Short version: Hala Sham does not collect, store or share any personal information. There is no account, no sign-in, no analytics and no advertising. Everything you enter stays on your own device.
None. We have no servers that hold user data, and we cannot see what you do in the app.
The app saves the following locally, on your phone only:
This information is never sent to us or to anyone else. Deleting the app removes it. If your phone has system backup turned on (Google Drive on Android, iCloud on iOS), this data may be included in that backup, which is handled by Google or Apple under their own policies. You can also export a backup file yourself; that file goes wherever you choose to save or send it.
The app is designed to work fully offline. It connects to the internet in only two cases, and neither sends personal information:
These providers receive a standard web request, which includes your device's IP address, as any website would. They are independent services with their own privacy policies.
If you choose "Nearest" to sort places by distance, the app asks for location permission. Your location is used on your device only, to calculate distances, and is never stored, logged or transmitted. You can decline, and the app continues to work normally.
Tapping a phone number, map link, WhatsApp link or website opens another app on your device. What happens there is governed by that app and service.
If you send us a photo through "Suggest a place", you confirm in that email that you own it and give us permission to use it in the app and its store listing. We keep the email as a record of that permission. We publish the credit name you provide, or nothing if you give none. Write to us at any time to have a photo removed.
The app is a travel guide for a general audience and collects no information from anyone, including children.
Place information is drawn from Wikipedia and Wikidata, map data from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), and photographs from Wikimedia Commons and contributors, each credited in the app with its licence.
If this policy changes, the new version will appear on this page with a new date.
Questions about privacy, or anything else: hello@halasham.app.