ZedWed Policy Center

Data Retention and Deletion Policy

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1. Introduction

ZedWed ("Platform," "App," "we," "our," or "us") is committed to handling personal data responsibly and in accordance with applicable law, including the Data Protection Act, 2021 of Zambia where applicable. This Data Retention and Deletion Policy explains how long we may retain different categories of data, how deletion requests are handled, and the circumstances in which certain information may be retained after account closure or deletion.

This Policy should be read together with our Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Refund and Cancellation Policy, Matchmaking Disclaimer Policy, and any other applicable platform policies.

2. Retention Principles

We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary to:

  • provide, operate, secure, and improve the Services;
  • comply with legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, audit, reporting, or compliance obligations;
  • verify identity, prevent fraud, investigate abuse, and protect users and platform integrity;
  • resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and defend legal claims; and
  • carry out legitimate business, safety, and recordkeeping functions permitted by law.

When personal data is no longer required for these purposes, we may delete it, anonymize it, aggregate it, or otherwise de-identify it, subject to applicable law, technical limitations, and operational safeguards.

3. Categories of Data We May Retain

We may retain different categories of information for different periods depending on their purpose and legal or operational importance.

a) Account, Profile, and Preference Data

Account registration information, profile details, preferences, photos, questionnaires, settings, and related account configuration data are generally retained while your account remains active.

If an account becomes inactive, we may restrict, archive, anonymize, or delete certain account-related data after a period of inactivity, subject to legal, fraud-prevention, safety, dispute, and technical-retention needs.

b) Messages, Matches, and Interaction Data

Messages, connection requests, matches, search-related activity, engagement records, notification-related activity, and similar interaction data may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the Services, maintain account history, investigate complaints, detect abuse, enforce platform rules, support dispute handling, and protect users and the Platform.

Deletion of an account may make this information no longer visible or accessible through normal user-facing features, but backend retention may continue for a limited period where reasonably necessary for legal, safety, security, integrity, or operational purposes.

c) Identity Verification and Safety Data

Government identification information, uploaded ID documents, extracted document information, verification results, liveness or facial-verification session outputs, reviewer notes, fraud-prevention signals, and related verification metadata may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to support identity verification, fraud prevention, dispute handling, safety review, compliance, audit readiness, and enforcement of platform rules.

Because this category of information is higher risk and may be relevant to legal, safety, or misuse investigations, it may be retained longer than ordinary profile data where justified by law or legitimate platform-protection needs.

d) Payment, Billing, and Transaction Data

Where you purchase subscriptions or paid features, we may retain payment-related records such as transaction references, purchase status, plan details, timestamps, billing-support records, receipts, reconciliation records, refund or dispute records, and other finance-related data reasonably necessary for legal compliance, tax, audit, accounting, fraud prevention, and operational support.

We do not state in this Policy that we retain every payment credential. Payment processing may be handled by third-party service providers, and retention of payment-instrument data may be governed in whole or in part by those providers' systems and applicable law.

Certain payment and finance-related records may be retained for up to seven (7) years or longer where required or permitted by law, audit obligations, tax requirements, dispute resolution, or enforcement needs.

e) Support, Complaints, Moderation, and Safety Records

Support requests, customer-service communications, complaints, abuse reports, moderation records, safety escalations, investigation notes, and related case-management records may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to respond to requests, resolve disputes, address safety concerns, detect repeat abuse, enforce policies, and maintain operational records.

f) Security, Device, and Technical Records

Authentication records, OTP and account-verification records, session logs, IP-related logs, device or browser metadata, rate-limiting data, security-event records, and technical diagnostics may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to maintain security, detect and prevent fraud or abuse, troubleshoot issues, enforce access controls, and protect platform integrity.

g) Advertising, Promotional, and Analytics Records

Where applicable, records relating to promotional campaigns, sponsored-content interactions, analytics, measurement, and related service-improvement activity may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary for reporting, fraud prevention, service optimization, legal compliance, and business operations, subject to applicable law.

4. Inactive Accounts

If your account remains inactive for an extended period, we may deactivate, archive, anonymize, or delete certain associated data after twenty-four (24) months of inactivity, unless a longer retention period is reasonably necessary or required for legal, tax, accounting, audit, safety, fraud-prevention, dispute, enforcement, backup, or other legitimate operational reasons.

5. Account Deletion and Effect of Deletion

You may request deletion of your account through available product controls or by contacting us.

When an account is deleted or scheduled for deletion:

  • your profile, photos, and certain user-facing account information may no longer be visible through the Platform;
  • access to the account and related services may be disabled or terminated;
  • certain data may be queued for deletion, anonymization, or de-identification as part of our ordinary workflows; and
  • certain categories of information may still be retained where necessary for legal compliance, fraud prevention, security, dispute resolution, enforcement, backup systems, or other legitimate purposes described in this Policy.

Deletion of an account does not necessarily mean immediate or irreversible erasure of all associated data from all systems, logs, archives, or backups.

6. Deletion Requests and Verification

Subject to applicable law, you may request deletion of certain personal data we hold about you.

To protect users, platform integrity, and against unauthorized requests, we may require reasonable steps to verify identity before acting on a deletion request. We may also decline, delay, limit, or condition deletion where permitted or required by law, including where retention is necessary to:

  • comply with legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, audit, or reporting obligations;
  • detect, prevent, investigate, or document fraud, abuse, impersonation, harassment, security incidents, or unlawful conduct;
  • preserve evidence relevant to disputes, complaints, chargebacks, refunds, investigations, or legal claims;
  • enforce our Terms of Service, platform rules, or other legal rights; or
  • protect the rights, safety, property, or integrity of the Platform, users, personnel, or third parties.

7. Backups, Archives, and Residual Copies

Deleted or deactivated information may persist for a limited period in secure backups, archives, disaster-recovery systems, logs, or other residual technical environments before being overwritten, deleted, anonymized, or otherwise aged out in the ordinary course.

During that period, such information may remain protected by applicable security and access controls, even if it is no longer available through normal user-facing systems.

8. Anonymized and Aggregated Information

We may retain anonymized, aggregated, or de-identified information that no longer identifies you personally, where permitted by law. Such information may be used for analytics, service improvement, safety and fraud prevention, product development, statistical reporting, research, or other legitimate business purposes.

9. Exercising Your Rights

You may exercise applicable rights to access, correction, or deletion by using available in-product controls or by contacting **help@zedwed.ai**.

We will respond to verified requests within a reasonable time and, where applicable, within the time required by law. Response timelines may be extended where permitted by law or reasonably necessary due to request complexity, verification needs, system limitations, or overlapping legal or safety obligations.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, regulation, technology, business operations, retention practices, or risk controls. Where appropriate, we may notify users of material changes through the app, website, email, or other reasonable means.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Data Retention and Deletion Policy or wish to submit a request relating to your data, please contact **help@zedwed.ai**.