Privacy policy

Effective date: September 6, 2026. Muslim Lantern is operated by MUSLIM LANTERN LLC, a United States limited liability company ('we', 'us'). This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and the rights you have wherever you live.

The short version

We collect the minimum needed to run and improve the app. We don’t sell or share your personal information for advertising, we don’t run third-party ads, and your questions are never published with your identity. You can schedule deletion yourself from the You tab, with 30 days to change your mind.

What we collect

Account data: email address, display name, and profile photo from the sign-in provider you choose (Apple, Google, or email code), and your authentication identifiers.
Activity data: Quran bookmarks and reading position, Ask and Voice conversation transcripts and cited-video references, helpful/not-helpful ratings, watch/listen progress, interests, preferences, screens and channels used, session timing, and a random first-party identifier used before sign-in. If you later sign in, prior activity from that identifier may be connected to your account so the journey is continuous.
Acquisition data: campaign and referral labels contained in a Muslim Lantern link you open (such as source, medium, campaign, referral code, landing page, and app channel). We do not use an advertising identifier, and we do not retain unrelated link parameters.
Transaction data: shop order references, items, amounts, shipping selections, and subscription entitlement status. Full payment details go directly to Apple, Google, or Shopify — card numbers never touch our servers.
Community and support content: Support AI conversations; conversations with a support teammate; support-ticket category and description; and any screenshots you deliberately attach. Tickets also include device model, OS and app version so we can investigate the issue. Ticket screenshots are private and available only to authorized support staff.
Contact requests: if you use the “Becoming a Muslim” page to reach a real person, we store the name you optionally give, the email or phone you provide, and your message — visible only to the small team that responds, never used for marketing, and deletable on request or with your account.
Device & diagnostics: push token (only if you enable notifications), device model, OS and app version, language, time zone, IP address and first/last observed time for security, abuse prevention and first-party service analytics, approximate location (country only, derived from your IP — we never store your precise location), and account-unlinked crash/performance diagnostics. Network-history access is restricted to authorized staff and every read is audited. Crash reports do not include your email, request IP, screenshots, or view hierarchy.

What we deliberately do NOT collect

No advertising identifiers (IDFA/AAID). We do not collect or store your precise location. If you open Qibla or Prayer Times and grant access, the app reads your current position only while that feature is in use and calculates the Qibla or local prayer schedule on your phone. Qibla may also read heading, magnetic-field measurements, and device orientation while its screen is open. Those readings are discarded when you leave. If you deliberately open Qibla Ground View, the device requests nearby map and satellite imagery from its platform map provider (Apple Maps on iPhone or Google Maps on Android); that provider may process the requested map region under its own privacy terms. Lantern does not receive the map request or create a location history. If you choose a city or enter coordinates for Prayer Times, that preference is stored only on your device and is not sent to us. Remembrance suggestions are off by default. If you turn on a suggestion for arriving home, arriving at the mosque, or travelling, the app asks for location access in the background ('Allow all the time' on Android) and uses low-power geofences or significant-change monitoring on your phone to notice that moment and offer a quiet notification. The saved home or mosque position and every location reading stay on your device, are never sent to us or anyone else, and are deleted the moment you turn the suggestion off or remove the saved place. Quran and audio downloads stay on your device. Quran Audio Search downloads an on-device recognition pack; recitation audio is processed locally, is not uploaded, and temporary microphone buffers are discarded when the search ends. We access your photo library only when you choose screenshots for a support ticket, and your microphone only when you start a voice, dictation, or Quran Audio Search feature. No contact-list access, cross-app tracking, or data brokering, ever.

Why we process it (legal bases under GDPR/UK GDPR)

To provide the service you asked for — accounts, sync, answers, orders, notifications (contract performance, Art. 6(1)(b)).
To secure and improve the service — diagnostics, abuse prevention, aggregate analytics (legitimate interests, Art. 6(1)(f)).
With your consent — push notifications, marketing emails, optional interests, and any optional research donation selected when leaving (Art. 6(1)(a)); withdraw research consent through privacy@muslimlantern.app.
To comply with law — tax, commerce, and lawful requests (Art. 6(1)(c)).

