Imani is a dating service built on trust. To do that honestly we handle some sensitive information about you, including your photos, a face check, and your rough location. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the control you have. We keep only what earns its place, and we never sell your data.
1. Who we are
Imani is operated by Astragrid Technologies Ltd ("Imani", "we", "us"), a company registered in England and Wales with its registered office at 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE. We are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.
We are registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), registration number ZB992067. You can reach our privacy team at privacy@imanidating.com and our Data Protection Officer at dpo@imanidating.com.
2. What we collect
We collect the following, most of it directly from you as you sign up and use Imani:
- Account details: your phone number, email address, first name, and date of birth (we show only your age to others, never your date of birth).
- Your profile: gender and who you are open to meeting; city and country; heritage and languages; faith and how you practise; and optionally your education, profession, height, whether you have or want children, relationship history, lifestyle (smoking, drinking), interests, countries visited, a short bio, and answers to prompts.
- Photos you add to your profile, which are reviewed before anyone else sees them.
- A face check: a selfie you take to verify that you are a real, live person and that you match your photo. See section 5.
- Approximate location: a rough area (not a precise position) used to suggest members near you. See section 6.
- Verification results: the outcome of trust checks (phone/device, face, vouches). We store only the result, never a national identity number or a biometric template.
- Your activity: introductions, the members you say yes or no to, your matches, and the messages you send.
- Safety information: reports you make, members you block, and optional date check-ins.
- Payments: a record that you bought tokens or a subscription. Card and payment details are handled by the app stores or payment providers, not by us.
- Technical and usage data: device and app information, and how you use Imani, collected to keep the service working and safe.
3. How we use it, and our legal bases
Under the UK GDPR we rely on these legal bases:
| What we do | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Run the service: create your profile, make introductions, let you match and message | Performance of our contract with you |
| Verify your face, and record faith and who you are open to meeting | Your explicit consent (see section 4) |
| Keep members safe: moderation, reviewing reports, preventing fraud and fake accounts | Our legitimate interests, and our legal obligations |
| Improve Imani and fix faults (analytics, crash reports) | Our legitimate interests |
| Send you service messages and, if you opt in, updates about Imani | Contract, and consent for marketing |
| Keep records we are legally required to keep (for example payment and safety records) | Legal obligation |
You can withdraw any consent at any time, and turn off optional data sharing, without losing access to the core service (though some features, such as being a verified member, depend on the checks you choose to complete).
4. Sensitive data: faith, who you seek, and your face
Some of what Imani handles is "special category" data under the UK GDPR and needs extra protection: your faith, information that can reveal your sexual orientation (your gender together with who you are open to meeting), and your face (a biometric used to verify you).
We process this data only with your explicit consent, which you give when you add it or start a check, and only for the purposes described here. You can remove faith and other optional details from your profile at any time, choose not to show faith to others, and you are never required to complete face verification to use Imani.
5. Face verification
Face verification is how Imani confirms that a member is a real, live person and is the person in their photos. It is optional; it is how you become a Trusted member.
- You take a selfie in the app. It is sent securely to our verification partner (Luxand), which checks that it is a live face (not a printed photo or a screen) and compares it to your approved profile photo.
- We receive back only a result: whether it is a live match, and a confidence level. We store that attestation and nothing more.
- Your selfie is deleted immediately after the check. We do not keep the selfie, and we do not store a facial template or any biometric identifier.
- If you later change your photos while verified, we ask a member of our team to re-confirm the match, so no one can quietly swap in someone else's face.
6. Location
Imani uses a rough idea of where you are to suggest members near you at home. It is designed so it cannot point at your address:
- You choose to share your area; we never track you in the background.
- Before it is stored, your position is rounded to a coarse grid (around two kilometres), so many people share the same point.
- Other members never see a distance in numbers, only a band such as "Nearby". You control how far you are willing to look.
7. Who we share data with
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with service providers who process it on our behalf, under contract, for the purposes above:
| Provider | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Secure hosting of the database, accounts, photo storage and app services (UK/EU region) |
| Luxand | Face liveness and match during verification (selfie used then deleted) |
| Twilio | Sending the one-time code to verify your phone number |
| Apple & Google | App distribution and in-app purchases |
| RevenueCat | Managing subscriptions and token purchases |
| PostHog | Product analytics to understand and improve the app |
| Sentry | Diagnosing crashes and errors |
| Cloudflare | Hosting this website and the waitlist |
We may also disclose data where the law requires it, to protect members' safety, or to establish or defend legal claims.
8. International transfers
Your core data is held in the UK/EU. Some providers, including our face verification partner, may process data outside the UK. Where they do, we rely on appropriate safeguards recognised under UK data protection law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, so your data keeps an equivalent level of protection.
9. How long we keep it
We keep your data while your account is active. When you delete your account (Settings > Your data > Delete account, or by emailing us) we erase your profile, photos, messages you sent, and personal details, and remove the login. Two things are treated with care:
- Information that protects other members — for example a report someone made about conduct — is kept as evidence, with your identity removed where possible.
- Records we are legally required to keep, such as financial records, are retained for the period the law requires and then deleted.
We also keep a minimal record that an account existed and, if it was removed for serious misconduct, an opaque reference, so a banned person cannot simply return. This record contains no name, contact details, or date of birth.
10. Your rights
You have the right to access your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, receive a copy in a portable form, and withdraw consent. You can do the most common ones yourself in the app:
- See and correct your information on your profile and Edit profile screens.
- Download a copy of your data under Settings > Your data.
- Delete your account under Settings > Your data, or see our account deletion page.
To exercise any right, or if you need help, email privacy@imanidating.com. We respond within one month.
11. Security
Astragrid Technologies Ltd is Cyber Essentials certified. Access to member data is least-privilege and controlled by row-level security; photos sit in private storage; provider secrets are held server-side and never in the app; and connections are encrypted in transit. No system is perfectly secure, but we take our duty to protect your data seriously and will notify you and the ICO of a breach where the law requires.
12. Age and children
Imani is for adults only. You must be at least 18 to join, and we check your date of birth at sign-up. Imani is not directed at anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect their data.
13. Changes
We may update this policy as Imani grows or the law changes. We will post the new version here with a fresh "last updated" date, and tell you in the app about significant changes.
14. Contact and complaints
Questions or requests: privacy@imanidating.com. Our Data Protection Officer: dpo@imanidating.com. General enquiries: hello@imanidating.com. Or write to Astragrid Technologies Ltd, 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, though we would welcome the chance to put things right first.