Privacy policy

1. Who we are

MatWays is an online marketplace that connects Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu students with coaches for asynchronous, video-based coaching. MatWays is a trading name of Purple Spark Ltd, whose registered office is at 18 Tivoli Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2TF, UK (“MatWays”, “we”, “us”, “our”). We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy.

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, contact us at hello@matways.io.

2. Information we collect

We collect the following categories of personal information:

• Account information — your name, email address, and password (passwords are stored in hashed form by our authentication provider; we never see them in plain text).
• Profile information — your belt rank and biography; for students, your focus areas; and, for coaches, your gym name, specialities, social handles, profile photo, and intro video.
• Lesson content — the rolling footage and messages you upload, the lesson requests you make, and the timestamped feedback exchanged between students and coaches.
• Payment information — lesson and subscription transactions are processed by Stripe. We do not store your full card details; we retain Stripe customer and account identifiers and limited transaction metadata needed to operate the service.
• Marketing preferences — whether you have consented to receive marketing communications from us.
• Technical information — information collected automatically when you use the Platform, such as session cookies, device and browser information, and server logs.

3. How we use your information

We use your personal information to:

• create and manage your account and provide the coaching service (our legal basis: performance of our contract with you);
• process payments to coaches and collect platform fees (performance of contract);
• send you service messages about your lessons, subscriptions, and account (performance of contract, and our legitimate interest in running the Platform);
• send you marketing about MatWays where you have asked us to (consent);
• keep the Platform secure, prevent fraud and abuse, and comply with our legal obligations (legitimate interests and legal obligation).

4. Marketing communications

We only send you marketing emails if you have opted in. You can withdraw your consent at any time from the Legal section of your account settings, or by using the unsubscribe link in any marketing email. Withdrawing consent does not affect service messages we send you about your lessons, payments, or account.

5. Who we share your information with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as needed to run the Platform:

• Other users — when you request a lesson, the relevant coach can see your name, belt rank, your uploaded footage, and the messages you exchange. Coach profiles are public.
• Stripe — our payments processor, which handles checkout, coach payouts (Stripe Connect), and related identity verification.
• Supabase — our database, authentication, and file storage provider, hosted in the EU (Ireland).
• Vercel — our website hosting and content delivery provider.
• Authorities and advisers — where required by law, or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

These providers act as our processors and are bound by contracts that require them to protect your information.

6. International transfers

Some of our providers (for example, Stripe) may process data outside the UK and the European Economic Area. Where they do, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

7. How long we keep your information

We keep your personal information for as long as your account is active and for as long afterwards as we need it to comply with legal obligations (for example, tax and accounting records), resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. When you delete your account, we delete or anonymise your personal information except where we are required to retain it.

8. Your rights

Subject to applicable law, you have the right to access, correct, delete, or port your personal information, to restrict or object to our processing, and to withdraw consent at any time. You can update or delete most of your information directly from your account settings. To exercise any other right, contact hello@matways.io. You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority — in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

9. Cookies

We use strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in and to remember which role (student or coach) you are using. These are required for the Platform to work and are not used for advertising.

10. Security

We use technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit, hashed passwords, and access controls. No system is completely secure, but we work to protect your data and to notify you and the relevant authorities of any breach where we are legally required to do so.

11. Children

MatWays is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the “last updated” date above and, where appropriate, notify you by email or through the Platform.

13. Contact us

Questions or requests about this policy can be sent to hello@matways.io.