The Message: Sermons & Bible (“the app”) is an iPhone app by Bakari Mustafa for reading and listening to the sermons of William Branham and studying the Bible. This policy explains what the app does with your information. In short: the app does not collect, sell or share your personal data.
Effective date: 11 October 2026
No accounts, analytics or advertising
The app has no sign-in and no user accounts. It contains no analytics, advertising or tracking libraries, does not use the advertising identifier, and does not track you across other apps or websites.
What stays on your iPhone
Everything you create in the app is stored only on your device:
- notes, labels, prayers and saved verse images
- highlights, bookmarks and collections
- reading and listening history, reading-plan progress and activity
- your reading preferences and settings
The developer cannot see this information. The app’s widgets read a small summary of it (such as today’s verse and what is playing) from storage shared on the same device.
Backups. If you choose Backup & Restore, the app creates a backup file and hands it to you through the share sheet. You decide where it goes (for example your Files folder or iCloud Drive). The file contains your private notes, so keep it somewhere you trust. Export creates a readable Markdown copy in the same way.
Deleting your data. Delete items in the app, or delete the app to remove everything it stored on your device.
Content the app downloads
To show sermons, Bible text, devotionals, pictures and videos, the app requests content from these services. Requests contain only what is needed to fetch the content, such as a sermon code, a date, a Bible reference or a search term. Like any internet request, they also reveal your device’s IP address to the service that answers them.
- bakarimustafa.com – the sermon catalogue, transcripts, search and read-along timings (hosted by Netlify)
- Media hosts linked from the catalogue – sermon audio and PDF files
- bolls.life – Bible text for translations not bundled in the app (the King James Version and Berean Standard Bible are included in the app and work offline)
- Our Daily Strength (Google Firestore) – the daily devotional and verse of the day
- branham.org and themessage.com – photographs, articles and narration
- Vimeo – videos, which play in Vimeo’s own player
These services have their own privacy policies. The app does not send them your notes, history or any other personal information.
Permissions
The app asks for a permission only when you use the feature that needs it, and works without it if you decline:
- Speech recognition – Read-along follows a sermon recording on your device using Apple’s on-device speech recognition. The recording is not uploaded. iOS may download Apple’s speech model the first time.
- Photos (add only) – used only when you tap Save to Photos or Save Image. The app can add pictures but cannot see your photo library.
- Notifications – used only for the daily reminders you turn on (prayer and reading plans). Reminders are scheduled on your device; there is no notification server.
Tips and purchases
Tips and the optional monthly supporter subscription are processed by Apple through the App Store. The app receives only a confirmation that a purchase succeeded; it never sees your name, payment details or Apple Account. Tips unlock nothing, and every feature is free. In the United States the app can also link to Buy Me a Coffee, which opens in Safari and is governed by that site’s own privacy policy.
Children
The app is suitable for all ages and does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children.
Changes to this policy
If the app’s handling of information changes, this page will be updated and the effective date changed.
Contact
Questions about this policy or the app: bakari@bakarimustafa.com.
See also: Support · Website privacy policy