Parship Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for the Use of Parship-United Kingdom

Version: September 18^th 2024

Thank you for using Parship!

Please note that we offer our Service (as defined below) in different countries and as such, you understand that the information included in your profile will be visible to our members in all of these countries. You can see the list of these countries on our website. You will also be able to search for a partner in any of these countries, not just your own country. We offer our Services outside the United-Kingdom and the European Union in Switzerland.

This privacy policy explains what personal data Parship collects, how we use these data and what rights you have in relation to your personal data as a Parship user.

You can find information about data processing in connection with Cookies and other tracking technologies when using the Parship website and app in our cookies & tracking policy.

Contact / Data Controller

Unless otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy or in our Cookies & Tracking Policy, the controller of your personal data is PE Digital GmbH, Speersort 10, 20095 Hamburg, Germany (hereafter “Parship”, “us, “our”, “we”).

If you have any questions or suggestions about how we use your personal data, please contact us or our data protection officer.

Our contact details are as follows:

PE Digital GmbH, Customer Service Parship United Kingdom, Speersort 10, 20095 Hamburg, Germany, privacypolicy@parship.co.uk (email)

You can reach our data protection officer at:

Parship UK Privacy Team, privacypolicy@parship.co.uk (email)

Our UK Representative is:

eHarmony UK Ltd., 3rd Floor, 1 Ashley Road, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 2DT, United Kingdom

Collection, processing and use of personal data

Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (e.g., name, address, phone number, date of birth or e-mail address). When we say that we process personal data, this means that we collect, store, use, transfer to others or delete such data.

Parship collects and processes your personal data exclusively in the following cases:

If you install our Parship app.
If you visit us on our website without being a member.
If you contact us.
If you subscribe to a Parship membership (paid or free).

Once you have signed up for a Parship account, a contract is formed and we will provide you with access to an online database over which you will be able to get know other Parship-registered customers (also known as members). In order to provide you with the Parship service as described in the General Terms and Conditions (the “Parship Service” or “Service”), we need to use your personal data. If you do not want us to use your personal data or parts thereof, we will not be able to provide you with the Service. You will also need to provide us with special categories of personal data (i.e. sensitive personal data, such as information about your your gender or sexual orientation).

Please see below for further information about the types of personal data Parship collects when you use our Service.

Data processing through app stores

Before you can install our app, you may have to enter into a user agreement with an app store operator (e.g. Google or Apple). Our app is available on different app platforms, depending on your particular operating system.

In order to install and use our app via these app stores, you will need to have a valid account with the app store operator as well as a compatible device (e.g. a smartphone). Parship has no control over the collection, processing and use of personal data in this respect. The relevant app store operator will be the sole data controller of this information. If necessary, please contact the operator of the respective app store directly for information about their data processing. Parship is the data controller with respect to your personal data only when you use the Parship app.

What personal data does Parship collect from its members to fulfil the contractual relationship?

In order to register for the Parship Service and conclude a Basic Membership or a Premium Membership, you will need to provide us with the personal data described below. In addition, in order to provide you with our Services (as more fully described in the General Terms and Conditions), we need to process this personal data.

Registration process

In order to register for Parship’s free Service (i.e., conclude a “Basic Membership”), you will need to provide us with personal data, without which the registration cannot be completed. These data are:

Gender and sex of partner sought (as data regarding your sexual orientation and therefore sensitive personal data)
Answer to the question: “Have you ever tried online dating?” (experience with online dating)
Answer to the question: “What are you looking for?” (purpose of the search)
Email address
Password

If you have chosen to log in via a third-party provider such as Google or Apple (please see below for more detail), you do not need to enter an email address or a password during the registration process.

You can access Parship’s Service respectively with the email address and the password you have indicated (your access data) or alternatively, via the third party provider’s login data.

Parship offers the possibility to provide the cell phone number for a so-called SMS Verification or else for receiving messages through Parship. The specification of the cell phone number is not required to use the service of Parship.

Registration/Login via Google (“Google Sign in”)

We give you the option to register or log into our website using your Google account. If you do this, we will obtain the data required for registration or login (e-mail address, name, Google Account ID, and Google Account profile picture) from Google. Data is transferred in this respect.

We have no control over the scope of the data collected by Google using the Google login. If you would not like Google to collect data about you related to your use of our online offering and to use it for its own purposes, you should not use the Google login.

You may dissociate your Parship account from your Google-ID at any time in your profile on our website. In this case, you will need to establish alternative access data, as explained above.

