Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how A Mutual Friend Inc., operating as A Mutual Friend (“we,” “us,” or “our”), handles your personal information when you visit AMutualFriend.com, become a client of our matchmaking service, or otherwise interact with us. It applies to clients, prospective clients, event guests, referrers, and website visitors in the United States and Canada.

Capitalized terms used in this Privacy Policy that are not also defined here have the meanings that are set out in the Terms of Service and any Membership Agreement you have signed with us if you are a client of our matchmaking service.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, email support@amutualfriend.com and a real person will answer.

1. The short version

We collect detailed personal information about you in order to provide the Service. The information we collect is more than a typical website would because matchmaking only works if we have a real picture of the real you. We record many of our conversations with you, and we use AI tools to help our matchmakers turn what you tell us into thoughtful introductions. We do not sell or share your information. We do not show your full profile to anyone without your permission. We do not allow our AI vendors to train their public models on your data. We keep recordings only for the periods set out in Section 6. You can ask us to access, correct, or delete your information at any time.

The rest of this notice gives you the detail and context of the information we collect.

2. Information we collect

Information you give us

• Identity and contact details: name, date of birth, address, phone, email.
• Demographic and lifestyle information: education, occupation, income range, faith, family background, ethnicity, languages, relationship history.
• Preferences about the kind of partner and relationship you are looking for.
• Health and lifestyle information you choose to share, diet, fitness, smoking, drinking, recreational substance use, and any health condition you feel is relevant to your future partner.
• Photos and videos for your profile and “match reel.”
• Payment information which is collected and processed by our payment processor or by your bank if payment is made through bank authorization; we do not store full card numbers.
• References, when we ask for them.

Information we create or capture during the engagement

• Audio and video recordings of intake, coaching, and follow-up sessions, and of telephone calls with your matchmaker.
• AI-generated transcripts of those recordings and AI-generated summaries and analyses (see Section 5).
• Voiceprints and related characterizations of your voice, where you have separately consented under Section 5.
• Written notes, summaries, and match recommendations prepared by our team.
• Feedback you and your matches give us after introductions.

Information we collect automatically when you use the website

• Basic device and log information including IP address, browser type, pages visited, time stamps.
• Information from cookies and similar technologies, described in our Cookie Notice contained below.
• Approximate location derived from IP address. We do not collect precise geolocation unless you give us permission.

Information we receive from others

• The person who referred you to us, if you were referred.
• A background-check vendor, if we run a check with your consent.
• Public sources such as professional networking sites, to confirm details you have already given us.

We recognize the following as and treat the following as sensitive personal information: government identifiers, financial account credentials, precise geolocation, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, union membership, genetic data, biometric information processed for the purpose of uniquely identifying you, information concerning health, and information concerning sex life or sexual orientation. We collect sensitive personal information only to provide the Service and only with your consent. California residents have the right to limit our use of sensitive personal information, as described in Addendum B.

3. How we use information

The honest answer is: to do matchmaking for you. The longer answer is that we use your information to:

• let you know about our services by accessing our website;
• decide whether to offer you membership;
• build your profile and the written summary your matchmaker uses;
• identify other clients whose preferences, lifestyle, and personality you may be compatible with;
• apply the AI tools described in Section 5;
• arrange introductions and follow-up coaching;
• collect feedback after introductions to refine future matches;
• communicate with you about your membership and our events (see Section 11);
• process payments and maintain accounting records;
• protect the Service, our clients, and our staff from fraud, abuse, and safety risks; and
• meet our legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not “share” your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not use AI to make legally significant decisions about you without human review.

4. Recordings of your sessions

We record most of our voice and video calls with you, and we record certain meetings in our office or at events when we have told you in advance and you have agreed. The Terms of Service describe how recordings are used and what your rights are; the most important points are repeated here.

