Privacy policy
FAM is a private family-history service operated by Pasha Sochnev at fam.sochnev.com. Contact pasha@sochnev.com about privacy, support, or information concerning you.
Feedback
Anyone may submit feedback without signing in. We privately store the message, an email address only if you enter one, app version, broad device type, screen size, and interface language. We do not automatically attach your account identity, family records, photos, page address, or interaction logs. The operator can read and delete submitted feedback, which remains until deleted. Feedback is separate from your account and tree, so deleting either does not remove it. Contact us to request deletion. Sending feedback does not subscribe you to emails.
Information we collect
When you sign in with Google, we receive your Google account identifier, verified email address, and name, plus a profile photo when Google provides one. We privately store a copy of this photo for your account menu, preserve it between sign-ins, and remove it when you delete your account. We use these to identify your account, maintain your session, and match invitations. We do not request access to Gmail, Google Drive, contacts, calendars, or your Google password. We store the people, relationships, photos, dates, places, notes, events, links, and contact information that a tree owner chooses to add, as well as invitations and membership records.
How we use information
We use this information to provide and protect the service: display your trees, save edits, calculate family relationships, send requested invitations, manage access, prevent abuse, and respond to support requests. We do not sell personal information, use family records for advertising, or send them to AI services. There are no advertising trackers or third-party analytics in the application.
Who can see a tree
Trees are not public. Owners manage access, import, export, restore changes, and permanently delete trees. Viewers and editors see all current information in their shared tree, including notes, contacts, and photos. Editors may change people, relationships and photos; viewers cannot edit. Email invitations require the invited verified Google email. A shareable link can be explicitly accepted by anyone receiving it while signed in, within its expiry and usage limit. Viewers and editors cannot bulk-export through the service, but can copy visible information, save current images, or take screenshots. Removing access prevents future requests; it cannot retract copies already made. Only invite people you trust with every detail in the tree.
Activity and change history
We record successful sign-ins and signed-in application page, tree and person views, accepted invitations, edits and restorations. Owners see activity in their own trees and who contributed, not unrelated account sign-ins or other trees. The operator dashboard contains identifiers, event types and times, not family-record contents. A view means the application reported a visible page, not proof that someone read it. This activity system does not track anonymous visitors. Owners can configure in-app notifications. Before/after records are protected application history, accessible only to the tree owner for 30 days. Operator status alone grants no tree or history access.
Service providers and external links
Cloudflare provides website hosting, database storage, private photo storage, security infrastructure, and transactional email delivery. Google provides sign-in. These providers process information under their own terms and may operate in multiple countries. Operational access by the operator is limited to providing support, maintaining the service, handling abuse, or meeting legal obligations. Opening an external link sends you to that site's own privacy practices. Importing an image by URL or displaying a website icon may make a server-side request to that website; no account cookie or family record is sent with it.
Cookies and technical information
We use secure, host-only cookies for sign-in and session security. Language and theme preferences are stored in your browser. Security rate limits use hashed network identifiers with short expiry. The application does not log family records, request bodies, cookies, or authentication tokens. Infrastructure providers may process IP addresses and technical request information for routing, reliability, and abuse prevention.
Retention and deletion
Current information remains until removed or until the owner permanently deletes the tree or their account. Changed or removed records and photos remain in protected owner-only history for up to 30 days for review and undo. They disappear from the current tree immediately; viewers and editors cannot fetch history-only photos. Later conflicting edits can block recovery. Activity metadata is retained for 30 days. A background job purges expired history and unreferenced photos. Permanent tree/account deletion immediately removes the owned trees and their history; photo bytes are deleted by a retryable background job, normally within 24 hours. Sessions expire after 14 days, sign-in challenges after 10 minutes, and invitations at the chosen expiry, seven days by default. Backups may retain removed information for up to 30 days and are not active data. Suppression records may be retained to avoid repeated failed email sends. Contact us to request review or erasure of information concerning you.
Your choices and family information
You can view your account, leave shared trees, and delete your account in the application. Deleting your account also deletes the tree you own and its invitations; it does not delete someone else's tree. Owners can export their tree before deleting it. If another owner recorded information about you, ask that owner to correct or remove it, or contact us for help. Add information about living people and children only when you have an appropriate basis and permission to share it with your invited viewers. Do not upload passwords, authentication credentials, or highly sensitive records unrelated to family history.
Security and changes
Access is checked on the server, photos are stored privately, and traffic uses HTTPS. No online service can promise absolute security or uninterrupted availability. This policy may change as the service evolves. Material changes will be announced in the application or by email where appropriate; the updated date appears on this page.