Privacy Policy

“Sakinah,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refers to Sakinah, an application and website operated from Canada and accessible at https://sakinah.ca (the “Site”) and via mobile applications for iOS and Android (the “App,” and together the “Service”).

You can reach us anytime at sakinah.help@gmail.com.

• We collect the information you give us (account, profile, photos, messages) and basic technical info needed to run the Service.
• We use it to match you with potential spouses, keep the Service safe, and reply to your messages, nothing else.
• We do not sell your information. We do not run advertising inside the App.
• You can ask us to export or delete your information at any time.
• Sakinah is intended for adults seeking marriage. The Service is not for anyone under 18.

Information you give us

• Account, email address, password (stored hashed), and authentication tokens.
• Profile, name, date of birth, gender, city, ethnicity, languages, level of practice, education, occupation, family situation, what you are looking for, and similar marriage-relevant information you choose to share.
• Photos, profile photos you upload, which are never shown in the feed and are revealed only as a brief, time-limited glance after mutual interest.
• Wali information, your wali’s name, phone, or email, if you choose to invite them.
• Messages, the content of messages you send inside the Service.
• Support correspondence, anything you send to sakinah.help@gmail.com.

Information collected automatically

• Device + technical info, device model, OS version, app version, language, IP address, and crash logs.
• Usage, basic in-app events (e.g., “profile created,” “match opened”) used to keep the Service working and to improve it.
• Approximate location, derived from your IP address. We do not collect precise GPS location unless you explicitly grant the permission.

Information we do not collect

• We do not collect contacts from your phone’s address book.
• We do not run third-party advertising trackers in the App.
• We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information.

We use your information only to:

• Operate the Service, create your account, show you matches, deliver your messages, and let your wali participate when you invite them.
• Match you with potential spouses based on compatibility, preferences, and stage of life.
• Protect the Service, detect and prevent fraud, abuse, fake accounts, harassment, and content that violates our Community Guidelines.
• Reply to your support messages and notify you of important changes to the Service.
• Comply with our legal obligations, for example, retaining limited records if required by law.

Lawful bases (GDPR/UK-GDPR users). We process your information on the basis of: (a) performance of our contract with you, (b) your consent (for sensitive profile information you choose to share), (c) our legitimate interests in keeping the Service safe, and (d) compliance with law.

We share the minimum information needed to operate the Service, with a small set of vetted providers acting on our instructions under written agreements:

• Supabase, our database, authentication, and file storage provider. Stores your account, profile, conversations, and photos.
• Vercel, hosts this website (sakinah.ca). Receives standard request logs (IP, page, time) when you visit.
• Apple and Google, distribute the App and receive crash diagnostics from your device per their own privacy policies.
• Email delivery, transactional email providers used to send password resets and account-related emails.
• Other users, when you match with another user, they see the profile information you have chosen to share, a brief five-second reveal of your photo, and any messages you exchange. Your wali, if invited, sees the introductions and conversations you ask them to join.
• Authorities, if compelled by valid legal process (court order, subpoena) or where strictly necessary to prevent serious harm.

We never sell your personal information. We never share your information for third-party advertising or profiling.

Our service providers (Supabase, Vercel) may store and process data in Canada, the United States, and the European Union. When we transfer your information outside your home country, we rely on appropriate safeguards, including the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses where applicable.

• Your account and profile are kept while your account is active.
• When you delete your account, we delete your profile, photos, and messages within 30 days, except where we are legally required to retain limited records (e.g., to handle abuse reports or comply with financial/tax law).
• Backups are rotated and overwritten on a rolling 30-day basis.
• Aggregated, de-identified statistics that cannot be linked back to you may be retained longer for product analytics.

You can, at any time:

• Access a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct information that is wrong or incomplete.
• Delete your account and your information (subject to limited legal retention).
• Object to or restrict certain uses of your information, and withdraw your consent at any time.
• Export your information in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority, for users in Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca).

To exercise any of these rights, email sakinah.help@gmail.com from the email address on your account. We respond within 30 days.

California (CCPA/CPRA). California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect, the right to delete it, the right to correct it, the right to opt out of any sale or sharing of personal information (we do not sell or share), and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

We take reasonable administrative, technical, and physical measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit (TLS), encryption at rest for backups, hashed passwords, and access controls that limit who on our team can see your data. No system is perfectly secure; if we ever experience a breach affecting your information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.

Sakinah is intended for adults seeking marriage and is not for anyone under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have collected information from a minor, we will delete it.

We may send you transactional emails (account verification, password resets, security notifications, and important changes to the Service) and in-app notifications about new matches and messages. You can manage push notifications in your device settings, and unsubscribe from non-essential emails using the link in those emails.

If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you by email or in-app notice at least 14 days before the changes take effect, and will update the “Last updated” date above. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.

Questions, requests, or concerns? Email us at sakinah.help@gmail.com. We read every message, in shā Allāh.