Notice and consent

We tell you at the start of any recorded call or meeting and capture your consent. You can ask us to stop, and we will, although in some situations (for example, recording a match reel) we cannot complete that part of the Service without recording. Many U.S. states and all Canadian provinces require consent from every party to a recorded conversation; we treat that standard as the baseline regardless of where you are.

Who has access

Your matchmaker, our internal matching and quality teams, and approved service providers under contracts that restrict their use. We do not show recordings to other clients or prospective matches without your specific, prior consent. Short edited clips you have approved, such as your match reel, may be shown to prospective matches.

How long we keep recordings

• Raw recordings of intake and coaching sessions: 24 months from the date of the session.
• Match-reel clips you have approved for sharing: while you are an active member, plus 12 months after your membership ends.
• AI-generated transcripts: same retention as the underlying recording.
• Voiceprints (see Section 5): destroyed when the purpose of collection has been satisfied or three (3) years from your last interaction with us, whichever is first.

At the end of these periods we delete the recordings or de-identify them so that they can no longer reasonably be linked back to you. Our written retention and destruction schedule for recordings, transcripts, and biometric data is available by request sent to A Mutual Friend Inc., 2261 Market Street STE 66594, San Francisco, CA 94114 or support@amutualfriend.com and updated when it changes.

Your right to delete sooner

Write to support@amutualfriend.com and we will delete the recording within thirty (30) days unless we are required to keep it for legal reasons. If a legal hold applies we will tell you and delete the recording when the hold ends.

5. AI analysis of your voice, data, and other characteristics

We use AI tools to help our matchmakers do their work. We want you to understand exactly what they do.

Transcription and summarization

Our AI converts your recordings to text and prepares a written summary. Your matchmaker reviews and edits the summary before it is filed.

Content analysis

Our AI reads through what you said and what is in your file to identify themes including values, life goals, must-haves and dealbreakers, lifestyle habits, and suggests other members whose themes overlap with yours.

Voice characteristics analysis

With your separate, opt-in written consent, our AI also analyzes characteristics of how you speak (pace, tone, warmth, expressiveness, emotional cues) to suggest matches who tend to communicate in compatible ways. This analysis is used for style-of-communication matching only. It is not used to identify you as a person, to detect dishonesty, to draw inferences about your race, disability, sexual orientation, or other protected status, or to make any decision about whether you may continue to use the Service.

Where this kind of analysis qualifies as the collection of a “biometric identifier” or “biometric information” under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (740 ILCS 14), the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 503.001), Washington’s biometric statute (RCW 19.375), or analogous laws, the additional commitments in Section 10 (Biometric Information Notice) apply.

Structured profile matching

We use AI to compare structured fields in your profile (age, location, education, lifestyle, faith, family goals, preferred partner attributes) against the profiles of other members to surface potential matches for your matchmaker to consider.

Draft generation

Our AI drafts introduction messages, match notes, and date-recap questions for your matchmaker to review and edit before they are sent.

How decisions are made

A human matchmaker decides whether to introduce you to a specific person. The AI suggests; a person decides. We do not use AI to make consequential decisions about you within the meaning of the Colorado Artificial Intelligence Act, the California Privacy Protection Agency’s rules on automated decision making technology, or comparable laws.

Profiling notice

Some of what our AI does, analyzing and identifying themes, lifestyle, communication style, amounts to “profiling” under state privacy laws. We give you the right to opt out of profiling that has legal or similarly significant effects on you; matchmaking-style profiling that does not have those effects is described here so that you understand what is happening. You may opt out at any time as described in Section 9.

Voice cloning and digital replicas

We do not, and we will not, use AI to create a synthetic copy of your voice or likeness, or to make you appear to say something you did not say, or to license your voice or likeness to a third party for any such purpose. This commitment runs alongside, and does not displace, your rights under any applicable right-of-publicity law.

Training data and vendors

We use third-party AI services for some of the work above. Each vendor is bound by written contract to: (i) use your information only to provide services to us; (ii) refrain from using your content to train, fine-tune, or otherwise improve any model the vendor offers to others; and (iii) delete your data on a defined schedule. A current list of our principal AI vendors is available on request from support@amutualfriend.com.

