Privacy Policy

Effective date: 20 October 2026
Last updated: 20 October 2026
Applies to: the Arganon app distributed through the Apple App Store (iOS and iPadOS). The Android app distributed through Google Play has its own policy.

Introduction

Arganon ("we", "us", "our") is a mobile application for browsing, streaming, downloading and studying Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo mezmur (hymns) and kidase (liturgy). It is developed and maintained by Mikiyas Tekalign (Melloss), reachable at mellossdev@gmail.com.

This Privacy Policy explains what information the App collects, why it is collected, who it may be shared with, how long it is kept, and what choices you have.

Arganon has no user accounts. You do not register, and we do not ask for your name, email address, phone number or location in order to use the App. Most information stored for your personal use stays on your device.

What we collect

1. Information stored only on your device

Your favourites, downloaded hymns and liturgies, custom categories, chosen colour theme, category filters, lyric font size, playback preferences, and any publishers you have blocked or categories you have reported are saved in the App's own storage on your device. This information is not sent to us as part of the ordinary use of these features.

Hymns and liturgies you download for offline listening are stored in a part of the App's storage that is excluded from iCloud and device backups, so they do not use your iCloud storage. They remain until you delete them in the App or remove the App.

Deleting the App removes this information from your device.

2. A random app identifier

The first time you open the App, it generates a random identifier (a UUID such as f47ac10b-58cc-…). It is not your device's hardware identifier, the Apple advertising identifier, your phone number, email address or name.

On iOS this identifier is also kept in your device's Keychain, so it stays the same if you delete and reinstall the App. That is what keeps an Arganon Premium subscription and the categories you published linked to your device after a reinstall. It is kept "this device only": it is not synced to iCloud Keychain and does not move to another iPhone through a backup.

The identifier is sent to our server:

• each time the App starts, together with the device information described in section 4, so that we can deliver notifications and count how many installations use which version of the App;
• when you publish, edit, vote on, report or delete a public category;
• when you send feedback or a mezmur request;
• when you buy or restore Arganon Premium (section 5).

3. Content you choose to submit

Some features let you voluntarily send information to our server:

• Mezmur requests: the hymn title and artist name you type.
• Feedback: the text you write and the hymn it concerns, so that we can reply.
• Public categories: the title, description and hymn list of any category you choose to publish, together with the random app identifier. A published category is reviewed by us before it is visible to anyone else. Once approved it is visible to other users of the App.
• Votes: which shared category you voted on, and the random app identifier, so that one installation cannot vote repeatedly on the same category.
• Reports: when you report a public category, the reason you choose, any note you write, and the random app identifier. Reports are read only by us, to decide whether to remove the category.

Everything in this section is voluntary. If you do not use these features, nothing is submitted. Please do not put personal information about yourself or anyone else in category titles, descriptions, feedback, requests or reports.

Other users never see your random app identifier. Each published category carries a separate code, derived from it in a way that cannot be reversed. The App uses that code only so that a user who blocks a publisher no longer sees any of that publisher's categories.

4. Device and notification information

When the App starts, it sends our server:

• the random app identifier;
• the platform (iOS), the App's version and your device's language;
• your device model (for example iPhone15,2) and iOS version;
• whether notifications are allowed for Arganon;
• a notification token.

The App uses Firebase Cloud Messaging ("FCM", provided by Google), which delivers through Apple Push Notification service, to tell you when new hymns are added and to deliver replies to your feedback and decisions about categories you published. The token identifies your installation for message delivery only. You can turn notifications off at any time in Settings → Notifications → Arganon.

We use this information to deliver notifications, to understand which App versions are still in use (for example, before requiring an update), and to keep the service working. We do not use it to identify you by name.

5. Arganon Premium (in-app subscription)

Arganon Premium is an optional auto-renewing subscription, sold through the App Store, that removes advertisements. It does not unlock any additional content: every hymn, download and liturgy is free for everyone.

Payment is handled entirely by Apple. We never see or receive your name, Apple ID, email address, card or bank details.

