Privacy Policy

Family Trees on the web

When you use Family Trees at familytreesapp.com, you create an account, and your family is stored with it so you can open it from any browser and share it with the people you choose. This section covers the web version only; everything after it is about the app.

Your account. Your email address, the name you give, and a password (stored only as a one-way hash) or your Google sign-in. If you sign in with Google, Google tells us your email address and name; we never see your Google password.

Your family. The trees you make, with the names, dates, places, relationships, notes, photographs and recordings you add. They are stored in a private database and file store on servers we run at Hetzner in Germany, and backed up there each night. Photos are kept as you upload them, downscaled to at most 2048 pixels.

Who can see it. Only you, and people you invite to a tree with a link you send them, as editors or viewers. There are no public profiles and nothing about your family is published or searchable. People you invite can see the whole tree they joined. You can turn off a link or remove someone at any time.

What we do with it. We use it only to run Family Trees for you. We don’t sell it, rent it, share it with advertisers or data brokers, use it to train AI models, or look at it, except when you ask us for help with a specific problem or when the law requires it.

Services that help run it. Stripe processes payments for Plus and Lifetime; we receive the status of your plan, never your card details. Resend delivers sign-in and account emails. For the family map, place names you have entered (such as “Cork, Ireland”), and only place names, are looked up with OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim service after you agree; map tiles come from OpenStreetMap.

How the site is used. When you are signed in we keep a log of which features you use (for example “opened the tree”, “added a person”, “started an import”) and of errors, linked to your account, so we can see what works and fix what doesn’t. We also note the website that first sent you to us and the first page you saw, so we know which places bring people here. The log holds the names of actions, that first source and error messages only: never a name, date, place, photo, recording or anything else from your tree. We don’t share it with anyone, and it is deleted with your account.

Asking a relative. You can send a relative a link to a short form about someone in your tree. What they write, and a photo if they add one, is kept with your tree for you to review; the form shows them your name, the tree’s name and that person’s name, and nothing else from the tree.

Emails. Besides account emails, we may send a note about once a month on birthdays and anniversaries coming up in your tree, and a note when someone adds to a tree you share. Turn either off in Settings or with the link in the email.

Messages to us. If you write to us from the message box on the site, we keep your message and email address so we can reply.

Cookies. One cookie keeps you signed in. Your browser also remembers small preferences, such as the tree view you last used. There are no advertising or tracking cookies, and no third-party analytics.

Your choices. Download everything (a GEDCOM file, or a full backup with photos and recordings) from Settings at any time. Delete a person, a photo, a recording or a whole tree whenever you like. Delete your account in Settings: your account, every tree you own and their files are deleted at once, and removed from our nightly backups within 30 days. Trees other people shared with you stay with them.

Where you live. Wherever you are, you can ask us what we hold about you, to correct it or to delete it, by writing to [email protected]. Family Trees is not meant for children under 13, and they should not create accounts.

The app: what stays on your device

Everything you enter (names, dates, places, relationships, notes, photographs, voice recordings and their transcripts) is stored only on the device where you entered it, and in backups you choose to make. We never receive it, and we could not retrieve it if asked.

Your data is also included in your own Apple device backups if you have those turned on; that is between you and Apple.

What we collect

• Nothing automatically. No analytics, no crash-reporting SDK, no advertising identifiers, no third-party trackers.
• Only what you send us deliberately. If you email [email protected], we receive your message and address so we can reply. That is the only way anything reaches us.

Photographs and faces

Photos you add to people are copied into the app’s own storage on your device. To choose them, the app uses Apple’s system photo picker, which shares only the photos you select; the app cannot browse the rest of your library.

When you save a card to Photos, iOS asks for add-only access. That lets the app add the image to your library, but not see or read anything already in it.

Faces. To center portraits on faces, and to show the faces you can tag in a group photo, Family Trees uses Apple’s face detection, which runs on your device. It finds where faces are in a picture; it does not recognize who anyone is, and no photo is sent anywhere to be analyzed. The positions of faces, and the tags you add to say who is who, are stored with the photo on your device.

Microphone, recordings and transcripts

When you record a memory, iOS asks for permission to use the microphone. Family Trees uses the microphone only while you are recording, and saves recordings in its own storage on your device.

With Plus, Family Trees can write a transcript of a recording using Apple’s speech recognition, set to work on your device only. The audio is never sent to Apple or to us to be transcribed; if on-device recognition isn’t available for a recording’s language, no transcript is made. iOS may ask for permission to use speech recognition the first time. Transcripts are stored with their recording on your device.

You can delete a recording, and its transcript with it, at any time.

Widgets, Siri, Shortcuts and Spotlight

Widgets on your Home Screen, Lock Screen and in StandBy show information from the family on your device, such as today’s birthdays. They are drawn on your device.

When you use Family Trees with Siri or Shortcuts, Family Trees answers from the data on your device. What you say to Siri is handled by Apple under Apple’s own privacy policy; nothing is sent to us.

Family Trees can add the people in your family to Spotlight so you can find them from search. That search index stays on your device, and you can turn it off for Family Trees in the iOS Settings app.

Reminders and notifications

The daily reminder, and the reminder before a free trial ends, are notifications scheduled by Family Trees on your device. No push notification service is used, and nothing about them leaves your device. You can turn them off in the app or in the iOS Settings app.

Backups

If you turn on automatic backups, Family Trees writes backup files only to the folder you choose. If that folder is in iCloud Drive or another provider’s storage, the files are kept by that provider under its own terms and privacy policy (for iCloud Drive, Apple’s). We never receive your backups.

Your device’s own backups, to iCloud or to a computer, include the app’s data according to your backup settings.

The family map

To place people on the family map, Family Trees sends the place names you have entered, such as “Cork, Ireland”, to Apple Maps to find where they are, but only after you agree, and never once you turn “Find places with Apple Maps” off in Settings. Only the place name is sent: never the names of people, their dates, or anything else from your family. Apple handles these requests under its own privacy policy. The results are saved on your device, so each place is looked up only once.

The map itself is drawn from Apple Maps, which loads map imagery for the area on screen, as any map in an app does. That request carries the area shown, not anything about your family.

Story drafts

On iPhones, iPads and Macs with Apple Intelligence, Family Trees can draft a short life story from what you have recorded about someone. The draft is written by the on-device model built into the system: nothing is sent to us or to any server, and nothing is kept unless you add the draft to that person’s notes.

Purchases

Purchases are handled entirely by Apple. We never see your name, payment details or Apple Account, and we receive nothing about your purchase. The app checks with Apple, on your device, whether you have Plus or Lifetime, and when a free trial ends so that it can remind you.

Import, export and sharing

GEDCOM files you import are read on your device. When you export a GEDCOM file, a tree PDF or poster, or a family book, or share a card, that content goes wherever you send it. Once it leaves the app, it is governed by whatever service you handed it to, not by us.

Retention and deletion

Your family data stays on your device until you delete it. You can delete a single photo, recording or person; delete one tree from Settings; delete everything with Settings → Delete all data (which also removes scheduled reminders); or delete the app, which removes all of its data from the device. Backup files you have saved to a folder stay there until you delete them, and copies in your own device backups follow your backup settings. We hold no copy of your data, so there is nothing for us to delete on our side.

If you email support, we keep that conversation for up to 12 months after it ends, then delete it. Ask us at [email protected] and we will delete it sooner.

Children

The Family Trees app is not directed at children and collects no data from anyone, including children. The web version is not meant for children under 13.

Changes

If this policy ever changes materially, the updated date above will change and the new version will appear here before it takes effect.