The short version
- Our apps are local-first. The records you create stay on your device.
- If you turn on iCloud, sync happens through your own Apple iCloud account — we never see it.
- We don't sell, share, or monetize your data. We don't run ads or third-party trackers.
- We make a tiny number of network calls — listed below — and we tell you exactly what each one does.
- You're always in control: every permission can be denied, every app can be deleted, and uninstalling removes the on-device data with it.
Who this policy applies to
This policy covers all apps published by ZaatarLABS on the Apple App Store, and the website at zaatarlabs.com. The apps currently in scope are: The Smart Dentist, The Smart Billing, The Smart Coach, roCARD, My Pizza Calculator, The Smart Hand Calculator, The Smart Trix Calculator, and The Smart Budget. Any future app we publish will collect, at most, the same categories of data described here.
ZaatarLABS is run by an independent developer based in the United Arab Emirates. There is no analytics team, no ad partner, and no marketing pipeline behind these apps.
What we don't do
- No third-party analytics. No Google Analytics, no Firebase, no Mixpanel, no Segment, no Amplitude.
- No crash reporting SDK. No Crashlytics, no Sentry, no Bugsnag. We rely only on Apple's opt-in App Analytics that you control in iOS Settings.
- No advertising SDKs and no IDFA tracking. Our apps do not present an App Tracking Transparency prompt because they do not track you.
- No social-media SDKs. No Facebook, Google, or TikTok pixels.
- No accounts to sign up for. You don't give us an email or password to use the apps.
- No selling, renting, or sharing. Of any kind, to anyone, ever.
What stays on your device
The information you enter into a ZaatarLABS app — patient records, client lists, invoices, business card details, budget transactions, calculator results, and so on — is stored in a private database on your device using Apple's Core Data. We do not have a server that holds this information.
If your device is signed in to iCloud and you have iCloud sync enabled for the app, Apple's CloudKit will sync that database to your other Apple devices through your own iCloud account. ZaatarLABS has no access to your iCloud, no master copy, and no recovery key. iCloud sync is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.
The network calls our apps make
To be transparent, here is every network request a ZaatarLABS app may make, and why.
1. First-launch ping
When you launch one of our apps for the first time on a device, the app sends a single one-time message to a ZaatarLABS server hosted on Microsoft Azure. The message contains: an Apple-provided anonymous identifier for the vendor (it is not your Apple ID and cannot be linked to you), a randomly generated install ID, the bundle identifier, the app version and build number, the iOS version, the device model (e.g. "iPhone16,2"), the device locale (e.g. "en_AE"), and the timezone.
We use this so we have a rough sense of how many active installs each app has and which iOS versions to keep supporting. Nothing you enter into the app is included, and the message is not sent again on later launches. The Smart Hand Calculator sends this to zaatarlabs.com/api/first-launch; the other apps send it to smart-billing-dashboard.azurewebsites.net/api/first-launch.
This call is not currently optional in-app. If you do not want it sent, you can block it at the network layer (for example by denying the app local-network access on first launch via iOS Settings, or by using a content blocker / VPN).
2. roCARD — Apple Wallet pass generation
When you tap "Add to Apple Wallet" inside roCARD, the app sends the contents of that business card — your name, job title, company, the QR code, and the thumbnail image — to a ZaatarLABS Apple Wallet signing server (rocardpasskitserver.azurewebsites.net) so that a signed .pkpass file can be generated and returned to your device. The thumbnail is stored in Azure Blob Storage long enough to be referenced by the pass. This step is technically required: only a server holding our Apple PassKit signing certificate can produce a valid Wallet pass.
This only happens when you actively use the "Add to Wallet" feature. If you never use it, no card data leaves your device. We do not look at, mine, or share the card content; we just sign the pass and return it.
3. The Smart Budget — currency exchange rates
If you record transactions in a currency other than your base currency, the app fetches publicly published currency exchange rates from a free, no-account public API (cdn.jsdelivr.net, with a Cloudflare Pages mirror as a fallback). The request contains no personal data — only the currency code being looked up. Rates are cached on your device so the app keeps working offline.
4. Standard outbound links
From inside the apps, you can tap links that open external destinations such as the App Store, your mail or messaging app, the WhatsApp deep link wa.me, or our website zaatarlabs.com. When you do, your device makes the request — not us — and the destination's own privacy policy applies.
Permissions our apps may request
iOS asks for your explicit permission before any app touches sensitive data. Our apps request only what they need for a feature to work, and you can deny or revoke any of these permissions at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security. Denying a permission disables that one feature; nothing else.
- Camera — to attach a photo to a patient, client, business card, player, or receipt. The image is stored in the app's database, not uploaded.
- Photo Library — to pick or save the same kinds of images. We do not scan or index your library.
- Contacts — only to copy in details when you add a new patient/client/card, or to save out a contact you've created in the app. We do not read, upload, or sync your address book.