Your right to opt out

You can opt out of voice characteristics analysis at any time by writing to support@amutualfriend.com. We will continue to match you using your file and your matchmaker’s judgment, and we will not penalize you, charge you more, or reduce the quality of the Service because you have opted out.

6. Categories, sources, purposes, and recipients

The table below summarizes the categories of personal information we collect (using the categories listed in California Civil Code section 1798.140), the typical sources, the purposes for which we use them, and the categories of recipients. It is meant to give you the full picture in one place.

Category	Use and recipients
Identifiers (name, address, email, phone, government ID where required)	Used to set up your account, send communications, process payments, and meet legal obligations. Shared with matchmaker, internal teams, payment and communications vendors.
Customer records (signature, financial information beyond payment card)	Used for accounting and tax compliance. Shared with payment processor, accountant, tax authority where required.
Characteristics of protected classifications (age, ethnicity, religion, marital status)	Used for matchmaking, with your consent. Shared internally with the matching team.
Commercial information (membership tier, fees paid, services received)	Used for billing, service delivery, internal analytics. Shared with billing vendors.
Internet activity (device, browser, pages viewed)	Used to operate the website, secure it, and improve it. Shared with hosting and analytics vendors.
Geolocation (approximate)	Used to identify your matchmaker market and your prospective match radius.
Audio, video, electronic information (session recordings, photos, match reels)	Used as described in Section 4. Shared with matchmaker, internal teams, AI vendors, hosting vendor; clips shared with a specific match only with your consent.
Professional or employment information	Used to build your profile.
Education information	Used to build your profile.
Inferences (themes, compatibility scores, communication style)	Used to surface candidate matches. Used internally only.
Sensitive personal information (precise location only if you allow; ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, health, sex life, biometric voiceprint)	Used only to provide the Service and only with your consent. Shared as described in Section 7 and Section 10.

Sources: you; the person who referred you; our service providers (payment, background check, hosting, AI); public sources to confirm what you tell us; cookies on the website.

7. When we share information, and when we do not

We share information only in the following situations:

• With other members, for matching purposes. A first name, photo, written summary, and any short clip you have approved are shown to a prospective match. We do not share your last name, contact information, address, or any sensitive information without your specific consent.
• With service providers. Our hosting, video conferencing, payment, communications, scheduling, background-check, and AI vendors process information on our behalf under written contracts that limit their use of your information.
• With your matchmaker, if they move firms, only if you give consent at the time.
• In a business transition. If we are acquired or our business is reorganized, your information may transfer to the successor, subject to this Policy.
• To meet legal obligations. We disclose information when required by law, regulator demand, or court order, or to protect rights, property, or safety.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not “share” your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined in California law. We do not let our AI vendors use your information to train their public models. We have not done so in the twelve months before the effective date of this Policy and we have no plans to do so.

8. Where we process your information

We are based in the United States, and we process information in the United States. If you are in Canada, your information may be stored on servers located in the United States, where it can be subject to U.S. legal process; by using the Service, you understand and consent to that transfer. Where required, we conduct a privacy impact assessment of cross-border transfers and obtain contractual protections from the recipient.

9. Your choices and your rights

Wherever you live, you can:

• ask what we have about you and get a copy in a portable format;
• ask us to correct anything that is wrong or out of date;
• ask us to delete information we no longer need;
• withdraw consent for optional uses, including AI voice analysis;
• tell us to stop sending you marketing;
• appoint someone (an authorized agent in California, an attorney-in-fact, or another representative) to make a request on your behalf with proof of authority; and
• complain to us, and then to the regulator in your province or state.

To exercise any right, write to support@amutualfriend.com or A Mutual Friend Inc., 2261 Market Street STE 66594, San Francisco, CA 94114. We will confirm your identity, usually by asking you to write from the email on file, and respond within forty-five (45) days, or sooner if the law of your state or province requires it. We do not discriminate against anyone who exercises a privacy right.

