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Beta Terms of Use

The terms for using the invite-only Hasala beta: what to expect, what we ask of you, and the limits of what we can promise.

Last updated Beta

About these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Saleh Lootah, an individual based in the United Arab Emirates, who runs Hasala. Hasala is not a company. We can be reached by email only; the addresses are under Contact.

In these terms, “Hasala”, “we” and “us” mean Saleh Lootah, as the operator of Hasala. “The service” means the Hasala iPhone app (App Store name “Hasala Budgeting”), our server, and the website at hasala.app.

By creating a Hasala account or using the beta, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree, please don’t use Hasala.

The beta

Invite-only

Hasala is in a private beta. You need access to the beta on Apple’s TestFlight and a Hasala invite code to create an account. Invite codes are personal. Please don’t share or sell them. We decide who is invited, and we may limit the number of testers.

What a beta means

Hasala is unfinished. During the beta:

  • features may change, appear or disappear without notice;
  • Hasala may have bugs, including bugs that show wrong amounts, miss transactions or put transactions in the wrong category;
  • the service may be slow or unavailable at times, including for maintenance;
  • each TestFlight build expires after a period set by Apple, and you’ll need to install updates to keep using Hasala; and
  • we may need to wipe the beta service’s data and start again, for example before a change to how data is stored. If we do, we’ll tell you in the app or by email at least 7 days before, so that you can export your data first.

Hasala is English only. It runs on iPhone, and reads bank alerts only from a Gmail account. At launch it supports alerts from Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) and Emirates NBD.

Price

Hasala is free during the beta. These terms don’t promise anything about pricing after the beta. If that changes, we’ll tell you before you’re asked to pay for anything.

Feedback

We’d love your feedback. If you send us ideas or suggestions, you allow us to use them to improve Hasala, without any obligation to you. We won’t publish your name with your feedback without asking.

Not financial advice

Hasala helps you see and plan your own spending. It is not a bank, a payment service or a financial adviser.

  • Nothing in Hasala is financial, investment, tax or legal advice.
  • Budgets, pace estimates, bill reminders and category suggestions are calculated automatically from your own data. They can be wrong or incomplete.
  • Hasala does not move money, make payments, or connect to your bank account. It reads the alert emails your bank sends you.
  • Your bank’s own statements are the record of your money. Check important figures against them before you rely on them.

Your account

Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use Hasala. Hasala is meant for people managing their own personal finances in the UAE.

Your account details

You agree to give a real email address that you control and keep it up to date. Your display name can be anything that isn’t offensive or misleading.

Keeping it safe

You are responsible for keeping your sign-in methods and your iPhone secure. In particular:

  • Your 12-word recovery phrase is your account. Anyone who has it can read your data, sign in as you and add devices. Keep it private and stored somewhere safe.
  • We can’t reset your recovery phrase. If you lose your recovery phrase and every passkey, and have no signed-in iPhone, your account and data can’t be recovered. Not even by us.
  • A password reset needs your 12 words or a signed-in iPhone. If you sign in with email and password, keep at least one of these available.
  • Hasala will never ask for your recovery phrase, your password or a code in an email, a notification, a phone call or on a website. Only type them into the Hasala app.
  • Keep a passcode on your iPhone, and keep two-factor authentication on for your Apple Account. Your passkey is stored in iCloud Keychain.

Tell us straight away at security@hasala.app if you think someone else has access to your account.

Gmail

To bring in transactions, you can connect a Gmail account that you own or are allowed to use. Hasala reads it with read-only access on your iPhone. Connect only a mailbox you’re entitled to give Hasala access to. You can disconnect it at any time.

Acceptable use

Please use Hasala only for its intended purpose: managing your own money. Don’t:

  • connect a mailbox, or add data, that you don’t have the right to use;
  • try to get into another person’s account or data;
  • probe, scan or test the security of Hasala, except under our Security policy;
  • overload, disrupt or interfere with the service, for example with automated requests;
  • reverse engineer the service to get around its security, limits or invite system (the source-available licence below governs what you may do with the code itself);
  • use Hasala for anything illegal, including fraud or money laundering; or
  • share, sell or transfer your account or invite code.

Suspension

We may suspend an account if we reasonably believe it breaks these terms, puts other users or the service at risk, or if the law requires it. Where it’s safe and lawful, we’ll tell you why.

While your account is suspended you can still:

  • open Hasala and see the data already on your iPhone;
  • sign in and sign out; and
  • delete your account.

You can’t sync new changes, connect Gmail, or change your sign-in methods or devices. If you think we’ve made a mistake, email us and we’ll review it.

Suspension is something we do. It is different from freezing, which you can do yourself from a security email or in the app if a sign-in wasn’t you; see our Security page.

Ending your use of Hasala

You can leave at any time

You can stop using Hasala and delete your account in the app under Profile › Delete your account. Our server erases your account and sealed data straight away. Encrypted backups expire within 30 days. The Support page has step-by-step instructions, including how to leave the TestFlight beta.

Deleting the app from your iPhone does not delete your account.

We can end the beta or your access

We may end your access if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms. We may also end the beta or close Hasala. Unless there’s an urgent reason, such as a security risk or a legal requirement, we’ll give you at least 30 days’ notice, in the app or by email, so you can export your data. When an account is closed, its data is deleted from our server as described in the Privacy Policy.

Source-available code

Hasala’s source code is source-available, at github.com/salehtl/hasala, under the Functional Source License, Version 1.1, ALv2 Future License (FSL-1.1-ALv2). The licence text is in LICENSE.md.

That licence covers your use of the code. These terms cover your use of the Hasala service that we run. Each version of the code becomes available under the Apache License 2.0 two years after it is released. Until then, it may not be used in a commercial product or service that competes with Hasala. Read the licence itself for the exact terms.

The name Hasala (حصّالة) and the Slot mark, Hasala’s logo, are trademarks and are not covered by the licence. See TRADEMARKS.md for how you may refer to them.

Our responsibility to you

As-is

We work hard to make Hasala accurate, secure and reliable. But it’s a free beta, so we provide it “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we make no promises that it will be error-free, uninterrupted, or fit for a particular purpose.

Limits on liability

To the extent the law allows:

  • we aren’t responsible for losses caused by relying on Hasala’s figures, categories or reminders, such as missed bill payments or bank charges;
  • we aren’t responsible for losing access to your data if you lose your recovery phrase and every passkey and signed-in device;
  • we aren’t responsible for problems caused by Google, Apple, Cloudflare, your bank, or your device; and
  • our total liability to you for any claim about the beta is limited to AED 100.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under UAE law, including liability for fraud, wilful misconduct or gross negligence.

Your responsibility

If you break these terms, for example by misusing someone else’s mailbox, you are responsible for the harm that causes, to the extent the law allows.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates as applied in the Emirate of Dubai. The courts of Dubai have jurisdiction over any dispute about them. Before going to court, please contact us so we can try to resolve the issue informally.

Changes to these terms

We’ll update these terms as Hasala changes. The date at the top shows when they last changed. If a change is material, we’ll tell you in the app or by email at least 30 days before it takes effect. If you keep using Hasala after that, the new terms apply. If you don’t agree, you can delete your account.

General

  • If part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies.
  • If we don’t enforce a right straight away, we haven’t given it up.
  • You may not transfer your rights under these terms. We may transfer ours to a business that takes over Hasala, and we’ll tell you if that happens.
  • These terms, the Privacy Policy and the Security policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the beta.
  • If there’s a conflict between these terms and Apple’s TestFlight terms, Apple’s terms govern your use of TestFlight itself.

Contact

We can be reached by email only.