Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

SylhetiSpouse is a matrimonial introduction platform operated by SylhetiSpouse, a trading name of MUK Recruitment Ltd, registered in England and Wales, whose registered address is 124 City Road, London, United Kingdom, EC1V 2NX. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under registration number ZB580998. We are the data controller for all personal data collected through this platform.

For any data protection matter, contact us at: privacy@sylhetispouse.co.uk

2. What data we collect, why, and our lawful basis

We collect data in two categories. The lawful basis for all processing is your consent, given when you tick the consent checkbox at registration. For special category data (religious and ethnic information) we rely on your explicit consent.

2.1 Account and profile data

The following data is collected when you register and create a profile:

• Email address — for login, email verification, and notifications
• Password — stored as an encrypted hash only
• First name — to personalise communications
• Date of birth — to calculate your age for display and to verify you are 18 or over
• Gender
• Current location and willingness to relocate
• Education and occupation
• Village in Bangladesh and district
• Additional detail about your Bangladesh village
• Whether your family background is from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh
• Legal status in the UK
• Marital status and whether you have children
• Height and build
• About me — free text you write yourself
• Partner preferences — including age range, height, ethnicity preference, education, occupation preferences, and whether you would consider someone divorced, with children, or based outside the UK
• What you are looking for in a spouse — free-text description
• Contact number — for male applicants, their own number; for female applicants, their Wali (Islamic guardian) contact number. We also collect the relationship of that contact to the applicant (e.g. father, brother). Where a contact number belongs to a third party, we require the member to confirm that the third party is aware their number will be shared with potential matches and has consented to this. This information is only shared with another member when a mutual interest is accepted.

2.2 Special category data

The following fields contain special category data under UK GDPR because they reveal religious beliefs and/or ethnic origin. We rely on your explicit consent to process them.

• Islamic practice — free text description of your beliefs and practice
• Whether you are a revert or born Muslim
• Ethnicity — free text
• Appearance — including whether you wear Hijab, Niqab, No Hijab, if you are Shaved, Full Beard, Short Beard, Other options too which implies religious practice

2.3 Marketing emails (optional)

With your consent, we may send you marketing emails including newsletters, updates, promotions, relevant content and information about member activity and features of the service. You can withdraw your consent at any time by unsubscribing via the link in any marketing email or by contacting us at privacy@sylhetispouse.co.uk. The lawful basis for this processing is your separate, freely given consent.

2.4 Activity data

• Interest requests sent or received and their status
• Log of interest events

3. Who receives your data

Other approved members of the platform can see your public profile. Your contact number is only shared with another specific member when a mutual interest has been accepted — it is then sent to that member by email and displayed on the platform.

Platform administrators can see all profile data including contact numbers, for the purposes of approving profiles and administering the platform. We may also contact members' contact numbers directly to verify the authenticity of their profile as part of our platform safety and integrity checks.

We use the following third-party services to operate the platform, each acting under our instruction:

• A cloud infrastructure provider — used for database, authentication and file storage. Data is hosted within the EU (Ireland).
• An email delivery service — used to send transactional emails such as verification codes, notifications, and mutual interest alerts. This service processes your email address, first name, and where a mutual interest has been accepted, the contact number included in that notification.
• A content delivery provider — used for website hosting. No personal data is stored on their network.

We do not sell your data to any third party. All data is stored within the EU and EEA.

4. How long we keep your data

• Active profiles — kept while your account is active.
• Deleted accounts — all data permanently deleted within 30 days of your deletion request.
• Interest logs — kept for 2 months then permanently deleted.
• Email logs — kept for 2 months then deleted.
• Marketing consent records — the record of consent is retained indefinitely for compliance purposes. If you withdraw consent, you will be removed from marketing communications within 30 days.

5. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to: access your data, correct it, have it deleted, restrict how we use it, receive it in a portable format, object to processing, and withdraw your consent at any time. To exercise any of these rights contact us at privacy@sylhetispouse.co.uk. We will respond within one calendar month.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

6. Withdrawing consent

You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting your account through the platform or by contacting us at privacy@sylhetispouse.co.uk. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew.

7. Data breaches

If a breach of your personal data occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights, we will notify the ICO within 72 hours. If the risk to you is high, we will also notify you directly without undue delay.

8. Age requirement

This platform is for adults aged 18 and over only. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18.

9. Cookies

We use only essential session cookies required to keep you logged in. No advertising or tracking cookies are used.

10. Changes to this notice

If we make changes that affect how we use your personal data, we will notify you by email before the changes take effect.

11. Contact

• Email: privacy@sylhetispouse.co.uk
• Company: SylhetiSpouse, a trading name of MUK Recruitment Ltd
• Address: 124 City Road, London, United Kingdom, EC1V 2NX
• ICO registration: ZB580998