Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Easy Family Histories is made by Innovativeware LLC (“we”, “us”, “our”), which makes the Easy Family Histories app (the “app”) and runs this website. Innovativeware LLC is responsible for the information described in this policy.

In this policy, “you” means a person using the app with their own sign-in. The “storyteller” is the person whose life story is being told. That may be you, or someone you are helping, such as a parent or grandparent. A “family” is the account the stories are kept in.

If you set up the app for someone else, please tell them how their information is handled and share this policy with them. The app also asks the storyteller herself before anything is recorded (section 2).

Questions about this policy or your information are welcome at support@easyfamilyhistories.com.

2. Families, and who can see what

Every story belongs to a family account. The person who creates the family is its owner. The owner can add storytellers, and invite other relatives as managers.

• The owner and managers can read every story in the family, listen to its recordings, see its photos, fix details, add photos and questions, make share links, and see the family’s purchases and how much interview time is left. A manager joins only after the owner approves.
• A storyteller’s own iPhone or iPad joins the family with an invitation (a link or a 12-digit number) and needs no password, email address or Apple Account sign-in. It sees only its own storyteller’s story (or two, on an iPad two people share) and the names of the people who can read it. It never shows prices or limits. A device set up with a manager’s invitation can see nothing until the owner says yes to it.
• The storyteller’s okay. Before the first session, a screen addressed to the storyteller by name, and read aloud, asks whether the app may record her answers and send them to outside speech and AI services (section 5). On her own device she answers herself. When a relative runs the session on their phone, the screen is meant for her, with her beside them; when she later has a device of her own, she is asked again there. If she says no on her own screen, only she can change it. She can turn recording or AI help off at any time.
• Her own voice is played on a shared page only if she says yes herself: on her own device, or out loud on a screen handed to her. Only she can turn it on; anyone in the family can turn it off.
• Removing someone. The owner can remove a manager, and the owner or a manager can remove a device. They lose access at once. A removed phone that still had answers waiting to upload may send them afterwards; they are the storyteller’s own answers and stay in her story. Changes they made stay in the story without their name.

3. Information we collect

Accounts and sign-in

Owners and managers sign in with Apple, with Google, or with an email address and password, through our cloud provider’s sign-in service. We receive an account identifier and, depending on the method, an email address and name. Sign in with Apple lets you hide your email address from us. When someone asks to join a family as a manager, their verified email address is shown to the owner so the owner can decide.

A storyteller’s own device

When a storyteller’s iPhone or iPad joins with an invitation, it gets a sign-in identifier of its own. We keep what kind of device it is (iPhone or iPad), the name the family sees for it (for example “Ruth’s iPhone”), the app version, and when it joined and was last used, so the family can see which devices are connected and remove one. We don’t collect the device’s advertising identifier, serial number or phone number.

The family

The family’s name, the names members go by in the app, their roles, and invitations: who made one, for whom, when, and whether it was used. An invitation’s number is stored only in a scrambled form that can’t be turned back into the number.

The storyteller’s profile and settings

Her first name, the year she was born, where she grew up, pronouns, how she is related to the family (if given), whether it is her own story or someone is helping, and whether the story is written as “she” or as “I”. Her interview settings: usual session length, the interviewer’s voice and pace, follow-up questions on or off, and a reminder schedule. Text size is kept only on each device.

Recordings and transcripts

For each answer, the app keeps the audio recording and a written transcript, the question that was asked, and whether the app or a person in the room asked it. Typed answers are kept as text. We keep the recordings so the family can listen to them, so a transcript can be checked or redone, and, if she agrees, so her own voice can be heard on a shared page. We also keep when each session happened and how long it was.

Her consent

Each answer she gives about recording, AI help and her own voice: yes or no, when, the wording she was shown, and whether it was given on her own device or on a family member’s. If she says yes out loud on a screen handed to her, that short recording is kept as the record of her yes.

The written story

The chapters, earlier versions of paragraphs that changed, fixes made by hand, “Which is right?” questions and their answers, and the answers the family chose to leave out of the book.

What the interviewer remembers

The people, places and events she has mentioned, topics she would rather not talk about, a short summary of past sessions, and the questions planned for next time, so the interviewer can pick up where she left off and never brings back a topic she declined.

