Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Scout (“we”, “us”, “our”) is a curated matchmaking service for gay men in London. Members experience the service under the name Gay London Matchmaking — that name and Scout refer to the same service and the same data controller. This policy explains what personal data we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over it. For anything in this policy, contact us at matchmaker@helloscout.app.

2. Information you give us

• Application details: your first name, email address, date of birth, job title and company, and confirmation that you are based in or around London.
• Photos: the photos you upload or share with us (community members can hold 1–4 photos, full members up to 6). We strip hidden location metadata (EXIF/GPS) from uploaded photos before storing them.
• Written answers: what you tell us about your interests and values, and what you are looking for in a match. These are inputs for your matchmaker — they are never shown to other members as written (see section 7).
• Conversations with our assistant: if you complete the sign-up chat or the profile quiz, the conversation is used to fill in those written answers. Unfinished quiz drafts stay in your own browser and are not sent to us until you continue.
• Ethnicity (optional): if you choose to, you can tell us your ethnicity and add a line describing it more specifically. We never infer it — not from your photos, not from your name — and we ask because members from minority backgrounds told us that meeting someone who shares their culture matters to them.
• Feedback and correspondence: feedback you send from your profile page, emails you send us, and — if you delete your account — the reason you optionally give.

Your date of birth can only be set once and is never shown to anyone; other members see your age only.

Ethnicity is special category data under UK data protection law. We collect it only if you volunteer it, with your explicit consent, for the single purpose of making introductions. It is never shown on your profile, never included in your profile summary or in any email, and you can clear it at any time from your profile page.

3. Information we collect automatically

• Where you signed up from: when you join through our website we record the approximate country, region and city your connection appears to come from, plus a shortened, hashed form of your IP address. Scout is London-only, so this helps us review applications and spot bulk or automated sign-ups. It is approximate and we know it can be wrong — we never reject anyone on it alone, and we do not store your IP address itself.
• Email activity: our email provider reports delivery, bounces, opens and clicks. Our emails also include a small open-tracking image which records your email app’s identifier (user agent), the referring page, and a shortened, hashed form of your IP address. We use this to know whether our emails reach you and get read — not to build any profile of you.
• Product analytics: we record key actions — for example opening your profile page, completing the quiz, or responding to an introduction — using PostHog, hosted in the EU, linked to your account so we can see where the service works or fails.
• Cookies and local storage: we use only what is essential for the service to function (session state, saved drafts in your browser). We use no advertising or third-party marketing cookies.

4. Information we create about you

Matchmaking is the heart of the service, and we use AI tools to help our human matchmaker do it. In the course of that we create:

• Your profile summary: a short written profile stitched together from your own answers and conversations. It is deliberately extractive — built from what you actually said, not personality guesses — and it is what our matching process reads.
• Compatibility assessments: AI-assisted scores estimating how well you and another member might get on, based on your profile summaries.
• Photo descriptions: a structured note of appearance details visible in your photos (for example hair, build, glasses, complexion), used to consider stated preferences. We never use photos to infer ethnicity or nationality, and complexion is never treated as a proxy for either.
• Internal pairing signals: internal rankings and signals derived from profiles and photos that help us keep introductions balanced and fair. These are operational tools only — they are never shown to you or to other members.
• Photo checks and enhancements: an automated check that your first photo clearly shows you with your eyes visible, and — for low-resolution photos — an AI-enhanced (upscaled) copy, which our team reviews before it is ever used in place of the original.
• Matchmaker notes: notes our matchmaker adds while reviewing your application or profile.

5. Information from other sources

If you joined through Instagram or shared your Instagram handle with us, we may note publicly visible information from your profile there (such as photos or interests) to help complete your application. We do not buy data about you or collect it from anywhere you have not pointed us to.

6. How we use your information

• Running the matchmaking service — reviewing your application, building your profile, choosing introductions, and sending you our weekly email (performance of our agreement with you).
• AI processing as described in section 4, including processing that reveals your sexual orientation (your explicit consent, given when you apply — see section 11).
• Understanding and improving the service — analytics, measuring whether emails arrive and get read, and reviewing why members leave (our legitimate interest in running a working service).
• Safety and integrity — human review of every application and every weekly email before it goes out, preventing fraud and abuse (legitimate interests and legal obligations).

