Your privacy at Sahara Studio

Last updated 22 October 2026

Sahara Studio helps you practise spoken Arabic by talking with an AI tutor. Practising out loud is personal, so this page explains plainly what we collect, why, who helps us run the service, and what you can ask us to do.

Who we are

Sahara Studio is run by Furquan Ahmad in London, United Kingdom, who is responsible for your data (the “controller” under UK data protection law). Email hello@saharastudio.cc with any question about your data.

What we collect

Your account

Your email address, so we can send you a sign-in link and recognise you.
If you choose Continue with Google: the name, email address and profile picture Google shares with us. We ask for nothing else from your Google account.
Your plan, your remaining voice minutes, and when each practice session started and ended, so we can charge the right number of minutes.

Your practice sessions

Your voice.While a session is live, your microphone audio goes straight from your browser to Google’s Gemini service, which plays the tutor. We don’t record or keep it on our servers.
The transcript check. When you press Finish, your side of the conversation is sent once to Gemini to produce an accurate transcript. The audio file is deleted from Gemini straight after.
The text of the conversationis used to translate lines, suggest replies and write your recap. Your recap appears in your browser. We don’t keep conversation transcripts on our servers.
Before a transcript is sent for your recap, we remove anything that looks like an email address or phone number.

Payments

If you subscribe, Stripe collects your payment details on its own secure page. We only receive and store your Stripe customer and subscription references and which plan you’re on.

How you use the site

We use PostHog to understand how people use Sahara and to fix problems: pages visited, buttons clicked, errors, your device and browser type, rough location from your IP address, and recordings of how the page was used (“session replays”). Replays hide everything you type into forms. Once you sign in, this activity is linked to your account and email address. Our analytics are stored in the EU.

Feedback you send us

If you use the feedback button, we keep what you write, any screenshot you choose to attach, and basic details such as the page you were on, so we can fix the problem.

On your device

Sahara uses cookies to keep you signed in, and your browser’s local storage to remember display settings such as showing vowel marks or transliteration. Our analytics also store an identifier in your browser.

Why we use it

To provide the service you signed up for: your account, practice sessions, recaps, minutes and payments.
Our legitimate interests: keeping Sahara secure and preventing abuse (for example rate limits), fixing errors, and improving lessons.
Legal obligations: keeping payment records as the law requires.

We don’t sell your data, and we don’t use it for advertising.

Who helps us run Sahara

These companies process data for us, only to provide their part of the service:

ServiceWhat forWhere

SupabaseYour account, sign-in, voice minutes and subscription statusEU

VercelHosts the website and the servers behind itGlobal, US-based company

Google (Gemini)The live voice tutor, translations, and the transcript check after a sessionUS

Google (sign-in)Only if you choose Continue with GoogleUS

OpenRouter and the AI model providers it routes toYour session recap, suggested replies and phrase-card replies, from the text of the conversationUS and other countries

StripePayments. Stripe handles your card details; we never see themUS and EU

PostHogProduct analytics, error reports and session replaysEU

GitHubStores feedback you send us, in a private repositoryUS

Our email providerSends your sign-in emailsUS and EU

Some of these companies are outside the UK. Where data leaves the UK, it’s protected by the safeguards UK law requires, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or the UK–US data bridge.

How long we keep it

Your account and plan details: until you ask us to delete your account.
Payment records: as long as UK tax law requires, usually six years.
Live practice audio: not stored by us. Transcript-check audio: deleted from Gemini as soon as the check is done.
Analytics and session replays: kept by PostHog for its standard retention period, after which they’re deleted.
Feedback: until the issue is resolved and no longer needed.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

give you a copy of your data
correct anything that’s wrong
delete your account and data
stop or limit how we use it, or object to it
send your data to you in a portable format

Email hello@saharastudio.ccand we’ll reply within one month. If you’re unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

Children

Sahara isn’t intended for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their data.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we use your data, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. For significant changes, we’ll also tell you by email.