When you subscribe or restore a purchase, the App sends our server the signed transaction that Apple provides, together with the random app identifier. This lets our server confirm with Apple that the subscription is genuine and decide whether ads should be shown on your device. The transaction contains the product purchased, the purchase, renewal and expiry dates, the App Store transaction identifiers, the storefront country, and whether the purchase was a trial, a renewal or a refund. Apple also sends our server App Store Server Notifications when a subscription renews, expires, is refunded or changes.

We keep this information for as long as the subscription is active, and afterwards for as long as needed for accounting, refunds and dispute handling, and to meet legal obligations.

You manage or cancel the subscription in your Apple account (Settings → your name → Subscriptions), or from Settings → ማስታወቂያ አስወግድ in the App. Apple's handling of your purchase is described in Apple's privacy policy: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/

6. Advertising

Unless you subscribe to Arganon Premium, some features are unlocked by watching a short advertisement. Examples are downloading a hymn, downloading a whole category or a full liturgy, saving or publishing a category, and exporting an image or video without the Arganon mark.

Advertisements are requested and managed by Appodeal, an advertising mediation platform, and may be supplied by advertising partners connected through Appodeal. To serve, measure and protect advertisements, Appodeal and those partners may process:

• the Apple advertising identifier (IDFA), only if you allow tracking (see below);
• IP address and network information;
• device model, iOS version and language;
• advertisement impressions, clicks and other ad interactions;
• diagnostic and performance information about the ads.

App Tracking Transparency. Before any advertisement is requested, iOS shows Apple's tracking prompt for Arganon. If you choose Ask App Not to Track, the advertising identifier is not available to Arganon or its advertising partners, and you will still see advertisements that are not personalised to you. Every feature works the same either way. You can change your choice at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.

Where privacy law requires it (for example in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland), a consent form is shown before advertising starts, and you can change your choice later in Settings → የማስታወቂያ ፈቃድ in the App.

Arganon does not send your religious affiliation or any similar sensitive information to advertising providers. We do not control the individual advertisements shown by third parties and do not endorse what they advertise.

If you subscribe to Arganon Premium, the advertising system is not started at all, and you are not shown the tracking prompt.

7. Technical information from ordinary use

When the App fetches the hymn list, streams or downloads audio, or talks to our server, our hosting providers automatically receive the technical information every internet request carries: IP address, the date and time, and general device and network information. We use it to deliver content, operate and secure the service, diagnose problems and prevent abuse. We do not use it to build a profile of you.

What we do not collect

Arganon does not collect your name, email address, phone number, contacts, calendar, precise location, or anything else on your device that you have not chosen to share.

Photos. When you choose a background photo for an image or video you create in the ተግባር tools, iOS's photo picker gives the App only the photo you selected. When you save a creation, it is added to your Photos. Photos are never uploaded to us.

Camera and microphone. Arganon does not record audio or video. iOS lists these permissions because the photo picker component the App uses supports them.

Arganon contains no analytics SDK of its own. We do not sell your information.

Permissions the App may ask for

If you decline a permission, only the feature that needs it is affected.

Who your information is shared with

Each provider processes information under its own privacy policy:

• Appodeal: https://appodeal.com/privacy-policy/
• Firebase: https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy
• Google: https://policies.google.com/privacy
• Apple: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/
• Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/
• DigitalOcean: https://www.digitalocean.com/legal/privacy-policy

International data transfers

Our server is in Germany, and some providers process information in other countries, including the United States. Where the law requires it, the providers use contractual safeguards or other recognised transfer mechanisms.

How long information is kept

• On your device: until you delete it in the App or delete the App. The Keychain copy of the random app identifier remains until you reset your device or erase it from the Keychain.
• Device registration (section 4): while the installation keeps contacting our server, and for a limited period after it stops.
• Published categories: while they remain published, unless you delete them or we remove them.
• Votes: for as long as the category they are on exists.
• Reports: for as long as needed to act on them, and afterwards as a record of moderation decisions.
• Feedback and mezmur requests: for as long as needed to respond and keep an appropriate support record.
• Subscription records: as described in section 5.
• Server logs: for as long as reasonably necessary for operation, security and abuse prevention.
• Advertising data held by Appodeal and its partners: according to their own policies.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or export your information, to object to or restrict certain processing, to withdraw consent, and to complain to a data protection authority.

