• By Admin
• 15 Feb. 2025

1. Introduction

Welcome to Masha Connections, a Muslim matrimonial application powered by AI, operated by Masha Connections Pty Ltd trading as Masha Connections (referred to as "we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you use our mobile application (the "App"). By accessing or using Masha Connections, you consent to the data practices described in this policy.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy within the App and updating the "Last Updated" date above. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Your continued use of the App after the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.

2. Information We Collect

We collect various types of information from and about you, including:

Information You Provide Directly:

Account Creation: When you create an account, we collect information from you by your direct entry of that information into the App or online onboarding process (whichever applies) such as your name, email address, phone number, gender, date of birth, location (which may be precise if you allow it), religious background, ethnicity, education, marital status, interests, profile photos and videos, and other information you choose to provide in your profile.

Communication: We collect the content of your messages and chats with other users within the App, as well as any communications you have with our customer support team.

Preferences and Settings: We collect information about your search criteria for potential matches, your notification settings, and other preferences you set within the App.

Verification Information: If you choose to verify your profile, we may collect copies of your identification documents (such as a passport or driver's license). This information is used solely for verification purposes and is stored securely.

Payment Information: If you subscribe to any premium features, we may collect necessary payment information. Please note that payment processing may be handled by third-party payment processors, and their privacy policies will also apply to your payment information.

Optional Information: You may choose to provide additional information in your profile or during your interactions with the App, which we will also collect and process.

Sensitive Information: Some of the information referred to above which we collect from you constitutes “sensitive information” in certain jurisdictions (including Australia) and is subject to special rules governing how we can collect and use that information. We will comply with all such rules. Where we collect such data from You we will only do so if it is considered reasonably necessary for us to collect such data for us to provide the App’s services and functionality to you and You consent, or collection is required by law or another exception under the relevant laws applies. By entering into the App or otherwise providing us with your sensitive information, you are consenting to our collection and use of that information in accordance with this Policy.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically:

Device Information: We collect information about your mobile device, including the device type, operating system, unique device identifiers (such as IMEI, device ID, and advertising ID), IP address, mobile network information, and device settings.

Usage Data: We collect information about how you use the App, including the features you access, the profiles you view, your interactions with other users (e.g., likes, matches), the dates and times of your access, app crashes, and other diagnostic and performance data.

Location Data: With your consent, we may collect precise location data from your device using GPS, Wi-Fi, or cellular network information to suggest potential matches near you. You can manage your location sharing preferences in your device settings. We may also collect general location information based on your IP address.

Cookies and Similar Technologies: We use cookies, pixel tags, and other similar technologies to collect information about your activity on the App. This helps us to personalize your experience, analyze usage patterns, and improve our services. You can manage your cookie preferences through your device settings or within the App where applicable.

2.3 Information from Third Parties:

Social Media Integration: If you choose to sign up or link your Masha Connections account with a social media platform (e.g., Facebook), we may receive certain information from that platform, such as your name, email address, and profile picture, as permitted by the platform's privacy policy and your privacy settings there.

Verification Services: We may use third-party services to verify your identity or other profile information. These services may share information with us for verification purposes.

2.4 Facial recognition and biometric data:

We collect and process facial biometric data from profile photos and verification selfies to verify user identity and prevent fraudulent accounts.

Collection: We collect facial image data when you upload profile photos and take verification selfies through our app.

Processing: We use facial recognition technology to compare verification selfies with profile photos, creating temporary biometric templates for identity verification.

Purpose: Identity verification, preventing fake profiles, and maintaining community safety. We do not use such images or data for any other purpose.

Storage: Verification selfies are stored securely and encrypted. Biometric templates are deleted after verification. Profile photos are stored with your account.

Sharing: Facial biometric data is never shared with third parties or displayed publicly.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various purposes, including:

Providing and Improving the Service:

Creating and managing your account.

Facilitating connections and suggesting potential matches based on your profile and preferences, utilizing our AI-powered algorithms.

Enabling communication between you and other users.

Personalizing your experience within the App, such as recommending relevant profiles and content.

Developing new features, conducting research, and improving the functionality and user experience of Masha Connections.

Providing customer support and responding to your inquiries and requests.

Monitoring and analyzing usage trends and patterns to understand how our App is used.

Safety and Security:

Verifying user identities and profiles to ensure the authenticity of our community.