If we decline a request, we will tell you why, and you may appeal by writing to support@amutualfriend.com. We will respond to your appeal within sixty (60) days. State-specific rights and contact details for state regulators are in Addendum B.

10. Biometric Information Notice

This Section is our biometric information notice for purposes of state biometric privacy laws, including the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (740 ILCS 14), the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 503.001), Washington’s biometric statute (RCW 19.375), the New York City Biometric Identifier Information Law (NYC Admin. Code §§ 22-1201 et seq.), and analogous laws.

What we collect

With your separate, opt-in written consent, we collect characteristics of your voice from session recordings (a “voiceprint”) and produce derived analyses of pace, tone, warmth, expressiveness, and emotional cues.

Purpose

To suggest matches whose communication style is compatible with yours. This is the only purpose for which we use voiceprints or analyses derived from them. We do not use them to identify you as a person, to detect dishonesty, to draw inferences about protected status, or for any other purpose.

Disclosure

We do not sell, lease, trade, or otherwise profit from biometric identifiers or biometric information. We disclose biometric data only to a service provider acting on our behalf under a written contract that mirrors the obligations in this Section, or as required by law in response to a valid warrant or subpoena.

Retention and destruction

We destroy voiceprints and derived biometric information when the initial purpose for collecting them has been satisfied, or within three (3) years of your last interaction with us, whichever is first. Our written retention schedule is available by email request to support@amutualfriend.com.

Security

We protect biometric data using the reasonable standard of care for our industry. Templates are encrypted at rest, segregated from identity records, and accessible only to authorized personnel with logged access.

Your rights

You can decline to provide voiceprint consent in the first place, and you can withdraw your consent at any time by writing to support@amutualfriend.com. We will continue to match you using your file and your matchmaker’s judgment.

11. How we communicate with you

We communicate with you about your membership and your introductions by phone, SMS, and email. We may use automated dialers and prerecorded messages for appointment reminders and time-sensitive logistics. Marketing communications are separate and require your opt-in where required by law; you can opt out at any time by replying STOP to a text message, using the unsubscribe link in an email, or writing to support@amutualfriend.com. Standard message and data rates may apply.

12. Cookies and similar technologies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies for essential functions, analytics, and preference saving. We do not currently collect any cookies other than our own essential and non-persistent cookies used to provide the website. If we do collect additional cookies, we will update our Cookie Notice at the end of this Privacy Policy. Our Cookie Notice describes each category, how to manage cookies in your browser, and how to use the global privacy control signal where we honor it. We do not use third-party advertising or retargeting cookies.

13. How we protect your information

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information: encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication for staff, background-checked staff, written confidentiality agreements, training, vendor due diligence, and an incident response plan. Our information security program is built with the intention of protecting your information, however, no system is perfect; if a breach affects your information, we will notify you and the relevant regulator as required by law.

14. Children

The Service is for adults only. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18 (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, if higher). If you believe a child has given us information, please contact us and we will delete it.

15. Changes to this Policy

We update this Policy from time to time. The effective date at the top will always tell you when. If we make a material change that affects how we handle existing client information, we will use reasonable commercial efforts to tell you by email or in your account before the change takes effect. You should check back here regularly.

16. How to contact us

Our Privacy Officer can be reached at:

Daniel Nelson, Privacy Officer

A Mutual Friend Inc.

2261 Market Street STE 66594, San Francisco, CA 94114

support@amutualfriend.com

If you live in Quebec, this person also serves as the person responsible for the protection of personal information.

Addendum B

Jurisdiction-Specific Privacy Rights

This Addendum supplements the Privacy Policy with rights and disclosures specific to particular jurisdictions. Where the law of your state or province gives you a right that is not described here, you still have that right.

