Who we are
The name, registered address and contact details of the company that runs KobulKabin will be published here before the closed beta opens.
We decide how and why your information is used, which makes us the "controller" of your personal data under UK data protection law.
What we collect and why
| Information | Why we use it | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Account: phone number, email (optional), name | To sign you in, keep your account secure and contact you about it | Only you and our staff when needed. Never shown on your profile |
| Biodata: basics, location, faith, education, work, family, lifestyle, "about me" | To build your profile and suggest matches | Signed-in members, under the visibility you choose for each part |
| Income band and visa or residency status | To help matching when you choose to share them | Only people you have both accepted an interest with — never public |
| Partner preferences | To choose your daily matches | Nobody else. Preferences are never shown to other members |
| Photos | To show on your profile | As your photo setting allows; blurred copies until then |
| Verification: live selfie, ID document image, result | To check that you are a real person and who you say you are | Trained KobulKabin staff only. Images are deleted 30 days after review |
| Interests, notes and messages | To let you talk to people you have both accepted | You and the other person, and any guardian either of you adds to the chat |
| Guardian links and permissions | To run guardian mode as you set it | You, the guardian, and an audit log you can see |
| Reports and blocks | To keep members safe | Our trust and safety team. The person you report is never told who reported them |
| Purchases (when payments open) | To give you what you paid for and keep records the law requires | You and our staff; the app store or payment provider that took the payment |
| Device and app information, usage events | To keep the service working and improve it (see cookies and analytics) | Our staff, as counts and charts; events contain no profile content |
| Messages to support | To answer you | Our support staff |
Your faith and other sensitive information
Your religious beliefs, and information that may reveal your ethnic origin, are "special category" information under UK law. We use them only to run your profile and suggest matches, and only with your explicit consent, which you give separately at sign-up with a box that is never pre-ticked. We record when you gave it and which version of this policy you saw.
You can withdraw that consent at any time in Settings → Privacy. Because KobulKabin is a faith-based matching service, we cannot run your profile without it, so withdrawing consent means we will offer to close your account and delete your data.
Verification and your face
- Today, trained staff compare your live selfie and your ID by eye. We do not create face templates or any other biometric identifiers.
- If we ever use an automated face-matching provider, we will ask for your separate consent first and update this policy before it starts.
- Raw ID and selfie images are encrypted when you upload them and deleted 30 days after our review. We keep only the result (for example "ID verified"), the method, the date and the expiry.
- "ID verified" is not a criminal background check. See our verification policy.
Who can see what
- Other members see your public biodata. Income band, visa status and unblurred photos are shared only after you both accept an interest (or as your settings allow). Your contact details are never shown.
- Guardians see only what your chosen permission allows — viewer, advisor or active guardian (wali). They never see your private chats unless you add them. See the guardian policy.
- Matchmakers (ghotok), when that service opens, see only the members who are their clients.
- KobulKabin staff see information only to verify accounts, review reports, moderate photos and give support. We read a chat only when it has been reported.
Screenshots
On most Android phones the app blocks screenshots of profiles and chats. On iPhones we cannot block them, so the app detects a screenshot and tells the other person it happened.
Companies that help us
We use a small number of service providers, each bound by contract to protect your information and use it only for us:
- a cloud hosting provider in the United States, where our servers and database run;
- Cloudflare, which carries traffic to our websites and protects them from attacks;
- WhatsApp (Meta), when our team sends you a closed-beta invite code by WhatsApp;
- Apple and Google, when you use our iPhone or Android app and their app stores.
Text-message codes, automated ID checks, payments, push notifications and translation are switched off today. Before we switch any of them on, we will name the provider in this policy. We will never send your words to an AI or translation service unless you choose to use that feature.
No selling, no ads, no tracking
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising — including the "cross-context behavioural advertising" that US state laws describe. There are no ad networks, social-media pixels or tracking cookies on our websites or in our apps. Our website honours Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals.
Where your information is stored
Our servers are in the United States. If you live in the UK, your information is transferred there, and we protect it with the safeguards UK law requires for such transfers.
How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account, profile and photos | While your account is open. After you delete it, everything is erased within 30 days, including from backups |
| Raw ID and selfie images | 30 days after our review (or 30 days after upload if never reviewed) |
| Verification result and expiry | While your account is open |
| Chat messages | 12 months, or sooner if either of you deletes the conversation. Messages attached to a report are kept with the report |
| Interests | A pending interest closes after 14 days |
| A profile a guardian created that is never claimed | Deleted after 30 days of inactivity |
| Analytics events (no profile content) | 13 months; after that only totals are kept |
| Waitlist entries | Until we invite you and for up to 12 months after, or straight away if you ask us to remove you |
| Reports and safety records | As long as needed to keep members safe and to meet legal duties; we will publish the exact periods before launch |
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask to see your information, get a copy, correct it, delete it, limit or object to how we use it, take it to another service, and withdraw any consent. Most of this is in the app under Settings → Privacy (export and deletion) and Settings → Account.
We answer within one month in the UK, and within 45 days in US states that set that limit. If we refuse a request you can appeal, and we will explain our decision. Until our privacy email address is published here, you can make any request from inside the app.
To complain about how we handle your data, use our privacy complaint form — no account needed. We acknowledge every complaint within 30 days and keep you updated until it is resolved.
You can also complain to a regulator: in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk); in the US, your state attorney general; in Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (priv.gc.ca).
Age
KobulKabin is only for adults aged 18 and over, everywhere. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we close it and delete their information. See our child safety standards.
Security
- Every connection is encrypted (TLS).
- Your phone number, email, income band, verification results and chat messages are encrypted again inside our database.
- Photos are only ever sent through short-lived signed links, and blurred copies are made on our servers.
- We do not store IP addresses in our analytics or our application logs.
- If a breach puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the regulators as the law requires.
Changes to this policy
We will tell you in the app before any important change takes effect, and ask for your agreement again where the law requires. Each version of this policy has a date, shown at the top of this page.
Questions? Read our cookies and analytics notice, our verification policy or contact us.