Last updated 6 September 2026 · Effective 6 September 2026
The short version. Prarthana has no accounts, no ads, nothing to buy and no way to reach the open web. Your settings, theme, chosen language and jaap mala counts stay on your own device. We do receive anonymous usage counts and crash reports, through Google Firebase, so we can tell which prayers get used and when the app breaks. We never sell or share data with advertisers.
Who we are
Prarthana is made and published by Utsav Patel (“we”, “us”), an independent
developer. This policy covers the Prarthana app for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and the pages
served from prarthana-prod.web.app. Questions go to
utsavhacker@gmail.com.
What stays on the device
Everything about how you use the app:
- Preferences. Your chosen theme, language, text size, and notification settings are stored on the device.
- Jaap mala counts. Your bead-counting progress is stored on the device and, if you use Apple Watch, synced between your iPhone and your wrist through Apple's own device-to-device sync — it does not pass through our servers.
- Downloaded content. Prayer texts, the festival calendar and audio the app fetches are kept on the device so it works offline afterwards. This is the same content every user downloads — it is not personalised to you.
- Festival reminders. Notifications for festivals and vrat dates are scheduled locally on your device from the downloaded calendar. We do not send you push notifications from a server, and we do not know which reminders you have set.
What we do receive
The app includes two Google Firebase services. Neither one is an advertising service.
Firebase Analytics — anonymous usage
So we can see which prayers, festivals and features actually get used, the app reports
events such as: the app was opened; a prayer or aarti was opened; a festival page was viewed; a
theme was switched; a language was changed; content failed to download. Each carries only what
it refers to — for example hanuman_chalisa, theme_agni.
Alongside those events, Google's SDK collects standard, non-identifying context: a randomly generated app-instance identifier, the device model, the iOS/watchOS and app version, the device language, and an approximate country or region worked out from the network IP address. We never see the IP address itself, and the app-instance identifier is reset if the app is deleted and reinstalled.
Firebase Crashlytics — crash reports
When the app crashes, Crashlytics sends us a report so it can be fixed: where in our code it happened, the device model, the OS version, how much memory and storage was free, and a randomly generated installation identifier. Crash reports contain no prayer content and nothing you typed, because there is nothing in this app for you to type beyond search text, which is never included.
Serving the content
On first launch, and occasionally afterwards to check for new prayers or festival data, the
app requests files from prarthana-prod.web.app. Like any web server, Firebase
Hosting logs those requests, including the IP address that made them, and Google retains those
logs for its own operational and security purposes. We do not use them to build any profile of
a user.
What we never collect
| Not collected | Why not |
|---|---|
| Names, email addresses, phone numbers | There is no account and no form. The app never asks. |
| The Advertising Identifier (IDFA) | There is no advertising in Prarthana, so the framework that reads it is not in the app. You will never see an App Tracking Transparency prompt. |
| Precise location | Never requested, and no location permission is ever asked for. |
| Contacts, calendar, microphone, camera | Never requested. |
| Search text | What you type to find a prayer or festival is matched entirely on the device and never leaves it. |
| Health or fitness data | The Apple Watch app counts mala beads locally; it does not use HealthKit. |
Tracking, advertising and selling data
We do not track users across apps or websites, and we do not allow anyone else to. There is no advertising SDK in Prarthana, no in-app purchase, and no analytics partner other than Google Firebase. Ad-personalisation signals are switched off in our Firebase configuration. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising — under the CCPA/CPRA or under any other law.
Children
Prarthana is a general-audience app and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, of any age. The anonymous usage and crash information described above is not tied to a name or to any identifier that could reasonably be used to recognise a person, and it is never used to advertise to anyone.
How long it is kept
Analytics events are retained by Google for up to 14 months and then deleted automatically. Crash reports are retained for up to 90 days. Server logs follow Google Cloud's own retention schedule. Preferences and mala counts are kept on your device until you delete the app or reset them in Settings — we hold no copy to delete.
Who else is involved
Google Ireland Limited and Google LLC process analytics, crash reports and hosting on our behalf, under Google's own terms. Their handling of that data is described in the Google Privacy Policy and the Firebase Privacy and Security notice. Data may be processed on servers in the United States and elsewhere; transfers out of the EEA and UK rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. Nobody else receives anything.
Your rights
Depending on where you live — the EU and UK under the GDPR, California under the CCPA/CPRA, and comparable laws elsewhere — you may have the right to ask what we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to it being processed, or to receive a copy. Because we hold nothing that identifies a person, there is usually nothing to send back; where a request can be acted on, we act on it free of charge and within 30 days. Write to utsavhacker@gmail.com.
Where the GDPR applies, our lawful basis for the analytics and crash information is our legitimate interest in keeping the app working and understanding which prayers are worth adding next. You can stop all of it at any time by deleting the app. Exercising any right will never cost you anything or make the app work worse.
Security
Everything the app fetches is fetched over HTTPS. Your preferences and mala counts sit in the app's own sandbox on the device, protected by iOS/watchOS. No system is perfect, but there is very little here to lose: we hold no accounts, no passwords and no personal data.
Changes
If this policy changes we will post the new version on this page and move the date at the top. A change that materially affects what is collected will also be described in the app's release notes on the App Store.
Contact
Utsav Patel · utsavhacker@gmail.com