California

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1798.100 et seq.), gives you the rights below in addition to those described in Section 9 of the Privacy Policy.

• Right to know. Specific categories and pieces of personal information we collect, the sources, the business or commercial purposes, and the categories of recipients.
• Right to delete personal information we have collected from you, subject to legal exceptions.
• Right to correct inaccurate personal information.
• Right to opt out of “sale” and “sharing” for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not sell or share for cross-context behavioral advertising; we honor the Global Privacy Control signal as a valid opt-out request anyway.
• Right to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information to those uses necessary to perform the Service. To exercise this right, write to support@amutualfriend.com or use the link “Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information” on the website footer. We will continue to use sensitive personal information for the matchmaking purposes you have asked us to perform.
• Right to know about automated decision making and to opt out of profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. As explained in Section 5 of the Policy, decisions about you are made by a human matchmaker, not by automation.
• Right to data portability so that you can receive your information in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Right to non-discrimination — we will not deny, charge more for, or provide a lower-quality Service because you exercise a privacy right.
• Right to appeal — you may appeal a decision on your request by writing to support@amutualfriend.com.
• Authorized agent. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf with written, signed proof of authority.
• Shine the Light (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83). We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

Our “Notice at Collection” for purposes of California law is the table in Section 6 of the Privacy Policy, supplemented by this Addendum.

Retention periods for California residents: as described in Section 4 of the Policy for recordings and Section 10 for biometric data; the active client file is retained for the term of your membership plus seven (7) years; marketing list entries are retained until you unsubscribe plus twenty-four (24) months in a suppression list; financial records are retained for the period required by law.

Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Iowa, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Tennessee, Minnesota, Maryland

If you are a resident of one of these states, the comprehensive consumer privacy statute of your state gives you the rights described in Section 9 of the Policy (access, correction, deletion, portability) along with the right to opt out of “sale” of personal data, targeted advertising, and profiling that has legal or similarly significant effects. We do not sell personal data, we do not engage in targeted advertising, and we do not use automated decision making to produce legal or similarly significant decisions about you (see Section 5).

Residents of Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, Texas, Montana, and other states that recognize universal opt-out signals may exercise the opt-out right through Global Privacy Control. To exercise other rights, write to support@amutualfriend.com. You have the right to appeal a denial of your request as described above.

Washington — My Health My Data Act

If you are a Washington resident, the Washington My Health My Data Act (Wash. Rev. Code § 19.373) gives you specific rights regarding “consumer health data,” which may include health information you share with us during matchmaking. In addition to the rights in Section 9 of the Policy, you have the right to withdraw consent for the collection or sharing of consumer health data, the right to have your consumer health data deleted, and the right to a clear notice of our consumer health data practices.

Nevada

If you are a Nevada resident, you may direct us not to sell certain categories of personal information by writing to support@amutualfriend.com. We do not currently sell personal information.

Canada — PIPEDA and provincial law

If you are a Canadian resident, you have rights under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and your provincial privacy law, including the right to access and correct your personal information, the right to withdraw consent (subject to legal or contractual restrictions), and the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or your provincial privacy commissioner.

Quebec

If you live in Quebec, Law 25 (S-2-2 c. P-39.1) gives you the additional rights to:

• be informed when a decision about you is based exclusively on automated processing of your personal information;
• know the principal factors and parameters that led to that decision;
• submit observations to a person at A Mutual Friend in a position to review the decision;
• receive your information in a structured, commonly used technological format; and
• have your information transmitted to another organization in that format.

Our person responsible for the protection of personal information is the Privacy Officer identified in Section 16 of the Policy.

European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland

We do not currently offer the Service to residents of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland. If you reach out to us from one of these jurisdictions, we will process your inquiry only to respond to it, will not use it for any other purpose, and will delete it within ninety (90) days unless we have an ongoing engagement.

Cookie Notice

We currently only collect essential cookies in order to provide the Site. These are temporary and if we do implement additional cookies we will update this notice accordingly.