How AI features use your data

When you use Ask, Objection Mode, Conversation Prep, or Lantern Voice, the words you type or say and relevant excerpts from published video transcripts are processed by our automated answer and voice service providers to return the feature you requested. Dictation in Ask and Conversation Prep may use the speech-recognition service supplied by your device platform. Lantern Voice Live streams microphone audio to our voice-conversation provider for transcription, response generation, and playback during the call. Written Ask threads and completed Lantern Voice transcripts are stored with your account so you can revisit them; Voice entries also retain the published-video references shown during the call. Conversation history stores text and references, not a recording of the live call. Generated speech may be cached temporarily on your device for playback. You can delete one conversation or clear them all from Conversations. Lantern memory is enabled by default for signed-in users. It uses bounded text from saved Ask and Voice conversations for recent continuity and may create compact remembered details such as preferences, goals, recurring interests, useful background and unfinished topics. It does not use call recordings. Ask retrieves only details relevant to the current question; Voice receives a small ranked set and ignores unrelated details. Current words take priority, and memories are not treated as factual evidence or a replacement for Ask citations. Automated safeguards exclude passwords, payment details, precise location, health information, private identifiers, political affiliation and inferred religious identity from durable memory. You can inspect, edit or forget individual remembered details, turn memory off, or clear it from You → Lantern memory. Turning it off stops both extraction and retrieval in future Ask and Voice conversations. Clearing memory removes remembered details and creates a clean cutoff while leaving your visible conversation history intact; deleting conversation history is a separate control. Free and paid plans have different monthly extraction and retained-memory caps, described in the app. If you schedule account deletion, two separate optional checkboxes let you donate (1) raw questions and answers and/or (2) your ordered usage journey to improve Muslim Lantern. Neither is preselected and declining does not affect deletion. Donated material moves to a restricted research vault under a random identifier; account, contact, device, IP, payment, and precise-location fields are not copied. Because raw questions can contain details you chose to type or say, donated question text is retained as written. You may withdraw this research consent through privacy@muslimlantern.app. Lantern Voice and spoken answers use a generated voice created with the speaker’s consent from his published recordings. Generated speech is not the speaker and is not a religious ruling. Conversations are never sold, published with your identity, or used for advertising.

Who we share with (processors)

Only service providers that make the app work, under contracts and settings appropriate to their role: Supabase (database, authentication, and private ticket files, hosted on AWS in the USA), automated answer and voice-conversation providers, RevenueCat (subscription entitlement management), Shopify (shop and checkout), Apple/Google (sign-in, purchases, push delivery, and platform speech recognition when used), our podcast host and Cloudflare-hosted media for audio streaming, and product-analytics and crash-diagnostic providers. Video playback streams directly from YouTube under YouTube’s own terms and privacy policy. We disclose data beyond this only when the law genuinely requires it, and we object to overbroad requests.

International transfers

Our infrastructure is in the United States. Where GDPR/UK GDPR applies to your use, transfers rely on Standard Contractual Clauses (and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where our providers are certified).

Retention

Support AI conversations that never involve a support teammate are automatically deleted 30 days after their last activity. A chat that ever involves a teammate is automatically deleted 12 months after it is closed. Customer-submitted support screenshots and records designated as billing, refund or dispute evidence have no automatic expiry because they preserve investigation evidence; they remain subject to verified deletion requests except where a legal obligation or hold requires continued retention. Deletion requests have a 30-day recovery period. After it ends, account and associated operational data are deleted, including conversation history, support tickets and attached screenshots, contact requests tied to the account/email, network observations, and identified analytics/subscription profiles, except for the limited evidence a legal obligation or hold requires us to preserve. Network observations are retained with the account or first-party visitor record for security and operational history and are removed when that record is deleted or a valid deletion request is completed; country-level aggregates may remain without the IP. Optional research donations are retained while the documented improvement purpose continues, reviewed at least annually, or until consent is withdrawn. Order and tax records are retained only where law requires. Account-unlinked diagnostics and analytics use rolling retention windows. Encrypted backups expire on their fixed rotation after deletion. Content downloaded to your device remains there until you remove it or uninstall the app.

Security

Encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest, row-level security on every user table, scoped API keys, and least-privilege access for the small team. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we will notify you and regulators as the law requires.

Your rights

Everyone: access, correct, export, and delete your data — most of it self-serve in the app. EU/UK/EEA: additionally, restriction, objection, portability, and the right to complain to your supervisory authority. California (CCPA/CPRA): right to know, delete, correct, and portability. We do not 'sell' or 'share' personal information as defined by the CPRA, and we honor Global Privacy Control signals for anything in scope. We never discriminate for exercising rights. Requests: privacy@muslimlantern.app — answered within 30 days (or the timeline your law requires).

Children

The app is not directed at children under 13 (or the higher minimum digital-consent age where you live), and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has an account, contact privacy@muslimlantern.app and we will delete it.

Do Not Track & GPC

We do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites, so there is nothing for DNT to disable. Global Privacy Control signals are honored where applicable.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, we will notify you in the app before the change takes effect and update the effective date above.

Contact

MUSLIM LANTERN LLC Privacy requests: privacy@muslimlantern.app Everything else: support@muslimlantern.app