Privacy notice

Who I am

Diwanul Arab is run by Zuhayr Chowdhury in Manchester, United Kingdom. I decide how your details are used (in data-protection terms, I'm the controller). Contact: zuhayr@diwanularab.com or 07471 858297.

When you book free lessons, ask about new classes or send a message

The free-trial form asks for your first name and email, and optionally a phone number, where you are with Arabic and a message. It also records which button or page you used and, if you picked one, the course length you clicked on. The contact form asks for your name, email, message and, optionally, a phone number. Once a class has started and enrolment has closed, the “new class” form asks for your name and email, and optionally a message, and records which button or page you used.

All three forms are received and stored by Netlify Forms (Netlify, the company that hosts this site). I use them to arrange your lessons, send you the class link, reply to you and, if you used the “new class” form, tell you when a new class opens. When you book free lessons or ask about new classes, a short confirmation email may be sent to you through Resend, an email-sending service.

The “Read the Arabic script” guide (Week 0) has its own short form that asks for your name and email. It is stored by Netlify Forms too, and I use it only to email you the reading guide.

Student accounts

If you become a student you get an account on the learning platform. It is handled by Netlify Identity, which stores your email address, your name and your password (the password only in a form I can't read). If you choose “Continue with Google”, Google tells Netlify Identity your name and email address.

To keep you signed in, the site sets three cookies: nf_jwt (a short-lived login token), q_rt (kept for up to 90 days so you stay signed in; your browser's scripts can't read it) and q_si (only says that a login is kept). Logging out removes them. These are the only cookies the site sets.

Emails to set or reset your password are sent by Resend or by Netlify Identity.

While you are a student, I also send you one short email on Thursdays through Resend: Saturday's class time, this week's lesson, how many review cards are due and your study streak, worked out from your progress on the platform. If you haven't studied for a week or more, you get a short “pick up where you left off” note instead, at most once a fortnight. Every one of these emails has an unsubscribe link; your choice is kept in Netlify Blobs, linked to your account. Emails about your account itself (setting or resetting a password) still arrive.

Your progress on the platform

Your progress (chapters completed, the sections you tick off, quiz and exam scores, vocabulary review, homework ticks, saved exam drafts and the ayahs you are memorising in the Qur'an reader) is kept in your browser's storage. When you are signed in it is also saved in Netlify Blobs (Netlify's storage), linked to your account, so it follows you between devices. As your teacher I can also keep private notes about a student's learning (also in Netlify Blobs), which students' accounts can't see. When you submit a checkpoint exam, a copy of your answers as you handed them in is kept in Netlify Blobs; the site marks what it can by itself and I mark the rest. My marks and comments are kept there as well, and only your own account can see them once I return them. The speaking part of a checkpoint exam is a conversation with me. With your agreement (a parent's, for a child) I may record it on my own device so that I can mark it fairly: the recording, a rough transcript made by my browser's own speech recognition (in Chrome this is done by Google, in Safari by Apple) and my notes are kept in Netlify Blobs, for me only. They are never sent to an AI, and they are deleted with your account, or sooner if you ask. In a live class quiz your answers are kept only with that quiz round, and cleared out once it has ended.

The site's service worker keeps copies of pages you have opened on your device, so they still load without a connection. It doesn't store anything about you on a server.

If you press Report a problem, I receive a picture of the page you were on (taken by your browser when you press the button), the page address and section, your note, your account (email, id and roles) or “visitor”, your browser's details and any recent errors on the page. I use it only to fix the site. It is kept in Netlify Blobs; a copy without your email address may also be kept in a private GitHub repository of mine, where I track the fixes. The picture kept on the site is deleted 30 days after I close the report; ask me and I'll delete a report sooner.

If a page goes wrong in your browser, it sends a short error report: the error message, the page address (without anything after a ? or #), your browser's details and whether you are a visitor, a student or the teacher. It never includes your name, and email addresses and login codes are blanked out. Only the latest 300 are kept, until I clear them.

