Align ("we", "us") operates the Align matchmaking and community platform. This policy explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and the control you have over it.
Align Matchmaking Ltd is the data controller for the personal data described on this page. If you have a question about how we handle your data, or you want to exercise any of the rights set out below, contact us at support@align-app.co.uk.
If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
To create and operate your account; to generate matches and compatibility results; to enable messaging, bookings and guardian features; to process payments; to keep the platform safe and investigate reports; to send service messages such as verification and password reset; and to meet legal obligations. Our lawful bases are performance of our contract with you, your consent (for optional features such as guardian access), our legitimate interests in safety and product improvement, and legal obligation.
Some information you provide, including data revealing religious belief and data about your relationships, is treated as a special category under data protection law. We process it on the basis of your explicit consent, given when you complete your profile and assessment, and solely to provide the matching service you signed up for. You can withdraw consent by deleting your account.
Photographs are stored on our servers and are gated: other members see a silhouette or a blurred version until the stage at which the app discloses the full image. This gating is enforced on our servers, not only in the app. Members can still capture what they are shown; we cannot prevent that on every platform, and you should not upload anything you would not want seen.
With other members, only as the app describes (for example, a match sees your profile; a community centre or mosque you approach sees only the minimal details needed to verify your community standing via their secure portal; a guardian you have consented to sees the limited view shown in the app). With service providers who host, email, process payments, or provide video calling on our behalf, under contract. With authorities where we are legally required, or where necessary to protect someone's safety.
Participating Mosques and Community Centres do not receive or store full user databases, chat logs, or financial information. Align manages all data security, encrypted storage, and regulatory compliance directly.
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers.
We keep your data while your account is active. When you delete your account, your personal data is anonymised immediately and scheduled for full erasure. We may retain a limited record where we must for legal, tax or safety reasons, for example a record of a serious safety report.
Passwords are hashed. Sensitive profile columns are encrypted at rest. Access to production data is restricted. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we will notify you and the relevant regulator of a qualifying breach as the law requires.
A very small number of named people at Align Matchmaking Ltd, currently the company's directors, can open an administrative console that shows member accounts. Each of them signs in with their own account and an authenticator app; there is no shared password, and every action any of them takes is recorded against the individual who took it, with the time and the reason they gave.
To investigate a problem you report, or a safety concern, one of them can open a read-only view of your account as you see it. That view lasts one hour, requires a written reason that is logged, and cannot be used to act as you: nothing can be sent, accepted, agreed or changed from it, and using it does not mark your messages as read or show you as online. Anything that genuinely needs changing is changed by a named member of staff, under their own name, in the record.
Your conversations are not included in that view. What you and another member say to each other stays closed, and there is one way it opens: somebody reports that conversation to us. If they do, what we see is the specific messages the person reporting chose to show us, and each time a member of staff opens them it is recorded against their name. A report about a photograph or a profile does not open a conversation, because reading your messages is not how we assess a picture.
We use this only where it is necessary: to investigate something you have raised with us, to look into a report about safety or misuse, or where we are required to. It is not used to browse accounts, and doing so would be a disciplinary matter and, for the individual concerned, a criminal offence under section 170 of the Data Protection Act 2018. If you want to know whether your account has been accessed this way, ask us using the contact details below and we will tell you.
Depending on where you live, you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our processing of your data, to withdraw consent, and to data portability. You can edit or delete your data at any time in the app (Settings → Delete Account permanently erases your personal data). You may also request a copy by emailing support@align-app.co.uk. You have the right to complain to your data protection regulator; in the UK this is the Information Commissioner's Office.
Our servers and some providers may be located outside your country. Where data leaves the UK or EEA we rely on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.
Align is strictly for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18; if we learn that we have, we will delete it.
We will update the effective date above when this policy changes and give notice in the app for material changes.