Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
“14 Scholars”, “we”, “us” and “our” mean [insert legal entity name], operating the 14 Scholars mobile apps (iOS and Android) and the website at 14scholars.strataward.com. 14 Scholars is a platform where religious organizations such as mosques, madrasas and schools post positions, and individual scholars, teachers and reciters create profiles and apply.
- We collect account details (name, email, profile photo), the profiles you build, your applications and messages, and basic technical/diagnostic data.
- Information you share here can reveal religious belief or observance. We treat it as sensitive and ask for your express consent to handle it.
- A small set of service providers processes data for us: Clerk (sign-in), Sentry (crash reports), Cloudflare (network security) and DigitalOcean (hosting). Clerk and Sentry process data in the United States.
- We never sell your personal information and we run no advertising or cross-app tracking.
- You can ask for a copy of your data, corrections, or deletion at any time — see Your rights.
2. Information we collect
We collect only what the service needs:
- Account data — name, email address, and profile photo, collected through our sign-in provider, Clerk, when you create an account.
- Scholar profiles — display name, biography, education and credentials, languages, years of experience, location, and which fields you choose to make public or private. You control field-by-field visibility in the app.
- Organization profiles — organization name, type, description, website, address, and contact email; positions you post.
- Activity — applications you submit or receive and their status, favourites, follows, notifications, and in-app messages.
- Technical and diagnostic data — crash logs and error reports via Sentry; server logs (including IP address) processed through Cloudflare for security.
What we do not collect: payment card or banking details, precise geolocation, your contacts, advertising identifiers, or any data from third-party ad networks or trackers. We operate no advertising SDKs of any kind.
3. Sensitive information notice
The purpose of 14 Scholars is to serve Islamic organizations and scholars. Information you provide on the platform — your profile, organization affiliations, applications, and messages — can reveal religious belief or observance. Privacy law in Canada treats religious beliefs as inherently sensitive information, and so do we.
Because of this, we ask for your express consent at signup to collect, use, and share this information as described in this policy, we apply safeguards proportionate to its sensitivity, and we never sell it or use it for advertising. If you prefer not to have this information processed, please do not create an account; you can withdraw consent later, which means closing your account (see Consent & withdrawal).
4. How we use information
- To provide the service: accounts, profiles, position browsing, applications, decisions, favourites, and messaging between users.
- Safety and integrity: preventing fraud and abuse, enforcing our Terms, investigating reports.
- Service improvement and debugging, using aggregate or de-identified information where feasible.
- Service communications (transactional): application updates, security notices, and similar operational messages.
- Legal compliance and protecting legal rights.
We do not use personal information for behavioural advertising, and we do not sell or rent it.
5. Legal bases (EU/UK users)
If you use the service from the EU or UK, we process personal data under these bases: performance of a contract (operating your account and the matching/messaging features), legitimate interests (security, abuse prevention, server logs), consent (optional communications; explicit consent for processing that reveals religious belief, per Article 9 GDPR), and legal obligation where applicable.
6. Consent & withdrawal
Subject to limited exceptions, we collect, use, and share personal information with your knowledge and consent. For sensitive information — including anything that reveals religious belief or observance — we obtain express consent at signup. You may withdraw consent at any time by contacting us or deleting your account; because core processing of sensitive information is what the service exists to do, withdrawal means we will close your account and delete your data as described in Retention & deletion.
7. How we share information
| Recipient | Purpose | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Clerk | Authentication and account management | United States |
| Sentry | Error and crash reporting | United States |
| Cloudflare | Network security, TLS, content delivery | Global edge network |
| DigitalOcean | Application hosting and database | Data centre serving this service |
These providers act under contract as our service providers and process personal information only to deliver their services to us.
Other users: when you apply to a position or message someone, the organization (or candidate) on the other side sees the profile fields you have made public and your application materials. This user-directed sharing is central to how hiring works on 14 Scholars — share only what you intend organizations to see.
We may also disclose personal information where required by law, court order, or lawful government request. We never sell personal information, share it for others’ marketing, or track you across other apps or websites.
8. Cross-border transfers
Your information is primarily stored on servers in Canada. However, Clerk (authentication) and Sentry (crash reporting) process certain personal information in the United States, and Cloudflare’s security services inspect traffic globally. This means your information may be accessible to authorities in those jurisdictions under their laws. We use contractual protections and encryption to safeguard information transferred across borders.
9. Retention & deletion
- Account, profile, message, and application data are retained while your account is active. When you delete your account — available in-app — we delete this data, except a copy retained briefly in encrypted backups, which expires within [30] days.
- Crash logs and diagnostic records are retained for approximately 90 days.
- Server/security logs are retained for short operational periods consistent with their purpose.
- We may retain limited records where required by law or to establish or defend legal claims.
10. Your rights
- Access and correction: request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or correct it. We respond within 30 days.
- Deletion: delete your account in-app, or ask us to do it.
- Withdrawal of consent (see above).
- Quebec residents: you also have rights to portability and to de-indexing (ceasing dissemination) of your information, and you may file a complaint with the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec.
- EU/UK users: where the GDPR applies, you have the familiar suite of rights (access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability).
To exercise any right, contact us (see Contact us). If we cannot resolve your concern, Canadian residents may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.
11. Children
The service is intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has created an account, contact us and we will remove it.
12. Security
We protect personal information with safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity, including TLS encryption in transit, encryption at rest for primary data stores, least-privilege access controls, continuous security monitoring, and the absence of any advertising or tracking software in our apps. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure; if a breach involving your information ever poses a real risk of significant harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as Canadian law requires.
13. Communications & anti-spam
We send transactional messages needed to operate your account (application updates, security notices). If we ever send optional marketing emails or messages, we will do so only with your express consent, every message will identify us and include valid contact information, and we will honour unsubscribe requests within 10 business days, consistent with Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL).
14. Payments (Hadiya)
Compensation amounts shown on positions (“Hadiya”) are informational. Any compensation is arranged and paid directly between the organization and the candidate, off the platform. We do not process payments, we do not receive your financial account details, and we take no commission. If we ever introduce facilitated payments, we will update this policy and present additional terms for your acceptance before those features are used.
15. Changes to this policy
If we make material changes, we will notify you in advance through the app (and by email where we hold one) before they take effect — including whenever new uses or disclosures are introduced. The version and last-updated line at the top of this page always reflects the current policy.
16. Contact us
Questions, requests, or complaints about privacy:
- Privacy contact: [name/title] · Email: [privacy@…]
- Mailing address: [entity address]