Privacy policy

Last updated 20 October 2026. This policy covers the Maysarah app for Android (package name za.co.maysarah.app) and this website.

Who we are

Maysarah is operated by Waseem Kolia in Johannesburg, South Africa. Under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA), that makes Maysarah the responsible party for the little this policy describes, and Waseem Kolia its information officer. You can write to Maysarah.assist@gmail.com.

What the app keeps on your phone

Your products and prices, your customers, orders, payments, money spent, stock, recipes and batches, invoices, credit notes and statements, your adverts with their pictures and videos, the settings you choose, and the name, business name and contact details you give when you set the app up. All of it is in the app's own storage on your phone, protected by your phone's own lock and encryption. We have no copy.

What we receive

Nothing, in this version. When you first set the app up you give your name, your business name, and an email address or phone number. This version keeps them on your phone and does not send them to us. A later version may send them to us once, so that we can let you know when new things are ready; this policy and the app will say so before any version does that. Nothing about your customers or your sales is ever included.

Nothing else. The app has no analytics, no advertising identifiers, no crash reporting and no background sync.

What leaves your phone when you choose

Adverts, messages to customers, flyers, invoices, credit notes, statements and the income statement go out through your phone's own share sheet, into whatever app you pick, usually WhatsApp. They are sent by you, from your own account in that app, under that app's own privacy policy. We are not involved and never see the message or who it went to.

Backup files are made on your phone and shared wherever you choose to put them. They are not uploaded to us. A backup file is not locked and holds your customers' names and numbers, so keep it somewhere only you can reach.

Emergency SMSes are written by the app and sent from your own phone, by you, at your own SMS rate. The app cannot send one on its own.

If you tap "Send us a problem", the app writes a short message with the app's version in it and opens your share sheet. You choose whether to send it and who to.

Your contacts

The app can bring people from your phone's contacts into your customer list, two ways, and only when you ask.

"Fill this in from my contacts", on the customer form, opens your phone's own contact picker and hands the app only the one number you tap.

"Import from my contacts", on the customer list, asks your permission to read your contacts the first time you tap it. With your permission it reads the names and phone numbers in your contacts and adds the ones that are not already in your customer list. This happens on your phone. Nothing it reads is sent to us or to anyone else. You can take the permission away in your phone's settings at any time.

Location

The app asks for your location in one place only: the emergency screen, so it can put a map link in the message you are about to send. The location is used to write that message and is not stored or sent anywhere else. You can turn it off in the app and the emergency message still works.

Pictures and videos

Pictures and videos you add to adverts stay in the app's own storage on your phone. They go into a backup file only if the switches on the Backup screen say so. They are not uploaded to us.

Android's own backup

Android may copy the app's records to your own Google account, as it does for most apps. That copy belongs to your Google account, under Google's privacy policy, not to us, and we cannot see it. It leaves out pictures and videos and can be some days old, which is why the app asks you to make your own backup file as well.

Reminders on your phone

Reminders the app schedules, an order due today, a batch to make, stock running low, are made and shown by your own phone; nothing is sent anywhere. The reminder for an order due shows the customer's first name, which anyone who can see your lock screen can read. You can turn any reminder kind off under "Notifications from this phone" in Settings.

The permissions the app asks for

Android shows a list of permissions for every app. This is Maysarah's, and what each one is for. Everything on it works on your phone; none of it sends anything to us.

Location, precise and approximate

The map link in an emergency message, only while the emergency screen is open.

Contacts

Importing your own address book into your customer list, only when you tap "Import from my contacts".

Notifications

The reminders you switch on.

Alarms and reminders

Letting a reminder arrive at the time it says. You switch this on yourself, from Settings.

Run at start-up

Re-arming your reminders after the phone restarts.

Internet and network state

Declared for the one-time contact message a later version may send. This version makes no connection.

Fingerprint and biometrics

Listed because a component the app is built with declares it. The app has no fingerprint or face feature and never asks you for one.

Paying for the app

Any part of the app that is paid for is bought through Google Play. Google takes the payment, holds your card details under Google's own privacy policy, and tells the app only whether your subscription is active. We never see your card.

Your customers' information

The names, numbers, orders and debts of your customers are personal information that you hold, as a business, on your phone, the same as you would in a paper book. POPIA makes you responsible for it. Maysarah is a tool on your phone; it does not process that information for you and does not see it. Keep your phone locked and your backup files somewhere only you can reach.

This website

This site is three pages of text. It sets no cookies and runs no analytics or trackers. The web host keeps the standard server log that every website has, the address your connection came from, the time and the page requested, for security, for a limited time.

Keeping and deleting your records

Your records stay on your phone until you delete them or uninstall the app. Uninstalling removes them, so make a backup file first if you want to keep them. Because this version sends us nothing, there is nothing of yours on our side to delete.

Your rights

Under POPIA you may ask what personal information we hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, and object to its use. Because we hold none, the honest answer to each of those requests will be that there is nothing, but ask if you are unsure: Maysarah.assist@gmail.com. If you are not satisfied with our answer you may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa):

Children

The app is made for people running a business and is not directed at children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version appears here with its date, and in the app under Help & about.

Contact

Email Maysarah.assist@gmail.com, or in the app use "Send us a problem" under Help & about.