Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 12, 2026

Welcome to Irania ("we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect information about you when you use the Irania mobile application ("App"), website, and related services. Please read this policy carefully. By using Irania, you agree to the practices described here.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Information You Provide

• Account information — When you register or sign in, Firebase Authentication processes your email/password credentials, Google sign-in, or Sign in with Apple where available. Irania stores your name, email address, sign-in provider, and profile information you supply, including an optional phone number. Passwords are handled by Firebase Authentication, not stored in Irania profile documents.
• City selection — The country and city you select to browse local content, and a home city you save to your signed-in profile for local updates and notifications.
• Community submissions — If you submit a business listing, event, gathering, deal, housing listing, job, Wall of Kindness item, or Kolbar post, we collect the information you provide, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, contact details, address, category, route details, and descriptions.
• Photos and other submission content — If you attach a photo or image to a listing submission, we collect and store that image to review your submission. If the listing is approved, its attached image may be published with the listing and become publicly visible to anyone using Irania.
• Community feed activity — If you use the city Community feed, we collect the posts, replies, poll options and votes, photos, likes, saved and followed posts, nickname, and profile avatar (a preset or a photo you upload) that you add, and the block and report actions you take. See section 1.7.
• Education questions and comments — If you ask a question or reply under a lesson in the Education section, we store the text, the lesson it belongs to, and your account identifier. A named comment shows your first and last name from your profile (or your account display name) to other signed-in users; you can choose to post anonymously, in which case no name is shown but we keep the link to your account privately for moderation. Administrators can reply with an "Irania Team" badge, and you receive an in-app notification when someone replies to your question. You can delete your own comments, and comments are limited to a small number per day per account. Deleting your account removes them.
• Education progress — Lesson and module completion choices are saved locally on your device. If you opt in to Analytics, module-opening and progress events are also recorded as feature-use data.
• Language preference — Your choice of English or Persian (فارسی).
• Favourites — Businesses, events, and deals you save. Event favourites may be synced to your account so we can deliver event reminders you enable.
• Reviews and safety reports — Ratings and review text you post, reports you submit about content, and the email address and account identifier associated with a report. If you block another user, we store that private block relationship for your account.
• Push notifications — If notifications are enabled, Firebase Cloud Messaging provides a device registration token so we can deliver the notification categories you choose.

1.2 Information We Collect From Public or Third-Party Sources

• Business directory information — We may collect and display publicly available business information, such as business name, address, phone number, website, category, location, and public-facing representative names, titles, or business contact details, to operate and improve the Irania directory.
• Listing source information — We may keep internal notes about where listing information came from, when it was reviewed, and whether a business owner or authorized representative has requested corrections, claimed the listing, or requested removal.

