Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated April 04, 2026



This Privacy Notice for Achelia Selim (doing business as matcha.one) ("we," "us," or "our"), describes how and why we might access, collect, store, use, and/or share ("process") your personal information when you use our services ("Services"), including when you:
  • Download and use our mobile application (matcha.one), or any other application of ours that links to this Privacy Notice
  • Use matcha.one. matcha.one is a location-based social app that helps people connect in real life. Users create profiles with personal preferences and interests, choose their intentions (dating, friendships, or networking), and discover compatible people nearby through proximity-based scanning. The app includes features such as event attendance via QR codes, identity verification, and anonymous scanning mode. matcha.one is available as a mobile app for Android and iOS.
  • Engage with us in other related ways, including any marketing or events
Questions or concerns? Reading this Privacy Notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. We are responsible for making decisions about how your personal information is processed. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at matcha.one.app@gmail.com.


SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

This summary provides key points from our Privacy Notice, but you can find out more details about any of these topics by clicking the link following each key point or by using our table of contents below to find the section you are looking for.

What personal information do we process? When you visit, use, or navigate our Services, we may process personal information depending on how you interact with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. Learn more about personal information you disclose to us.

Do we process any sensitive personal information? Some of the information may be considered "special" or "sensitive" in certain jurisdictions, for example your racial or ethnic origins, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs. We may process sensitive personal information when necessary with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law. Learn more about sensitive information we process.

Do we collect any information from third parties? We do not collect any information from third parties.

How do we process your information? We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent. We process your information only when we have a valid legal reason to do so. Learn more about how we process your information.

In what situations and with which parties do we share personal information? We may share information in specific situations and with specific third parties. Learn more about when and with whom we share your personal information.

How do we keep your information safe? We have adequate organizational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Learn more about how we keep your information safe.

What are your rights? Depending on where you are located geographically, the applicable privacy law may mean you have certain rights regarding your personal information. Learn more about your privacy rights.

How do you exercise your rights? The easiest way to exercise your rights is by submitting a data subject access request, or by contacting us. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Want to learn more about what we do with any information we collect? Review the Privacy Notice in full.


TABLE OF CONTENTS



1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

Personal information you disclose to us

In Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us.

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register on the Services, express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when you participate in activities on the Services, or otherwise when you contact us.

Personal Information Provided by You. The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect may include the following:
  • names
  • email addresses
  • job titles
  • passwords
  • contact or authentication data
  • date of birth
  • profile photos
  • verification selfie (facial image)
  • gender identity
  • sexual orientation
  • height and physical attributes
  • ethnicity and regional identity
  • religious beliefs and religious importance
  • political identity and political interest
  • relationship status and dating goals
  • views on having children
  • lifestyle information (smoking, drinking, diet, drug use)
  • education and work details (company, industry, education level, school)
  • languages spoken
  • personality traits (social energy, communication style, love language, humor style)
  • interests and hobbies
  • bio text
  • location data (home city/country, current city/country)
  • partner preferences and filter settings
  • intentions (dating, friendships, networking)
Sensitive Information. When necessary, with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law, we process the following categories of sensitive information:
  • data about a person's sex life or sexual orientation
  • information revealing race or ethnic origin
  • information revealing political opinions
  • information revealing religious or philosophical beliefs
Application Data. If you use our application(s), we also may collect the following information if you choose to provide us with access or permission:
  • Geolocation Information. We may request access or permission to track location-based information from your mobile device, either continuously or while you are using our mobile application(s), to provide certain location-based services. If you wish to change our access or permissions, you may do so in your device's settings.
  • Mobile Device Access. We may request access or permission to certain features from your mobile device, including your mobile device's camera, photo library, background location access, and other features. If you wish to change our access or permissions, you may do so in your device's settings.
  • Mobile Device Data. We automatically collect device information (such as your mobile device ID, model, and manufacturer), operating system, version information and system configuration information, device and application identification numbers, browser type and version, hardware model Internet service provider and/or mobile carrier, and Internet Protocol (IP) address (or proxy server). If you are using our application(s), we may also collect information about the phone network associated with your mobile device, your mobile device’s operating system or platform, the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device’s unique device ID, and information about the features of our application(s) you accessed.
  • Push Notifications. We may request to send you push notifications regarding your account or certain features of the application(s). If you wish to opt out from receiving these types of communications, you may turn them off in your device's settings.
This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our application(s), for troubleshooting, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.