Further information about the purpose and scope of the collection and the further processing and use of your data by Google, as well as the rights and settings options for protecting your data, is available in Google’s Privacy Policy:

https://policies.google.com/privacy

During registration via Apple (“Sign in with Apple”)

You can register to join the Parship Service using your Apple-ID. If you choose to do this, we will receive the information that we need for your registration directly from Apple. In this respect, a data transfer takes place. Apple enables you to share the email address associated with your Apple account with Parship or hide it. If you hide your email address, we will receive a randomly generated unique email address from Apple for the creation and use of your Parship account. Our communications will be sent to this email address and automatically forwarded by Apple to your email address, if you have not deactivated forwarding of Parship emails.

Please be aware that we have no control over the type and amount of information that Apple collects about you when you register for our Service using the Apple login. If you do not want Apple to collect information about you in relation to your use of our Service, you should not use the Apple login.

You may dissociate your Parship account from your Apple-ID at any time in your profile on our website. In this case, you will need to establish alternative access data, as explained above.

For more information about the types of information collected by Apple and how Apple uses your information, as well as about your rights and your ability to protect your data, please see Apple’s privacy policy.

Data required in connection with a Basic Membership

Our Service works by providing your profile information (“profile”) and your compatibility score to other Parship users. In order to get the full benefit of our Service and to set up your Parship profile, we will ask you to provide us with data about yourself. This may include information about your personal values and preferences, your appearance, and any other characteristics that are relevant for us to establish your personality profile and to recommend potential partners (“partner suggestions”) to you. When designing your profile, you will also need to provide us with information about yourself, including text and photos. In addition, we also collect information about you when you provide your answers to the Parship compatibility quiz and we will use this information to automatically create your Parship personality profile (. Please note that, although you will be able to read your personality profile and compatibility score in your profile, your personality profile is not generally publicly visible to other Parship members. Instead, those members who directly access your profile information will only have access to extracts of your personality profile and your compatibility score.

When we ask you to provide us with information about you during the registration process, we make it clear when such information will be kept private and will not be made available to other users. Please note that your specific answers to Parship’s compatibility quiz are generally kept private, however, the compatibility score that we generate from your answers are made publicly available to other members. Additionally, the information you voluntarily provide for hobbies and interests within the quiz will be visible to your partner suggestions in your profile, but you may update or delete this information at any time. All other information you provide us with for or as part of your Parship profile will be publicly visible to other members on our website and our app, such as information that you voluntarily choose to include in your profile, especially your first name, place of residence / postal code, and your interests.

We will not be able to recommend partner suggestions for you if you do not provide us with the requested information relating to your sexual preferences (i.e. both preferred sex and gender), or the other information requested as part of the Parship compatibility quiz. If you do not want to provide us with this information, you will not be able to use our Service.

The types of data that we will collect during the registration are as follows:

Residence / postal code
Country of residence
Date of birth
Full name
Height
Number of children
Marital status
Education level
Occupation
Income

In addition, you may choose to provide us with sensitive information such as:

Religion
Ethnicity
Political view.

By giving us this information, you agree that we can store and use this information for matching purposes. This information allows us to further refine the partner suggestions and search criteria available to you when searching for a partner on our platform. This information will be disclosed in your profile, and therefore, visible to matches who visit your profile. However, please note that you do not have to provide us with this information in order to use the Parship Service, and you may change your answers to “prefer not to specify” in the religion, ethnicity and/or political view fields at any time in your profile. Basic members are only shown blurred-out photos. In some cases (e.g., when using Match Unlocks or as part of testing new functions), basic members can also recognizably see photos. Premium members can recognizably see photos.

You may also upload photos of yourself in your profile, whereby other members may see, next to your first name, your photos clearly (i.e. unblurred version) in your profile or in a blurred version via email. Please note that you do not have to upload any photos in order to use the Parship Service. You may upload photos to your profile at any time, even after you completed your registration or already used the Service for a period of time.

You do not have to provide us with your mobile phone number in order to use the Parship Service. However, if you want to, you can provide it to us for an additional security measure (known as “SMS verification”). This functionality is available to all our members but only after logging in to our Parship Service. This will allow us to carry out a further identification check to make sure that you are the right person to be using your profile – please see more on this below (see the section “Processing purposes”).

Upon completion of a Premium Membership

If you decide to sign up for Parship’s Premium chargeable features (“Premium Membership”) via the website (i.e. you decide to become a Premium member), we will collect following payment data during your order:

Name and first name
Residential address
Payment and billing details (credit card data is stored by a third party payment provider and not by Parship)

Ordering virtual goods

If the user decides to extend his basic membership by ordering virtual goods (e.g. Match Unlocks), the following data will be collected within the order in addition to the data collected during the basic membership:

Payment data (credit card data, PayPal and SEPA data are stored by the corresponding payment provider and not by Parship).

