Privacy Policy

Accessible Emotional Health Ltd · Company no. 14769732

Version 2.2 · Effective date: 27th October 2026

1. Who we are

Settled is an adult-only matchmaking service operated by Accessible Emotional Health Ltd (registered in England & Wales, company no. 14769732). We are committed to handling your personal data with care, transparency and respect.

Contact & Data Protection Officer: Ann Don Bosco · hello@settledlove.com

2. The personal data we collect

The table below sets out every category of data we collect, what it contains, and the legal basis on which we process it under UK GDPR and EU GDPR.

Identity & contact

Details: Full name, email address, age / date of birth, general location (city or region)

Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR): Art 6(1)(b) – Contract

Relationship & preference data (Article 9 sensitive)

Details: Relationship history; sexual orientation / sexuality preferences; relationship structure preferences (e.g. monogamous, polyamorous, open); dating goals and deal-breakers

Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR): Art 9(2)(a) – Explicit consent; Art 6(1)(b) – Contract

Incidentally disclosed health / mental-health data (Article 9 sensitive)

Details: Information you voluntarily share about mental health, conditions or emotional experiences where relevant to your dating story (e.g. anxiety, depression). We do not solicit this data via direct questions.

Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR): Art 9(2)(a) – Explicit consent

Survey / questionnaire responses

Details: Your full answers to our onboarding and compatibility questionnaires

Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR): Art 6(1)(b) – Contract

Photos

Details: Photos of yourself that you choose to add, when you sign up or later. If you have not added one, our team may keep a still from a video call you had with us. We use photos only so our team can recognise you and choose who to introduce you to. Only the Settled team sees them: we never show them to your matches or to anyone else.

Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR): Art 6(1)(a) – Consent (photos you add); Art 6(1)(f) – Legitimate interests (a still from a call with our team)

Onboarding call transcripts (until July 2026)

Details: Until July 2026 some members completed onboarding by phone with an AI voice assistant. That service has ended. If you were one of them, we keep the transcript of your call as part of your profile. It may contain the Article 9 data described above where you chose to share it.

Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR): Art 6(1)(b) – Contract; Art 9(2)(a) – Explicit consent

Match preferences

Details: Interests, lifestyle preferences, and compatibility criteria you provide

Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR): Art 6(1)(b) – Contract

Communications

Details: Emails and messages exchanged between you and our team (including support and matchmaking correspondence)

Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR): Art 6(1)(f) – Legitimate interests (service delivery & accountability)

Newsletter opt-in

Details: Email address for marketing communications (only if you tick the opt-in box)

Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR): Art 6(1)(a) – Consent

Operational logs

Details: Sign-up timestamp, support ticket logs

Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR): Art 6(1)(f) – Legitimate interests (security & fraud prevention)

What we do not collect: payment card details, precise GPS location, or any data relating to persons under 18. Photos you add are stripped of their location data and any other hidden details when we receive them.

A note on Article 9 (special category) data: Relationship history, sexuality preferences, relationship-structure preferences, and any health or mental-health information you voluntarily share — including anything you say on a call with our team — are legally classified as special category data under Article 9 UK/EU GDPR. We collect this data only with your explicit consent, obtained at the point of onboarding. You may withdraw that consent at any time (see Section 7).

3. How we use your data

3.1 Matchmaking and compatibility assessment

Our team reviews your survey answers and profile to manually suggest introductions. This involves a degree of profiling — we assess compatibility characteristics based on your data — but all final matching decisions are made by a human member of our team. No introduction is ever sent based solely on automated output.

3.2 Sharing match information

When we believe two members may be well-suited, we will share a limited profile summary with each party only after obtaining your explicit agreement to that specific introduction. We will never share your data with another member without your prior consent.

3.3 Service communications

We send service notifications (e.g. post-date reminders, feedback requests) and, only if you opted in, newsletter emails via MailerLite.

3.4 Security and troubleshooting

Basic operational logs help us prevent spam, investigate bugs, and maintain service integrity.

3A. Our use of artificial intelligence (AI)

We use AI-assisted tools to help us understand your preferences and deliver the service. We think it’s important you understand plainly how — and, just as importantly, what we don’t do with your data.

3A.1 What AI is used for

You join Settled by filling in a written questionnaire, followed by a call with a member of our team. We use AI tools — including large language models — to read and interpret your answers and our notes from that call: summarising your preferences, identifying relevant characteristics, and flagging compatibility signals for our matchmaking team. (Until July 2026 some members did their onboarding by phone with an AI voice assistant instead; that service has ended.) We do not use AI to analyse your photos. We also use AI to help run a number of ongoing workflows, such as post-date reminders, feedback collection, and client communications.

AI supports our team; it does not replace their judgement (see 3A.2).

3A.2 Your data is not used to train AI models

This is the reassurance we think matters most, so we’ll be direct about it:

The AI tools we use are provided by established companies under business contracts (Data Processing Agreements) — not the free, consumer versions of these tools. Under those contracts:

  • your data is never used to train, fine-tune, or improve the providers’ AI models;

  • providers may process your data only to perform the specific task we ask of them, never for their own purposes; and

  • providers retain your data only for as long as necessary to complete that task.

3A.3 Human oversight — no solely automated decisions

In accordance with Article 22 UK/EU GDPR, no decision that significantly affects you is made solely by automated means. AI outputs are always reviewed by a human member of our team before any matching action is taken. You have the right to:

  • Request that a human reviews any AI-assisted assessment of your profile;

  • Express your point of view about any outcome; and

  • Contest any decision you believe was made unfairly.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@settledlove.com.

