1. About this policy
This Privacy Policy applies to the opentree ai website, family history workspace, AI tools, research tools, print studio, and related services (the “Service”). “OpenTree,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to the operator of the Service.
You may contact us about this policy or a privacy request at privacy@opentree.ai.
2. Information we collect
Account and subscription information
We receive information such as your name, email address, account identifiers, authentication status, plan, subscription status, and billing period. Payment-card details are handled by our billing and payment providers rather than stored directly by OpenTree.
Family history and archive content
We process the material you add to the Service, including GEDCOM files, names, relationships, dates, places, life events, notes, source citations, research records, photographs, documents, captions, and edits. This may include information about living and deceased people and may reveal sensitive details such as ancestry, ethnicity, religion, immigration history, health, or family relationships.
Collaboration and communications
If you invite another person to a tree, we process their email address, invitation status, role, and related delivery records. We also process messages you send us and operational emails we send about your account or invitations.
AI and research activity
When you use an AI feature, we process the source image, optional prompt keywords, relevant recorded facts, generated or enhanced output, and technical metadata needed to complete and account for the request. Research tools process your search terms and may retain candidate records you choose to save.
Technical information
The Service and its providers may automatically receive IP address, browser and device details, session information, request timestamps, security events, feature usage, and error diagnostics. We use necessary cookies and similar technologies for sign-in, security, preferences, and core operation of the Service.
3. How we use information
- Provide, secure, maintain, and troubleshoot your private workspace.
- Import, display, edit, map, search, share, export, and print family history.
- Store and deliver your photographs, documents, generated images, and downloadable archives.
- Generate historical illustrations and prepare photographs for print when you request those features.
- Process subscriptions, enforce plan allowances, fulfill print orders, and communicate with you.
- Prevent fraud, abuse, unauthorized access, and violations of our Terms of Service.
- Comply with law, resolve disputes, and protect the rights and safety of users and others.
- Understand and improve Service reliability, accessibility, performance, and design.
4. AI processing
AI image requests are sent to Google’s Gemini service with the images, prompts, and family-history context needed to produce the requested result. OpenTree does not use your family archive to train its own general-purpose AI model. Our AI providers process submitted information under their own service terms and our arrangements with them.
AI-generated scenes are interpretations, not historical evidence. AI-enhanced photographs may alter fine details, so we preserve the original and ask you to review the result before using it in a print.
5. When we disclose information
We disclose information only as reasonably needed in these circumstances:
- Service providers. Providers may process data for authentication and billing (Clerk and its payment providers), application data and functions (Convex), media storage (Cloudflare R2 and transitional Convex Storage), AI requests (Google), maps (MapTiler), email delivery (Resend), and error monitoring (Sentry, when enabled).
- Print fulfillment. If you place a physical print order, the print provider receives the print file, recipient details, shipping address, and order information needed to produce and deliver it.
- People you invite. Tree members can see the content and activity made available through their assigned role. You control whom you invite and may remove access.
- Research sources. Searches may send relevant terms to public or official sources, including the U.S. National Archives, the Digital Public Library of America, and the Library of Congress. Those sources receive and handle requests under their own policies.
- Legal and safety reasons. We may preserve or disclose information if reasonably necessary to comply with law, legal process, or valid government requests; enforce agreements; or protect rights, security, and safety.
- Business changes. Information may be transferred as part of a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, subject to appropriate protections.
6. We do not sell family archives
We do not sell your personal information or family archive, and we do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not use family-tree content or photographs to target third-party advertising to you.
7. Storage, security, and retention
We use administrative and technical measures intended to protect information, including private workspaces, access controls, authenticated requests, and restricted media storage. No online service can guarantee absolute security, so you should also protect your account credentials and retain your own archive backup.
We generally retain account and archive content while your account remains active and for a reasonable period afterward so we can complete deletion, backup, fraud-prevention, dispute, and legal processes. Retention varies by data type. Billing, security, audit, and transaction records may be kept longer where reasonably necessary or legally required. Deleting an account or item may not immediately remove copies from encrypted backups, but those copies will age out under our backup practices and will not be restored except for recovery or legal purposes.
8. Your choices and privacy rights
The Service lets you edit family records, control invitations, choose whether to use AI features, download a portable GEDCOM archive with stored media, and manage your subscription. You may also ask us to access, correct, export, or delete personal information associated with your account by contacting privacy@opentree.ai. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request, and some exceptions may apply.
Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights to know how information is used, request deletion or correction, receive a portable copy, restrict or object to processing, withdraw consent, or appeal a decision. We will not discriminate against you for exercising an applicable privacy right.
9. California privacy notice
California residents may have rights to know, access, correct, and delete personal information; to limit certain uses of sensitive personal information; and to opt out of sale or sharing. As described above, OpenTree does not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. You or an authorized agent may submit a request using the contact address above. You can learn more from the California Attorney General’s CCPA guide.
10. European and UK users
Where European or UK data-protection law applies, we process information to perform our contract with you, pursue legitimate interests such as security and service improvement, comply with legal obligations, and, where required, with your consent. Information may be transferred to and processed in the United States and other countries where our providers operate, using safeguards required by applicable law.
You may have rights of access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, and complaint to your local supervisory authority. The European Commission’s data-protection guide explains these rights in more detail.
11. Children
The Service is not directed to children under 13, and they may not create accounts or provide personal information through the Service. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, contact us so we can investigate and delete it. Users who are not old enough to enter a binding agreement in their location may use the Service only with a parent or legal guardian’s permission.
12. Information about other people
Family archives naturally contain information about relatives and other people. You are responsible for respecting their privacy and for having an appropriate basis to upload, use, or share information and images—especially information about living people. A person may contact us about information concerning them, but we may need to balance that request with the archive owner’s rights, legal obligations, and the historical nature of the record.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the Service develops. We will post the revised policy with a new “Last updated” date and provide additional notice when a change is material and required by law. Your continued use after an update is subject to the revised policy.