Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information the Halal Food app (iPhone, iPad and Android) and this website process, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have. Halal Food is published by Malidev (“we”, “us”).

The short version

• You can use the halal scanner, the Quran reader and Quran Radio without an account.
• Photos and text you send for a halal check are analysed and then discarded by our servers. Your scan history stays on your phone.
• An account is only needed for Foodtok (posting recipes, commenting, following). What you post there is public inside the app.
• The app shows ads from Google AdMob. On iPhone and iPad they are never personalised; on Android you can control personalisation.
• We don’t sell your personal information. The app does not use your location.
• You can delete your Foodtok account from the app at any time.

1. Halal checks (scanner)

When you check a food “From photo”, “From gallery” or “From description”, the app sends the photo or the text you typed to our server (Google Cloud Functions, part of Firebase) to get a Halal, Haram or Mushbooh (doubtful) answer. To produce that answer:

• Photos of ingredient lists are sent to OCR.space to read the text.
• The ingredient text or your question is sent to OpenRouter, which passes it to an AI model provider (currently OpenAI) to classify the ingredients.
• Barcode numbers are looked up in Open Food Facts, a public food database.

We do not store your scan photos or text on our servers. Scans are not linked to your Foodtok account. Our server logs keep technical details of each request (a request ID, whether it contained a photo, the length of the text, the app language, the platform, the barcode number when you scan one, and the resulting status), and, when an error occurs, an excerpt of the error or of the AI’s reply, to keep the service running and fix problems. Your results and History are saved only on your device. Don’t include personal information in photos or questions you send for analysis.

2. Foodtok accounts and content

If you create a Foodtok account, we process:

• Account data: your email address and password. When you sign up, sign in or delete your account, your password is sent over an encrypted connection to our server, which passes it to Google Firebase Authentication to check it. We don’t store or log your password; Firebase keeps only a secure hash of it.
• Email verification: six-digit sign-up and password-reset codes are emailed through Resend and expire after 10 minutes. While a code is pending, we store your email address, the flag you chose and a one-way fingerprint of the code (never the code itself); this record is deleted when the code is used or a new one is requested.
• Profile: display name, profile picture, bio and the country flag you choose. Until you choose a display name, your profile shows the part of your email address before the “@”; you can change it at any time in Edit profile.
• Content and activity: recipes (steps, name, photo, language), comments, likes, saved recipes, follows, reports and the activity notifications about your recipes.

Your profile, recipes and comments are visible to other Foodtok users, other users can find you by your display name, and your flag counts towards the country leaderboard. Recipe photos and profile pictures are stored at public web addresses, so anyone who has the link can view them. When you publish a recipe, its text is sent to OpenRouter so AI can detect the ingredients and, if you ask, correct spelling. When someone taps “Translate recipe”, the recipe or comment text is sent to OpenRouter, and the translation is saved with the content so it can be shown again.

Foodtok data is stored in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore and Cloud Storage). When you report a comment we record that you reported it, so the same person can’t report it twice. A comment is hidden automatically after five reports; a report from the recipe’s author counts as three.

3. Advertising

Halal Food is free and shows ads through Google AdMob to cover its server and AI costs. AdMob may collect device identifiers (such as the advertising ID), your IP address and ad interactions to deliver and measure ads and, where allowed, to personalise them. See how Google uses information from apps that use its services.

• Where the law requires it (for example in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland), the app shows Google’s consent message before any ads are requested, and you can choose whether ads are personalised.
• On iPhone and iPad, the app only requests non-personalised ads.
• On Android, outside those regions, Google may personalise ads. You can turn this off or reset your advertising ID in your phone’s settings (Google → Ads, or Privacy → Ads depending on the phone).
• Ads are limited to content rated PG (parental guidance) or lower.
• Watching a short video can remove ads for two hours or unlock colour themes. This is optional.

4. Information stored on your device

Some data never leaves your phone: your scan History, settings (language, theme, vibrations, reminder time), downloaded surahs, recipe drafts and your game score. Deleting the app removes them.

5. Quran reader and Quran Radio

Quran recitations are streamed from cdn.islamic.network. As with any web request, that server receives your IP address and the file requested. Surahs you download are stored on your device.

6. Notifications and permissions

• Notifications: the daily surah reminder and the optional daily Foodtok tip are scheduled on your device at the time you choose. They are not sent through our servers.
• Camera: used only to photograph food labels and barcodes.
• Photos: used only for the images you pick (a label, a recipe photo or a profile picture).
• Location: Halal Food does not use your location.

You can change these permissions at any time in your phone’s settings.

7. How we use information

We use the information above only to provide and secure the app’s features (halal checks, Foodtok, reminders), to show ads, to answer your messages and to prevent abuse. We don’t sell your personal information and we don’t use your scans or recipes to build an advertising profile.

8. Who we share it with

We share information only with the service providers named in this policy, which process it on our behalf: Google (Firebase, Cloud Functions, AdMob), OCR.space, OpenRouter and its AI model providers, Open Food Facts (barcode numbers only), Resend and Vercel (hosting of this website). We may also disclose information if the law requires it or to protect users from harm.

These providers may process data outside your country, including in the United States.

9. How long we keep it

• Scan photos and text: not stored after the answer is returned.
• Foodtok account and content: until you delete them or your account.
• Verification codes: valid for 10 minutes; the pending record is deleted when used or replaced.
• Server logs: kept for a limited time to operate and debug the service.

10. Deleting your account and data

In the app, go to Settings → Account → Delete account. After confirming with your password and a confirmation word, we permanently delete your sign-in account, profile, recipes (including all comments on them), likes, saved recipes, follows, reports, activity and uploaded images. Comments you posted on other people’s recipes are not removed automatically: delete them yourself before deleting your account, or email us and we will remove them. You can also delete individual recipes and comments at any time. If you can’t access the app, email us at contact@malidev.com from the address linked to your account.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in Europe or privacy laws in the United States), you may have the right to access, correct, delete or export your personal information, to object to or restrict its use, and to withdraw consent at any time. To use these rights, contact us at contact@malidev.com. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

12. Children

Halal Food is not directed at children under 13. Children under 13, or under the minimum age in their country, should not create a Foodtok account. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

13. Security

Data is sent over encrypted connections (HTTPS) and stored with Google Firebase. The app reads and changes Foodtok data only through our server functions, which check that you are signed in and only let you change your own content; images can only be uploaded to your own folder. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information.

14. This website

This website (halalfood.malidev.com) is hosted by Vercel and uses Vercel Web Analytics to count page views. It doesn’t use cookies for this and doesn’t identify individual visitors. If you dismiss the language suggestion, that choice is saved in your browser.

15. Changes to this policy

We will update this page when the app changes how it handles data, and change the date at the top.

16. Contact

Malidev – contact@malidev.com