3A.4 Special category data and AI

Where AI processes special category data (such as relationship history, sexuality preferences, or anything you disclose on a call with our team), this is done solely to provide the matchmaking service you have requested, and only on the basis of your explicit consent. We take additional technical and organisational measures to protect this data during automated processing, and every AI provider that handles it is contractually bound by the no-training and purpose-limitation terms described in Section 3A.2.

3A.5 Who provides our AI tools

We use the following AI service providers. Each is engaged under a Data Processing Agreement that prohibits them from using your data to train their models or for any purpose other than providing the service to us. Where a provider is located outside the UK/EU, the transfer is protected by the safeguards described in Section 5.

  • Provider: Anthropic (Claude)

  • What it does: Interprets your written answers and the notes from your call with our team to summarise preferences and flag compatibility signals for our team; powers internal operational tools

  • Location: USA

  • Data it receives: Your onboarding answers and call notes or transcripts, which may include special category data. Never your photos.

  • Safeguards: Data Processing Agreement; not used to train Anthropic’s models; retained only briefly to perform the task; EU/UK→US transfer covered by Standard Contractual Clauses / the UK IDTA (see Section 5)

3A.6 AI and data retention

Any outputs or summaries generated by AI are stored only for as long as your profile is active, and are deleted alongside your account data (see Section 6). The AI providers listed above retain the data we send them only for the short period necessary to provide the service, as set out in our agreements with them.

4. Sharing and storage

We do not sell your data. We do not share it with other members without your explicit agreement (see Section 3.2). We use the following processors to deliver our service:

  • Google Workspace (EU data centre) — stores survey responses, profile data, and team emails. Bound by a GDPR-compliant Data Processing Agreement.

  • MailerLite (Lithuania, EU) — sends newsletters to opted-in users. Bound by a GDPR-compliant Data Processing Agreement.

  • Anthropic (USA) — AI interpretation of your answers and internal operational tools. Bound by a Data Processing Agreement with no-model-training and purpose-limitation terms; transfer safeguards per Section 5. See Section 3A.5.

All processors are required to act only on our instructions and may not use your data for their own purposes. Photos you add are kept on our own server and shown only to our signed-in team.

5. International transfers

Your survey and profile data is stored in the UK or EU. Some of our processors — specifically our AI provider, Anthropic (see Sections 3A.5 and 4) — are located in the United States, so providing the service involves transferring some of your data there. We also transfer data if members of our staff access it while travelling outside the UK/EU.

Every such transfer is protected by an appropriate safeguard under Chapter V UK/EU GDPR — the Standard Contractual Clauses together with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum (IDTA), and/or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (and its UK Extension) where the provider is certified. These safeguards are contained in our Data Processing Agreements with each provider. We will update this section if any new international transfer mechanism is introduced.

6. How long we keep your data

Active member profile & survey data

Retained while you use the service, plus 1 year of inactivity. You will be notified by email before deletion is triggered.

Photos

Retained while your profile is active. You can ask us to remove any photo at any time. Erased alongside your profile data on account deletion.

Onboarding call transcripts (until July 2026)

Retained while your profile is active; erased alongside your profile data on account deletion.

Deleted accounts / withdrawn consent

Permanently and irreversibly erased within 30 days of confirmation — including copies held by processors.

AI-generated analysis

Retained only as long as your profile is active. Erased alongside your profile data on account deletion.

Communications (emails with our team)

Retained for the duration of your membership plus 1 year, then deleted.

Newsletter suppression list (unsubscribers)

A hashed (non-reversible) record of the email address is kept to prevent accidental re-contact via MailerLite.

Operational logs

Rolling 12-month window; auto-deleted thereafter.

When we delete your data, we instruct all processors (including Google Workspace, MailerLite, and Anthropic) to do the same within the same timeframe.

7. Your rights

As a UK or EU resident, you have the following rights under UK GDPR / EU GDPR:

  • Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

  • Rectification: Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.

  • Erasure: Ask us to delete your data (‘right to be forgotten’).

  • Restriction: Ask us to pause processing while a dispute is resolved.

  • Portability: Receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.

  • Objection: Object to processing based on legitimate interests.

  • Withdraw consent: Withdraw any consent at any time — including consent to process special category data — without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

  • Automated decision-making: Request human review of any AI-assisted assessment, express your point of view, or contest an outcome (see Section 3A.3).

How to exercise your rights: Email us at hello@settledlove.com. We will respond within 30 days. We may ask you to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.

Right to complain: You may lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113. EU residents may contact their local supervisory authority.

8. Cookies and tracking

Our websites use no advertising, analytics or tracking cookies.

  • settledlove.com counts visits with our website platform’s built-in statistics, which set no cookies.

  • Our signup form saves your answers in your browser as you go, so you can come back and finish later. It is not used to track you, and clearing your browser’s data for ai.settledlove.com removes it.

  • Links that start with ai.settledlove.com/go/ count how many times they are clicked, without recording who clicked.

  • Some of our emails record whether they were opened and which links were clicked, so we can tell which messages are useful.

If we ever add a cookie that isn’t strictly necessary, we will ask for your consent first and update this section.

9. Updates to this policy

We will post any changes to this privacy notice on our website. If a change means we would use personal data you have already given us for a new purpose, we will also tell you by email before it takes effect, giving you the opportunity to withdraw consent if you wish.