Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, references to Nawa Match, we, us and our mean Nawa Match.

For data protection purposes, Nawa Match is the data controller. This means we decide why and how your personal data is used.

Nawa Match is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator.

Trading name: Nawa Match. Contact email: info@nawamatch.co.uk

2. What this Privacy Policy covers

This Privacy Policy applies when you:

• visit our website;
• create an account with Nawa Match;
• submit a marriage profile;
• apply for, attend or pay for a Nawa Match event;
• use our personalised profile matching service;
• communicate with us by email, WhatsApp, website form, social media or phone;
• use our pre-marital, counselling, Nikkah, mediation or related services;
• interact with our adverts, social media pages or online content;
• consent to receive updates from us.

This Privacy Policy does not cover third-party websites or services that we do not control. For example, if you use Stripe to make payment, Stripe may process your data under its own privacy policy as well as under our instructions where applicable.

3. Summary of how we use your data

We use personal data to:

• provide marriage-focused services you request;
• review applications for events and profile matching;
• verify identity, age and eligibility;
• create and manage your marriage profile;
• suggest potentially compatible profiles;
• share redacted profiles with potential suitable matches where appropriate;
• manage event attendance and chaperone/guardian arrangements;
• process payments;
• communicate with you about your application, profile, matches or events;
• protect the safety, seriousness and integrity of the Nawa Match service;
• prevent misuse, fraud, duplicate profiles or inappropriate conduct;
• meet legal, accounting and regulatory obligations;
• improve our website and services;
• send updates or marketing messages where you have consented or where the law allows.

We do not sell your personal data.

We do not share your full contact details, full name, ID documents or private sensitive information with potential matches without your consent.

4. The personal data we collect

The personal data we collect depends on how you use our services.

4.1 Account and contact details

We may collect:

• full name;
• preferred name;
• email address;
• phone number;
• city/town;
• country;
• account login details;
• communication preferences;
• records of your communication with us.

4.2 Marriage profile information

When you create a marriage profile, we may collect information including:

• age and date of birth;
• gender;
• city or location;
• nationality or citizenship status;
• ethnicity or cultural background;
• marital status;
• whether you have children;
• occupation;
• education;
• financial situation or general financial stability information;
• religious practice and preferences;
• madhab/sect/preferred Islamic approach, if provided;
• prayer habits and religious expectations, if provided;
• halal lifestyle preferences;
• smoking/alcohol preferences;
• appearance/modesty information, if provided;
• height;
• hobbies and interests;
• family involvement preferences;
• guardian/wali/chaperone details where relevant;
• languages spoken;
• about me information;
• spouse preferences;
• deal breakers;
• compatibility preferences;
• notes, comments or other information you choose to provide.

4.3 Special category data

Some of the data we collect is classed as special category data under UK data protection law. This is information that is more sensitive and receives extra protection.

Special category data we may collect includes:

• religion or religious beliefs;
• ethnicity or racial/cultural origin;
• health-related information, but only if you choose to provide it or it is necessary for accessibility, safeguarding or service delivery;
• information that may indirectly reveal sensitive matters through your profile answers, preferences or uploaded information.

We process special category data only where we have an Article 9 condition under UK GDPR. For Nawa Match, our main Article 9 condition is explicit consent.

You can withdraw your explicit consent at any time. However, if you withdraw consent for us to process data that is necessary for profile matching, we may no longer be able to provide profile matching or related services to you.

4.4 Identity, age and eligibility verification

We may ask you to provide proof of identity, age, eligibility or citizenship/residence status before profile matching or event attendance.

This may include:

• passport;
• driving licence;
• other official ID;
• proof of age;
• proof of eligibility where required for a specific event or service.

We process ID documents only for verification, safety and eligibility purposes. We do not use ID documents for biometric identification and do not intend to store raw ID documents longer than necessary.

ID documents are deleted within 30 days after verification, unless we need to retain them for a limited period because of suspected fraud, a safety issue, a dispute, a legal obligation or regulatory matter.

