Kitaabi

Privacy Policy

Effective November 3, 2026

Kitaabi is an app for studying Modern Standard Arabic. It has no accounts, no ads and no tracking. The developer receives nothing from the app except your name and points on the leaderboard, anonymous star ratings you choose to give, the price survey and usage reports from beta versions, all described below, and anything you send yourself.

What stays on your device

• Your progress. Flashcard history, drill results, streaks, settings and any word lists or decks you import are stored on your device.
• Your recordings. When you practice speaking, your voice is recorded on your device so you can play it back. Recordings aren't uploaded anywhere by Kitaabi and are deleted when they're no longer needed.
• Your Claude API key, if you add one, is kept in your device's Keychain.

iCloud sync

If you're signed in to iCloud, Kitaabi syncs your progress between your iPhone, iPad and Mac using your own private iCloud database. Apple stores this data for you. The developer can't see or access it. You can turn iCloud off for Kitaabi in your device's iCloud settings.

Kitaabi on the web

Kitaabi also has a website, kitaabi.co. It works like the app, with these differences.

• Signing in. To use your iCloud progress, you sign in with your Apple Account through Apple's iCloud sign-in for websites (CloudKit JS). Apple handles the sign-in: Kitaabi never sees your Apple Account password, name or email address. Apple's sign-in script keeps you signed in with a cookie on the website; the website's server doesn't use it. Signed in, the website syncs your progress with the same private iCloud database the app uses, which the developer can't see or access: it brings in what you did in the app and saves what you do on the website. Apple's upload server doesn't accept files straight from websites, so when the website saves your progress, the file passes through the website's server on Vercel on its way to Apple. The server sends it on unchanged and doesn't keep or log it. Before a sync changes your progress, the website keeps a few earlier copies in your browser, so you can restore one from its iCloud page.
• Without signing in, your progress and settings are kept in your browser's storage on that computer only. Nothing is sent anywhere.
• Hosting. The website and its recordings are served by Vercel. Like any web host, Vercel keeps standard request logs (your IP address, browser type, and the pages and files requested) for a limited time, to run and secure the service, under Vercel's privacy policy. The developer doesn't use them to identify anyone.
• No analytics or ads. The website has no analytics, advertising or tracking scripts. The only outside script is Apple's sign-in, loaded from Apple's server under Apple's privacy policy.
• Text without a recording. A few words and sentences have no recording, and you can turn recorded voices off in Settings. Then the website has your browser read the text aloud with an Arabic voice installed on your device, never an online voice, so the text isn't sent anywhere. If your device has no such voice, it isn't read aloud.
• Importing decks and word lists. When you import an Anki deck, a CSV or text file, or a spreadsheet, the website reads it in your browser; the file is never uploaded. The words and your progress with them are saved with the rest of your progress: in your browser, and in your private iCloud database when you're signed in, as the app does. A deck's own recordings are kept in your browser only (in its storage for this site), as the app keeps them on the device they were imported on, so other devices read those words with their own voice. Clearing this site's data removes them.
• Backups. Exporting progress saves a file to your device; importing one reads it in your browser. Neither sends the file anywhere.
• Speaking. When you record yourself, the website asks your browser for the microphone. Your recording stays in the browser page, so you can play it back, and it's gone when you leave the page; Kitaabi never receives it. To score a take, the website uses your browser's own speech recognition, and most browsers send what you say to their maker's speech service to turn it into text: Google for Chrome, Microsoft for Edge, Apple for Safari, each under its own privacy policy. Kitaabi gets only the text, to score the take on your device, and doesn't keep it. Some browsers can recognize speech on the device instead; the Speaking page says which applies before you record. Browsers without speech recognition, such as Firefox, don't send anything; the page records your take and you compare it by ear.
• What the website doesn't send. It doesn't send star ratings, survey answers or usage reports, and it doesn't put you on the leaderboard. If other features that send data come to the website, this policy will say what they send and where before they launch.
• Deleting. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes what it stored there. To clear your synced progress, use Reset progress in the app, or on the website while signed in, or delete Kitaabi's data in your iCloud settings.

