Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated October 8, 2026

This policy covers the Shia Portal website (shiaportal.com) and the Shia Portal app for Android (together, “Shia Portal”). Shia Portal is a free community archive of Islamic centers, shrines and notable figures, with tools such as prayer times, the Qibla and the Islamic calendar. There are no user accounts, no advertising and no sale of data.

What we collect

• Usage statistics. Which pages or screens are opened, taps on main sections, session length, app version, device model, operating-system version and chosen language. The app identifies itself with a random install ID it creates on first launch; this ID is not linked to your name, phone number, advertising ID or any account. Our hosting provider tells us the approximate country, region and city of each request from its IP address; we store that approximate place but never the IP address itself.
• Error reports. If the app hits an error, a short error message is sent with the usage statistics so we can fix it.
• What you choose to send us. When you use Contact Admin, Suggest a Center, Suggest an update, Report wrong location or Add a person, we receive what you type in the form. Your name and email or phone are optional and are only used to reply to you about your submission. Information you submit about a center or a public figure may be published on Shia Portal after review; your own name and contact details are never published.

Location

If you allow it, the app and website use your device’s location to calculate prayer times, point the Qibla, show the moon-sighting forecast for where you are and find centers or shrines near you. This happens on your device. Your precise location is not sent to us or stored by us, and the app never uses location in the background. You can say no or turn location off at any time; you can still pick a city by hand.

Stored on your device

Your language, your salat log, your tasbeeh count and similar preferences are saved only on your device. They are deleted when you clear the app’s data or uninstall it.

Third-party content

Some pages show content from other services, which receive your device’s IP address when that content loads and apply their own privacy policies: YouTube (video thumbnails and feeds), Facebook (the Page feed shown on some center, shrine and profile pages), X (post images), and Esri (the map tiles on center maps). The calligraphy tool sends the English text you ask it to translate to the MyMemory translation service. We don’t control these services and recommend reading their policies.

How we use and share information

We use the information above only to run and improve Shia Portal, review submissions and reply to messages. We don’t sell it, rent it, use it for advertising or share it with third parties, except with the service providers that host Shia Portal for us (Vercel for hosting and Supabase for the database), who process it only on our behalf. All data is sent over encrypted (HTTPS) connections.

How long we keep it

Usage statistics are kept in aggregate form for as long as they are useful for running the service. Messages and submissions are kept while they are relevant; you can ask us to delete anything you sent.

Children

Shia Portal is a general-audience service and is not directed at children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children.

Your choices and requests

You can use the app without sending any form, and you can deny location access. To ask what we hold about a submission you made, or to have it corrected or deleted, send us a message through Contact Admin on the home page, or email velexdev@gmail.com, and tell us roughly when you sent it and what it was about.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date at the top.