We may retain a limited verification record, such as:

• verification status;
• date of verification;
• type of ID checked;
• staff/admin member who checked it;
• outcome of the check.

We keep this verification record to prevent fraud, enforce safety rules, manage disputes and protect the integrity of our services.

4.5 Event application and attendance data

For events, we may collect:

• application details;
• approval/rejection status;
• ticket/payment status;
• attendance status;
• chaperone or guardian details;
• emergency or safety-related information where necessary;
• event feedback;
• matching/ballot choices;
• notes related to event conduct, safety or rule breaches.

4.6 Matching and communication records

We may keep records of:

• profiles suggested to you;
• profiles you have been shown;
• profiles you accepted or declined;
• whether both sides showed interest;
• whether a second meeting was requested;
• guardian/wali contact sharing where relevant;
• email, WhatsApp or other communications;
• admin notes needed to provide the service.

4.7 Payment and transaction data

We may collect:

• payment status;
• service purchased;
• transaction reference;
• amount paid;
• date of payment;
• refund records;
• invoice or receipt information.

We do not normally store full card details. Payments are processed through third-party payment providers such as Stripe.

4.8 Website, cookies and analytics data

When you use our website, we may collect:

• IP address;
• browser type;
• device type;
• pages visited;
• date/time of visit;
• referral source;
• cookie preferences;
• analytics data;
• technical logs for security and performance.

5. Why we collect your data and our lawful basis

We must have a lawful basis under Article 6 of the UK GDPR whenever we process personal data. Where we process special category data, we must also have an Article 9 condition.

6. Explicit consent for special category data

Because Nawa Match is a Muslim marriage-focused service, we may need to process information about religion, ethnicity and related preferences in order to provide meaningful profile matching and event services.

Before you submit a marriage profile, we will ask you to provide explicit consent for us to process special category data.

Our consent wording may include wording such as:

I explicitly consent to Nawa Match processing my special category data, including information about my religion, ethnicity and related marriage preferences, for the purpose of assessing my profile and suggesting suitable marriage matches.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at info@nawamatch.co.uk.

If you withdraw consent, we will stop using your special category data for profile matching and related services. This may mean we cannot continue to provide profile matching or event-related services to you.

7. How profile matching works

Nawa Match uses the information you provide to identify potentially suitable marriage matches.

Matching may consider factors such as:

• age range;
• location;
• religious preferences;
• family involvement preferences;
• marital status preferences;
• education/career preferences;
• lifestyle preferences;
• deal breakers;
• personal compatibility;
• event attendance;
• user-stated preferences;
• admin observations and human review.

We may use automated tools to help identify potentially compatible profiles, but all suggested matches are reviewed by a member of our team before any profile is shared.

We do not make solely automated decisions that determine whether someone can marry, proceed with a match, or be introduced to another person.

Automated tools may support our admin process, but final matching decisions and profile-sharing decisions are human-reviewed.

8. What information is shared with potential matches

When we identify a potentially suitable match, we may share a redacted version of your marriage profile with the potential match or their representative, depending on the service and your consent.

A redacted profile may include:

• first name or profile reference;
• age;
• city/general location;
• ethnicity/cultural background;
• education and occupation;
• religious practice/preferences;
• marital background;
• children status;
• height;
• hobbies/interests;
• about me section;
• spouse preferences;
• deal breakers;
• other relevant non-contact information.

We do not share the following with potential matches unless you have consented or it is necessary for the agreed service:

• full contact details;
• full name, where you have asked for this not to be shared;
• home address;
• raw ID documents;
• payment information;
• private admin notes;
• internal verification records;
• sensitive information not intended for profile sharing.

Where both sides mutually agree to proceed, we may facilitate the next step, which may include sharing contact details, guardian/wali details or arranging a second meeting, depending on your consent and the relevant service.

9. Who we share personal data with

We may share personal data with the following categories of recipients where necessary:

9.1 Potential matches

We may share redacted profile information with potential suitable matches where this is part of the matching service and where appropriate consent has been given.

9.2 Guardians, walis, chaperones or family representatives

Where relevant to the service and with appropriate consent, we may share limited information with guardians, walis, chaperones or family representatives to support serious, halal and marriage-focused introductions.

