Privacy Policy

Last updated: 1 October 2026

Sithmini (sithmini.com) is a Sri Lankan matrimony service operated by Apex Platforms (Pvt) Ltd ("Sithmini", "we", "us"). A matrimony profile contains some of the most personal information a person can share: date of birth, religion, ethnicity, caste, family details, photographs and horoscope. This policy explains what we collect, why, who can see it, and the choices you have. We process personal data in line with Sri Lanka's Personal Data Protection Act, No. 9 of 2022.

This policy applies to the sithmini.com website, the Sithmini Android and iOS apps, and any messages (SMS or email) we send you.

1. Who the Data Is About

Many Sithmini profiles are created by a representative: a parent, sibling, relative or friend of the person seeking marriage, or a registered marriage agency acting for a client. In this policy:

• Account holder means the person who signs in and manages a profile.
• Profile subject means the person the profile describes. This may be the account holder or someone they represent.

If you create a profile for someone else, you confirm that they are an adult, that they know the profile exists, and that they have agreed to the information being published and used as described here. You are responsible for passing this policy on to them, and they may contact us directly to exercise any of the rights in section 9.

2. Information We Collect

Account information

• Mobile number (verified by a one-time SMS code), name and email address.
• If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address and Google account identifier. We never receive your Google password.

Profile information you provide

• Personal details — gender, date of birth, height, complexion, civil status, and whether the profile subject is differently abled (and the type, if given).
• Community and belief — religion, ethnicity and caste.
• Education, career and location — education level, profession, district and city, and country and city of residence for those living overseas.
• Lifestyle — food preference, drinking and smoking habits.
• Written content — the profile title, "about" description, family details and partner expectations.
• Photographs and avatar — any photos you upload, and the illustrated avatar you build in place of or alongside photos.
• Horoscope and birth details — time and place of birth, the computed nakshatra, rashi and lagna, a horoscope image if you upload one, and any corrections you make to the computed chart.
• Partner preferences — the age, height, religion, ethnicity, civil status, education, location and horoscope criteria you set for matches.
• Who is posting — whether the profile is posted by the subject, a parent, sibling, relative or friend, and the contact phone and email for the profile.

Religion, ethnicity, caste, health or disability information and horoscope data are sensitive categories of personal data. We collect them only because they are central to how families in Sri Lanka search for a match, and we ask for them with your explicit consent when you create the profile. Caste, disability and horoscope details are optional.

Activity on the platform

• Interests — the interests you send and receive, the message attached to each, whether each was accepted or declined, and whether horoscopes were shared.
• Chat messages — messages exchanged with a match after mutual interest is accepted.
• Compatibility results — the porondam (horoscope compatibility) scores and reports we compute between two profiles.
• Share links and outside proposals — when you create an expiring share link, we store the recipient's name and phone number you enter, the options you chose to reveal, and how many times the link was viewed. If a recipient replies with a proposal, we store the contact and candidate details they submit.
• Reports and blocks — the reason and details when you report a profile or block a user.
• Saved searches and notification settings — the criteria you save and the email or SMS digest frequency you choose.

Identity and horoscope verification

You may choose to verify your identity with a National Identity Card or passport, or to have an uploaded horoscope verified. Document images are encrypted in your browser before they leave your device and are handled by a separate, isolated verification service. The main Sithmini application never sees your document number or image in readable form; it only records whether verification succeeded. See section 7 for more.

Payment information

Membership and report fees are processed by PayHere, a payment service provider licensed by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Card and bank details are entered only on PayHere's secure pages. Sithmini does not receive, transmit or store card numbers. We receive the payment status, amount and a reference number.

Technical information

• IP address, browser or app version, device type and operating system.
• Pages viewed, searches made and features used, collected through our own analytics.
• Error reports when something goes wrong in the app.

3. How We Use Information

• To create, publish and manage matrimony profiles and your account.
• To suggest matches, run searches and compute porondam compatibility between profiles.
• To deliver interests, chat, share links, outside proposals and match digests.
• To review new and edited profiles before they go live (moderation).
• To process payments and send receipts and invoices.
• To verify identity and horoscope documents and display verification badges.
• To keep members safe: detecting fake profiles, duplicate accounts, scams, harassment and other misuse, and acting on reports.
• To send service messages about your account, profile status and payments.
• To understand how the service is used and improve it.
• To comply with Sri Lankan law and respond to lawful requests from authorities.

We do not use your profile data, messages or horoscope to show you advertising, and we do not sell personal data to anyone.

4. Who Can See Your Profile

Sithmini is designed so that the most sensitive information is revealed step by step, and only to people you choose.

• Public listing — once approved, a profile's title, age (not date of birth), religion, ethnicity, caste if given, civil status, education, profession, district or country, lifestyle, about text, family details and expectations are visible to visitors of sithmini.com, including people who are not signed in. Your avatar is shown in place of photos.
• Photos are hidden by default. If you turn photo visibility on, they are shown on your listing. Otherwise they are shown only to matches whose interest you have accepted.
• Phone number and email are never shown publicly. They are revealed only to a match after both sides have accepted an interest, or if you turn on "show phone" for your profile.
• Horoscope and birth details are never shown publicly. Birth time and chart details are revealed to a match only after mutual interest is accepted and you choose to share them. Compatibility scores are shown to both sides of an accepted interest.
• Date of birth, your account email and internal identifiers are never shown to other members.
• Hidden profiles — you can hide a profile from public browsing so it is reachable only through share links you create.
• Share links — a share link you create shows your listing to anyone who holds the link, without signing in. Phone, photos and horoscope are each hidden unless you turn them on for that specific link. Links expire after the period you choose (24 hours to 30 days) and you can revoke them at any time.
• Marriage agencies — if an agency created your profile, the agency's staff can see the full profile including private fields.
• Other profiles on the same account — profiles managed by the same account are never matched or suggested to each other.