To stop misuse, a few features (the AI conversation partner when you aren't signed in, Report a problem and the error reports) count how often they are used each day by a one-way scrambled form (a hash) of your internet address, never the address itself.

Private courses (behind login)

Some students study a private course on the platform, open only to the students I give it to. Besides the progress above, it keeps the work you send in: typed writing and translations, photos of work in your exercise book, speaking recordings, and the answers you type in practice exam papers. They are kept in Netlify Blobs, linked to your account, so that I can mark them and you can see my feedback.

Written work, and photos of it, are sent to Anthropic (the company behind the Claude AI model) for a suggested mark and feedback, which you may see straight away; I then check the mark before it is final. Speaking recordings are not sent to the AI: I listen to them and mark them myself.

For a student under 16, I ask a parent's consent before the AI marking and the AI conversation partner are used.

Your work and recordings are kept until your account is deleted, or sooner if you ask me to delete them.

The AI conversation partner

When you chat with the conversation partners, the messages you type, and the conversation so far, are sent to Anthropic (the company behind the Claude AI model) to write each reply. The site doesn't store the conversation.

To read replies aloud, their text is sent to Microsoft's online text-to-speech service (the “Read Aloud” voices used by the Edge browser). Each line read aloud is kept as a sound clip in Netlify Blobs, so the same line can play again without asking Microsoft; a clip holds only the words spoken, nothing about who heard them. If you speak your answers, your browser's own speech recognition turns your voice into text: in Chrome this is done by Google, in Safari by Apple. The conversation partner doesn't record audio.

The Qur'an reader

The Qur'an reader needs no account. Its settings, and the ayahs you are memorising, are kept in your browser's storage; if you are signed in, the memorising is saved with your progress (above). The recitations are played straight from EveryAyah (everyayah.com, or its mirror at quranicaudio.com) and single words from Quran.com's audio server, which receive your IP address as any website would.

If you choose to recite into the microphone, your browser's own speech recognition turns your voice into text so the reader can show the words you have said: in Chrome this is done by Google, in Safari by Apple. The reader doesn't record or keep audio.

Other services your browser talks to

• Fonts: the fonts are served from this site itself, so showing a page asks no other company (such as Google Fonts) for anything.
• WhatsApp: only if you tap a WhatsApp link, which opens WhatsApp itself.

Netlify, Resend, Anthropic, Microsoft, Google and GitHub are based in the United States, so your details may be processed outside the UK by these services.

How long I keep your details

• Your student account and the progress saved with it are kept while you study and until your access to the learning platform ends, one month after your last class (you keep your summary pack after that). They aren't deleted automatically when your access ends: ask me and I'll delete them. You can also ask sooner.
• When I delete an account, everything saved with it in Netlify Blobs goes too: your progress, homework, exam answers and marks, speaking-exam recordings and notes, my notes, your email choices and any work, photos and recordings you sent. Report a problem reports are kept apart from accounts: ask me and I'll delete yours.
• Work and recordings you send in a private course are kept until your account is deleted, or sooner if you ask.
• What you send through a form (free lessons, new classes or a message) stays in Netlify Forms until I delete it. Ask me and I'll delete yours.
• Progress kept in your browser stays on your device until you clear this site's data in your browser.

To ask for anything to be deleted, email zuhayr@diwanularab.com.

Why I'm allowed to use your details

Under UK data-protection law (UK GDPR): booking lessons, your account and your progress are used to give you the course you asked for (taking steps towards, and then carrying out, our agreement). Replying to your messages, and telling you about a new class when you've asked me to, is in our shared legitimate interest. I only keep your details while I need them for these purposes.

Your rights

You can ask to see the details I hold about you, to correct them, to delete them, or to stop me using them, by emailing zuhayr@diwanularab.com. If you are unhappy with how I've handled your details, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.