Privacy Policy

At 4Match, we attach great importance to your privacy. When you use our dating site, we process personal data. We handle this data carefully and process it in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable privacy legislation.

In this privacy policy, we explain which personal data we process, why we process it, with whom we may share data, how long we retain it and what rights you have.

This privacy policy was last updated on 19 August 2026.

Who is responsible for your personal data?

4Match is responsible for the processing of personal data through the 4Match website and dating site.

Do you have questions about this privacy policy or about the processing of your personal data? Please contact us at:

4Match

Which personal data do we process?

The data we process depends on how you use 4Match and which information you add to your profile. We may process, among other things, the following personal data:

email address;
profile name or username;
date of birth and age;
gender;
city or town of residence and country;
profile photo and, where applicable, other photos or visual material;
relationship status;
information about your lifestyle;
education;
height;
smoking and drinking habits;
children and whether you would like to have children;
hobbies, interests, preferences and other profile information;
the type of contact or relationship you are looking for;
your search and match preferences;
messages and other communications that take place through 4Match;
data about likes, connections, friend requests and other interactions;
payment and subscription data, where applicable;
IP address, browser data, device data and technical log data;
data you provide when you contact us.

Special categories of personal data

A dating site may process data that is considered particularly sensitive under the GDPR. This is referred to as special category personal data.

Depending on the information you provide yourself, this may include, for example:

religion or philosophical beliefs;
ethnic origin;
sexual orientation;
information from which your sexual preferences or sex life may be inferred;
any other special category personal data that you provide yourself in free-text fields or other parts of your profile.

We only process special category personal data where a valid legal exception applies, for example where you have given your explicit consent.

You largely decide which information you add to your profile. We recommend that you do not provide sensitive personal data that is not necessary to use 4Match.

What do we use your personal data for?

We process your personal data for purposes including:

creating, managing and securing your account;
providing and operating our dating service;
creating and displaying your profile;
allowing other users to find you;
searching and filtering profiles;
creating matches and personalised suggestions;
enabling communication between users;
sending functional messages about your account;
reviewing profiles, photos and other content;
preventing and investigating fraud, abuse and unwanted behaviour;
handling questions and complaints;
processing payments and subscriptions, where applicable;
improving, maintaining and securing our website and services;
analysing the use of our website, insofar as permitted by law;
sending newsletters or other marketing communications where consent has been given;
complying with legal obligations.

On what legal bases do we process personal data?

We only process personal data where a legal basis exists under the GDPR. Depending on the purpose of the processing, this may be:

Performance of a contract: where processing is necessary to provide your account and our dating service.
Consent: for example for certain special category personal data, newsletters or non-essential cookies.
Legitimate interests: for example for security, fraud prevention, quality control and preventing misuse of 4Match, whereby we always balance your privacy interests against our interests.
Legal obligation: for example for data that we are required to retain under tax or administrative legislation.

Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing carried out before you withdrew your consent.

Your profile and visibility to other users

An important part of 4Match is enabling users to find each other. Certain profile information is therefore visible to other users.

Depending on the information you provide and the settings and features of 4Match, the following information may be visible, for example:

profile name;
age;
city or town of residence and country;
profile photos;
gender;
relationship status;
religion or philosophical beliefs;
information about your background or origin;
lifestyle;
the type of contact you are looking for;
children and whether you would like to have children;
education;
smoking and drinking habits;
height;
search or partner preferences;
hobbies, interests and other information you add to your profile.

Profile pages are intended for use within 4Match and, where possible, are blocked from indexing by search engines.

Please be aware that other users may be able to identify you based on your profile information. Therefore, only provide information that you consider appropriate for other users to see.

Matches and search results

4Match uses information in profiles, search criteria and preferences to help users find other suitable profiles. For this purpose, we may use automated filters, search functions and match calculations.

These features provide suggestions and search results. You always decide for yourself whom you contact and whether you find a suggested match interesting.

Contact with other users

Through 4Match, you can contact other users, for example by sending messages, likes, connections or friend requests.

You decide which information you share in these communications. Please be aware that information you send to another user can be read by that user and may be stored or shared outside 4Match. Therefore, never share information that you do not want to disclose to another person.

Messages and safety

Messages sent through 4Match may be stored for as long as necessary to provide the messaging service, protect users and investigate reports or suspicions of fraud, harassment, abuse or other unwanted behaviour.

4Match does not routinely read private messages. However, if a report is made or there is a reasonable suspicion of misuse or a breach of our terms, authorised employees may investigate relevant information insofar as this is necessary and legally permitted.

Photos and other visual material

You can add photos and, where applicable, other visual material to your profile. Please ensure that you only upload material for which you have the necessary rights and permission.

If other people are recognisable in your photos or other visual material, please make sure that you have their permission to use this material.

Profile moderation

To maintain the quality and safety of 4Match, we may review profiles and parts of profiles. This may include:

profile photos;
other photos and visual material;
profile texts;
other user-generated content.

We may reject or remove content if it violates our terms, applicable laws and regulations, or if we consider it inappropriate or harmful to the use of 4Match.

Payments and subscriptions

If 4Match offers paid subscriptions or other paid services and you use them, we process the data necessary to handle the payment and administration.

Payments may be processed by an external payment service provider. The payment service provider may process personal data in accordance with its own privacy policy.

We do not use payment data for purposes other than those necessary for payments, administration, fraud prevention and compliance with legal obligations.

