Privacy policy
Last updated: 26 October 2026
Sama is a picture-book app for children, made by Basira (“we”). We built Sama so that children can read without giving us anything about themselves. This policy explains what the app collects, why, and how you can delete it.
The short version
- No ads and no tracking. Sama has no advertising, no ad SDKs and no third-party analytics, and we never sell or share data for advertising.
- Children never sign in. Sign-in, buying and settings are in the parents area, behind a press-and-hold gate.
- An account is optional. Without one, reading data stays on the device. Only a parent can create an account, to keep a subscription and the children’s progress safe.
- You can delete everything from the app (Parents → Account → Delete account) or on our delete account page.
Without an account
Favourites, progress, profiles and settings are stored on the device only. The app also sends two things that are anonymous: they carry no account, device ID or child profile.
- Daily reading statistics. Once a day the app sends a small summary, such as which stories were opened and finished, how far they were read and in which language, plus the app version and the system (iOS or Android). We use them to see which stories are loved and to suggest stories to other readers.
- Searches that found nothing. These are letters only, 2 to 20 characters, at most 5 a day, so we know which stories to write next.
Our server uses your internet address only to stop abuse (rate limiting) and does not store it with the statistics. Daily summaries are added up every night and the individual summaries are then deleted.
With an account (optional, for parents)
A parent can save a subscription to an account with Apple, Google or an email address. When you buy without saving, the app makes a quiet account with no name or email that holds the subscription on your devices.
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Email address, and your name if Apple or Google share it | To sign you in and to show which account is signed in |
| How you sign in (Apple, Google or email) | To sign you in |
| Subscription details from Apple or Google: product, start and end dates, store transaction IDs | To check the purchase and open the stories you paid for |
| Your devices: a device ID, the device model or name, and the system (iOS or Android) | For the limit of 3 devices per subscription, and so you can see and remove devices |
Your children’s profiles (subscribers)
While a subscription is active, the family’s profiles are also saved in the account so they come back on your other devices and after reinstalling:
- each child’s nickname (no real name is needed), emoji avatar and age group;
- reading progress, pages seen, favourites, recently read stories, reading minutes per day for the last 8 weeks and best quiz scores;
- the family’s settings: language, sounds, and the answer to the religion question (Muslim, Christian, Jewish or other), which we use only to choose the word “Allah” or “God” in stories.
We don’t ask children for their real name, photo, birthday, location, contacts or anything else, and the app doesn’t use the camera or microphone.
Who processes the data
We use a few service providers, who process data only for us:
- Google Firebase / Google Cloud (USA): accounts, the database and our server functions.
- Cloudflare: stores and delivers story photos and sounds, and receives the anonymous statistics.
- Apple and Google: handle payments. We never see your card details.
We don’t sell personal data and don’t share it with anyone for their own purposes, unless the law requires it.
How long we keep it
- Account data and children’s profiles: until you delete the account.
- Anonymous statistics: kept as daily totals that can’t be linked to anyone.
- A minimal record of store transactions, without name or email: kept as long as needed to verify purchases, prevent fraud and meet legal duties.
Deleting your data
- In the app: Parents (press and hold) → Account → Delete account.
- On the web: our delete account page.
- By email: write to accounts@basira.ca.
Deleting the account removes the account, its devices, the children’s profiles saved in it and any subscription we added by hand. It does not cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription: cancel that in the store. Data saved only on a device is removed when you delete the app.
You can also write to us to ask what we hold about you or to correct it.
Security
All data travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Access to the database is limited by security rules: each family can only read its own account, and only our server can change subscriptions.
Changes
If we change this policy, we will update this page and the date at the top. If a change is important, we will also tell you in the app.
Contact
Basira, accounts@basira.ca