Marriage Introductions: how we use your information
Last updated: 22 October 2026
Who we are
New Beginnings is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered in England and Wales (charity number 1195427). We are the controller of the personal information you give us through the Marriage Introductions service, which means we decide how and why it is used.
This notice covers the service from the moment you join the interest list or apply to the moment you leave it, including anything you tell us on forms, quizzes and video calls. It sits alongside our general Privacy Policy, which covers the rest of our website.
To ask a question about this notice or use any of your rights, email marriage@beginnings.org.uk.
What we collect and where it comes from
Most of it comes from you. We collect it in steps, and you only reach a step once you have passed the one before.
| Stage | What we collect | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-in | Your email address. We email you a six-digit code each time you sign in. We keep only a scrambled copy of the code, and delete it within minutes. | You |
| Apply | Name, email, optional mobile number, whether you are a woman or a man, age band, region (not your address), when and where you took your shahadah, your course details, marital status, and whether you are currently married | You, on the application |
| Apply (men born into a Muslim family) | Your imam’s name and email, an outside referee’s name and email, whether your family knows, and a family member we may contact | You, on the application |
| Apply (married men) | How many wives you have, whether they know, and whether the marriages are registered in UK law | You, on the application |
| Quizzes | Your quiz scores and whether you passed | You, in the app |
| Profile | Your values, whether you hope for children, whether you would move for marriage, whether you are open to polygyny (women only), a few lines in your own words, and a photo | You |
| Checks | A referee’s name, email and how they know you; the usernames you use online; whether you are currently bankrupt; whether you will show a basic DBS certificate; your declarations | You, on the Checks form |
| Verification | That your photo ID was checked and the date; the date on a DBS certificate if you show one | You, on a short video call with us |
| References | What your imam and referees tell us about you | Your imam and referees, by a private link we email them |
| Matching | Which introductions we suggested, whether each of you said yes or no, and why you ended one if you choose to tell us | You, the person you are introduced to, our facilitators |
| Meetings | Notes from the guardian’s review, the chaperoned first call, and check-ins at 2 and 6 weeks | You, your guardian and our facilitators |
| Security and email | A log of who opened or changed what, and the emails we send about your application, introductions and check-ins | The service itself |
| Booking | Appointment details for your verification call and check-in calls, and the times you choose for your chaperoned video call | You, our facilitators and Calendly (Calendly only for the verification and check-in calls) |
The application does not ask for your address, date of birth or any identity number. Please do not put health details or other very personal information in the free-text box. If you do, we will handle it with the same care as everything else here.
We do not keep a copy of your photo ID or your DBS certificate. Our team checks your ID by looking at it on the video call, and we never take a photo or screenshot of it.
Your photo. We store it on our server, not publicly. We remove hidden information from it, such as the location it was taken, and we make a blurred copy that cannot be un-blurred. A facilitator looks at every photo before it can be shown to anyone. The people we suggest you to see only the blurred copy. The clear photo is shown to the other person only once you have both said yes, the checks are done and the guardian has approved the introduction.
If you join the interest list
The interest list is for people who would like a place when one opens. It is separate from applying. We ask only for your first name, your email address, whether you are a woman or a man, your region, whether you came to Islam or were born into a Muslim family, and where you are with the pre-marriage course.
We use this only to email you when places open, to invite people fairly in the order they joined, balancing women and men, and to plan the full launch using totals that identify no one. We do this with your consent, which you give by ticking the box and confirming your email address. You can withdraw it at any time with the link in our emails, or by writing to marriage@beginnings.org.uk.
Only the Managing Director, and anyone they give permission to, can see the list. Your place lasts 12 months. Two weeks before it ends, we ask whether you would like to stay. If you never confirm your email address, your details are deleted after a week. When you apply, leave the list or your place ends, we delete your details from the list.
Why we use it and our legal basis
We use your information to run the introductions service for you, and for nothing else. Most of it rests on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
| What we do | Our legal basis |
|---|---|
| Hold your application, check your eligibility and suggest introductions | Your consent, given when you tick the boxes at the end of the application |
| Record that you are Muslim, and that you are a convert or were born into a Muslim family. This is information about your religious belief | Your explicit consent. Without it we cannot run the service |
| Show a short preview of you (first name, decade of age, region, marital status, shared values and a blurred photo) to a person we suggest you to | Your consent, given when you apply, and explained there |
| Ask your imam and referees about you | Your consent, which you give for each person you name |
| Check your identity, and note a DBS certificate if you choose to show one | Your explicit consent. The DBS certificate is optional, and we only view it on a call |
| Share more about you with the person you are introduced to, step by step, after you both say yes | Your consent, given again when you say yes |
| Keep a minimal record of anyone removed from the service for giving false information, so they cannot rejoin | Our legitimate interest in keeping other members safe. We keep only a name, email and the reason |
| Send you messages about your application, matches and check-ins | Necessary to provide the service you asked for |
| Keep a log of who opened or changed what, and limit sign-in attempts | Our legitimate interest in keeping everyone’s information secure |
We keep a member’s record for three years after they leave or marry. We do this so that we can deal with a complaint, a safeguarding concern or a legal claim. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in running a safe service and answering complaints. Because the record includes information about your religion, we also rely on the need to establish or defend legal claims.
No one is ever matched by a computer alone. The quizzes are scored automatically and a pass opens the next step, but a facilitator looks over each result and you can ask a person to look again. When we suggest someone, the app shows our facilitators who could fit what each person has said they need and how many values they share, but a facilitator chooses, and every introduction is approved by people.
If you do not wish to give a piece of information we ask for, tell us. Some questions are required for safety, and we will say which.
Newsletter. Joining the service includes receiving the New Beginnings newsletter. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you can also turn it off on your Account page. That stops the newsletter and does not affect your membership. We will still send the messages the service needs, such as your application, introductions and check-ins.