Photos

Photos the family adds, from the photo library, the camera, or a scanned print, with any caption and year. The app removes the location and all other hidden details from a photo on the device before it is uploaded. We keep three sizes of it for the app, the shared pages and the book, and delete the uploaded original once they are made.

Documents the family imports

If a family member imports a history already begun, we store the document (PDF, Word or text) or pasted text, its file name, and the text taken from it.

Shared links

For each share link: its label, who in the family made it, when it was made and turned off, and whether it includes her voice.

Purchases

A full history is bought through Apple. Apple sends us a signed record of the purchase: its transaction number, the product, the date, whether it was a test purchase, and whether it was refunded. We note which family member bought it and which storyteller it unlocked, and we count how many minutes of interviews each storyteller has used, so the hours and the free minutes work. We never receive card, bank or other payment details.

Usage counts

How many minutes of answers, photos, imports, share links and AI requests each storyteller has used, so the app can apply its limits and we can keep costs in check.

Information kept on the device

The app keeps a copy of the stories it can see on each iPhone or iPad, so it works without a connection, along with recordings and photos waiting to upload, audio of the interviewer’s voice, and each device’s text size.

Information about other people

Life stories naturally include other people, such as relatives and friends, and can include personal details such as faith or health. The “Faith and beliefs” chapter asks about religious beliefs. This information is handled the same way as the rest of the story, as this policy describes.

When you email us

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write, and use them to reply and to help with your request.

4. How we use information

We use the information described above only to provide the app and its features, which means to:

• create accounts and families, sign people in, and connect a storyteller’s own device through an invitation;
• run interview sessions: ask questions out loud, listen, write down the answers, and follow up on what she mentions;
• check transcripts for accuracy, and redo one if something went wrong;
• write the story into chapters, remember what she has told, and plan the next session’s questions;
• place photos in the story, and turn documents the family imports into chapters and questions;
• read questions, and the story, aloud;
• provide the pages, PDF book, audiobook and voice passages for links the family chooses to share, and the copy of a story anyone in the family can save;
• make sure only the right people can see each story, and let the family add and remove people and devices;
• apply purchases, the free minutes and each storyteller’s hours, and handle refunds;
• protect the service, for example by limiting guesses at invitation numbers, and keep its costs in check;
• schedule the reminders the family sets, on the device; and
• reply when you contact us.

We don’t use anyone’s information for advertising, and we don’t use stories to train AI.

5. Service providers

We use these service providers to run the app. They process information only to provide their services to us, and keep it only as needed for that and as their own terms, linked below, describe. Her recordings and words reach the outside speech and AI services only after the storyteller has said yes to AI help. Without that yes, the app keeps her words exactly as she said them.

Apart from Apple, the outside companies that provide these services are Google (Google Cloud and Firebase) and Anthropic. Under their terms for business customers, they don’t use this content to train their AI models. You can read the Google Cloud Privacy Notice, Firebase privacy and security and the Anthropic Privacy Policy.

6. Where information is stored and how it is protected

The family’s information is stored with our cloud provider in the United States, in its central U.S. region. Our cloud provider encrypts it in transit and at rest. If you use the app from outside the United States, your information is transferred to, stored and processed in the United States.

Every request is checked against the family’s members, so a person or device that was removed can read nothing further. Invitation numbers are stored only in scrambled form, work once, and stop working after 7 days.

No way of storing or sending information is completely secure.

7. Sharing a story

Inside the family, stories are seen as section 2 describes. Outside it, a story is shared only when a family member creates a link, which comes with a full history. Anyone who has the link can read the story, see the photos the family included, listen to it read aloud, download it as a PDF book or an MP3 audiobook, and, where the storyteller said yes and the link includes it, hear passages in her own voice, without signing in. Please share links only with people the storyteller would want to read it.

Shared pages are hidden from search engines. The owner or a manager can turn off a link at any time, and access through it stops immediately. When the storyteller turns her own voice off, it stops playing on every link at once, and when she asks for her story to be deleted, every link to it pauses at once.

Copies that someone has already downloaded, such as a PDF book, an audiobook or a saved copy of the story, can’t be recalled after a link is turned off or a story is deleted.

We don’t share anyone’s information with anyone else, except the service providers in section 5, or if the law requires it.

8. What we don’t do

• We don’t show advertising.
• We don’t sell or rent anyone’s personal information.
• We don’t track anyone across other companies’ apps or websites.
• We don’t use analytics or tracking tools (SDKs) in the app or on this website.
• We don’t send photos to any AI.
• This website doesn’t use cookies.

