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Privacy Policy & Terms

Privacy​

We are committed to the principle of maximum user anonymity. The Dhamma.gift project is designed to ensure that searching for and reading Pali texts does not require users to reveal their personal identity.

Products Covered​

Telegram Services

Apps (each one: PWA, Android, iOS and Windows)

The apps work online and offline. Throughout this policy an iOS app behaves exactly as the Android one does.

Browser Extensions

Cloud Synchronization (Optional)​

This is an opt-in feature available on the website and within the PWA and the Android and iOS applications, used solely to synchronize your history, favorites, reading progress, subscriptions, and settings across multiple devices.

  • Infrastructure — data is stored in Google Firebase (a third-party cloud database).
  • Authentication methods:
    • Anonymous passphrase — if you use a secret passphrase, it is hashed locally on your device (SHA-256) before transmission. Only the anonymous identifier is stored; your original passphrase never reaches the database.
    • Google Account — we use your email address solely for session identification. The email is stored as a hashed entry to protect your privacy.
    • Sign in with Apple — as with Google: we receive your Apple user identifier and the email address Apple provides (if you choose "Hide My Email", this is a private relay address created by Apple) and use them solely for session identification.
  • Data storage — only your bookmarks (favorites, including quotes saved for memorization in Meditate & Memorize), search history, reading progress in texts, Daily Reading subscriptions with their read marks, and interface preferences are saved. This data is accessible only to you upon successful authentication.
  • Data deletion — you may permanently delete all your cloud data at any time using the "Delete account & cloud data" button in the Sync menu.

Data Processing​

Our products process only the minimal technical data required for core functionality:

  • Search — only search queries, text references, or selected dictionary terms are transmitted.
  • Synchronization — when enabled, we process session metadata (OS type and browser) to help you manage your active devices.
  • Uposatha calendar (Uposatha app) — the place you share (rounded to about a kilometre) and your settings stay on your device; the sun and moon times are calculated on the device, and reminders are set on the device itself. The downloaded .ics file is also made on your device. Two things do reach dhamma.gift:
    • the calendar page asks for its app manifest with your time zone and interface language in the address;
    • if you subscribe to the calendar (Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or a copied link), the feed address contains your place rounded to about 1 km, your time zone and your reminder settings. Your calendar app fetches this address from dhamma.gift; if you subscribe in Google Calendar, Google's servers fetch it and Google sees the address too. We do not store these: the feed is computed on request and kept in memory for at most an hour, and the address appears only in the standard server logs (see Logs below).
  • Technical logs — standard request metadata (IP address, User-Agent) is collected by web servers for security purposes and DDoS protection.

Information We Do Not Collect​

  • Personal identification (except the email address used during Google or Apple Login).
  • Telegram user IDs or private chat histories.
  • Browsing history outside of our specific services.
  • Persistent tracking identifiers (beyond the scope of a user-initiated sync session).

Data Transmission​

Our own services:

  • dhamma.gift / dict.dhamma.gift — for search and reader functionality.
  • api.dhamma.gift (and its reserve api2.dhamma.gift) — the DG voices: it receives the text being read aloud. It also serves the MCP server and the API.
  • files.dhamma.gift — MP3 files of the texts.
  • s.dhamma.gift — other Pali editions side by side.
  • Google Firebase — solely to provide the optional cloud synchronization service, and only if you sign in.

External services:

  • dpdict.net — the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary, for dictionary entries our own bundled dictionary does not cover. Only the single Pāḷi word being looked up is sent, with no account, identifier or other context attached. Some of these lookups are made by our server on your behalf; others your browser or the app makes directly, in which case dpdict.net also sees your IP address as it would on any website you visit. This is their service, under their own privacy policy, not ours.
  • sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de — the Cologne Sanskrit dictionaries. Dict.Dhamma.Gift sends the word being looked up to show Sanskrit entries. Your browser makes the request, so they also see your IP address.
  • Other dictionaries in Dict.Dhamma.Gift — Sutta-Vinaya Definitions and Similes (tripitaka-mcp.com), Gandhari Dictionaries (gandhari.org), PTS Dictionary (dsal.uchicago.edu) and Wisdom Library (wisdomlib.org). Their sections are collapsed by default. When you open one, your browser loads that site's page with the word being looked up.
  • Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com, fonts.gstatic.com) — fonts on some pages, such as Hatthipada. Your browser loads them, so Google sees your IP address.
  • cdnjs.cloudflare.com — a charting script loaded on the Hatthipada page.
  • Google Cloud Text-to-Speech — only when you choose a Google voice: it receives the text being read. On the website your browser sends it to Google directly (with the site's trial key or your own API key), so Google also sees your IP address. In the apps, with the trial key the text goes through our server, which forwards it without identifiers; with your own key the app sends it to Google directly.