Information automatically collected

In Short: Some information — such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and/or browser and device characteristics — is collected automatically when you visit our Services.

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Services. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our Services, and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

The information we collect includes:
  • Log and Usage Data. Log and usage data is service-related, diagnostic, usage, and performance information our servers automatically collect when you access or use our Services and which we record in log files. Depending on how you interact with us, this log data may include your IP address, device information, browser type, and settings and information about your activity in the Services (such as the date/time stamps associated with your usage, pages and files viewed, searches, and other actions you take such as which features you use), device event information (such as system activity, error reports (sometimes called "crash dumps"), and hardware settings).
  • Device Data. We collect device data such as information about your computer, phone, tablet, or other device you use to access the Services. Depending on the device used, this device data may include information such as your IP address (or proxy server), device and application identification numbers, location, browser type, hardware model, Internet service provider and/or mobile carrier, operating system, and system configuration information.
  • Location Data. We collect location data such as information about your device's location, which can be either precise or imprecise. How much information we collect depends on the type and settings of the device you use to access the Services. For example, we may use GPS and other technologies to collect geolocation data that tells us your current location (based on your IP address). You can opt out of allowing us to collect this information either by refusing access to the information or by disabling your Location setting on your device. However, if you choose to opt out, you may not be able to use certain aspects of the Services.
  • Matching and behavioral data. match records, compatibility scores, match responses (accepted, declined, ignored), blocking records
  • Messaging metadata. message content, timestamps, sender and recipient identifiers

2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent.

We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our Services, including:
  • To facilitate account creation and authentication and otherwise manage user accounts. We may process your information so you can create and log in to your account, as well as keep your account in working order.
  • To deliver and facilitate delivery of services to the user. We may process your information to provide you with the requested service.
  • To respond to user inquiries/offer support to users. We may process your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the requested service.
  • To send administrative information to you. We may process your information to send you details about our products and services, changes to our terms and policies, and other similar information.

  • To enable user-to-user communications. We may process your information if you choose to use any of our offerings that allow for communication with another user.

  • To protect our Services. We may process your information as part of our efforts to keep our Services safe and secure, including fraud monitoring and prevention.
  • To identify usage trends. We may process information about how you use our Services to better understand how they are being used so we can improve them.
  • To save or protect an individual's vital interest. We may process your information when necessary to save or protect an individual’s vital interest, such as to prevent harm.
  • Identity verification . To verify user identity through selfie comparison with profile photos
  • Proximity-based matching. To process location-based matching between users during active scanning sessions
  • Event participation. To enable users to join events and verify their physical attendance at event locations
  • User safety and moderation. To review user reports, enforce community guidelines, and take action against harmful behavior
  • Identity verification review. To enable human review of verification selfies against profile photos
  • Automated compatibility matching. To calculate compatibility scores between users based on their profile preferences and intentions

3. WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (i.e., legal basis) to do so under applicable law, like with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services to enter into or fulfill our contractual obligations, to protect your rights, or to fulfill our legitimate business interests.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR require us to explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your personal information. As such, we may rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:
  • Consent. We may process your information if you have given us permission (i.e., consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Learn more about withdrawing your consent.
  • Performance of a Contract. We may process your personal information when we believe it is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you, including providing our Services or at your request prior to entering into a contract with you.
  • Legitimate Interests. We may process your information when we believe it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate business interests and those interests do not outweigh your interests and fundamental rights and freedoms. For example, we may process your personal information for some of the purposes described in order to:
  • Analyze how our Services are used so we can improve them to engage and retain users
  • Diagnose problems and/or prevent fraudulent activities
  • In order to maintain a safe environment and protect users from harassment, fraud, and abuse
  • verification selfies against profile photosIn order to prevent fake or misleading profiles and ensure user authenticity
  • In order to deliver relevant matches. Matches require mutual acceptance by both users and are not based solely on automated processing
  • Legal Obligations. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
  • Vital Interests. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.

4. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

In Short: We may share information in specific situations described in this section and/or with the following third parties.

Vendors, Consultants, and Other Third-Party Service Providers. We may share your data with third-party vendors, service providers, contractors, or agents ("third parties") who perform services for us or on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. We have contracts in place with our third parties, which are designed to help safeguard your personal information. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will also not share your personal information with any organization apart from us. They also commit to protect the data they hold on our behalf and to retain it for the period we instruct.

The third parties we may share personal information with are as follows:
  • Cloud Computing Services
Railway
  • Functionality and Infrastructure Optimization
Supabase
  • Website Hosting
Netlify
  • Push notification delivery
Expo Push Notification Service
  • Transactional email delivery
Resend

We also may need to share your personal information in the following situations:
  • Business Transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.
  • Other Users. When you share personal information (for example, by posting comments, contributions, or other content to the Services) or otherwise interact with public areas of the Services, such personal information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly made available outside the Services in perpetuity. Similarly, other users will be able to view descriptions of your activity, communicate with you within our Services, and view your profile.

5. IS YOUR INFORMATION TRANSFERRED INTERNATIONALLY?

In Short: We may transfer, store, and process your information in countries other than your own.

Our servers are located in the Netherlands and Germany. Regardless of your location, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored by, and processed by us in our facilities and in the facilities of the third parties with whom we may share your personal information (see "WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?" above), including facilities in the United States, and other countries.

If you are a resident in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), or Switzerland, then these countries may not necessarily have data protection laws or other similar laws as comprehensive as those in your country. However, we will take all necessary measures to protect your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Notice and applicable law.

European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses:

We have implemented measures to protect your personal information, including by using the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers of personal information between our group companies and between us and our third-party providers. These clauses require all recipients to protect all personal information that they process originating from the EEA or UK in accordance with European data protection laws and regulations. Our Standard Contractual Clauses can be provided upon request. We have implemented similar appropriate safeguards with our third-party service providers and partners and further details can be provided upon request.

6. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice unless otherwise required by law.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements). No purpose in this notice will require us keeping your personal information for longer than the period of time in which users have an account with us.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

7. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?

In Short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.

8. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?

In Short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.

We do not knowingly collect, solicit data from, or market to children under 18 years of age, nor do we knowingly sell such personal information. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at matcha.one.app@gmail.com.

9. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: In some regions, such as the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), and Switzerland, you have rights that allow you greater access to and control over your personal information. You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time, depending on your country, province, or state of residence.

In some regions (like the EEA, UK, and Switzerland), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right (i) to request access and obtain a copy of your personal information, (ii) to request rectification or erasure; (iii) to restrict the processing of your personal information; (iv) if applicable, to data portability; and (v) not to be subject to automated decision-making. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information. You can make such a request by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?" below.

We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
 
If you are located in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your Member State data protection authority or UK data protection authority.

If you are located in Switzerland, you may contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?" below.

However, please note that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal nor, will it affect the processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

Account Information

If you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account or terminate your account, you can:
  • Contact us using the contact information provided.
  • Log in to your account settings and update your user account.
Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, we may retain some information in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our legal terms and/or comply with applicable legal requirements.

If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at matcha.one.app@gmail.com.

10. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. At this stage, no uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this Privacy Notice.

11. LOCATION DATA AND PROXIMITY-BASED SCANNING

 When you start a scanning session in matcha.one, the app collects your GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) to enable proximity-based matching with other nearby users. Your real-time location is only collected while a scanning session is actively running and is deleted from our servers when you stop scanning. We persistently store only the location at which you started a scanning session and the location at the time a match occurred. Your exact coordinates are never shared with other users. Matched users may only see the general area where the match took place and the approximate distance between you at the time of the match. You can stop location collection at any time by ending your scanning session.

12. SPECIAL CATEGORY DATA UNDER GDPR ARTICLE 9

 matcha.one allows you to voluntarily provide personal information that is classified as special category data under Article 9 of the GDPR. This includes your sexual orientation, religious beliefs, political identity, and ethnicity or regional identity. These fields are entirely optional and are not required to use the app. We process this information only with your explicit consent, which you provide when you choose to fill in these profile fields. You can remove this information at any time by editing your profile. This data is used solely to improve the relevance of your matches based on your stated preferences.