Who sees what, and when
There is no directory to browse, and nothing is published. Other members can only see you if our facilitators suggest the two of you to each other, and then only in steps.
| Who | What they see | When |
|---|---|---|
| Our facilitators (a small named team who have signed a confidentiality agreement) | Your application, quiz results, photo, checks and notes | From the moment you apply |
| Your referees and imam | Only that you named them and asked for a reference. They are not told who else is in the service | When we contact them |
| A person we suggest you to | A preview: your first name, decade of age (for example “30s”), region, marital status, the values you share, and a blurred photo. Not your surname, email, phone, usernames or checks | When a facilitator suggests the two of you, before anyone has answered |
| The same person, once you have both said yes | Your age band, region, marital status, how long you have been Muslim, your values, what you hope for, and your own words. The photo is still blurred | When you both say yes |
| The same person, once the checks are done | The usernames you gave us, and a list of what we have checked (ID, a reference, declarations, a DBS certificate if you showed one). Not what your referee wrote | When you have both been verified |
| A trained guardian (the woman’s guardian) | The same as each of you can see about the other at that point, with blurred photos. Not your surname, phone or email | When both of you have been verified |
| The same person, after the guardian approves | Your clear photo, and each other live on a chaperoned video call | After the guardian approves |
| Trustees | Anonymous totals only, such as how many members and how many introductions. The trustees and the Managing Director can also read safeguarding concerns | At the review in July 2027 |
Women who have said yes to meeting men who were born into a Muslim family will see those men only if we have approved them, and only at the same stages as above.
If an introduction ends, the other person is told only that it has ended. We do not share your reasons unless you ask us to.
We may need to share information without your consent if someone is at risk of serious harm, or if the law requires it. We will tell you if we do, unless doing so would put someone in danger.
Who else handles your data, and transfers abroad
We use a few services to run the introductions. They act on our instructions and may not use your information for their own purposes. We do not sell your information or use it for advertising.
| Service | What it does for us | Where data may be held |
|---|---|---|
| Krystal Hosting | Hosts this service and its records, including photos | United Kingdom |
| Microsoft 365 | Sends and receives our email, including your sign-in codes | The UK, Europe or the United States, and other countries where Microsoft operates |
| Calendly | Books your verification call and check-in calls. When you press the booking button, your name and email are passed to it so you don’t have to type them | United States |
| Zoom | Runs verification and introduction calls. We do not record calls | United States and other countries |
Calendly, Zoom and Microsoft 365 may hold data in the United States. Each takes part in the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which the UK government recognises as giving your information an adequate level of protection. You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards.
We use no advertising or analytics cookies. This service sets one cookie, which keeps you signed in. You are signed out after an hour of inactivity.
We do not take payment during the pilot. If we introduce a fee later, we will update this notice first.
How long we keep it
We keep your information only as long as the service needs it, then delete it.
| What | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| An application you start but do not send | 6 months after your last activity |
| An application we do not accept | 6 months after our decision |
| An application on the waiting list (for example, if you live outside the UK, or the places are full) | 12 months, or until you ask us to delete it |
| Your profile, photo, quiz results and checks while you are a member | Until you leave or marry |
| Your photo | Deleted when you leave, marry or are removed, or sooner if you replace or delete it yourself |
| The rest of your record, once you leave or marry | Deleted 3 years after you leave or marry, so we can deal with a complaint, a safeguarding concern or a legal claim. If you ask us to delete it sooner, we will within 1 month, except for anything we need for those reasons. We will tell you what we keep and why |
| Referee replies and the imam’s reference | Deleted with your record |
| Guardian and check-in notes | Deleted 12 months after the introduction ends, in case of a complaint |
| Copies of photo ID or a DBS certificate | We keep none. We note only that the check was done, and the date |
| Emails about your application and introductions | Deleted from the service’s outbox after 30 days (our mailbox keeps its own copy until 12 months after you leave) |
| Log of who opened or changed what | 2 years |
| Your place on the interest list | 12 months, unless you ask to stay. Deleted straight away if you leave or apply, and after a week if you never confirm your email address |
| Encrypted backups of the service, kept so we can recover from a fault | Deleted after 2 weeks. Anything we delete from the service is gone from every backup by then. If we ever had to restore a backup, anything you had asked us to delete would be deleted again straight away |
| A record that someone was removed for giving false information (name, email, reason) | Reviewed every 2 years, and deleted once it is no longer needed to keep other members safe |
| Safeguarding concerns | Kept for as long as needed to protect people and to deal with any follow-up by the police or the local authority, then deleted. We decide this case by case, with the trustees |
| Anonymous totals for the trustees | Kept, because they identify no one |
If the trustees end the pilot at the July 2027 review, we will delete all member records within 3 months, and the interest list with them.
Your rights
You can do much of this yourself on your Account page once you are signed in: download everything we hold about you, turn the newsletter on or off, pause, leave, or ask us to delete your information. You can also ask us at any time, by emailing marriage@beginnings.org.uk, to:
- see the information we hold about you and get a copy
- correct anything that is wrong
- delete your information and leave the service
- stop us using it in a particular way, or object to it
- move your information to another service in a usable format
- withdraw your consent, which does not affect anything we did before you withdrew
We will reply within one month. We may need to check who you are first. If you withdraw consent we can no longer run the service for you, so we will close your membership. If you also ask us to delete your information, we will do that as set out in “How long we keep it”.
When you download your information, references given about you are shown only as having been asked for and received, because they are given in confidence. Ask us if you would like to talk about them.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first and we will try to put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this notice
We will update this notice if the service changes, for example if we introduce a fee or a new provider. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change affects how we use your information, we will email you before it takes effect and ask for your consent again where the law requires it.