Please remember that anything visible on a listing or shared in chat can be copied or screenshotted by the person viewing it. Our Terms prohibit redistributing other members' information, but we cannot technically prevent it. Our Stay Safe page has advice on what to share and when.

5. Who We Share Information With

We share personal data only as needed to run the service:

• Other members — as described in section 4, and the people you send interests, messages, share links or proposals to.
• PayHere — payment amount, order reference and the name, email and phone needed to process a payment.
• SMS and email providers — your phone number or email address and the message content, to deliver verification codes, notifications and digests.
• Hosting and storage providers — our servers, database, file storage and error monitoring are provided by cloud providers whose data centres may be located outside Sri Lanka. They process data on our instructions under contractual safeguards and do not use it for their own purposes.
• Google — only if you choose to sign in with Google, and only to authenticate you.
• Legal requirements — where required by Sri Lankan law, court order or a lawful request from a competent authority, or where necessary to investigate fraud, protect a member's safety or enforce our Terms.
• Business transfer — if Sithmini is acquired or merged, personal data may transfer to the new operator under this same policy. We will notify you before that happens.

We do not share profile data with advertisers, data brokers or marketing partners.

6. Cookies and Analytics

• Session cookie — keeps you signed in. It is required for the service to work.
• Analytics — we use PostHog, routed through our own domain, to count page views and feature usage. Automatic click capture and session recording are turned off. We do not use third-party advertising cookies or tracking pixels.
• Error monitoring — when the app encounters an error we send a technical report to Sentry that may include your IP address and the page you were on. Session replay is turned off.

The share buttons on a listing open WhatsApp or Facebook only when you tap them. No data is sent to those services until you do.

7. How We Protect Your Data

• All traffic between your device and Sithmini is encrypted (HTTPS).
• Photos and uploaded files are stored under random, unguessable identifiers, not under your name.
• Identity documents are encrypted in your browser with a key that only our isolated verification service holds, stored encrypted at rest, and accessible to our staff only through a separate, two-factor protected admin tool. The document number is stored only in encrypted form, plus a one-way hash used to detect the same document being used on two accounts.
• Horoscope images submitted for verification follow the same encrypted path.
• Phone numbers and contact details are gated behind accepted interests to reduce scraping and unsolicited contact.
• Access to member data by our staff is limited to what is needed for moderation, support and safety.

No online service can promise absolute security. If we become aware of a breach that affects your personal data we will notify you and the relevant authority as required by law.

8. How Long We Keep Data

• Active profiles remain published for the membership period you paid for. When a membership expires the profile stops being publicly visible but stays in your account so you can renew or remove it.
• Removed profiles are hidden from everyone immediately. We keep the record so that interests, chats and payments connected to it still make sense to the other side, and so we can resolve any report or dispute. It is permanently deleted when you delete your account or ask us to erase it.
• Share links expire automatically and stop working as soon as they expire or you revoke them. The link record, recipient details and view counts are kept with your profile and deleted along with it.
• Chat messages are kept while both members' accounts exist. When an account is deleted, the deleted member's name is removed from the conversation and replaced with "deleted user" so the other member's history still makes sense.
• Payment records and invoices are kept for as long as Sri Lankan tax and company law requires, even after an account is deleted.
• Verification documents — the encrypted document image, the encrypted document number and its one-way hash are kept while your account exists, so that a verified badge can be re-checked and the same document cannot be reused on another account. They are deleted when your account is deleted.
• Reports, blocks and moderation notes may be kept after an account is deleted where needed to prevent a banned member from returning.

9. Your Rights and Choices

You can do the following at any time from your account:

• View and edit every field of your profiles from My Profiles. Gender, date of birth, civil status, religion and ethnicity are locked after publication to prevent misuse; contact support if one of these was entered incorrectly.
• Control visibility — show or hide photos, show or hide your phone number, hide a profile from public browsing, pause a profile, and choose exactly what each share link reveals.
• Decline or withdraw interests, and block any member so they can no longer see your profile or contact you.
• Turn off email digests and SMS notifications from your preferences.
• Remove a profile from My Profiles.
• Delete your account from Account Settings. This permanently deletes your account, profiles, photos, horoscope data, interests and preferences, subject to the retention rules in section 8.

Under the Personal Data Protection Act you also have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you, to have inaccurate data corrected, to withdraw consent, and to object to processing or request erasure. To make a request, or if you are a profile subject who did not create the account, email support@sithmini.com from the address or phone number linked to the profile. We will respond within 21 days. If you are not satisfied with our response you may complain to the Data Protection Authority of Sri Lanka.

10. Children

Sithmini is for adults seeking marriage. You must be 18 or older to hold an account, and every profile subject must be 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect information about anyone under 18. If you believe a profile describes a minor, please report it immediately and we will remove it.

11. Members Outside Sri Lanka

Many Sithmini members live abroad. Our service is operated from Sri Lanka and your data is processed under Sri Lankan law. By using Sithmini from another country you understand that your information will be transferred to and processed in Sri Lanka and in the countries where our hosting providers operate.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as the service changes. The date at the top shows the latest revision. For significant changes, such as a new category of data or a new kind of sharing, we will notify you by email, SMS or a notice in the app before the change takes effect.

Contact Us

Questions about privacy or this policy can be sent to support@sithmini.com.