Njiko Privacy Policy

Njiko is operated by Hitbridge Limited, which is the data controller responsible for your personal information. You can contact us at:

Account registration and contact details. When you register, we collect your email address, phone number and the details you provide to create your account.

Profile information. Your name, date of birth or age, photographs, biography, location information you choose to share, cultural preferences, relationship intentions and other information you add to your profile.

Sensitive information. During onboarding, Njiko requires users to complete the genotype and blood-group fields. However, both fields provide a "Prefer not to say" option, allowing users to complete registration without disclosing their actual genotype or blood group.

Any genotype or blood-group information users choose to disclose is self-reported and is not medically verified by Njiko. We treat disclosed health information as special-category personal data under applicable data protection laws.

Users can control who may view their disclosed health information through the following privacy settings:

• Hidden: Health information is not displayed to other members.
• Visible only to matches: Health information is displayed only to members with whom the user has mutually matched, subject to the user's display consent.
• Visible to verified members: Health information may be displayed to members who meet Njiko's verification requirements, subject to the user's display consent.

These visibility settings determine disclosure to other members. They do not independently withdraw consent for Njiko to store or otherwise process information already provided.

Verification information. Six-digit codes used to verify your email address and phone number, and the results of identity, age and liveness verification (see Section 3).

Matching and messaging. Your interactions such as likes, matches and the content of messages you send and receive through Njiko.

Subscription and purchase information. Your Njiko Plus subscription status and purchase records (see Section 4).

Safety and moderation information. Reports you make or that are made about you, blocks, and records of moderation decisions.

Technical information. Device and app information needed to operate and secure the service.

To help keep Njiko safe and confirm that members are adults, we ask you to verify your identity through our verification provider, Sumsub. You will be asked to provide a supported government-issued ID and complete a live face check. This verifies your identity, age eligibility and liveness.

The face check involves processing biometric data. Where the law requires it, we ask for your explicit consent before this processing takes place. You can see your verification progress under Profile → Settings → Verification status.

Njiko Plus purchases are processed by the Apple App Store or Google Play. We use RevenueCat to manage subscription status. Hitbridge Limited does not receive or store your full payment card details; payment processing is handled by Apple or Google under their own privacy policies.

We use personal information for the following purposes, relying on the legal bases indicated under UK and EU data protection law:

• Providing the service — creating your account, showing your profile, matching and messaging (performance of a contract).
• Verification and safety — confirming identity and age, preventing fraud, moderating content and acting on reports (legitimate interests, legal obligations and, for biometric data, explicit consent).
• Sensitive profile information — using genotype, blood group or other health-related information you choose to provide (explicit consent).
• Subscriptions — managing Njiko Plus entitlements (performance of a contract).
• Communication — sending service messages and responding to support requests (performance of a contract and legitimate interests).
• Legal compliance — meeting legal and regulatory obligations and responding to lawful requests (legal obligation).

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that took place before it.

Health-related information. Njiko requests separate, explicit consent when users choose to provide their genotype or blood-group information.

Users who select "Prefer not to say" for both fields can complete onboarding without granting health-information processing consent.

When users choose to disclose health information, Njiko requires affirmative consent to collect, securely store and process that information for the health-profile feature.

Njiko provides separate controls for:

• Consent to process health information: Authorises Njiko to collect, securely store and process the genotype and blood-group information voluntarily disclosed by the user.
• Consent to display health information: Separately authorises Njiko to display disclosed information to other members according to the user's selected visibility settings.

Consent to display health information is optional and independent of consent to process it.

Users can change their visibility settings without withdrawing processing consent.

Withdrawing consent. Users can withdraw their health-information processing consent through their account settings.

When consent is withdrawn, Njiko:

• Removes the user's saved genotype and blood-group values from their active health profile.
• Disables health-information storage and display consent.
• Resets both visibility settings to Hidden.
• Stops displaying the withdrawn information to other members.
• Retains limited consent and withdrawal records where justified for legal compliance and accountability.

Withdrawing consent does not require the user to delete their Njiko account. Users may provide health information again later by granting fresh consent.

Withdrawal does not automatically invalidate processing lawfully carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Biometric data and identity verification

Njiko uses Sumsub to verify users' identities and ages. Verification involves submitting a government-issued identity document and completing a live facial verification check, which may involve biometric processing, liveness detection and facial comparison.

Before starting verification, Njiko requests a separate, affirmative consent decision for identity and biometric verification. Users may decline or cancel before verification begins, although identity verification is required to access Njiko's matching features.

Njiko records the user's consent decision, including the consent statement version and timestamp.

Sumsub processes identity documents and facial verification information as part of its verification service. Njiko receives verification results and stores limited verification information, including applicant references, verification status, relevant timestamps and verified date of birth.

Njiko does not store identity-document images, facial images, verification videos or biometric templates in its own application database.

For more information about Sumsub's handling of verification information, see the Sumsub Service Delivery Privacy Notice.

Withdrawal and deletion requests

Users may contact Njiko at management@hitbridge.org to request withdrawal of biometric-processing consent or deletion of identity-verification information, subject to applicable legal and retention requirements.

Some information may be retained where required or permitted by law. Requests involving information held by Sumsub may require coordination with the verification provider.

