Privacy Policy

Our Matchbook is operated by Kovalytics in Alberta, Canada. We handle personal information under Canada's Federal Privacy Law (PIPEDA) and Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act. Contact us at [email protected].

• Your account: your email address and display name.
• What you upload: the files from your dating-app export — your profile, prompts, photos and conversations. A conversation includes messages written by the other person, which is why your partner adds their own side and can grant or withdraw consent.
• What you add: letters, video links, memories (photos, places, GIFs and voice notes), messages you write by hand, reactions on messages, and emotes (small pictures you upload and name). If you record a voice note, your browser asks before using your microphone, and only what you record is sent to us.
• Activity records: sign-ins, changes and password attempts on your Matchbooks, with the IP address and browser used. We keep these for security for 180 days.
• Messages you send us through the contact form.
• Reports: if you report a public Matchbook, we keep the reason, what you wrote, your email if you chose to give it, and a one-way code made from your internet address (so we can tell different people apart and ignore repeats; it can't be turned back into your address). We use them only to review the report, and we never tell the people on the Matchbook who reported it.

Payments: you pay on Stripe's secure checkout page, so your card number, expiry date and security code go to Stripe and never reach our servers. We keep a record of each payment: the amount, tax, currency, date, any refund, the country your card was issued in (to check the payment is in order), where you first came from (see "Cookies and counting visitors"), and Stripe's reference for it. If we give you a Matchbook, we record that it was a gift and a short note on why.

• To build and show your Matchbook to the people you share its link and password with.
• To sign you in, send you notices about your Matchbooks, and answer your messages.
• Only if you tick the box for it: occasional news, tips and offers. We record when and where you agreed, and you can turn it off in Account settings or from any of those emails.
• To keep the service secure, prevent abuse and fix problems. To help with a problem, our support team can view your account and Matchbooks as you see them; every time is logged on our side, and nothing they look at is shared.
• To process payments and refunds.

We only use your export to build the Matchbook you upload it to. The original files are deleted from our servers once they're imported (or within a day if you stop part-way). Only the match you choose is kept — not the rest of your dating history.

Anonymous statistics, only if you tick the box at upload: before your export is deleted, we count things from the whole of it, like how many matches you had, how many messages you sent per match, and how many matches and messages came before and after the one you chose. We keep only those numbers, the app and the month, with nothing that links them to you, your account or your Matchbook, so they can't be shown to your partner or anyone else as yours. We use them only as totals across many people (never fewer than 20), for example to say how many matches the typical couple had before they met. Because nothing ties them to you, they stay when you delete your account. If you don't tick the box, nothing is counted.

Photos and memories are stored privately and are only shown to someone who has unlocked the Matchbook with its password, or to the people on it. When photos arrive we resize them and remove their hidden metadata, including any location data from your phone's camera. Voice notes are kept as you recorded or uploaded them, and are not sent to anyone else to be checked.

A Matchbook's public link goes on only if both of you agree, and it can't go on until you're both on the Matchbook. While it's on, anyone with that link can see the whole Matchbook without its password: both profiles, the conversation, memories, the letter and the video. Link previews in apps may show your first names, your match date and your first few messages. Either of you can turn it off at any time, on your own, and the link stops working right away. It also goes off if either of you leaves, is removed or withdraws consent. Turning it on again needs you both to agree again, and creates a new link.

We don't sell your information or use it for advertising. We use a few service providers, only to run Our Matchbook:

• Stripe: payments.
• Google, Microsoft or Facebook: only if you choose to sign in with one of them.
• Google Cloud Vision: each photo or emote you upload is sent to it once, to check for explicit content. Google doesn't keep it or use it to train its models.
• Google Maps and GIPHY: when you search for a place, or for a GIF for a memory or a message, your search words go to them (through us, without your details). A memory's map is shown by Google Maps. GIFs in memories and messages are shown from GIPHY (or Tenor, for a GIF that came from there), so your browser loads them from those services.
• Google reCAPTCHA: tells people from bots on our forms (signing in, contact, joining a Matchbook). Its script runs on our pages and sends Google information about your browser and how you use the page; Google's Privacy Policy and Terms apply.
• Twilio: our support phone number. If you call or text it, Twilio carries the call or text, including your phone number; a voicemail is emailed to us and then deleted from Twilio.
• Cloudflare: protects and speeds up the site, and counts page visits without cookies.
• Our email provider: to deliver sign-in links and notices.
• Our hosting provider: where the service and its files run.

Some providers may process data outside Canada (photo checks, for example, happen in the United States). We may also disclose information if the law requires it, including reporting suspected child sexual abuse material to the authorities.

We use only the cookies needed to keep you signed in and secure, and one that tells us your device's timezone (like “America/Edmonton”), so a Matchbook you make shows its times where you are. No advertising or tracking cookies.

To count how many people visit, each page tells us once a day whether someone was there (they moved, scrolled or typed, and it wasn't an automated browser). We keep a one-way code made from the date, your IP address and your browser's name, which can't be turned back into any of them, and delete it after 35 days. Your browser remembers that you were counted today; that note never leaves your device.

To see what's working, we also note where you first came from: a campaign link's tag, a Matchbook someone sent you, or the name of the site that linked to us (like "Google" or "Instagram", never the full address), and the first page you opened. If you sign up or buy, that's kept with your account or purchase.

Your Matchbooks and account stay until you delete them, with one exception: after two years without a visit, a free Spark you never added a story to, and an account with no Matchbooks and no purchases, are deleted. We email you 30 days before, and signing in keeps them. Raw exports are deleted after import. A PDF of a Matchbook you download is kept privately so it's ready next time, replaced when the Matchbook changes and deleted with it. Activity records (including how each upload went: file types and sizes, never their contents) after 180 days, and payment records (including refunds) as long as tax law requires, even after you delete your account. Anything you delete also stays in our database backups for up to 14 days, until those backups expire. One more exception: a photo our check held as likely explicit, deleted before we reviewed it, is kept privately until that review, then deleted (or kept for the authorities if the law requires it).

• Edit or remove photos, prompts and messages on your Matchbook at any time.
• Delete a Matchbook, or your whole account, from Account settings — this permanently removes its data and files.
• Signed in with Google, Microsoft or Facebook? All we get from them is your name and email address, and deleting your account deletes those too. You can also remove our access in that account's own settings (on Facebook: Settings → Apps and websites).
• If you appear on someone else's Matchbook, you can withdraw consent, which hides it from viewers.
• Ask us for a copy of your information, or to correct it, by contacting us.

If you're not satisfied with our answer, you can contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

We use HTTPS, private storage for your photos, password-protected Matchbooks, a virus check on every file you upload (on our own server: your files aren't sent anywhere for it), rate limits on password guesses and sign-in links, and activity logs. No system is perfectly secure, so please keep your Matchbook password private.

Our Matchbook is for people 18 and older.

If we change this policy, we'll update the date above, and inform you by email if the change is significant.