We do not use your data for third-party advertising, and we never sell it.

7. What other members see

This is a matchmaking service, so showing your profile to other members is the service itself — and it happens before anyone has expressed interest. Each week our matchmaker features a small, curated number of members in other members’ weekly emails. When you are featured, that member sees:

• your first name, your age (if we have your date of birth), and your job title;
• your photos;
• a short introduction note written by us.

Your photo may also appear as a small profile tile in emails and pages shown to other members, alongside other members of the pool.

Other members are never shown: your email address or any contact details, your surname, your date of birth, your ethnicity, your written answers as you typed them, or any of the internal signals described in section 4.

If you and another member both tap “I’m interested”, we introduce you by email: one message addressed to you both, which shares your first names, photos and — because you continue by replying — your email addresses with each other. That is the only point at which your contact details are shared, and only ever with that one person.

Separately, we sometimes invite members to be featured on our Instagram. Nothing is ever posted unless you opt in and approve the exact post first.

8. Service providers

We use a small number of providers to run the service. Each processes data on our instructions under a data processing agreement:

Where a provider is outside the UK, transfers are protected by UK adequacy regulations (including the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework) or by standard contractual clauses with the UK addendum.

Beyond these providers, we disclose personal data only where the law requires it (for example a court order, or protecting someone’s safety), or — if Scout is ever acquired or merged — to a successor bound by safeguards at least as strong as this policy.

9. Sexual orientation — special category data

As a matchmaking service for gay men, simply being a member reveals your sexual orientation, which is “special category” data under UK GDPR. We process it on the basis of your explicit consent, given when you apply. You can withdraw that consent at any time by deleting your account, which removes your data as described in section 10. We apply additional safeguards to this data: minimal staff access, encryption, and no third-party advertising use of any kind.

10. How long we keep your data — and deletion

We keep your data while your account is active. You are in control of when it goes:

• Deleting your account is self-serve, from the Settings section of your profile page, and takes effect immediately: your profile, photos, written answers, conversations and account records are permanently deleted. Photos are removed from storage, so images in previously delivered emails stop displaying.
• A short-lived deletion record (your name, email, first photo and profile details) is kept for up to 7 days so we can review deletions and handle any follow-up from you, then automatically erased. What remains after that identifies nobody — dates, counts and categories only.
• Other members’ history stays intact: records of interactions between your profile and other members (for example, that someone expressed interest) are kept with your account reduced to a random identifier, so deleting your account never rewrites another member’s history.
• Feedback outlives accounts: if you gave a written reason for leaving, or sent us feedback, we keep the words with your name removed. Email us if you would like them deleted too.

If you would rather stop receiving weekly introductions without deleting your account, you can — from your profile or by emailing us.

11. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• access a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• correct inaccurate or incomplete data;
• have your data erased (see section 10 — you can also just delete your account);
• restrict or object to processing, including any based on legitimate interests;
• receive your data in a portable, machine-readable format;
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing before withdrawal.

Automated decision-making: AI tools help assess compatibility, but no decision about you is fully automated — every application is approved by a person, and every weekly email is reviewed and approved by our matchmaker before it is sent. You can ask us to explain how a suggestion came about, and ask for human review of anything.

To exercise any right, email matchmaker@helloscout.app. We respond within one month. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

12. Security

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, staff access is limited to what running the service requires, and there are no passwords to steal — you access your profile through personal links we email you. Those links act as you, so keep your inbox secure and don’t forward our emails. No system is perfectly secure; if you spot anything suspicious, tell us straight away.

13. Age

The service is for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly hold data on anyone under 18, and we delete it immediately if we learn otherwise.

14. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top, and email you about any material change before it takes effect.

15. Contact

For anything about your privacy or this policy, email matchmaker@helloscout.app.