9. How long we keep information

We keep a family’s stories, recordings, transcripts, photos and documents for as long as the family has them, so they are there when anyone comes back. They are erased when someone deletes them, as section 10 describes, which also lists what is kept afterward.

Some things are kept for a short time only:

• invitations stop working after 7 days, and their records are removed 30 days after that;
• records of edits, 30 days after they are applied to the story;
• temporary copies of recordings made for transcription, 1 day;
• a saved copy of a story made for downloading, 2 days;
• the PDF book and audio made for shared links, until they need remaking, and at most 180 days;
• a purchase that was started but not finished, 24 hours; and
• counters that limit wrong invitation numbers, downloads and test purchases, from an hour up to 60 days.

Removing the app from a device removes the copy kept on it, but deletes nothing from the family’s account.

Emails you send us aren’t part of the family’s account. We keep them in our support mailbox until you ask us to delete them. If we delete an account for you, we also delete our emails with you (see section 10).

10. Your choices: correcting, saving a copy and deleting

Correct the story

Anyone in the family, and the storyteller on her own device, can read the story and correct any detail with Fix a detail, answer “Which is right?”, or leave an answer out of the book. In What the interviewer remembers, any item can be forgotten.

Recording, AI help and her own voice

The storyteller can turn recording or AI help off at any time, and her own voice on or off, in Settings on her own device. With AI help off, her words are kept exactly as she said them. With recording off, nothing new is recorded; answers recorded before, on a phone that was offline, may still arrive afterwards, and they are kept but not sent to the speech-recognition service until recording is on again. Turning something off deletes nothing; to delete, see below.

Save a copy

The owner, a manager, or the storyteller on her own device can save a copy of a whole story at any time, for free, from Settings (Save a copy of the story). It is one file with the book as a PDF, each chapter as text, every recording, the photos and imported documents, and the underlying data in a form other programs can read. The download link works for at least a day.

Delete

• One answer. Forget this answer in the story, or saying “forget that” during a session, erases the recording, its transcript, and what the story took from it.
• One photo. Deleting a photo removes every size of it from the story, the shared pages and the book.
• The storyteller’s own story, at her request. On her own device (or, if it is your own story, in your Settings), Stop and delete my story. From that moment nothing new is recorded, AI help and sharing stop, links pause, and the family is told. Answers recorded before she asked, on a phone that was offline, may still arrive; they are kept with her story and erased with it. She can still read it. Seven days later, her whole story is erased. Only she can cancel, with Keep my story. The owner can erase it sooner, but can’t stop it.
• A storyteller’s story, by the owner. The owner can erase a storyteller’s whole story: its recordings, transcripts, chapters, photos, documents and links, and devices set up only for her.
• The whole family. The owner can delete the family, with every story, member, device, link and invitation in it, and its purchases.
• Your account. Settings › Account › Delete my account. If you own a family, the app first asks whether to hand it to a manager or delete it, with its stories. Your own story is always erased. In families you help with, you simply leave, and the changes you made stay in the story without your name. Then your sign-in account is deleted. If you haven’t signed in recently, the app asks you to sign in again first, so that only you can do this. If you’re signed in but not part of any family (for example, after deleting your family), Delete my account is on the first screen the app shows you.
• A device or a manager. Removing a device or a manager, or leaving a family, takes away their access at once and deletes their place in the family; the stories stay.

When a story is erased, its shared links stop working as soon as the erasure starts, and each device that could see it deletes its copy. Erasing can’t be undone, so save a copy first if you’d like one. If a storyteller’s story is erased when less than 2 hours were recorded, her full history goes back to the family once, to give to someone else; otherwise it counts as used. Deleting the family deletes its purchases.

Copies that relatives or anyone else already downloaded can’t be recalled.

If you signed in with Apple, deleting your account in the app also removes the app’s Sign in with Apple access. If we delete your account for you, you can remove Easy Family Histories yourself from the apps that use Sign in with Apple, in your Apple Account settings.

Asking us to delete

If you can’t use the app, email support@easyfamilyhistories.com and we’ll help. A storyteller who has no device of her own can also ask the family’s owner, or write to us herself.

