We respect your privacy and process your data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This page explains what we collect and why, who can see it, and what your rights are.
1. Data controller
The controller of your personal data is Arab Community Services, operator of “Arab Community Services”.
2. What we collect
- Account data: name, e-mail address and password (hashed — we cannot read it). With Google sign-in: your name, e-mail and Google account identifier.
- Contact and residence: phone number, country and city of residence, and your address if you add it.
- Location: only if you press “Use my current location” yourself and allow it in your browser. You can withdraw consent and delete the coordinates at any time.
- Provider profile: profession, bio, languages and listings.
- Verification documents: diplomas and licences you choose to upload.
- Technical data: IP address and time of login and search attempts, to protect the platform from abuse.
3. Why we process it, and on what basis
- Running your account and showing your profile: performance of our agreement with you.
- Location: your explicit consent only.
- Reviewing documents and granting the “Verified” badge: your consent when you upload them.
- Security, fraud prevention and rate limiting: our legitimate interest in protecting the platform and its users.
4. Who sees your data
- Visitors see your name, profession, city, bio and languages, and a map of your area if you enable it.
- Your phone number and WhatsApp button are shown to signed-in members only.
- Your exact address is never shown. With “approximate location”, coordinates are rounded to about one kilometre before they reach the browser.
- Verification documents are seen by administrators only and cannot be opened through a direct link.
- We do not sell your data or share it for advertising.
5. Third-party services
- Google: when you choose to sign in with Google, and when the Cairo font loads from Google Fonts (your IP address reaches Google).
- OpenStreetMap: map images load from its servers, which receive your IP address.
- WhatsApp: pressing a WhatsApp button takes you to a Meta service governed by its own policy.
- Hosting: data is stored on the servers of the hosting provider that runs the platform, which processes it on our behalf only.
6. How long we keep it
- Account data: for as long as your account exists; deleted when you delete it.
- Verification documents: for as long as your account exists, or until you ask us to delete them.
- Login and search attempt records: 7 days.
- The log of moderation decisions is kept for accountability and does not contain your documents.
7. Your rights
You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to and port your data, and to withdraw consent at any time. You can export your data or delete your account from your account area. You may also lodge a complaint with a data protection authority: in Belgium the Autorité de protection des données / Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit, in the Netherlands the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, in Spain the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, in Italy the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali.
8. Cookies
We only use cookies the site needs to work: your session and form protection (euro_sid), your chosen language (lang) and your chosen country (country). We use no tracking, advertising or analytics cookies.
9. Security
We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, storage of documents outside the public web folder, restricted admin access and two-factor authentication for administrators.
10. Changes to this policy
We will announce any significant change on this page and update the date above.