1.3 Information Collected Automatically

• Usage and performance data — Only if you opt in through the app, Firebase Analytics and Firebase Performance Monitoring collect app interactions, screens viewed, features used (including education progress), selected home city/country, language, guest/sign-in status, launch timing, network performance, and related device/app context. Analytics uses a random per-install pseudonym rather than your account identifier, name, or email. Google may derive approximate region from an IP address for reporting and service operation. Both are off by default and can be disabled in Settings; the app applies that choice before enabling collection.
• Contextual advertisements and ad-link activity — Irania may display contextual business advertisements managed and published by Irania. These ads appear in News, business category lists, and Education module lists. They may be scoped to a selected city, business category, education module, or shown more broadly, but are not personalized using your account information, precise location, activity across other apps or websites, or an advertising identifier. If you opt in to Analytics, we may record that an advertisement was displayed to you and that an advertisement link was opened, together with a pseudonymous advertisement identifier, as feature-use data. This is counted in aggregate to measure how often an advertisement is shown and opened; it is not tied to your account and advertisers do not receive this data from Irania.
• Device and notification information — Device type, operating system version, app version, and the Firebase installation/notification identifier needed to deliver enabled push notifications. Irania does not use third-party ad networks or personalized/behavioral advertising and does not collect Android Advertising ID.
• Crash reports — Firebase Crashlytics receives diagnostic data when the app crashes or encounters an uncaught error so we can investigate stability problems. Reports may include app/build context, selected city, language, and screen breadcrumbs. Crash reporting operates separately from the optional Analytics setting; Irania does not attach an account identifier, name, or email to it.
• Sign-in network history — When you sign in, we store a keyed hash of the network address observed by Firebase, together with the time, for up to five recent networks per account. The address itself is not kept. Entries expire after 30 days. If an administrator restricts an account for abuse, they may also block new registrations from those recent networks for a limited time. This history is used only for that purpose and is deleted automatically when it expires.
• Device integrity checks — To keep automated abuse and tampered apps away from our backend, the app uses Firebase App Check. On Android this uses Google Play Integrity, and on iOS it uses Apple App Attest (or DeviceCheck on devices that do not support App Attest). These services send device and app integrity signals to Google or Apple, and Firebase receives a token that proves the check passed. We do not use this for advertising or to identify you.
• Abuse-prevention data — For public backend features such as weather, exchange rates, and password reset, Irania temporarily derives a pseudonymous rate-limit identifier from the network address observed by Firebase. The address is processed with a secret keyed hash and is not stored in raw form. Signed-in feature limits use the account identifier instead.

1.4 Information We Do Not Collect

• We do not transmit precise GPS location to Irania servers. When you explicitly use a map feature, the app may request when-in-use location permission to show your position and calculate nearby results on your device. The accuracy available depends on your device and permission choice. The Google Maps SDK processes map and location information under Google’s policy. Firebase/Google SDKs may separately derive approximate region from network information when their optional, consent-gated services are enabled.
• We do not collect, receive, or store payment card numbers, security codes, or bank details. Irania is free to use; if you choose to make a voluntary contribution (see 1.6), the payment is handled entirely by Apple or by Stripe on their own systems, and no card data ever reaches Irania.
• We do not sell your data to third parties.

1.5 Browsing Without an Account

• Guest mode lets you browse public business listings, events, deals, housing, jobs, Wall of Kindness items, Kolbar posts, educational material, news, and the Persian calendar for your selected city, and open the voluntary contribution flow. Local business, event, and deal favourites also work without an account. Account features such as submissions, gatherings, reviews, Education comments, Community feed interactions, blocking, and event reminders require signing in; some account actions also require a verified email, acceptance of the Terms, or city availability.
• Your city, language, theme, and favourites are stored only on your device while browsing as a guest, keyed to a random identifier generated on that device. This identifier is never sent to Irania and is not linked to any account.
• Opt-in Analytics and Performance Monitoring (see 1.3) apply the same way to guest browsing as to a signed-in account — both stay off by default and only activate if enabled in Settings.
• If you later create an account on the same device, your guest favourites are merged into the account’s favourites on that device and the guest favourites lists are removed. The local guest identifier remains available for future signed-out browsing. Business and deal favourites remain device-local; signed-in event favourites are also registered with the server for reminders.

1.6 Voluntary Contributions

Irania is free, and every feature is available whether or not you contribute. If you choose to make a voluntary one-off contribution under Settings → Support Irania, the payment itself happens outside Irania:

• On iOS — the contribution is an in-app purchase processed by Apple. RevenueCat, our purchase-management provider, receives the transaction record (product, price, store, and device/app context) associated with a randomly generated, anonymous identifier. That identifier is not your Irania account, email address, or name, and Irania does not link it to your account.
• On Android — the App opens a payment page hosted by Stripe in your browser. Stripe collects and processes whatever the page asks for (amount, card or other payment details, and any contact details it requests) directly under Stripe's own privacy policy. Irania does not receive or store card numbers, security codes, or bank details.
• What Irania itself stores — no contribution creates an Irania account record or a payment record in the Irania app or database. If you have opted in to Analytics (see 1.3), an anonymous event records that a contribution screen was opened; it never includes an amount, product, currency, or payment detail.
• Merchant records — Stripe may make limited transaction records available to Irania's authorized operator for receipts, refunds, disputes, tax, accounting, and fraud prevention. Those records can include transaction amount, currency, payment status, receipt/contact details supplied to Stripe, and refund or dispute status; they do not include card numbers, security codes, or bank details. Apple, RevenueCat, and Stripe retain their own transaction records under their policies and legal obligations. Deleting your Irania account does not delete those records. To exercise rights over provider-held data, contact the relevant provider directly.