Orders via third parties

If you purchase a Premium Membership or virtual goods via an app store provider (e.g. Google or Apple), please refer to the terms of use of the relevant app platform operator to find out which personal data they process in relation to the purchase process. Parship does not process any payment or billing data in this respect.

Communication with members, communication with our customer service

If you correspond with other Parship members through the Parship platform, or with Parship customer service, we will collect and store this information. The messages sent between members via our Service are end-to-end encrypted. (You can read more about how we keep your information safe in the section “How do we protect your personal data?” below).

If you contact our customer service, please note the following: if you communicate with our customer service:

using the contact form, this transmission is encrypted; our response to your request is sent by email and is encrypted during transport if your email provider supports Transport Layer Security (TLS) transport encryption;
via email: the content of your message to us will only be protected in transit via TLS transfer encryption if your email provider supports TLS transport encryption.
(if available) via chat function for logged-in members in the customer service portal, the transmission of chat communication is TLS-encrypted (transport encryption). If the chat function is used with customer service, there is the possibility to provide a corresponding chat report.

Please note that, in principle, communications between you and Parship will only be conducted via the email address associated with your Parship account. Members who are registered via Apple and have hidden their email address will only receive communications if the automatic forwarding function is activated through Apple. Please bear in mind that Apple does not inform us whether you have activated the forwarding function.

If you would prefer not to contact our customer service by email (for example, because you are concerned that your email provider does not support TLS encryption or the content of our email is not encrypted), please contact Parship by post instead. You will find our contact details under Contact.

Promotional emails – Messages

When you subscribe for our free membership (“Basic Membership”), you must enter your email address on the welcome page, or we receive your email address from Apple or Google (if you register via a third party login). We will use this email address, or any new e-mail addresses you enter in your profile afterwards, to send you promotional emails about Parship’s free and for-purchase products, without requiring your consent.

In your profile under “Notification options,” you can also choose to receive personalised partner suggestions and guidance during your Parship membership, to help you to get the most out of the Parship Service.

As long as your email provider supports “Transport Layer Security” (TLS) transport encryption, these promotional emails (including our personalised guidance) are protected in transit via TLS transfer encryption.

You can object to our use of your email address for promotional purposes or personalised guidance, at any time, by: (i) clicking on the link in our emails to adjust your email notification settings, (ii) adjusting your settings in your profile under “Notification options”, or (iii) contacting us using the information in the Contact section. Members who have not yet completed the Parship compatibility test may use this link for an objection. You may re-subscribe to receive such emails in your profile under “Notification options” at any time.

CRM messages channel (in chat)

Furthermore, there is the possibility that you will receive what are known as CRM messages via the electronic mailing route in the CRM message channel in the chat that has been set up for this purpose. If you no longer wish to receive the corresponding CRM messages, you may reject them at any time.

Push Messages

Our app may send you “push messages”, even when you are not currently using it. These will either contain messages that we send you as part of our Service, or they may contain advertising information.

You can stop receiving push messages or adjust your settings at any time by changing the configuration settings of your mobile device or in the Parship app.

What information does Parship collect when using the Parship website?

Every time you access the Parship website, we will collect your usage data. This means that, even if you have not signed up to be a Parship member, we will collect and use this information about you. This data is sent to us by your Internet browser and is stored in log files. This data includes:

Information about your browser type and your internet service provider, as well as your operating system (for example Windows 7, macOS, etc.)
The IP address (Internet Protocol address) of the device you use to access our website or Service (for example, your computer, tablet or smartphone). We will also compare your IP address against a geo-database to collect information about your location, such as your country, state and city.In this context Parship uses MaxMind (see explanations below, in the section “How do we protect your personal data?”))
Information about the page that you have accessed
The date and time that you used the website
The referrer URL (origin URL) from which you came to the page that you have accessed
Statistics about the amount of data transmitted during your use of the website
Status message as to whether you were successfully able to access the website
Session identifier
Session participant´s pseudonym
Screen resolution used on your device

Each time a Parship member logs in to our network, we also collect their Parship user identifier.

While using the website, and in addition to the data mentioned above, cookies or pseudonym IDs (such as user-ID, ad-ID) may also be stored on your device, when you visit, or after you visited, our online content. You will find specific information about this in our cookies & tracking policy.

What information does Parship collect when using the Parship app?