You can report or block other users from Discovery profiles and conversations. When you report someone, we review the report and related information, which may include profile content and relevant messages, to keep the community safe. We may restrict, suspend or remove accounts that break our Terms of Service.

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as necessary with:

• Other Njiko members, who can see the profile information you choose to display.
• The third-party service providers described below.
• Authorities or other parties where required by law or to protect the safety of users and others.

Third-party service providers

Njiko uses third-party services to support identity verification, communications, subscriptions, hosting and other application functionality.

Depending on the features used and the services enabled, these providers include:

• Sumsub: Identity and age verification, including government identity documents, facial verification and liveness checks.
• RevenueCat: Subscription management, purchase entitlements and subscription-status information.
• Apple App Store and Google Play: Processing in-app purchases and managing platform subscriptions.
• Twilio: SMS delivery and phone-number verification.
• Resend: Email delivery and email-address verification.
• Google Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification Service: Delivering push notifications to supported devices.
• Hosting and database providers: Operating Njiko's backend services and storing application information.
• Object-storage providers: Storing user-uploaded profile photographs.
• Amazon Rekognition, where enabled: Processing profile photographs for content moderation and basic facial-suitability checks.

These providers may process information relevant to their services, including account identifiers, contact information, verification material, subscription information, device tokens, notification information and profile photographs.

Njiko does not receive or store users' payment-card details through its subscription integrations.

Sensitive genotype and blood-group values are not intentionally transmitted to the identity-verification, subscription, SMS, email or notification providers listed above. Encrypted health-profile information is stored within Njiko's application database infrastructure.

Some providers may process information outside the United Kingdom. The applicable processing locations and international-transfer arrangements require further verification.

Njiko is used worldwide, and our service providers may process personal information in countries outside your own, including outside the UK and European Economic Area. Where required, we put appropriate safeguards in place for such transfers.

We use technical and organisational measures intended to protect your personal information. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide Njiko, maintain account security, support legitimate safety and moderation activities, administer subscriptions, and meet applicable legal obligations.

Different categories of information may be retained for different periods. Some retention arrangements are still being finalised and are subject to applicable data protection requirements.

Account deletion and cooling-off period

When you request account deletion, Njiko deactivates your account immediately, ends your active sessions and schedules your account for deletion processing after a cooling-off period, currently set to 14 days.

You may restore your account before the deletion deadline shown in the application. Once that deadline has passed, restoration is no longer available.

Final deletion processing is performed by a scheduled system process and may take place after the cooling-off deadline, including where processing needs to be retried.

Information removed during deletion

When final deletion processing succeeds, Njiko removes or replaces certain account information, including:

• Email addresses, phone numbers and account credentials.
• Profile information and discovery preferences.
• Saved genotype and blood-group values.
• Verified date of birth.
• Active sessions and device registrations.
• Notification history and related operational information.
• Profile photographs where the associated storage objects can be safely identified and deleted.

Some associated database records remain in a pseudonymised form rather than being physically deleted.

Information that may be retained

Certain information may remain linked to a pseudonymous account identifier following account deletion, including:

• Messages and conversation history.
• Matches and interaction records.
• Reports, moderation and safety records.
• Subscription and purchase-event information.
• Identity-verification references and status information.
• Consent records and account-deletion audit evidence.

Retention of these records is subject to applicable legal requirements, necessity and proportionality. The retention periods and deletion arrangements for these categories require further operational and legal review.

Information held by third-party providers

Deleting your Njiko account does not automatically remove all information held by third-party service providers.

Identity-verification records held by Sumsub, subscription records held by RevenueCat and certain other provider records may require separate deletion procedures.

Some legacy photographs or voice-note files may also require additional cleanup.

Application logs and backups are subject to separate retention arrangements.

Subscriptions

Deleting your Njiko account does not automatically cancel subscriptions purchased through the Apple App Store or Google Play.

You should cancel any active subscription through the relevant app-store subscription settings to prevent further renewal charges.

Health-information consent withdrawal

You can withdraw your consent for Njiko to process your saved genotype and blood-group information separately from deleting your account.

When you withdraw this consent through the application, Njiko removes the saved health values from its active database records and resets their visibility to Hidden.

Limited consent and withdrawal evidence may be retained for accountability purposes.

Your rights

You may contact management@hitbridge.org to request information about retention, deletion or your applicable data protection rights.

Requests will be assessed under applicable law, including any relevant exemptions or lawful retention requirements.

Depending on where you live, including under UK GDPR, EU GDPR and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate information.
• Request deletion of your information.
• Restrict or object to certain processing.
• Receive your information in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
• Not be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing that significantly affect you, where applicable.

Other privacy laws may give you additional rights. These rights may be subject to legal limits.

To exercise your rights or raise a concern, email management@hitbridge.org. We may need to verify your identity before responding. Never send passwords, verification codes or identity documents by email.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority, such as the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk), your local EU supervisory authority, or the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.

Njiko is only for adults aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that a person under 18 has created an account, we will take steps to close the account and delete their information, subject to any records we must retain for safety or legal reasons.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will update the effective date above and, where changes are significant, provide additional notice through the app or other appropriate channels.

See also the Njiko Terms of Service.