Detecting and preventing fraudulent activities, spam, abuse, and other harmful conduct.

Enforcing our Terms of Service.

Investigating and responding to potential violations of our policies.

Protecting the safety and rights of our users and ourselves.

Communication:

Sending you service-related announcements, updates, and notifications about your account and the App.

With your consent, sending you promotional materials, offers, and information about new features or services that may be of interest to you. You can manage your communication preferences within the App.

Research and Analytics:

Conducting research and analyzing aggregated and anonymized data to gain insights into user behavior and trends, which helps us to improve our services and develop new features.

Safety and Security:

Facial recognition verification to compare profile photos with verification selfies and prevent fake profiles.

Legal Compliance:

Complying with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, and governmental requests.

4. How We Share Your Information

We may share your information with third parties in the following circumstances:

With Other Users:

Your public profile information, including your photos, name, age, general location, religious background, interests, and other details you choose to share, will be visible to other users of Masha Connections.

Information you share in direct messages with other users will only be visible to the participants of that conversation. Please exercise caution when sharing personal information with other users.

With Service Providers:

We engage third-party service providers to perform various functions on our behalf, such as hosting, data analysis, payment processing, customer support, marketing, advertising, and security. These providers have access to your personal information only to the extent necessary to perform their services and are contractually obligated to protect your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws.

Business Transfers:

In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, or other business transaction, your information may be transferred to the acquiring entity or third party as part of the transaction. We will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our App of any such change in ownership or control of your personal information.

Legal Requirements:

We may disclose your information if required to do so by law, legal process, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to (a) protect our rights, property, or safety, or the rights, property, or safety of others; (b) investigate fraud or illegal activities; (c) respond to claims; or (d) enforce our Terms of Service.

Aggregated and Anonymized Data:

We may share aggregated and anonymized information that does not directly identify you with third parties for research, analytics, marketing, or other purposes.

5. Your Choices and Rights

We provide you with certain choices regarding the collection, use, and sharing of your personal information:

Accessing and Updating Your Information

You can access and update most of your profile information directly within the App. Please ensure that your information is accurate and up-to-date.

Deleting Your Account:

You can delete your account at any time through the settings within the App. Upon deletion, your profile will no longer be visible to other users. We may retain certain information as required by law or for legitimate business purposes (such as fraud prevention and record-keeping), even after your account is deleted.

Managing Notifications:

You can manage your notification preferences within the App settings to control the types of communications you receive from us.

Location Data Preferences:

You can control whether we collect precise location data through your device settings. If you disable location services, certain features of the App that rely on location may not function properly.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies:

You can manage your cookie preferences through your device browser settings or within the App where applicable. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of the App.

Depending on your location and applicable data protection laws, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Right to Access: You have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you and to receive a copy of it.

Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data under certain circumstances.

Right to Data Portability: You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to transmit it to another controller.

Right to Object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data for certain purposes, such as direct marketing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact information provided in Section 11 below. We may require you to verify your identity before responding to your request. We will respond to your request within the timeframes specified by applicable law.

6. Aggregation and Use of Data

We may aggregate your non-personally identifiable data. By using the App, you agree that we can access, aggregate and use non-personally identifiable data we have collected from you. This data will in no way identify you or any other individual. We may use this aggregated non-personally identifiable data to:

assist us to better understand how our customers are using the App;

provide our customers with further information regarding the uses and benefits of the App;

enhance business productivity, including by creating useful business insights from that aggregated data;

improving the App; and

training our AI.

7. Anonymity and Pseudonymity

We will generally need to know who you are in order to provide you with the App’s functionality. Where it is reasonable and practicable we may allow you to communicate with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym, such as where you make a general enquiry.
However, this is not possible if we are required or authorised by law or other instrument to deal with people who have been appropriately identified, or where it is impracticable for us to deal with individuals who have not identified themselves or who would prefer to use a pseudonym.

8. Automated decision making

Automated decision making takes place when an electronic system uses personal data to make a decision without human intervention. You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision making unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.
We use automated decision making based on your personal data to generate matches for you in the App.

9. Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures include encryption, firewalls, secure servers, and access controls. We also regularly review and update our security practices to enhance the protection of your data.
However, please remember that no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

10. Data Retention

We will retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you with our services, and as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. The specific retention period will depend on the type of information and the purposes for which it is processed. When we no longer need to retain your personal information, we will securely delete or anonymize it.

