Everything published can be screenshotted. Here is the short list of details that should never sit in a profile — and the ones people do not realise are identifying.
Most profile advice is about what to add. This one is about what to leave out, because a matrimonial profile is a document about a young woman or man that strangers are invited to read, and a certain amount of it does not belong in public no matter how serious the platform is.
Never
- The full residential address. City and district is what a family needs; the house is not.
- Aadhaar, PAN or passport numbers, and photographs of any ID document. These go to the verification team through the proper flow, never into a profile field or a chat.
- Bank details of any kind, for any reason anybody gives you.
- A daily routine specific enough to place someone — the office address, the college, the timing of a commute.
- Children’s schools, in a remarriage profile, and children’s faces in photographs.
The details people forget are identifying
Three or four innocuous fields combine into an address. Employer name plus city plus a photograph is usually enough to find someone. A car number visible in a picture, a house name on a gate, a school uniform in a family photo — each is harmless alone and locating in combination.
The same applies to phone numbers written into a photo caption or the "about" text to get around the platform holding them back. The platform holds them back on purpose: your number and email are not shown to anyone until you choose to share them, and putting the number into a caption hands it to everybody at once.
Photographs
- Assume every photograph you upload is visible to every signed-in member. There are no per-photo visibility settings, so the only real control you have is which photographs you upload in the first place.
- No wedding-card scans and no family group shots with names written under them. They carry the whole family’s details in one image.
- Nothing in a photograph you would not want circulated outside the platform, because a screenshot is always possible regardless of what any site promises.
What the law gives you
India now has a general data protection statute — the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 — which sets obligations on organisations handling personal data and gives individuals rights over their own. Separately, the Information Technology Act, 2000 contains offences covering the non-consensual capture or circulation of private images.
That is worth knowing, but it is a remedy rather than a protection. The practical protection is not publishing the thing in the first place.
If a profile of yours turns up somewhere else
It happens: photographs get lifted and re-posted on another site under a different name. Report it to us and to the platform it appears on, keep screenshots with dates, and if money or threats are involved, report it at cybercrime.gov.in or call 1930.
You can also hide your photographs or your whole profile from your account settings at any time while it is being sorted out, and our team can do it for you over the phone if that is easier.
Sources
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 — Government of India
India’s general personal-data statute. It is the basis for the statement that organisations handling personal data carry obligations and that individuals have rights over their own data.
- Information Technology Act, 2000 — Government of India
Contains the offences relating to violation of privacy and to the transmission of obscene or private material electronically, which is what the article refers to as the remedy where images are circulated without consent.
- National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India
The official reporting channel referred to in the final section, for cases involving extortion, threats or money.
Our team answers every message. Reach out and we will sort it out.