Every time you access the Parship app with your device, Parship automatically collects data and information from your device’s operating system. This includes, among other things, the storage of your IP address. In detail, Parship collects:

Usage data

Every time you access the Parship app, we will collect your usage data. This data includes:

The operating system used to access the app and the browser type
Your current language setting in your device
Information about your Internet service provider
The IP address (Internet Protocol address) of your device
Your Device ID (e.g. IDFA, IDFV, Google Advertising ID) to identify your device for a secured authentication
Your User identifier on the Parship platform (only for Parship members)
Information about the part of the app that you have accessed and, if applicable, the webpage you accessed previously
The date and time that you used the app
Statistics about the amount of data transmitted during your app use
Status message as to whether you were successfully able to access the app
Session identifier

While using the app, and in addition to the data mentioned above, tracking technologies or pseudonym IDs (such as your AD-ID (e.g. the Apple IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) or the Google Advertising ID) may also be stored on your device, when you visit, or after you visited, our online content. You will find specific information about this in our cookies & tracking policy.

Login data

We also collect the following usage data each time a Parship member logs in to our network (“login records”):

Date and time of login
User identifier on the Parship platform (your e-mail address)
IP address (Internet Protocol Address)
Device ID (e.g. UDID) to identify your device for a secured authentication.

While using the app, and in addition to the data mentioned above, pseudonym IDs (such as user-ID, ad-ID) may also be stored on your device, when you visit, or after you visited, our app. You will find specific information about this in our cookies & tracking policy.

GPS data when using the app

If a Premium Member turns on the “radius search” option, we also collect location data about their device (such as GPS, possibly WLAN information, and device ID) to determine their location. This information will be used to allow the Premium Member to set a suitable search radius to look for other members.

What information does Parship process when using the Parship platform?

Part of our Service is providing you with potential partners (“partner suggestions”). These partner suggestions are presented to you in your profile and via notifications (e.g. emails), with the following information: first name or occupation, age, place of residence or postal code, a photo, compatibility score and a link to their profile. Please note that we may present you at any time as a partner suggestions to other members, including those based outside the UK and/or using one of our other Parship platforms. As such, your first name or occupation, age, place of residence or postal code, photo, compatibility score and a link to your profile will be provided to these members. In general, Basic Members will see only your photos blurred, but may be able, in some instances, to see your photos clearly (e.g., if they use Match Unlocks to unlock your profile or in the context of our testing of new functionalities). Premium Members will see your photos clearly.

In your profile, under “Notification options”, you may choose to receive notifications from us (e.g., emails or push messages) to alert you when there has been activity in your account (e.g. you have received a new message or we have new matches for you). Please note that whether you receive notifications or not, your matches who have requested notifications may still receive notifications related to you (e.g., when you send them a new message or we send your profile as a suggested new match). The notifications your matches received will include your first name, place of residence or postal code, photo, age, compatibility score and a link to your profile.

You may also request to be informed about: (1) which partner suggestion visited your profile (“visitors of my profile”) and/or (2) if your partner suggestions are currently online (green circle if they are online, or grey circle if they are not). Please note that if you request this information, the same information regarding your activity will be available to your partner suggestions who have also selected these notification options. As such, and subject to a partner suggestion’s notification settings, (1) a partner suggestions whose profile you visited may be informed of your visit, and (2) your partner suggestions may be notified when you are online or offline.

In addition, you are able to see the last time a partner suggestion was online (“last time online”), and your partner suggestions are also able to see when you last logged in. This feature is set up automatically and, for technical reasons, cannot be deactivated.

Processing purposes

Parship processes the personal data of its users for the following purposes. The legal bases we reply upon are also stated. If data processing is based on the legal basis of a legitimate interest, we will also explain our legitimate interest in data processing to you below:

