Segula is a Jewish dating and matchmaking app provided by Makor Labs at segula.makorlabs.ai. This policy explains what information Segula collects, how it is used and shared, how long it is kept, and the choices you have. It applies to daters (singles) and to professional matchmakers (shadchanim). It also applies to any version of Segula offered later in the App Store or Google Play. In this policy, “we” and “us” mean Makor Labs.
In short
- We do not sell your information. Segula has no advertising, and it does not track you across other apps or sites.
- Other daters see what your profile shows, under your visibility settings. Each photo has its own setting.
- Your religious beliefs and practice are used only to show your profile and to find suitable matches.
- You can delete your account at any time, in the app or by email (how to delete your account).
Information you give us
To sign in:
- Daters give their phone number and sign in with a one-time code. A dater can also add an email address. Segula checks (verifies) that email before using it to help you get back into your account.
- Matchmakers give their email address and sign in with a one-time code. They also confirm a phone number, once, by a code sent by text or read out in a phone call; it stays private. They also give a professional profile: their name, photo, a short biography, where they work and whom they serve, the languages they speak and, if they choose, a phone number.
Daters also give information for their profile:
- first and last name, and a public display name;
- date of birth, gender and height;
- town and country (never a street address);
- marital status and children;
- religious community and practice, for example Shabbat, kashrut, prayer and head covering;
- heritage and lineage (Kohen, Levi or Yisrael);
- occupation, and education and work;
- about-me and looking-for text, and interests;
- preferences for a partner;
- references they add;
- photos and other media;
- a resume, which they build in Segula or upload.
Sensitive information
Your religious beliefs and practice are sensitive information. You choose to give them, and you agree to their use when you agree to the Terms and this policy in the app. Segula uses them only to show your profile and to find suitable matches. You can change them at any time.
What Segula records as you use it
- likes, passes and matches;
- introductions;
- messages and their attachments;
- the times and lengths of calls (calls are never recorded);
- reports and blocks;
- matchmakers' notes and records about their daters, such as calls, dates and the status of a couple;
- notification device tokens, which let Segula send notifications to your device;
- when you create your account, a few facts that help a person at Segula notice accounts made by automated programs: what an automatic check by Vercel made of your browser; what kind of phone line your number appears to be; whether your connection came from a known cloud server; and how many accounts came from the same internet address in a day and from the same device. To count them, Segula keeps a scrambled code made from your internet address, and another made from a random number stored in your browser, for 30 days. It does not store your internet address itself. These facts are not a score, and nothing is decided about you automatically from them.
- security and audit logs of changes.
How Segula uses your information
- to sign you in and keep your account secure;
- to show your profile, under your visibility settings;
- to find suitable matches, and to let matchmakers suggest and introduce couples;
- to carry your messages and your voice and video calls;
- to send you notifications;
- to provide the AI features described below;
- to keep Segula safe, for example by reviewing reports;
- to answer your support messages.
Who can see your information
- Other daters see what your profile shows, under its visibility settings. Each photo has its own visibility setting.
- Your matchmakers see what you share with them.
- Daters can read on a matchmaker's page how long the matchmaker has been on Segula, how many daters they work with, how many matches and engagements Segula counted for them, and how many daters they wrote to who had not asked, and how many of those daters blocked them. Nobody sees who, and reports are never shown.
- Segula administrators can see accounts, to keep the service safe and to answer support messages.
- Service providers process information for Segula only. They are listed below.
Your last name, your phone number and your exact address are never public by default. Segula asks only for your town and country, never a street address.
We do not sell your information. Segula has no advertising, and it does not track you across other apps or sites.
We share information when the law requires it, or when it is needed to protect someone's safety. For example, Segula reports child sexual abuse or exploitation to the authorities, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), as the law requires; the Child Safety Standards explain more. If Makor Labs ever transfers Segula to another company, your information goes with it, and this policy continues to apply to it.
Matchmakers and your information
- Matchmakers keep notes and records about their daters, such as calls, dates and the status of a couple.
- Matchmakers are responsible for having their clients' permission for anything they add about them.
- Matchmakers can charge for their services. Any fee is between you and the matchmaker. Segula does not process those payments.
- If you delete your account, a matchmaker may keep her own records of the services she provided. Those records are her own responsibility.
- A matchmaker can delete her account in My profile & settings › Delete my account. Her name, photo, email, settings and sign-in are deleted, and her daters' relationships with her are closed. Couples and messages she was part of stay for the daters, where she is shown as “Former matchmaker”.
Photo verification
- Photo verification is optional.
- To check your profile photo, the app takes three pictures with your camera.
- Segula does not save these camera pictures or any face measurements. It saves only whether the photo was verified, and the date.
- To check that the photo is recent, Segula sends your profile photo and one of the camera pictures to TypeSafe, an AI service.
- A verified photo is an extra check, not a guarantee of who someone is.
Verifying that you are both real
- In a chat with a match, either of you can choose to take a live camera check, and ask the other to do the same. It is optional, and saying no costs you nothing.
- The app takes three pictures with your camera while you make a few moves that Segula chooses, such as looking to one side or touching your nose.
- Segula compares them with the photos of yours that the other person can see, on its own servers. They are not sent to any outside AI service.
- Segula does not save these pictures or any face measurements. It keeps only the result of each try, which of your photos it was compared with, and when.
- If you pass, the other person sees that you are a real person, in words how sure Segula is that you are the same person as in your photo, and which of your photos it compared you with. They never see the camera pictures.
- If Segula cannot determine that you are the same person as in your photo, you read the words first, and the other person is told only if you choose to tell them. They are not told if you did not pass, or if you said not now.
- Segula may ask a new account to take the same check before it can like anyone.
- It is an extra check, not a guarantee of who someone is.
