, deletion, withdrawal of consent, or information about our handling of personal information, subject to applicable law.
• Complain to the privacy regulator with authority where you live. We encourage you to contact us first so we can investigate.

11. International processing

DeenConnect and its service providers may process information in Canada, the United States, and other countries where they operate. Those countries may have different privacy laws. Information may be available to courts, law enforcement, or national-security authorities under local law. We use contractual, technical, and organizational measures appropriate to the nature of the information and processing.

12. Security

We use reasonable administrative and technical safeguards, including authenticated access, database and storage rules, restricted private records, application-integrity checks, transport encryption provided by our platforms, and monitoring of errors and suspicious activity. No service can guarantee absolute security. Contact us promptly if you believe your account or personal information has been compromised.

13. Age requirements

DeenConnect accounts are for people age 13 or older. Social and media publishing requires age 15 or older. Direct messaging and marketplace use require age 16 or older. Donation features require age 18 or older. We collect birth month and year to apply these restrictions. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 13, we may suspend or delete it and associated personal information. A parent or guardian who believes a child under 13 provided personal information should contact us.

14. Third-party links and content

The Service may link to third-party sites, stores, listings, videos, or services. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies. Review those policies before providing information outside DeenConnect.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Service, law, or our practices change. We will post the new effective date and, for material changes, provide an in-app notice or require acceptance where appropriate.

16. Contact