In practice, for Arganon:

• Categories you published: delete them yourself in the App.
• Anything else we hold: email mellossdev@gmail.com. Because there are no accounts, include your app identifier so that we can find your records: open Settings → ስለ (About) and long-press the Arganon logo to copy it, then paste it into your email.
• Advertising: change your tracking choice in iOS Settings, and your consent choice in the App, as described in section 6.
• Subscription: managed and cancelled in your Apple account.

We aim to answer privacy requests within 30 days.

Children

Arganon is not directed at children under 13, or the equivalent minimum age where you live, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has sent us personal information through feedback, a request, a report or a published category, contact us and we will delete it.

Security

All communication between the App and our server uses HTTPS/TLS, and access to our server is restricted. Only the installation that published a category can change or delete it, apart from our moderation. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we take reasonable measures to protect the information we hold.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this policy. The "Last updated" date above changes when we do, and where the law requires it we will also tell you in the App.

Contact

Email: mellossdev@gmail.com
Telegram: https://t.me/mellossDev

Terms of Use

Effective date: 20 October 2026

These Terms govern your use of the Arganon app downloaded from the Apple App Store. Your use of the App is also governed by Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement (https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/). If the two conflict, Apple's agreement applies to the extent the law requires.

1. What Arganon is

Arganon is a free application providing Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo hymns and liturgy for personal, devotional and study use. It does not require an account.

2. Content and ownership

The App itself, including its software, design and original text, belongs to its developer, Mikias Tekalign (Melloss). The hymns, recordings, lyrics and liturgical texts in the App belong to their singers, composers, choirs, churches or other rights holders, and Arganon does not claim ownership of them.

You may use the content in Arganon for your own personal, devotional and study purposes. You may not sell, commercially redistribute, or present it as your own work without the rights to do so.

If you hold rights in material available through Arganon and believe it should be credited differently or removed, email mellossdev@gmail.com with enough information to identify the material and, where relevant, evidence of your rights.

3. Content you share, and how it is moderated

You are responsible for the categories you publish and the feedback, requests and reports you send. Do not publish anything that is unlawful, offensive, hateful, sexually explicit, defamatory, misleading, advertising, unrelated to the purpose of the App, or that infringes someone else's rights.

We have no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users. Every published category is reviewed before anyone else can see it. Any user can report a category, or block everything a publisher has shared, from the category's menu. We review reports and remove content that breaches these Terms, normally within 24 hours, together with other categories from the same publisher where they also breach them.

By publishing a category, you allow us to store, display and distribute it within Arganon for as long as it remains published. You keep any rights you have in it.

4. Arganon Premium

Arganon Premium is an optional auto-renewing subscription that removes advertisements. It does not unlock any content: everything in the App stays free.

• Payment is charged to your Apple ID when you confirm the purchase.
• The subscription renews automatically at the same price and for the same period unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.
• Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period.
• You can manage or cancel the subscription in your Apple account settings at any time. Cancelling stops the next renewal; the current period is not refunded by us.
• Refunds are handled by Apple under its own policies: https://reportaproblem.apple.com
• A subscription bought on one device can be restored on another with ግዢን መልስ (Restore) on the subscription screen.

5. Advertisements

If you do not subscribe, some features are unlocked by watching an advertisement. Do not click advertisements to generate revenue, use automated tools to create impressions or clicks, or otherwise interfere with the advertising service. If no advertisement can be shown because of a problem on the advertising side, the App may unlock the feature without one.

6. Availability

Content and features may be added, changed or removed, and the App or its server may sometimes be unavailable. We may change or discontinue the App, subject to applicable law and to your rights under an active subscription.

7. Disclaimer and limitation of liability

The App is provided "as is" and "as available" to the fullest extent permitted by law. We do not guarantee that it will always be available or free of errors, or that every lyric or liturgical text is free of transcription mistakes. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect or consequential damages arising from the use of, or inability to use, the App. Nothing in these Terms limits rights that cannot legally be limited.

8. Apple

These Terms are between you and the developer of Arganon, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for the App or its content, has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for it, and is not responsible for any claims relating to it, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, or intellectual property claims. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

9. Changes and contact

We may update these Terms. The effective date above changes when we do.

Email: mellossdev@gmail.com