Speech recognition (Apple)

Speaking drills turn your spoken Arabic into text using Apple's speech recognition. It runs on your device when Arabic recognition is available there. Otherwise your audio is sent to Apple to be transcribed, under Apple's privacy policy. It isn't linked to your identity by Kitaabi, and the developer never receives it. You can refuse microphone or speech recognition access; the rest of the app still works.

Optional Claude features (Anthropic)

Some features, such as speaking feedback, new practice passages and example sentences, use Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic. They only work if you enter your own Anthropic API key. When you use one of them, Kitaabi sends the text needed for that request directly from your device to Anthropic: for example the drill prompt and the transcript of your spoken answer, or the flashcard word and meaning you want an example sentence for. Your audio and your progress aren't sent. Anthropic handles this data under its own terms and privacy policy, and it's linked to your API account, not to the developer. If you don't add a key, nothing is ever sent to Anthropic.

Crash reports (Apple)

If you've chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device's settings, Apple sends the developer crash and performance reports, such as crash logs and launch times. Apple collects these, not Kitaabi, and they don't identify you. You can turn this off under Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements.

Anonymous ratings

Kitaabi asks for a quick star rating after a listening or reading passage and after each Sentence Builder sentence. You can skip it. If you rate, the app sends the developer the stars, which passage or sentence you rated, its skill and level, the app's build number and the date. This goes to the app's public CloudKit database, which Apple runs. Only the developer can read it: other people using the app can't see your ratings, and the app itself only sends them. It doesn't include your name, your device, your answers or your recordings. Like everything saved to a CloudKit public database, a rating carries an anonymous ID that Apple assigns. It isn't your Apple Account and the developer can't find out who it belongs to, but it is the same for all your ratings, so they can be told apart from other people's. The developer uses ratings only to find passages and drills that need work.

Leaderboard

Kitaabi has a weekly and an all-time leaderboard. If you're signed in to iCloud, you're on it automatically. It shows the first name you chose when you set up the app and your points for the week and all time. Everyone using Kitaabi can see them. Points come from the drills, lessons and flashcards you finish. Nothing else about you or your answers is shared.

Your name and points are saved to the app's public CloudKit database, which Apple runs, with the same kind of anonymous ID described under Anonymous ratings. It isn't your Apple Account, and no sign-in is needed. Names are checked for profanity before they're shown. Anyone can report a name, and the developer may remove names that don't belong.

You can leave the leaderboard at any time under Settings → Leaderboard. Your name and points are then taken off it, and you can rejoin later. Without an iCloud account you aren't on the leaderboard.

Beta versions only: price survey

Beta versions of Kitaabi, the ones installed from TestFlight with a version number below 1.0, also offer a short, optional price survey on the Today screen. If you send it, the app sends your answers (about how much time you've spent with Kitaabi, what you use most, what you'd pay, the kind of plan you'd prefer, whether an employer or school would pay for it, and any comment you write) with the build number and date, the same way, with the same anonymous ID. The developer uses the answers only to set the app's price. The App Store version (1.0 and later) doesn't have the survey.

Beta versions only: usage reports

Beta versions also send the developer a usage report on their own, at most once an hour: which screens you opened, drills done, how often features are used, the file types you imported (not their names), errors and likely crashes, the crash and hang diagnostics the system gives the app, your device model, the app version and the date you started using it. It goes to the same CloudKit database with the same anonymous ID. Only the developer can read it. It never includes your answers, recordings, transcripts or anything you type into a bug report. The App Store version doesn't send it.

Feedback and bug reports

If you send a bug report from Settings, it opens in your own email app so you can read it before sending. It may include a usage report: which screens you used and for how long, plus your device model and app version. It doesn't include your recordings or your API key. The developer receives it only if you press Send, and uses it only to fix bugs and improve the app.

Children

Kitaabi isn't directed at children under 13 and doesn't knowingly collect personal information from anyone.

Deleting your data

Deleting the app removes everything stored on that device. To take your name and points off the leaderboard, leave it under Settings → Leaderboard before deleting the app. To clear your synced progress too, use Reset progress in Kitaabi's Settings while iCloud is on (it clears it on all your devices), or delete Kitaabi's data in your iCloud settings. To have a bug report you've emailed deleted, write to the address below.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new effective date.

Contact

Questions about privacy: kitaabi.ios@gmail.com