Because deletion can’t be undone, we first make sure the request comes from the account holder. An email address on its own isn’t proof, because the sender of an email can be faked, so we don’t act on the request message itself. Instead, we find the account and write a new message to the email address on it, and we act only after you confirm by replying to that message. If you use Sign in with Apple with Hide My Email, we write to the private address Apple gave us, which Apple forwards to you. Deleting for you erases the same information from our servers as deleting in the app. Once it’s done, we tell you by email, and then we delete our emails with you, including your request and any earlier emails you sent us.

What is kept after deletion

• A deletion record. A minimal record with the account, family or story ID and the dates the deletion was requested and finished, and none of the content. We use it to finish the deletion, to check it is complete, and to remove anything that still arrives, such as an upload from another device. It is removed automatically about 30 days after the deletion finishes.
• A minimal purchase record. For each purchase: Apple’s transaction number, the product, the date, whether it was a test purchase, and whether it was refunded, with no link to any family, storyteller or person. We keep it for our accounts and to handle refunds.
• Service logs. The logs of our services may contain account, family or story IDs, but never story content. They are kept for about 30 days.
• Deleted files. Our cloud provider may keep deleted recordings, photos and documents for up to 7 days, in case they need to be recovered. During that time nobody can reach them through the app or a link, and only we could restore them. After that they are gone for good.
• Database recovery history. Our database keeps a rolling 7-day history of changes so that we can recover from mistakes. For up to 7 days after a deletion, the deleted records could be read back from it by us, never through the app or a link. We keep no other backups, so after 7 days they are gone for good.
• Speech recognition. For a long recording, the speech-recognition service keeps the finished transcript with the transcription request. We ask the service to delete it as soon as we have saved the transcript, and a deletion asks it to cancel any transcription still in progress and delete its result. If it can’t, it keeps the transcript until it expires under the service’s terms.
• The AI service. A rewrite sent as a batch (section 5) that is still out when a story is erased is never written back, and the AI service deletes it within 29 days.
• Emails with us. They stay in our support mailbox until you ask us to delete them. If we delete your account at your request, we delete our emails with you once we’ve told you it’s done.
• Other service providers keep data they processed only as described in their own terms (section 5).

Microphone, speech recognition, camera and notifications

You can allow or turn off the app’s access to the microphone, speech recognition, the camera and notifications at any time in the device’s Settings app. Without the microphone and speech recognition, answers can be typed instead. The photo library is used only through Apple’s photo picker, which shows the app only the photos you choose.

Shared links

Any shared link can be turned off at any time in the app.

11. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, including some U.S. states and the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, you may have rights over your personal information, such as the right to:

• access it, and learn what we hold about you;
• correct it if it is wrong;
• delete it;
• receive a copy in a portable form (the saved copy in section 10 is one); and
• object to, or ask us to limit, some uses of it.

The storyteller has these rights over her own story, whoever set up the family. Where we rely on consent, it can be withdrawn at any time. To make a request, email support@easyfamilyhistories.com. We may need to confirm that the request comes from the person it is about. You can also contact your local data protection authority if you have concerns.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Legal bases

Where laws such as the GDPR apply, we rely on these legal bases:

• Providing the service the family asked for (contract): the family account, interviews, transcripts, the story, photos, purchases, and the links the family chooses to share.
• Consent, where we ask for it: the storyteller’s okay to record and to use AI help, her own voice on shared pages, and access to the microphone, speech recognition, camera and notifications.
• Legitimate interests: keeping our services working and protected against abuse, and keeping the minimal purchase records our accounts and refunds need.

12. Children

The app is not directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Family stories may mention children; that is part of the family’s content. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, a parent or guardian can email support@easyfamilyhistories.com and ask us to delete it.

13. This website

This website does not use cookies or analytics, and it serves its own fonts. Our cloud provider, which hosts this website (section 5), processes standard request information, such as your IP address, to deliver the pages and protect against abuse.

Story pages shared by link are also served from this website, and are hidden from search engines. The invitation page reads the invitation number only inside your browser; the number is never sent to us from it.

14. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the new version on this page and update the effective date at the top. If a change significantly affects how we handle information, we will also let you know in the app before it takes effect, and ask the storyteller again where her okay is needed.

15. Contact us

For questions, requests or concerns about privacy, email Innovativeware LLC, the maker of Easy Family Histories, at support@easyfamilyhistories.com.

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