To provide the Parship platform and thereby perform our Services as described in the General Terms and Conditions.In particular, this includes:
- Provision of our website for non-registered users;
- Use of our website and app for registered Parship members;
- Ability to contact other users and respond to requests via the platform;
- Facilitation of the contract, incl. invoicing and termination processes;
- Sending emails and/or push messages regarding partner suggestions or other contractually relevant informations.
(The legal basis of processing is contractual necessity, i.e. to provide you with the services you have asked for from Parship. In some cases, the legal basis is your consent.)
For user experience testing (so-called A/B testing. (The legal basis is Parship’s legitimate interest in improving the user-friendliness and enhancing the attractiveness of our website.)
If applicable, upstream anonymization of data records for training purposes of our artificial intelligence systems (Art. 6 (4) GDPR applies here.)
To provide a login via the Parship platform, Google login or Apple login. (The legal basis of processing is contractual necessity.)
For the prevention of and defense against abuse. Parship automatically collects, processes and uses personal data and geodata we collect during your registration and the completion of the Parship personality test and/or your Parship profile, to check for any evidence of the misuse of the platform. This information is stored in a database and compared against empirical values and information. If our automated processing activities suggest that our Service has been misused, a Parship employee will review the relevant rating and underlying clues, as well as the information in your profile (including any wording and photos you have provided) to confirm whether this is the case. In addition, customer service representatives perform profile checks to check members’ profiles that have been reported by other members through the function “suspicious profile?” or as having breached our General Terms and Conditions. Furthermore, Parship uses the voluntary provision of the cell phone number to carry out a mobile phone-based identity comparison within the scope of a so-called SMS Verification. (The legal basis for these activities is the legitimate interests of Parship and our Parship members, to ensure that the Parship service is not used in a way that is in breach of our General Terms and Conditions and/or the law. In doing so, we also comply with our legal obligation regarding data security to guarantee system security and to detect and trace unauthorised access attempts or accesses).
For purposes of data security (in particular, in accordance with our obligations under the UK GDPR). (We rely on the legal bases of our and our members’ legitimate interest (to ensure data is securely held and used and the Parship service is not misused for contractual and / or illegal actions) and our legal obligation (to ensure system security and the detection and tracking of unauthorised access attempts or accesses)).
For automated price determination reasons. This is achieved through the processing of some of your data automatically in order to offer you suitable products but this processing does not lead to any decisions being made about that you that might affect your use of the Service. The following data is used for this purpose: age, purpose of the search, experience with online dating, income, registration device (app or website). (The legal basis for these activities is contractual necessity as well as our legitimate interest in contacting our users through targeted and individual communications.)
To improve the user experience (querying the purpose of the search and querying the experience with online dating). (The legal basis is the performance of the contractual relationship and our legitimate interest in providing our users with targeted and individual features.)
To ensure that you comply with your obligations under your subscription and our General Terms and Conditions, including your payment obligation (if you have made a purchase via Parship). If you do not pay outstanding invoices / instalments despite repeated reminders, we will transfer relevant data to a debt collection service provider for the purpose of fiduciary debt collection. In the event of payment disputes, we also transfer data as necessary and appropriate for the purpose of asserting our rights (e.g. in the case of disputed payment obligations, requests from banks, or within the framework of conflict resolution for chargebacks). (The legal basis for these activities is the legitimate interests of Parship to ensure that (as applicable) you provide the agreed payment for our Service in accordance with your subscription.)
To provide you with services requested via our website, the provision of messaging, and the operation of our website/app. (The legal basis here is consent of the individual and PECR Reg 6(4)(b)).
For the operation of our website, apps and for the provision of telemedia services expressly requested by the users (legal basis is PECR Reg 6(4)(b)).
For the protection and defence of our rights (for example, intellectual property and in the context of legal or regulatory proceedings) and the fulfilment of legal obligations (for example, compliance with finance and tax legislation). (The legal basis for these activities is the fulfilment of our legal obligations and our legitimate interest in asserting and defending our rights.)
To send advertising relating to our own products through promotional emails and/or push messages, newsletters, (user) surveys and personalised guidance. (The legal basis is our legitimate interests in relation to sending direct marketing about our own products. In some instances, the legal basis is also your consent.)
To comply with statutory retention obligations and other statutory or legal obligations and provisions (e.g., in connection with tax audits, official or judicial orders for information or other purposes). (The legal basis is the fulfilment of our legal obligations).
For the purpose of considering the advertising objection. (Legal basis is the fulfilment of our legal obligations; also Art. 22 PECR applies here.)
For the purposes of sending advertising relating to our own products through promotional emails and/or push messages, newsletters, surveys and personalised guidance. (The legal basis is our legitimate interests in relation to sending direct marketing about our own products, and/or your consent; also Art. 22 Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR) applies here.)
For the purpose of considering the advertising objection. (Legal basis is the fulfilment of our legal obligations).
To answer communications or questions from you. (The legal basis is contractual necessity, complying with our legal obligations, and Parship’s and our users’ legitimate interests in offering/receiving customer service and improving the customer experience.)
If applicable, for archiving purposes in the public interest, for scientific or historical research purposes or for statistical purposes pursuant to Article 89(1) (the legal basis in these cases is UK GDPR Article 9(2)(j) or Article 6(1)(e) in conjunction with Article 6(2)).

You will find the processing purposes and legal basis for the processing of personal data regarding the use of “cookies” and other tracking technologies when using Parship in our cookies & tracking policy.