Automatic and service-related emails

We may send you emails that are necessary for the use and security of 4Match. These may include:

confirming your email address;
resetting your password;
notifications about new messages;
notifications about likes, connections or friend requests;
match notifications;
important changes to your account;
security notifications;
messages about your subscription or payment.

Where supported by the functionality, you can enable or disable certain notifications in your account. Some essential service and security messages cannot be disabled while you have an active account.

Newsletter and marketing

We may send you commercial emails or newsletters where you have given your consent or where this is otherwise permitted by law.

Where the sending of such communications is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time. Every commercial email contains an option to unsubscribe.

Unsubscribing from marketing messages does not delete your 4Match account.

Contact form and customer service

When you contact us through our contact form, by email or in another way, we process the data you provide in order to handle your question, request or complaint.

We do not retain this information for longer than necessary to handle and, where applicable, follow up your request, unless we are required to retain data for longer due to a legal obligation or legitimate interest.

Cookies and similar technologies

4Match uses cookies and similar technologies. Cookies are small files that may be stored on your computer, tablet or smartphone.

We may use, among other things:

Functional cookies: these are necessary for the website to function properly, for example to log in, remain logged in and remember settings.
Analytics cookies: these help us understand how our website is used and enable us to improve the website.
Marketing or tracking cookies: if we use these, they are only placed where consent is required and you have given that consent.

For cookies that require consent, we ask for your consent through our cookie settings or cookie banner. You can change your choice later.

You can also delete or block cookies through your browser. If you block essential cookies, certain parts of 4Match may not function properly.

Analytics

We may use analytics services to gain insight into how visitors use 4Match.

Where personal data or non-essential cookies requiring consent are used for this purpose, they are only processed after you have given your consent.

Where possible, we try to limit, pseudonymise or anonymise data used for analytics purposes.

With whom do we share personal data?

We do not sell your personal data.

We may, however, share personal data with parties that are necessary to provide 4Match. These may include providers of:

hosting and infrastructure;
technical management and software development;
email delivery;
payments;
analytics;
security and fraud prevention;
customer service and business administration.

Where an external party processes personal data exclusively on our behalf, we enter into appropriate agreements regarding the security and processing of personal data where required.

We may also disclose personal data where we are legally required to do so or where this is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, combating fraud or protecting users.

Transfers outside the European Economic Area

Some providers may process personal data from countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Where personal data is processed outside the EEA, we ensure appropriate safeguards as required by the GDPR, for example on the basis of an adequacy decision by the European Commission or approved Standard Contractual Clauses.

Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, unwanted disclosure and unauthorised alteration.

However, no online system can guarantee complete security. We therefore also recommend that you handle your password, account and the information you share with others carefully.

Retention periods

We do not retain personal data for longer than necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, unless we are required to retain data for longer due to a legal obligation or legitimate interest.

In principle, the following guidelines apply:

we retain profile and account data for as long as your account is active;
after deletion of your account, we delete or anonymise profile data within a reasonable period, unless certain data must be retained for longer;
data that forms part of our financial administration may be retained for longer due to statutory retention requirements;
contact and customer service records are retained for as long as necessary to handle the relevant request and answer any follow-up questions;
security and log data are retained only for as long as necessary for security, fraud prevention and technical investigations;
data relating to reports, blocks or abuse may be retained for longer where this is necessary to protect users or prevent repeated abuse.

If you do not use your account for an extended period, we may eventually delete your account. Where appropriate, we will inform you in advance.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account using the relevant function in your account, if this functionality is available, or you can ask us to delete your account.

After deletion, your profile will no longer be visible to other users. Data will subsequently be deleted or anonymised in accordance with our retention periods, unless we are legally required to retain certain data for longer or have another valid reason to retain it temporarily.

Your privacy rights

Under the GDPR, you have various rights regarding your personal data. Depending on the circumstances, you may ask us to:

provide access to your personal data;
correct inaccurate personal data;
delete personal data;
restrict the processing of personal data;
provide your personal data in a portable format;
object to certain processing activities;
withdraw consent to processing;
provide information about how we process your personal data.

You can view and edit much of your profile data yourself through your account.

For other privacy requests, please contact us at info@4match.nl.

We may ask you for additional information to verify your identity. We do this to prevent personal data from being disclosed to the wrong person or being modified or deleted by someone else.

We handle privacy requests within the applicable statutory period.

Objection to direct marketing

You always have the right to object to the use of your personal data for direct marketing.

If you object to direct marketing, we will stop using your personal data for that purpose.

Third-party websites and services

4Match may contain links to third-party websites or services, for example social media or external videos.

This privacy policy does not apply to websites and services operated by other organisations. When you use an external website or service, that party may process personal data about you. We therefore recommend that you also consult the privacy policy of the relevant organisation.

Social media

4Match may be active on social media and may contain links or references to social media platforms.

When you contact us through such a platform or use a social media feature, the relevant provider may process personal data about you. We do not have full control over how these external platforms process your personal data.

Changes to this privacy policy

We may amend this privacy policy if our services, website or applicable laws and regulations change.

The most current version is always available on our website. In the event of significant changes, we may additionally inform users.

Lodging a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority

Do you have a complaint about how we process your personal data? We recommend that you contact us first so that we can try to resolve your complaint.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens), the Dutch supervisory authority for privacy legislation.