Privacy policy

[Company name] (“we”, “us”) runs SugarMatch and is the controller of your personal data. This policy explains what we collect, why, who sees it and what your rights are. Contact us about your data at [privacy contact email address].

What we collect

• Account: your email address and password (stored securely by our sign-in provider; we never see it).
• Profile: first name or nickname, date of birth, gender, who you’d like to meet, your town or city, relationship status and goals, height, body type, hair colour, ethnicity, and the headline and text you write.
• Photos: the photos you upload. We re-encode them in your browser, which removes hidden data such as GPS location, before they leave your device.
• Activity: your likes, the people you block, reports you make, your messages, and when you were last active.
• Technical: basic information needed to run and secure the service, such as your IP address and device details in server logs.

Sensitive information

Some of what you tell us is “special category” data under UK data protection law: your gender together with who you’d like to meet (which can reveal your sexual orientation), your relationship goals (which can relate to your sex life), and your ethnicity. We only use this because you give your explicit consent when you sign up, and it is essential to a dating service.

• It is shown on your profile to other members, and other members can use some of it to search.
• Ethnicity is optional in the sense that you can choose “Prefer not to say”. You can change any of it at any time under More, Edit profile.
• You can withdraw your consent by deleting your account. If you withdraw consent we can’t keep providing a profile that depends on this information.

Where you are

We store the town or city you choose, not your precise location, and we don’t track your device’s location. Other members see your town and a distance rounded up to the nearest 5 miles, never an exact position.

Why we use it, and our legal basis

• To provide the service you asked for: creating your profile, showing you to and finding other members, and messaging (contract).
• To keep members safe: reviewing photos, handling reports, preventing fraud and under-18s (our legitimate interests, and legal duties).
• To meet legal obligations, and to deal with legal claims (legal obligation, legitimate interests).
• For special category data, your explicit consent.

We don’t use your data for advertising and we don’t sell it. We don’t make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

Who sees your data

• Other members see your profile and photos once photos are approved. Your messages are visible only to you and the person you’re writing to.
• Our moderators see photos before they’re approved, and may read the conversation attached to a report when you or someone else reports it.
• Our service providers process data for us under contract: our database, authentication and file storage provider (Supabase, with data held in the EU), and our hosting and email providers ([hosting provider] and [email provider]).
• Authorities, where the law requires it or to protect someone from serious harm.

[International transfers: describe any transfers outside the UK and EEA and the safeguards used, once providers are confirmed.]

How long we keep it

We keep your data while you have an account. When you delete your account we delete your profile, photos, messages, likes and blocks straight away, along with any reports you made or that were made about you. Backups and logs are removed on a rolling basis. [A solicitor may advise keeping reports for a limited period for safety and legal reasons.]

Cookies

We use only the cookies needed to keep you signed in and to secure the service. We don’t use advertising or analytics cookies.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

• give you a copy of your data: use More, Account and security, Download my data;
• correct it: use More, Edit profile (contact us to correct your date of birth);
• delete it: use More, Account and security, Delete account;
• restrict or object to how we use it, or move it to another service: contact [privacy contact email address].

If you’re unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

Children

SugarMatch is only for people aged 18 or over. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account we will delete it. See our Terms and Safety guidance.

Last updated 15 October 2026.