Privacy policy

Account and profile

Creating an account currently requires your full name, email address, phone number, country, nationality, date of birth and gender (female or male), as well as a password. Gender is required by the current registration form; it is not optional.

We keep account and profile records, verification status and account identifiers to provide sign-in, your profile and account-linked features. AWS Cognito handles authentication, passwords and email verification. Profile information is also handled by Malafi’s application storage and its AWS profile service.

You can edit the fields enabled in Profile. Some fields, including an already saved date of birth, are not editable there; contact Malafi about corrections. Passwords are not stored as readable text in Malafi’s account database.

Ask Malafi and external AI processing

When a live AI answer is requested, Malafi sends your question, a limited recent conversation context, the selected language, relevant public guide information and Al Ain weather context to OpenAI. Recent context can include your previous questions and AI replies. Details you type into those messages are included in that processing; avoid passwords, payment details and other sensitive information.

The current integration creates hosted Saved Agent sessions to obtain answers. Conversation continuity is provided by sending recent messages again. Malafi does not save the provider session identifier as permanent account conversation history, and the Ask feature does not write conversation text to Malafi’s application database.

External processing is separate from storage in your browser or Malafi’s database. Malafi has not established a specific provider-side retention or deletion period for this Saved Agent integration. We do not promise no storage, zero retention or deletion at a particular time by the AI provider.

Information kept in your browser

Ask Malafi uses temporary browser-tab storage (sessionStorage) for conversation items, questions and replies, the current draft and interface state such as scroll position. This helps restore the workspace when you return within that browser session. It is local state, not permanent conversation history saved to your account or synced across devices.

How long this local state remains available depends on the browser and its session-restoration settings. Do not assume that navigating away, signing out or closing a tab guarantees immediate deletion of all local copies. You can clear Malafi’s site data using your browser settings.

Malafi also uses cookies and browser storage for sign-in, temporarily carrying registration details through verification, language preferences and analytics choices. Sign-in persistence depends in part on your “Remember me” choice. Clearing site data may sign you out and reset preferences.

Usage limits and operational records

We keep account-linked and site-wide usage counters and temporary request-control records to enforce Ask Malafi limits, prevent abuse and operate the service reliably. Technical diagnostics record information such as request references, attempts, timing and outcome; these are separate from optional usage analytics.

A limit resetting or a counter reaching its expiry time does not guarantee that its stored record has been deleted. Older counter records can remain until a cleanup operation removes them. We do not promise deletion of all usage records within two days.

Favourites, location and weather

Place and route favourites are linked to your account and kept so you can see and remove them from your saved items. They are not displayed as a public list to other visitors.

“Near me” asks for browser location permission and uses your location in the guide to calculate nearby places. This guide feature does not save your precise coordinates in Malafi’s application database or optional analytics. Opening maps or directions uses Google Maps and its own processing.

Weather requests are made through Malafi’s server for fixed central Al Ain coordinates using MET Norway data, rather than your personal location.

Reviews and public contributions

When you submit a Place review, we store its account association, Place, rating, chosen display name, visit month, visit type, comment and moderation information. A review must be approved before appearing publicly; an edited review returns to moderation.

Approved reviews show the chosen display name, rating, visit details, comment, update date and helpful-vote count. Your account email and account identifier are not included in the public review display. Helpful votes are associated with the voter’s account internally. Avoid including private contact details or other sensitive information in a public review.

Reports and feedback

Place corrections and review reports are stored with your account association, the relevant Place or review and your message. Malafi can record handling status and internal notes. General feedback stores your account identifier, email, rating, feedback type and message.

Reports and general feedback are handled internally rather than published as visitor reviews. Authorised staff can read them for moderation, support and follow-up. General feedback does not currently provide an automated case-status or resolution workflow.

Visit enquiries and service requests

If you submit a visit, Tour or Concierge request, we store the details you provide with your account reference and email. These can include the selected service, date and time, group size, number of days, language, meeting point, preferences and Travel Brief. Stored requests can also contain administrative status, itinerary drafts, delivered plans and revision notes, with account-owned items shown in My Plans where available.