1.7 Community Feed

Available in every supported city, the Community feed is a public, city-by-city space for questions, recommendations, and daily posts. Posting, replying, voting, liking, saving, and following require a signed-in account with a verified email and acceptance of the Terms.

• What is public — Everything you post or reply to is public: it can be read by anyone using Irania, whether or not they are signed in, along with the author label shown beside it: your chosen nickname, or otherwise your first name and last initial (for example "Sara M."), or a short generated "Member" label if no name is available. Your avatar (a preset, or a profile photo you upload) is shown beside named posts and replies. Your email address and account identifier are never shown.
• Anonymous questions — You may post a question anonymously. An anonymous question and your own replies in that thread show no name, nickname, or avatar, and use a thread-specific identifier so they cannot be linked to your other posts. Irania keeps the link to your account in a private record that ordinary users cannot read. It is used only for moderation, abuse prevention, enforcing the Terms, deleting your data, and legal obligations, and is accessible only to authorized administrators.
• Photos — Photos you attach to a post, and a profile photo you upload as an avatar, are re-encoded on our servers (which removes location and other embedded metadata) and become visible when published. Photos attached to member Community posts are sent to OpenAI for automated safety checks before publication, including photos that are rejected or whose publication later fails. Visible personal details in an image remain visible to the provider after metadata removal. There is no advance human review; profile avatars are reviewed by administrators afterwards. Administrators review profile photos and reported content afterwards and may remove content or revoke a profile photo that breaks the Terms. A profile photo is shown beside your named posts and replies, and removing it takes it down.
• Polls, likes, saves and follows — Poll results show only totals. Which option you voted for, which posts you liked or saved, and which threads you follow are private to your account (and the services that operate it). Following a thread lets us notify you about new replies.
• Notifications — Push notifications about replies are generic ("You received a reply") and contain neither the reply text nor the replier's identity. The in-app notification list shows a short excerpt of the reply. You can turn reply notifications off in Settings.
• Blocking and reporting — Blocking an author is private to your account and hides their posts and replies from you. A report is stored privately with the reporting account so we can review it and avoid duplicates; content reported by several different people is hidden automatically until a moderator reviews it. Reports are available in the moderation queue; email alerts are sent only when enabled by the operator.
• Deleting — You can delete your own posts and replies at any time. Deleting your account removes your Community posts, replies, avatar and photos, votes, likes, saves, follows, blocks, and your identifier from reports you filed on other people's items. Replies other people wrote on your posts are removed along with the post.

1.8 Gatherings and Website Use

Casual gatherings include the title, date, city, and any time, address, organizer name, description, or contact link you provide. Verified signed-in users can publish a gathering after automated checks in supported cities; it is publicly visible without advance moderator review. We retain a private submission and ownership record for moderation and deletion. You can report a gathering or its organizer, block the organizer, or delete a gathering you created. Account deletion removes your gatherings and related ownership records.