9.3 Event staff and volunteers

For events, limited information may be shared with authorised staff or volunteers to manage registration, attendance, seating, chaperone arrangements, safeguarding, event rules and safety.

9.4 Payment providers

We may use payment providers such as Stripe to process payments, refunds and related transaction records.

9.5 Website, form and database providers

We may use third-party tools to operate our website, forms, database and admin systems. This may include:

• website hosting providers;
• website builders or developers;
• database tools such as Airtable;
• form tools such as Jotform;
• customer relationship management tools;
• email providers;
• Google Workspace or similar productivity tools;
• cloud storage providers;
• analytics providers.

9.6 Professional advisers and authorities

We may share data with:

• accountants;
• legal advisers;
• insurers;
• IT/security providers;
• regulators;
• law enforcement;
• courts or dispute resolution bodies;
• HMRC or other authorities where required.

We only share what is necessary for the relevant purpose.

We do not sell your personal data.

10. International transfers

Some of the tools we use may process or store personal data outside the UK or European Economic Area.

This may include providers such as Stripe, Google, Airtable, Jotform, website hosts, email providers, analytics tools or other software providers.

Where personal data is transferred outside the UK or EEA, we aim to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include:

• use of countries with adequacy regulations;
• standard contractual clauses;
• the UK International Data Transfer Agreement;
• the UK Addendum to EU Standard Contractual Clauses;
• contractual commitments from service providers;
• security and access controls.

We aim to choose reputable providers with appropriate data protection and security measures.

11. How long we keep your data

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected, unless we need to keep it longer for legal, accounting, safety, dispute or regulatory reasons.

We may anonymise data so that it can no longer identify you. Anonymised data may be used for service analysis, statistics and business planning.

12. How we protect your data

We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep your personal data secure. These include:

• restricting access to personal data to authorised team members who need it to provide our services;
• using reputable, security-conscious service providers, for example for hosting, payments and email;
• protecting data in transit using encryption such as HTTPS/TLS where appropriate;
• keeping your private and sensitive information separate from the redacted profiles shared with potential matches;
• deleting ID documents within 30 days of verification and keeping only a limited verification record;
• using passwords, access controls and administrative safeguards on our systems;
• reviewing our processes and providers to maintain appropriate protection.

No method of storage or transmission over the internet is completely secure. While we work hard to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

If you have a concern about the security of your data, please contact us at info@nawamatch.co.uk.

13. Withdrawing consent and deleting your profile

You can withdraw consent or ask us to delete your profile by contacting: info@nawamatch.co.uk

If you withdraw consent for profile matching, we will stop using your profile for matching.

If your profile has already been shared with a potential match before your withdrawal request, we will take reasonable steps to stop further sharing. However, we may not be able to fully retrieve or delete information that has already been viewed, downloaded, copied or stored by another recipient.

Where appropriate, we may contact recipients and request deletion, but we cannot guarantee deletion by third parties once information has already been shared with them.

We may keep limited records after deletion where necessary for:

• fraud prevention;
• safety and safeguarding;
• complaint handling;
• legal claims;
• accounting obligations;
• regulatory requirements;
• enforcing our Terms of Service.

14. Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you may have the following rights:

• Right of access - to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification - to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure - to ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to restriction - to ask us to restrict how we use your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to object - to object to certain types of processing.
• Right to data portability - to receive certain data in a portable format.
• Right to withdraw consent - where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
• Right to complain - to complain to us.

To exercise your rights, contact us at: info@nawamatch.co.uk

We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request.

We aim to respond to valid data rights requests within one month. In some cases, we may need longer if the request is complex, but we will tell you if this applies.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, if you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first, so please contact us before you do. You can reach the ICO at ico.org.uk or by calling their helpline on 0303 123 1113.

15. Marketing communications

We may send you marketing messages about Nawa Match events, profile matching, courses, services, updates or offers where:

• you have consented; or
• the law allows us to contact you about similar services and you have not opted out.