BY AYSHA KHAN
Most apps collect and store data. Now some Muslim developers are trying to keep that practice consistent with the tenets of Islam.
(YES MAGAZINE) In late 2020, as the coronavirus ravaged London’s minority communities, Ibrahim Javed was losing sleep over data. He’d developed an app, Salah Space, to allow worshippers to book time slots for prayer at mosques, which had limited capacity during the pandemic. But for his app to work, it needed to collect data from British Muslims.
Over the past year, Javed has been thinking more about his role in what he describes as “preserving the sanctity of Muslim data.” He’s part of a new generation of Muslims in the technology industry who view their users’ data and privacy as an amanah, or trust, that they have a sacred duty to uphold. And increasingly, amid a broader cultural shift around digital privacy, Muslim users are pushing app developers like him to maintain that trust.
“This is what scared me,” said Javed, who also is the founder of the faith-based tech-for-social-good nonprofit Deen Developers. “We’re building something for the community—how do we ensure that no one has access to this data? Because it’s valuable and potentially can be used to hurt our communities. How do you build a solution in the safest way possible without infringing on anyone’s rights?”
Many Muslim software developers are concerned with the possibility of troves of Muslims’ personal data being exposed in a data breach, whether it is a general leak of user data, or part of a targeted hack or harassment campaign by anti-Muslim groups. They are also wary of taking part in the multibillion dollar personal data sales industry.