AI in Segula
Segula uses AI (artificial intelligence) for:
- Matching. Beside a match, Segula shows a word and a percentage that say how well two profiles fit. Segula works out the percentage itself, from the two people's answers and how much each answer matters to them. TypeSafe AI then reads what the two wrote (about me, what they are looking for, the notes beside their answers, and a resume where it may be read) and can move the number a little. The word and the percentage always agree. They are always shown with the alignments, close answers and conflicts, and they never decide for anyone.
- Translation, only when it is turned on. When you, or the person you are writing to, turn translation on in a chat, Segula sends Google only the text of the messages to translate, each with a random message number used to match the translation back. It does not send your name, the sender, your profile, phone number, the time or the conversation. Anything a person writes inside a message is part of that text. The same applies to translating matchmakers' messages and announcements.
- Resumes. Google Gemini AI can build a resume from your profile, and can read a resume file you upload.
- Checking messages. Before a chat message is delivered, Segula checks its words and any picture in it, so that conversations stay respectful. It first checks the words against its own list. It then sends the words and the picture to OpenAI's safety check, with nothing that says who wrote them or who they are for. A message that fails is not delivered, and the other person is not told. Segula keeps a note that a message was stopped, and never keeps what it said. Voice messages are not checked.
- Segula AI, the AI matchmaker. Segula AI is an automated matchmaker, not a person. It may show your profile to one person at a time whom it finds fits you, and theirs to you, without your name, picture, resume, references or family names. Your picture and resume are shown only if you agree, and your name only when you both say yes. You can turn this off in Settings. After a match, it writes to you in your own conversation with it, to ask how things are going. What you answer is never shown to the other person. Segula administrators can see where each of these introductions stands and what you reported.
- Segula AI's answers. When you write to Segula AI, what you write and the recent lines of your conversation with it are sent to the AI service Segula uses for it, currently OpenAI, so that it can answer you. When your question needs it, your profile and your match's profile are sent too, as each of you can already see the other's: never pictures, contact details, a surname, or a resume not yet shared with you. It never reads your chats with your matches.
- Photo check. The optional photo check uses TypeSafe AI, as described above.
AI can be wrong. People make the decisions, not the AI. You agree to these uses in the app, before you start using it: a new dater when creating their profile, and anyone else once, before the app opens. The app explains them again the first time you open Discover or Messages.
Matchmakers' resume design tools also use AI (OpenAI), to read a resume design the matchmaker uploads and to make the images and design text she asks for.
Service providers
These companies process information for Segula only:
- Google Firebase: sign-in, file storage and push notifications.
- Google Gemini AI: translating messages, only when translation is turned on in a chat. For translation, Segula sends Google only the text of the messages to translate, each with a random message number used to match the translation back. It does not send your name, the sender, your profile, phone number, the time or the conversation. Anything a person writes inside a message is part of that text. The same applies to translating matchmakers' messages and announcements. Separately from translation, Gemini is used to build a resume from your profile and to read a resume file you upload.
- Google Maps: finding the town you type.
- Vonage: sending and checking phone verification codes.
- Daily: carrying voice and video calls. Calls are not recorded.
- TypeSafe AI: reading what two people wrote, for the match percentage; and the photo check.
- OpenAI: checking chat messages and the pictures in them before they are delivered, and answering what you write to Segula AI, both as described above; and in matchmakers' resume design tools, to read a resume design the matchmaker uploads and to make the images and design text she asks for. A design she uploads can include what that resume says.
- Neon: database hosting.
- Vercel: hosting the app, and the automatic check of your browser when you create an account.
Your information may be processed in the United States and in other countries where these providers operate. Those countries may have different data-protection laws than yours.
Keeping and deleting your information
- Segula keeps your information while you have an account.
- You can delete your account at any time. Daters: in the app, open Settings › Account › Delete my account. Matchmakers: open My profile & settings › Delete my account.
- Without the app, you can ask by email. Segula deletes the account within 30 days and replies to confirm. Delete your Segula account explains how.
- If you are a dater, deleting your account removes your profile, photos, matches, messages and your sign-in.
- If you are a matchmaker, deleting your account removes your name, photo, email, settings and sign-in. Your daters' relationships with you are closed. Couples and messages you were part of stay for the daters, where you are shown as “Former matchmaker”.
- Segula keeps a short record that the account was deleted, for security and legal reasons.
- Deleting your account removes the facts recorded when it was created, except for the audit log entry that recorded them, which has no name, phone number or internet address in it.
- A matchmaker may keep her own records of the services she provided. Those records are her own responsibility.
- If content involves child sexual abuse or exploitation, Segula keeps what is needed as evidence, as the Child Safety Standards explain.
Your choices and rights
- You can change your profile and choose the visibility of each photo.
- You choose whether to turn translation on.
- Photo verification is your choice.
- You can block anyone, and report a message or a profile.
- You can delete your account at any time (how to delete your account).
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask for access to your information, to correct it, to delete it, or to withdraw your consent. To make a request, contact us using the details below. We may need to check that the request comes from you before we act on it.
Security
We use reasonable safeguards to protect your information, including encrypted network connections where supported. Segula keeps security and audit logs of changes. No online service can be completely secure, so please keep your phone and your email account safe.
Children
Segula is only for adults aged 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. The date of birth on a profile must show 18 or older, and accounts found to belong to someone under 18 are removed. If you believe someone under 18 is using Segula, please contact us.
Segula has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation. The Segula Child Safety Standards explain how to report it and what Segula does.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as Segula changes. We will post the current version here, update the date at the top, and give more notice or ask for your consent when the law requires it.
Contact
For privacy questions, requests about your information, or help deleting your account, write to Makor Labs at chaimdrellich18@gmail.com. Inside the app, you can also write to Segula Admin from your messages. See Contact Segula.