Legal basis for the processing of personal data

Where we obtain your consent as our lawful basis of processing, our legal basis is point (a) of Article 6(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
Where the processing of special categories of data according to Article 9(1) UK GDPR is required, our legal basis is point (a) of Article 9(2) UK GDPR – your consent.
When the processing of your personal data is required to fulfil our contractual relationship (either in relation to Basic Membership or Premium Membership), our legal basis is point (b) of Article 6(1) UK GDPR. This also applies to any processing that is required to carry out any pre-contractual actions.
When the processing of your personal data is required to fulfil a legal obligation, our legal basis is point (c) of Article 6(1) UK GDPR.
If we store information in your terminal equipment or access such information that is already stored in your terminal equipment, PECR Reg. 6(4)(b) serves as the legal basis.
If the processing is necessary to safeguard the legitimate interests of Parship or a third party, such as our members, and the interests, fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject do not override those legitimate interests, our legal basis for the processing is point (f) of Article 6(1) UK GDPR.
For further data processing, Art. 6 (1) UK GDPR takes effect in its relevant littera depending on the data processing constellation. When the processing of personal data is required for our own marketing (either in relation to Basic Membership or Premium Membership), the legal basis for the processing is point (f) of Article 6(1) UK GDPR.
If applicable, for archiving purposes in the public interest, for scientific or historical research purposes or for statistical purposes pursuant to Article 89(1) (the legal basis in these cases is Article 9(2)(j) GDPR or Article 6(1)(e) GDPR in conjunction with Article 6(2) GDPR; Art. 6 para. 2 GDPR).
If, in exceptional cases, specific personal data are processed for reasons of substantial public interest, Art. 9 (2) (g) GDPR serves as the legal basis

When the legal basis for processing is your consent, you are entitled to withdraw your consent at any time. However, this withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out on the basis of your consent before your withdrawal. If the legal basis is a legitimate interest, you are also entitled, in general, to object to the processing of your personal data, at any time, for reasons arising from your specific situation. Please see the section “Rights of the data subject at a glance” below.

Transfer of data to third parties; service providers

Parship generally only discloses your personal data to third parties for the provision of Services to you, if we or the third party have a legitimate interest for disclosing, if we have your consent or if this is required in order to fulfil a legal obligation. If we disclose your personal data to third parties on the basis of a legitimate interest, we will explain the legitimate interest in this privacy policy.

We may share your personal information within our group of companies, and other entities within our group may also store and/or process your information in accordance with this privacy policy.

In the following cases, personal data may also be transferred to third parties:

to service providers, if the data is required for the fulfilment of their data processing agreement with us;
any providers of marketing tracking technologies and analysis tools (you can find out more about this in our cookies & tracking policy;
where we are obliged to do so by law, including at the request of a regulator or an enforceable official order (e.g., a court order);
in connection with legal disputes, debt collections or audits. In these cases, we would share information with the courts and our advisers (e.g., lawyers, chartered accountants or tax auditors);
relevant investigating authorities in connection with possible criminal offences (e.g., the police);
in the event of the sale of the business, we would transfer the personal data.
If we have your consent, we will share success stories with media outlets and on social media (such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube).

Insofar as data is regularly transferred to other third parties, this is explained in our privacy policy and/or our cookies & tracking policy. If the transfer takes place on the basis of consent, the explanation may also be provided when obtaining consent.

In the context of maintenance and support, Twitter feeds of the Parship account may be integrated on the Parship maintenance page, in which current tweets regarding possible and ongoing maintenance and repair work by Parship are displayed. This should make it possible to inform users about the progress of this maintenance and repair work via Twitter. Through the integration of the Twitter feed of the Parship account, Twitter may collect certain personal data, as described here: https://help.twitter.com/en/twitter-for-websites-ads-info-and-privacy.

Transfers to service providers

Parship may use service providers when collecting or processing your personal data. Parship will ensure that service providers only receive that portion of your personal data they need for their specific activity.

In addition to those already expressly mentioned in this privacy policy and/or in our cookies & tracking policy, Parship uses, amongst others, service providers to send promotional emails and push messages to members. In addition, Parship uses service providers to provide our servers. If you subscribed to your Premium Membership over the website, we also use external payment services and service providers to help us with the settlement of payments and debt collection. Depending on the particular payment method you choose when purchasing via Parship, Parship will send your payment information to the bank or to the particular payment service provider that we have appointed. Please be aware that such payment service providers will be responsible for their use of your personal data for their own purposes (i.e., to process your payment). As such, the privacy policy of the respective payment service provider will also apply.

Unless otherwise stated, the service providers that we appoint are engaged as our processor and they may only use the personal data of our members in accordance with our instructions.

Please note that if you purchase a Premium Membership via the Parship app, Parship will not process any payment. In this case, the app store operator will be responsible for handling the payment process and we will not receive your card details.

