Privacy Policy

Who we are

isithalal.food is run by the isithalal.food Team in Malta. We are the controller of the personal data described here. Write to us at [email protected] or through the contact form.

You can read every food page, use the ingredient scanner and browse recipes without an account. We do not run accounts or logins.

What we collect and why

• Messages you send us. The contact form asks for your name, email address, a topic and your message, and records the page you wrote from. We use them to reply and, for corrections, to check and fix the page.
• Evidence you submit. The product and restaurant evidence forms ask for details of the product or venue (such as brand, barcode, market, venue name, address and city), the certifier and certificate dates, a link to your evidence, your email address and a message. They can also take an ingredient photo or a certificate file. We use these to check a Halal claim and update the page. Please don't include other people's personal details in a certificate or photo.
• Analytics. Google Analytics (cookies _ga and _ga_SLB5GPYBH6) tells us which pages are read and where visitors arrive from, and Ahrefs Web Analytics counts page views and referring sites without setting cookies. We use these numbers to decide which pages to expand or correct.
• Advertising. We show ads through Google AdSense to keep the site free. Google and its partners may use cookies to show ads based on your visits to this and other websites. Ads are kept off the ingredient scanner and never decide a verdict (see the advertising policy).
• Server logs. Our host, Netlify, receives your IP address, browser details and the pages requested when it serves the site, and uses them to deliver and protect it.

Cookie names, and how to accept or decline them, are in the cookie policy.

What stays on your device

• Scanner photos. When you photograph a label, the text is read in your browser. The photo is not uploaded to us. To do this, your browser downloads the reading library and its language files from jsDelivr, a public code server.
• Barcode lookups. When you scan a barcode, your browser asks Open Food Facts for that product, so Open Food Facts receives the barcode and your IP address.
• Your history and settings. Scan history, scan language statistics, your theme, recent searches and whether you dismissed the install card are stored in your browser (local storage and cookies). We don't receive them. Clearing your browser's site data deletes them.
• The restaurant map. Map tiles load from OpenFreeMap and the map library from unpkg, so those services receive your IP address when you open a map.

Legal bases (EEA and UK)

• Consent for analytics and advertising cookies where the law requires it: in the EEA and the UK, Google Analytics cookies are set only after you accept the banner, and Google's consent message asks before advertising cookies are set. You can withdraw consent at any time with "Privacy and cookie settings" in the footer.
• Legitimate interests for replying to messages, checking submitted evidence, keeping the site secure and counting visits with Ahrefs Web Analytics, which sets no cookies.

Who else handles data

We don't sell your personal data. These services process it for us or receive it directly from your browser:

• Netlify: hosting and the forms that store your messages and submissions.
• Google: Analytics and AdSense.
• Ahrefs: web analytics.
• Open Food Facts, jsDelivr, OpenFreeMap and unpkg: as described under "What stays on your device".

Some of these providers are based in, or process data in, the United States and other countries outside the EEA and UK. Where they do, they rely on the transfer safeguards they offer, such as standard contractual clauses.

How long we keep it

We keep messages and evidence submissions for as long as we need them to reply, check the claim and keep a record of the evidence behind a page, and we delete them sooner if you ask. Analytics and advertising data are kept under Google's and Ahrefs' own retention settings.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us what personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to how we use it. Email [email protected]; we answer within one month.

• EEA and UK: you also have the rights to restrict processing, to data portability and to withdraw consent. You can complain to Malta's Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC), to the data protection authority where you live, or in the UK to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
• United States: you can opt out of personalised advertising in Google's Ads Settings or through aboutads.info. Some states, including California, give residents rights to know, delete and correct personal information and to opt out of its sale or sharing for targeted advertising; email us to use them. We won't treat you differently for doing so.

Children

The site is not aimed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their personal data. If you think a child has sent us personal data, email us and we will delete it.

Changes

We update this policy when what we collect or who handles it changes. The date at the top marks the current version. See also the terms of use.