The existing internal Concierge drafting tool can send the Travel Brief, revision note, requested dates, group size, language and public guide/weather context to OpenAI when an authorised operator uses it. This is separate from an Ask Malafi conversation.

Current interest/request forms do not collect payment-card details or take online payments. Submitting a request does not itself confirm a paid booking. If you choose follow-up by WhatsApp or email, the message is also processed by that service.

Submit Venue and uploaded material

Submit Venue collects venue information, contact name and role, phone, email where supplied, links, notes and any photos you upload. Submitted contact details and original submission records are for internal review. Selected venue descriptions and approved photos can be published in the guide after review.

Only submit material you are authorised to share, and avoid including private information in descriptions or photos intended for publication.

Optional analytics and account activity

With consent, analytics also records coarse session source and campaign-medium categories, device/browser categories, country only when supplied by hosting, content opens, external/map clicks, visible-page engagement and coarse performance/error categories. We do not store raw referrer URLs, arbitrary campaign names, user-agent strings, IP addresses, error messages or customer details in these events. These are browser signals, not verified people or full financial reporting.

The private Founder dashboard and explicitly linked Founder connector can read aggregate analytics. Verified Founder and active administrator sessions are excluded. On signed-out Founder or authorized test browsers, select No thanks in Analytics preferences to remain excluded; anonymous internal traffic cannot otherwise be reliably recognized. New session context is not backfilled into historical traffic. Usage events have a 13-month retention window with bounded cleanup during collection.

Optional usage analytics run with your consent. They record random browser/session identifiers, timestamps, selected page paths and Place interactions. These analytics records do not contain message text, precise location or a stored IP-address field. This does not mean hosting or external services receive no technical connection information.

Coverage is partial: it excludes visitors who decline and does not track every page or interaction. The browser honours Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control for these analytics. Use “Analytics preferences” at the bottom of the site to change your choice. Declining stops future optional tracking and removes the local analytics identifiers; it does not automatically erase previously collected server records.

Separately, confirmed-member records and signed-in daily activity are recorded when the site checks an account session, even if optional analytics are declined. Malafi uses them to operate and measure the member service. Only aggregate community counts are public; account-level records are internal.

Administrative access and external services

Authorised Malafi administrators can access operational information available to their role, including account references, names and emails in account records, verification/activity indicators, usage counts, review content, reports, feedback, venue submissions and service-request details. Service operators can view stored briefs and plans. The current Admin tools do not provide an Ask Malafi conversation-history viewer.

Malafi uses Cloudflare infrastructure for the website, application records and uploaded files; AWS services for authentication and profile processing; and OpenAI for AI requests. Account verification emails are handled through the authentication service. Google Maps is used for maps/directions, and the guide can load Google Translate for additional-language display. Weather data comes from MET Norway through Malafi’s server.

External maps, translation, linked media, websites and messaging services process the information needed when they are loaded or used, under their own terms. This policy does not guarantee their retention periods or that all processing occurs in one country.

Retention and your choices

Account, community, submission and service records remain in the application until a relevant removal or cleanup action takes place. There is no single automatic deletion schedule covering all these records. Some operational and analytics cleanup happens during service use, so records can remain after a logical expiry or cleanup threshold.

You can remove favourites, change available Profile fields, decline optional analytics and clear local site data. These actions have different effects: clearing your browser does not delete server-side account records, and changing analytics consent does not delete your account.

Contact Malafi about your data

Contact Malafi at marhaba@malafi.ae with questions or requests to access, correct or delete your account or data. State what you would like reviewed and the email associated with your account. Do not send your password, verification codes or payment details.

These requests use direct contact with Malafi; there is currently no automated account-deletion button or guaranteed response/deletion period stated here. If a website contact link asks you to sign in, you can write directly to the address above from your email app.