- Calendar / Reminders (Dentist, Coach) — to add an appointment you create in the app to your device's Calendar or Reminders. We do not read your existing events.
What each app touches — at a glance
The table below is a quick reference. "Network" means the first-launch ping plus any feature-specific calls described above.
| App | Camera | Photos | Contacts | Calendar / Reminders | iCloud sync | Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Smart Dentist | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | First-launch ping only |
| The Smart Billing | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | First-launch ping only |
| The Smart Coach | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | First-launch ping only |
| roCARD | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | First-launch ping + Wallet pass generation when used |
| My Pizza Calculator | — | — | — | — | Yes | None |
| The Smart Hand Calculator | Yes | Yes | — | — | Yes | First-launch ping only |
| The Smart Trix Calculator | Yes | Yes | — | — | Yes | First-launch ping only |
| The Smart Budget | Yes | Yes | — | — | Yes | Public currency-rate API only |
Subscriptions and one-time purchases
The Smart Dentist, The Smart Billing, The Smart Coach and (when released) The Smart Budget are subscription apps. The Smart Hand Calculator and The Smart Trix Calculator are one-time purchases. My Pizza Calculator and roCARD are free. All payments are processed by Apple — not by us. We never see your card number, your Apple ID password, or your billing address. Apple sends our app a signed receipt that confirms whether you have an active entitlement; that receipt does not identify you to us.
If your work involves third parties (clinics, businesses, coaches)
The Smart Dentist, The Smart Billing and The Smart Coach are practice-management and CRM tools for clinicians, businesses, and coaches. When you enter information about your patients, clients, or customers into the app, you are the data controller for that information — you decide what to enter, how long to keep it, and who can see your device. ZaatarLABS is a tool you use; we do not receive copies of those records and have no separate database of them. You remain responsible for following the rules of your profession or jurisdiction (record-keeping, confidentiality, data-protection law, and so on).
The website (zaatarlabs.com)
To understand which marketing pages are working, every page on this website runs a small visitor-tracking script that records the page path, your screen size, the language your browser reports, the referrer that brought you here, your user agent string, and a randomly generated session ID. The script also asks the public service api.ipify.org for your public IP address and includes it. This information is sent to a private dashboard hosted at zaatarlabs.com/admin/api/visit on Microsoft Azure.
We use this only to count visits per page and roughly understand traffic sources. We don't run remarketing, we don't share these logs with anyone, and we don't tie them to anything you enter in our apps. You can block this with any ad-blocker or content blocker. The site does not use cookies for tracking.
The contact form on the site uses your own email client (a mailto: link) — your message is sent directly to [email protected] through your email account, not through any web form on our server.
Children
None of our apps are designed for or directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect any information from children. The apps' App Store age ratings are set by Apple based on the app's content.
How long we keep things
- On your device: for as long as you keep the app installed. Deleting the app deletes the local database on that device.
- In your iCloud: for as long as you keep iCloud sync enabled. You can clear iCloud-stored app data from iOS Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Account Storage.
- First-launch ping records: retained on our Azure dashboard for up to 24 months for usage trend analysis, after which they are deleted.
- Website visit logs: retained on our Azure dashboard for up to 12 months.
- roCARD Wallet pass generation: the card data we receive is used only to sign the pass and is purged from working storage shortly after the pass is delivered. The thumbnail is retained while the pass is active so it can be referenced by Wallet.
Your rights
Because almost all of your data lives on your own device, you control it directly:
- Access and export — every app provides export options (CSV, PDF, sharing) for the records you create.
- Delete — delete a record in-app, or delete the app to wipe its on-device store.
- Correct — edit any record in-app at any time.
- Withdraw consent for permissions — turn any permission off in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security.
If you are in a jurisdiction with data-protection laws (such as the UAE PDPL, the EU/UK GDPR, or California's CCPA) and you want to exercise rights of access, correction, deletion, restriction, or objection regarding the limited information that does reach our Azure dashboards (the first-launch ping or website visit logs), email [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days. To help us identify your records, please tell us roughly when you first installed the app and from what country.
Where data is processed
The first-launch ping and website visit logs are processed and stored on Microsoft Azure data centres. iCloud sync is processed by Apple in regions Apple selects. If you are in the EU or UK, this means a transfer of your data outside your region; the receiving services (Apple, Microsoft Azure) provide their own appropriate safeguards under their respective privacy commitments.
Security
All network requests described in this policy use HTTPS (TLS). The Azure-hosted endpoints are behind Microsoft's standard infrastructure protections. No method of transmission or storage is ever 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security; we can promise that we don't ask for, store, or transmit anything we don't need.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll post the new version on this page and update the "Effective" date at the top. Material changes (for example, adding a new category of data we collect) will be highlighted in a banner on this page for at least 30 days.
Contact
Questions, concerns, or rights requests: email [email protected]. We read everything that lands there.