Transfer of data to non-European countries

Parship may disclose your personal data to third-party controllers (joint or independent) or to our processors who are located outside the UK and the European Economic Area (“EEA”) (collectively, “Europe”). When this happens, and before disclosing your data, we ensure that the recipient has an adequate level of protection to enable the lawful transfer of your data. For example, this may be because the recipient is in a country that has been determined as offering an adequate level of data protection; or has entered into standard data protection clauses and implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures; or (where permitted by law) because you have expressly consented to this transfer.

If necessary, we also conclude a corresponding “UK Addendum” with our contractual partners in accordance with the requirements of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and a corresponding “CH Addendum” in accordance with the requirements of the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

We can provide you with an overview of recipients (both of the companies within the Group; collection service providers, if applicable; and all processors) in third countries and a copy of agreed-upon regulations regarding ensuring an adequate level of data protection (standard contractual clauses including UK or CH Addendum, where applicable).

Please use the information provided under Contact for this purpose.

How do we protect your personal data?

Parship uses a variety of security measures, including state-of-the-art encryption and authentication tools, to protect the security, integrity and availability of our customers’ and users’ personal data. In particular, these measures include the following:

Strict criteria for the authorization to access your data as well as 2-factor authentication,
Storage of confidential data in encrypted form,
Firewall protection of IT systems to prevent unauthorized access,
Permanent monitoring of access to IT systems to detect and prevent the misuse of personal data.

In this context, we recommend that you familiarise yourself with Parship’s security tips when using the Parship service. Here you can find more information on this topic.

In this context, Parship also uses service providers from the USA. In particular, the following service providers are involved:

Cloudflare

A “Content Delivery Network” (CDN) is used to secure the online services provided by Parship (web/native apps) and optimise their loading times. This CDN is a service of Cloudflare, Inc, 101 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. Use of the Cloudflare service requires website enquiries and website content to be transmitted and processed via its server. In connection with this, data is consolidated to form statistics, which cannot be deactivated.

We have entered into a processing agreement with Cloudflare on the basis of the standard contractual clauses and the use of additional technical and organisational security measures.

Here you can find information about the data collected by Cloudflare.

MaxMind

Parship uses the GeoIP2 Precision City geolocation service from MaxMind, Inc, Waltham, MA, 14 Spring St., Suite 3, Waltham, Massachusetts 02451, USA. With this service, we use IP addresses to determine approximate location/geolocation data based on the country of origin. No personal data is exchanged with MaxMind. Here you can find further information about MaxMind.

iovation

In order to protect the Parship platform and Parship users from fraud and abuse, Parship employs the abuse prevention service provided by iovation Inc. 555 SW Oak Street #300, Portland, OR 97204, USA. iovation checks your IP address, date and time of access, referrer URL and browser information when you access the Parship platform in order to determine the probability of fraudulent behaviour. All personal data received by iovation is pseudonymised, encrypted and subject to principles of data minimisation.

We have entered into an agreement with iovation in the context of independent controlling based on the EU standard contractual clauses of the European Commission dated June 4, 2021 (Module 1), together with the necessary amendments to the contract for the transfer to third countries of personal data belonging to users from Switzerland or the UK.

You can find out more about iovation here.

Duration of storage; retention obligations

We store your data for as long as is necessary for the provision of our Service (Basic and Premium Memberships) and any associated services or where we have a legitimate interest which permits the further storage of that information. In all other cases, we will erase your personal information once it is no longer necessary, except for any information we need to retain in order to comply with any contractual or statutory (e.g. tax or commercial) retention periods (e.g. invoices).

Data that is subject to a mandatory retention period is blocked from deletion until the end of that period.

For Basic Members: You can choose to remove the data in your profile at any time. If you have neither an active Premium Membership nor Match Unlocks, you can also erase your profile data yourself (when you have completed the compatibility test) by starting the deletion process in the “Profile Settings” area of your Parship account. If you are a web or iOS or Android user, you can also erase your profile data yourself (when you have completed the compatibility test) by starting the deletion process in the “Profile Settings” area of your Parship account. Otherwise, Parship automatically erases personal profile data of Basic members who are inactive for 24 months.

Profile data related to Match Unlocks will be deleted either after two years of inactivity or no later than 4 years after the date of purchase.

For Premium Members: Your personal data will be stored for the duration of our contractual relationship. However, we will erase your data following your request as long as there is no legal storage obligation that applies to that information. Once your Premium Membership is over, if you do not ask us to erase your data before your Premium subscription comes to an end, your Premium Membership will be converted into a Basic Membership. In this case, the description above relating to the retention period of Basic Members’ data will apply.

The following applies to all members: If the number of displayed and stored chats exceeds 5,000, we will delete the excess number of chats automatically in accordance with the provision in the T&C, depending on the age of the chats (based on the chronology of how they are displayed in the customer’s profile), see also section 7.7. of the T&C.