We do not share, sell, or transmit user data to any third parties for marketing or advertising purposes.

Data Retention​

  • Without synchronization — search queries and history are not stored on our servers; all data remains local to your browser's localStorage.
  • With synchronization — history, favorites, reading progress, subscriptions, and settings are stored in the Google Cloud database until deleted by the user.
  • Offline library — the full text database (about 200 MB to download, about 590 MB on the device) is downloaded from dhamma.gift and kept on your device only. On the website and in the PWA the download starts only with your consent. The Android and iOS apps always ask before the download, on Wi-Fi too, and name its size; if you say no, the app remembers and does not ask again, and you can still download it in Settings → Offline library. It contains texts only and no data about you. In offline mode, searching and reading texts run on the device without requests to our server. Database updates are offered at most once every two weeks. You can remove the database with the "Delete" button in the offline library settings.
  • Logs — technical server logs are retained for a maximum of 30 days.

Updates to This Policy​

This Privacy Policy may be updated periodically. Your continued use of the Services after such changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

For inquiries regarding your privacy, please contact us at agiftofdhamma@gmail.com.

Last updated: October 2026.

Terms​

Three cases, and the difference matters.

Public domain — SuttaCentral​

All materials from SuttaCentral (Bilara data) — the Pali root texts and the translations — are dedicated to the public domain under CC0. You may use, copy and adapt them freely, including commercially, with no permission needed. This includes the Thai translation of the Bhikkhunī Pātimokkha by Jayasāro Bhikkhu. See SuttaCentral licensing.

Other Pali editions: each under its own license​

Besides the Mahāsaṅgīti Pali text from SuttaCentral, Dhamma.gift uses other editions of the Pali Canon, cut into the same segments. Search covers the Mahāsaṅgīti text together with the variant readings collated from the other editions (BJT, VRI, Siam Rath, PTS); s.dhamma.gift shows the BJT, CST and Thai editions side by side. Each edition keeps the license of its source:

  • Buddha Jayanti Tipiṭaka (Sri Lanka), from tipitaka.lk: CC BY-ND 4.0, attribution tipitaka.lk. We do not correct this text: errors are reported to tipitaka.lk.
  • Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana Tipiṭaka, from the Vipassana Research Institute (tipitaka.org): free for non-commercial use, attribution VRI.
  • Syāmaraṭṭha Tipiṭaka (Siam Rath, 1927), from E-Tipitaka: no license stated by the source; attribution E-Tipitaka (Sutee Sudprasert).
  • Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka as printed (World Tipiṭaka Edition, Dhamma Society, 2005), from tipitaka2500.github.io: CC0 as published there; attribution World Tipiṭaka Project, Dhamma Society.
  • Pali Text Society editions, as input by the Dhammakaya Foundation, from GRETIL: CC BY-SA 4.0, © Pali Text Society and Dhammakaya Foundation. What is made from them stays CC BY-SA 4.0.

Each variant reading carries the license of the edition it comes from. Details, file by file: LICENSE.md.

Everything else — free, non-commercial use only​

Materials created by the Dhamma.gift project are distributed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

All other texts are published here with the permission of their authors and publishers, for free, non-commercial use only; the rights remain with them:

  • English translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — see dhammatalks.org;
  • Russian translations by A. Ya. Syrkin, V. N. Toporov and the other translators credited on each text;
  • edited versions of those Russian translations, prepared by the project;
  • materials from TheBuddhasWords.net.

Thai translations by Mahachula and Siam Rath (from E-Tipitaka, which states no licence) and by Phra Naratharo are shown as credited on each text, for free, non-commercial use; the rights remain with their translators and publishers.

For any use beyond free, personal, non-commercial reading, please contact the copyright holders. The Dhamma.gift website and applications are offered free of charge, and Dhamma.gift adds no restrictions of its own beyond those already carried by the source material.