Privacy policies

This policy explains what information MakkahMadinahGuide.com collects, why, and how it's handled. We've tried to write it in plain language rather than legal boilerplate.

What we collect

When you submit a comment, we ask for a name (or you may post anonymously), a country, and an optional email address. The email address, if you provide one, is never displayed publicly and is never emailed to anyone — it's used only internally to help enforce a limit on how many comments one visitor can post.

IP addresses

We don't store your raw IP address. To prevent spam and abuse (for example, limiting repeated submissions or login attempts), we generate a salted cryptographic hash of your IP address, which cannot be reversed to recover the original address.

Cookies

If you submit a comment, we set one functional cookie containing a random identifier — not your name, email, or IP address — used solely to enforce the posting limit mentioned above. We don't use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Browsing the site without submitting anything sets no cookie.

Analytics

We use Umami, a privacy-focused analytics tool that doesn't use cookies and doesn't track you across other websites. It gives us aggregate statistics (like which pages are popular) and can't identify you individually.

Error monitoring

We use Sentry to catch and fix technical errors. It's configured not to collect your IP address, cookies, or other personal data — only technical details about what went wrong, so we can fix bugs.

Spam prevention

Submission forms are protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, a privacy-focused alternative to traditional CAPTCHAs. This involves your browser communicating with Cloudflare to confirm you're not a bot, subject to Cloudflare's own privacy practices.

Advertising

Sponsored placements on this site are static content we host and control directly — we don't use a third-party ad network or ad-tracking scripts. If you click through to an advertiser's website, their own privacy practices apply, not ours.

Where data is stored

Site data is stored on servers located in the United States. If you're visiting from outside the US, your information will be processed there.

How long we keep data

Approved comments are kept public indefinitely as part of the guide, unless removed for a policy violation or at the visitor's request. Data used only for abuse prevention (like the hashed-IP rate-limit records) is kept only as long as needed for that purpose.

Children's privacy

This site isn't directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect information from children.

Your choices

You can post anonymously and skip the optional email field entirely. If you'd like a comment you submitted removed, contact us using the email below.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time; the date shown at the top of this page reflects the last update.

Contact

Privacy questions or removal requests can be sent to makkahmadinahguide@gmail.com.