Messaging Safety & Monitoring
How and why HalalHQ scans and reviews messages to keep our marketplace safe and trustworthy.
Your Safety is Our Priority
When you use the messaging feature on HalalHQ, we scan and may review the messages you send and receive (including attachments and metadata) for various safety and security purposes. This helps us maintain a trustworthy marketplace for our halal-conscious community.
Why Do We Scan and Review Messages?
We scan and review messages to maintain a safe and authentic marketplace experience. Specifically, we do this to:
- Detect and prevent fraud and scams
Including attempts to redirect transactions off-platform, fake halal certifications, and payment fraud
- Identify policy violations
Such as harassment, hate speech, review manipulation, shilling, and content that violates Islamic values or our community guidelines
- Protect vulnerable users
Including detection of child safety risks, exploitation, and abusive behavior
- Provide customer support
When users request help with orders, disputes, or other marketplace issues
- Improve our platform
Collect analytics and user experience data to enhance messaging features and safety tools
How Do We Scan and Review Messages?
Automated Scanning
We use automated tools and machine learning technologies to scan and filter the content and metadata of your messages, including attachments and images. These systems check for:
- Suspicious payment requests or off-platform transaction attempts
- Prohibited items or non-halal products
- Spam, phishing attempts, and malicious links
- Inappropriate or harmful content
- Pattern-based fraud indicators
Automated Blocking
In some cases, our automated systems may block messages that violate our policies or contain high-risk content. You'll be notified when a message is blocked.
Manual Review
Occasionally, our trust and safety team may manually review messages. This typically happens when:
- A buyer or seller reports harassment, fraud, or misconduct
- A user requests help with a dispute or order issue
- Our automated systems flag potentially serious violations
- We receive a law enforcement request
Will You Share Information from My Messages?
We take your privacy seriously. While we use third-party security vendors and technologies to help us scan messages for safety purposes, we generally do not share the content of your messages outside of HalalHQ.
Exceptions include:
- When we receive a valid law enforcement request or subpoena
- When disclosure is required by law or necessary to protect rights, safety, or property
- When you explicitly consent to sharing (e.g., when you contact support about a message)
- Anonymized, aggregated data for analytics and research purposes
Your Rights Regarding Message Data
You have rights relating to your personal data, including message content:
- Right to Access: You can request a copy of your message data
- Right to Object: You may object to certain processing activities, though this right is not absolute and we may have compelling grounds to continue processing for safety purposes
- Right to Deletion: You can request deletion of your message data, subject to legal retention requirements and active disputes
For more information on your privacy rights, please see our Privacy Policy.
Legal Basis for Processing
We process your message data based on:
- Contractual necessity: Processing is necessary to provide marketplace services and enforce our Terms of Service
- Legitimate interests: We have legitimate interests in preventing fraud, ensuring platform safety, and protecting our community
- Legal obligations: We must comply with applicable laws, including child safety regulations and law enforcement requests
- Your consent: In some jurisdictions, we rely on your consent provided when you agreed to our Terms of Service
Messaging Safety Best Practices
To protect yourself:
- Never share payment details outside of HalalHQ's secure checkout
- Be wary of requests to complete transactions off-platform
- Report suspicious behavior immediately using the report button
- Don't share personal information like passwords, bank details, or ID documents via messages
- If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is
Questions or Concerns?
If you have questions about message monitoring, want to report a safety concern, or need to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us:
Email: [email protected]
Trust & Safety: [email protected]