The website uses Google Analytics with analytics storage and advertising consent set to denied and client storage disabled. Google’s tag may still send cookieless measurement requests and receive technical information such as your IP address, browser details, and page visited. The website’s configuration is separate from the app’s opt-in Analytics setting. Website hosting and the authentication pages also process technical requests needed to serve pages and complete email verification or password resets.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve the Irania App and its features.
• Display business listings, events, deals, housing, jobs, Community feed posts and replies, news, educational material, and calendar information relevant to your selected city.
• Display contextual business advertisements selected by Irania administrators, based on the applicable city, business category, education module, or broader feed scope.
• Create, curate, review, correct, and maintain business directory listings.
• Process and review business, event, deal, housing, job, Wall of Kindness, and Kolbar submissions you send us.
• Personalize your experience (e.g. remember your city and language).
• Send essential service communications (e.g. confirming a listing submission).
• Monitor and analyze usage trends to improve performance and stability.
• Moderate the Community feed, including keeping a private record of who wrote each post (including anonymous ones), reviewing reports and profile photos, and acting on violations.
• Enforce our Terms of Service and prevent misuse.

3. Sharing Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We may share information only in these limited circumstances:

• Service providers — We use Firebase (Google) for authentication, data storage, cloud functions, Crashlytics, Cloud Messaging, and consent-gated Analytics and Performance Monitoring. These providers process data on our behalf under their own privacy policies and data processing agreements.
• Advertisers and external websites — We do not provide advertisers with your name, email, account information, city history, or analytics data. If you open an advertisement link, your device or browser connects to the destination website, which may receive technical information such as your IP address and device/browser details and may use cookies or similar technologies under its own policy. Irania does not control those practices.
• Other users — Community feed content you publish is public, as described in section 1.7. We do not disclose the account behind an anonymous question to other users.
• Legal requirements — We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or governmental authority, which can include the account behind an anonymous post.
• Business transfers — If Irania is acquired or merged, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
• With your consent — For any other purpose with your explicit consent.

4. Third-Party Services

Irania integrates with the following third-party services. Each service has its own privacy policy:

• Firebase / Google — Authentication, Firestore database, Cloud Functions, Crashlytics, Cloud Messaging, and consent-gated Analytics and Performance Monitoring. Firebase Privacy Policy
• Advertisement destinations — Some admin-managed business advertisements link to third-party websites. Those sites may collect technical information, use cookies or similar technologies, and process information under their own terms and privacy policies. Irania does not use an ad network or control those sites.
• YouTube — Some educational lessons include YouTube videos. The lesson shows a thumbnail loaded from YouTube. The embedded player loads only after you tap play, and YouTube then receives your IP address and device information and may use cookies or similar technologies under Google's own policy. Irania does not control those practices. Google Privacy Policy
• Apple App Attest / Google Play Integrity — Device integrity checks used with Firebase App Check (see 1.3). Apple Privacy Policy · Google Privacy Policy
• Google Maps / Places — Map display and business location services. Google Privacy Policy
• Resend — Transactional email delivery. Resend receives email addresses and message content needed for verification and account emails. Resend Privacy Policy
• Apple WeatherKit / WeatherAPI.com — Weather data for the selected city. Weather requests include selected city coordinates, not precise GPS location. On iOS, Irania ordinarily uses Apple WeatherKit under Apple’s privacy terms. On Android, and if WeatherKit is unavailable on iOS, Irania sends the selected city coordinates through a Firebase Cloud Function to WeatherAPI.com. Apple Privacy Policy · WeatherAPI.com Privacy Policy
• TGJU — Free-market Iranian rial exchange-rate data used by the currency feature. Irania retrieves the public market-data response through a Firebase Cloud Function, validates and caches the result, and attributes the source in the app. TGJU
• Apple / RevenueCat — Voluntary contributions on iOS only (see 1.6). Apple processes the in-app purchase and payment method; RevenueCat manages and validates the transaction record against an anonymous identifier. Irania receives no payment details. Apple Privacy Policy · RevenueCat Privacy Policy
• Stripe — Voluntary contributions on Android only (see 1.6). The App opens a Stripe-hosted payment page in your browser; Stripe processes payment details directly. Irania does not receive or store card numbers, security codes, or bank details, but its authorized operator may access the limited merchant records described in section 1.6. Stripe Privacy Policy
• OpenAI — Generates AI-assisted news summaries and independently moderates eligible candidates before Irania may automatically publish them from publisher-supplied RSS/Atom feed text (publisher name, article title, description, publish date, and link). We also send sanitized photos attached to member Community posts to OpenAI for automated safety checks before publication. A rejected photo, or one whose post later fails to publish, may already have been processed. We do not include separate account/profile fields, reports, reviews, or payment records in these requests; the image itself may contain personal information. We disable Responses API storage for news summarization. That setting does not apply to photo moderation. Provider processing, training and retention are governed by the endpoint and applicable OpenAI API data controls; we do not promise zero retention for photo requests. Deleting a post or account removes Irania-held data through our deletion process, but does not recall a request already sent to OpenAI. Processing may occur outside your country. OpenAI Privacy Policy