13. IDENTITY VERIFICATION AND SELFIE PROCESSING

 matcha.one offers an optional identity verification process in which you upload a selfie photograph. This selfie is compared against your profile photos by a human administrator to verify that your profile accurately represents you. Once the verification review is complete, your selfie is deleted from our servers regardless of whether the verification was approved or rejected. No automated facial recognition or biometric analysis is performed on your selfie. By submitting a verification selfie, you consent to a human reviewer viewing your image for the sole purpose of identity verification.

14. AUTOMATED COMPATIBILITY MATCHING

 matcha.one uses an automated algorithm to calculate compatibility scores between users based on profile preferences, interests, and stated intentions such as dating, friendships, or networking. When two users are nearby and meet each other's compatibility criteria, a match record is automatically created. At this stage, depending on privacy settings, profiles may be anonymous or partially hidden. Both users must actively accept the match before full profiles are revealed and messaging is enabled. The automated matching process does not produce legal or similarly significant effects on users, as it serves solely to facilitate voluntary social connections.

15. ANONYMOUS SCANNING MODE

 matcha.one offers an anonymous scanning mode that limits the personal information visible to other users during a scanning session. When anonymous mode is active, your last name is hidden, your first name is masked to show only the first letter, and your profile photos are pixelated. Additional hidden fields include your home city and country, height and height preferences, eye color, hair color, ethnicity, regional identity, languages spoken, and specific religious denominations. Certain profile information remains visible in anonymous mode to enable meaningful matching, including your bio, current location city, age, gender, sexual orientation, pronouns, relationship status, lifestyle preferences, work and education details, interests, and personality traits. Your full profile information is only revealed to another user after both of you have mutually accepted a match. You can activate or deactivate anonymous mode at any time, and you can configure privacy settings on a per-match basis.

16. EVENT PARTICIPATION AND QR CODE SCANNING

 You may join events within matcha.one by scanning a QR code. When you join an event, the app verifies your physical attendance by checking your GPS location against the event's designated area. Your event attendance record, including the time you joined and left and your verified location, is stored on our servers.

17. MESSAGES AND COMMUNICATION DATA

 When you exchange messages with other users through matcha.one, the full text of your messages is stored on our servers along with metadata such as timestamps and sender and recipient identifiers. Messages are retained for as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, all associated messages are permanently deleted.

18. PUSH NOTIFICATIONS

 matcha.one uses the Expo Push Notification Service to send you notifications about new matches, new messages, and new connections. To deliver these notifications, we store a device-specific push notification token on our servers. The content of notifications is processed by Expo solely for delivery purposes and is not stored by Expo after delivery. You can disable push notifications at any time through your device settings or within the app.

19. PROFILE PHOTOS AND IMAGE STORAGE

 Your profile photos and verification selfie are uploaded to and stored on servers operated by Supabase, a third-party image hosting service. Photos are compressed and stored in multiple resolutions for display purposes, and EXIF metadata is stripped during upload. Your photos are accessible via content delivery network (CDN) URLs. When you delete a photo from your profile or delete your account, the corresponding image is also deleted from Supabase's servers.

20. USER REPORTS AND CONTENT MODERATION

 If you report another user, your report is stored on our servers and includes the report category, any description text you provide, and relevant identifiers such as your user ID and the reported user's ID. Reports are reviewed by our moderation team to ensure community safety. Report categories include harassment, inappropriate content, scam or fraud, fake profiles, underage users, threatening behavior, spam, hate speech, illegal activity, and other. We may take action on reported accounts, including suspension or termination, based on the outcome of our review.

21. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?

In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Revised" date at the top of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

22. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may email us at matcha.one.app@gmail.com or contact us by post at:

Achelia Selim
Kissinger Str. 8
Köln, NRW 51103
Germany

23. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?

Based on the applicable laws of your country, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, details about how we have processed it, correct inaccuracies, or delete your personal information. You may also have the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information. These rights may be limited in some circumstances by applicable law. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please fill out and submit a data subject access request.

This Privacy Policy was created using Termly's Privacy Policy Generator