Face Data: Verification selfies are retained during account lifetime for ongoing verification. Biometric templates are deleted after each verification process.

11. Children's Privacy

Masha Connections is intended for adults and is not directed to individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children below this age. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child without verifiable parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information as soon as possible. If you believe that we may have collected personal information from a child, please contact us immediately.

12. International Data Transfers

Your information may be processed in any country where we or our service providers operate, which includes jurisdictions worldwide. All such transfers are conducted securely and in compliance with relevant legal standards to protect your privacy. These countries may have data protection laws that are different from the laws of your country. By using Masha Connections, you consent to the transfer of your personal information to these countries. We will take appropriate safeguards to ensure that your personal information remains protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws.
Australian Privacy Principle 8 provides in subclause 8.1 that, before we disclose personal information about an individual to a person overseas, we must take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the person overseas does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles (other than Australian Privacy Principle 1) in relation to the information.
However, if you consent to our disclosure of Your personal information to overseas recipients, that subclause 8.1 will not apply to that disclosure and we will not be accountable for disclosure of Your personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
Please note that while we take all reasonable precautions regarding unauthorised access as set out above, when users (such as matches or others to whom you give access to your uploaded data)download details and images available to them from the App, we have no control over how they use, access or manage images once they have downloaded them to their phone or other device.
If we are required to share your information with organisations in countries other than Australia, we ensure to take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient complies with the Australian Privacy Principles or is subject to law or binding scheme that has the effect of protecting the information in a way that is substantially similar to the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to the collection, use, disclosure, storage and destruction or de-identification of personal information.

13. Links to Other Websites and Services

Our App may contain links to other websites or services that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party's website or service. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party websites or services. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party websites or services that you visit.

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:
Masha Connections
support@Mashaapp.co

15. If we can’t collect Your personal information

If you do not provide us with the personal information requested within the App or during the onboarding process, we may not be able to provide you with access to the App or the services it provides.

16. Notifiable Data Breach

In the event that there is a data breach and we are required to comply with the notification of eligible data breaches provisions in Part IIIC of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) or any other subsequent sections or legislation which supersede this Part IIIC, we will take all reasonable steps to contain the suspected or known breach where possible and follow the following process set out in this clause.
We will take immediate steps to limit any further access or distribution where possible. If we have reasonable grounds to suspect that the data breach is likely to result in serious harm to any individuals involved, then we will take all reasonable steps to ensure an assessment is completed within 30 days of the breach or sooner if possible. We will follow the guide published by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (if any) in making this assessment
If we reasonably determine that the data breach is not likely to result in serious harm to any individuals involved or any remedial action we take is successful in making serious harm no longer likely, then no notification or statement will be made.
Where, following an assessment and undertaking remedial action (if any), we still have reasonable grounds to believe serious harm is likely, as soon as practicable, we will provide a statement to each of the individuals whose data was breached or who are at risk. The statement will contain details of the breach and recommendations of the steps each individual should take. We will also provide a copy of the statement to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
We will then review the incident and take action to prevent future breaches.

17. You may request access to Your personal information

You may request access to the information we hold about you, or request that we update or correct any personal information we hold about you (although you can also do this yourself by using the App), by setting out your request in writing and sending it to us at the email address set out under heading 14 above.
We will process your request as soon as reasonably practicable (and in any event within 30 days), provided we are not otherwise prevented from doing so on legal grounds. If we are unable to meet your request, we will let you know why.

18. Correction of personal information

If you require access in order to correct your personal information, you will need to establish why the correction is necessary. We will then take reasonable steps to correct your information within a reasonable period of time, so that it is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading. We may also correct your personal information if we determine that it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.
In certain circumstances we may refuse to update or correct the information held, and if so, we will provide you with a reason why.

19. We have a privacy complaints process

If you wish to complain about how we have handled your personal information, please provide us (using the contact details under heading 14 above) with full details of your complaint and any supporting documentation.
We will then endeavour to:

provide an initial response to your query or complaint within 10 business days; and

investigate and attempt to resolve your query or complaint within 30 business days or such longer period as is necessary and we notify you.

If You are still not satisfied, you can contact the Australian Information Commission:
Office of the Australian information Commission
Office Address: Level 3, 175 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Postal Address: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
www.oaic.gov.au