If you uninstall the Parship app on your device, this will not delete the data in your profile. The above statements related to the deletion of Basic Members’ data and Premium Members’ data also apply here.

Parship stores log files (i.e., records of your usage and interaction with us, regardless of the communication channel) in an inaccessible archive for 30 days and then deletes them. Log files that need to be retained for evidentiary purposes may, in some cases, be provided to investigating authorities.

If you ask us to do so, we will delete your data, provided there is no legal obligation to retain this data. Please note that if the deletion of your data is prevented due to a mandatory retention period, your data will be blocked and stored for no other purposes, until we can delete it.

Unless otherwise stated, all exemptions relied upon by Parship as a data controller in the published information fall under Schedule 2, Part 2-4 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Parship will also store any personal data which is required to demonstrate that Parship has lawfully complied with a valid data subject’s rights request within the required period (36 months).

Are you obliged to provide us with personal data?

In principle, you are not obliged to provide us with your personal data. However, the use of certain services of this online offer may require the provision of personal data, e.g. registration or participation in a competition. If this is the case, we will point this out to you. Mandatory data is regularly marked with an asterisk (*). If you do not wish to provide us with the required data, you will unfortunately not be able to use the corresponding services.

Rights of the data subject at a glance

Under the UK GDPR and data protection laws, you have rights. Whether and to what extent the rights apply may depend upon the circumstance. The rights are:

Your right to be informed – You have a right to receive concise, transparent, intelligible, and easily accessible information about your personal data and our use of it.

Your right of access – You have the right to ask Parship whether we process personal data about you. You also have the right of access to this personal data as well as information on the category of data stored, the purposes of processing, any recipients, storage period and your rights as the data subject.

If you are a Basic or Premium member of Parship, you can assert your right of access here (https://uk.parship.com/privacypolicy/personaldatainquiry).

If you are visiting Parship as a guest and not a registered member, please use the contact details in the Contact section to assert your right of access.

Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal data you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal data in certain circumstances. We have the right to refuse to comply with a request for erasure if we are processing the personal data for one of the following reasons:

To exercise the right of freedom of expression and information.
To comply with a legal obligation.
To perform a task in the public interest or exercise official authority.
For archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific research, historical research or statistical purposes.
For the exercise or defence of legal claims.

Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances. In such case, we will still hold the data but will not process it any further. This right is an alternative to the right to erasure. If one of the following conditions applies, you may exercise the right to restrict processing:

The accuracy of the personal data is contested.
Processing of the personal data is unlawful.
We no longer need the personal data for processing, but the personal data is required for part of a legal process.
The right to object has been exercised and processing is restricted pending a decision on the status of the processing.

Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to processing in certain circumstances. You can also object if the processing is for a task carried out in the public interest, the exercise of official authority vested in you, or our legitimate interests (or those of a third party).

Your right to data portability – This right only applies if we are processing information based on your consent or for the performance of a contract and the processing is automated.

If you would like to exercise any of your rights, please use the information under Contact. Please also ensure that when you do so, you provide sufficient information to ensure us to clearly identify you.

Alternatively, you may use the setting options in your Parship profile to rectify certain information that you provided during your registration or to object to advertising.

You can also delete your data or your complete profile from a Parship Basic Membership yourself in your profile (if you have completed the Parship questionnaire). To do this, log in to your profile on the Parship website and delete your profile under Data & Settings / Profile. Alternatively, Basic Members can contact our customer service using the information under Contact and request the deletion of their data. However, please note that Premium Members can only delete data regarding their Premium Membership by contacting our customer service.

Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

You have the right to file a complaint with a data protection authority. If you are located in the UK, you should contact the UK’s data protection authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office, at:

The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, Telephone Number: + 44 (0) 303 123 1113, Email: casework@ico.org.uk.

If you are located elsewhere in Europe, you can contact your local data protection authority or our appointed data protection authority. This is:

Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, E-Mail: mailbox@datenschutz.hamburg.de

Social Media

In general, if social media plugins are used, the providers of such plugins will store cookies. However, the social media buttons that we use on our website contain only text links to the respective social media pages, they are not properly a social media plugin. Therefore, Parship will not transfer any data to the respective social media providers. The operator of the social media page is responsible for compliance with data protection law. You can get more information about their data protection practices in their respective privacy policies.

Cookies & other tracking technologies

You will find information on cookies and other tracking technologies that are used on our website and in our app in our cookies & tracking policy. If personal data is processed in connection with tracking-based processes, you will also find detailed information on the reasons for doing so in that policy, which includes information on how to object to this type of data processing.