بررسی عکس‌های پست‌های انجمن با OpenAI: عکس‌های پیوست‌شده به پست‌های اعضای انجمن، پس از حذف فراداده، پیش از انتشار برای بررسی خودکار ایمنی به OpenAI ارسال می‌شوند. حتی عکس ردشده یا عکسی که انتشار پست آن ناموفق باشد ممکن است قبلاً پردازش شده باشد. اطلاعات شخصیِ قابل مشاهده در عکس همچنان در اختیار ارائه‌دهنده قرار می‌گیرد؛ اطلاعات جداگانهٔ حساب، گزارش‌ها، نظرها و سوابق پرداخت همراه درخواست عکس ارسال نمی‌شوند. این بررسی انسانی نیست و عکس پروفایل بعداً توسط مدیران بررسی می‌شود. نگهداری داده نزد ارائه‌دهنده تابع کنترل‌های دادهٔ API اوست؛ نگهداری صفر را برای این درخواست‌ها تضمین نمی‌کنیم. حذف پست یا حساب، درخواست ارسال‌شده یا نسخه‌های نگهداری‌شده نزد ارائه‌دهنده را خودکار حذف نمی‌کند.

5. Data Retention

We retain your account information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide services. User-submitted listings, events, gatherings, deals, housing, jobs, Wall of Kindness items, Kolbar posts, Community feed posts, replies, polls, photos, avatars, Education questions and comments, descriptions, reviews, and other associated content are deleted when the account is deleted. Independently sourced public directory information may remain until you request removal or until we determine the listing is no longer accurate. Review reports and related safety records are retained for moderation, abuse prevention, and accountability. Sign-in network history expires after 30 days. Public-feature rate-limit identifiers expire after their short rate-limit window and are automatically deleted by Firebase TTL processing, ordinarily within approximately 24 hours after expiry. Privileged admin audit records are retained for two years. If you opt in to Analytics, advertisement-link events follow Firebase Analytics retention settings. Irania stores no contribution record in its app or database; Apple, RevenueCat, and Stripe retain transaction and merchant records under their own policies and legal obligations, outside our control, and those records are not removed by deleting your Irania account. We disable stored Responses API state for OpenAI news requests; Provider-held news and Community photo inputs follow OpenAI’s applicable API data controls; deleting Irania-held content does not automatically delete provider-held copies. You may request deletion of your data at any time (see Your Rights below).

6. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Access — Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction — Request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Deletion — Request deletion of your account and associated personal data.
• Portability — Request your data in a portable format.
• Objection — Object to certain processing activities.
• Withdrawal of consent — Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

To request account deletion, use our account deletion page. You can also exercise any of these rights by contacting us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

7. Children's Privacy

Irania is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child under 13, please contact us immediately and we will delete it.

8. Security

We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect your information. Your data is stored on Firebase infrastructure, which employs industry-standard security measures. However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. International Data Transfers

Irania operates globally. Your information may be processed and stored in countries other than your own (including the United States, where Google's servers are located). By using the App, you consent to these transfers. We ensure that such transfers comply with applicable data protection law.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you within the App. Your continued use of Irania after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact Us