Privacy Policy
Last updated: May 5, 2025
1. Introduction
This Privacy Policy (this "Policy") explains how Hey Now LLC, dba "Ancestroo" ("Ancestroo," "we," "us," or "our"), collects, uses, and protects your personal information through Ancestroo's website and services (collectively, the "Services"). By using or accessing Ancestroo, you acknowledge that you have read and understand this Policy. If you do not agree with the practices described, please do not use the Services. Your use of Ancestroo is also subject to our Terms of Service.
Scope: This Policy applies to information we collect when you use our Services in the United States. Ancestroo is currently available only to users in the U.S., and by using the Services you consent to your information being transferred and stored in the United States. Please note that this Policy does not apply to any third-party websites or services that may be linked to or integrated with Ancestroo. For example, if Ancestroo links you to an external site or service, any data you provide to those third parties is governed by their own privacy policies, not this one. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of third-party services, so you should review their policies separately.
We encourage you to read this Policy in full so you understand our practices. By creating an Ancestroo account or otherwise using our Services, you are confirming that you agree to the practices described in this Policy and give us permission to process your information as described. If you have any questions, you can always contact us using the information at the end of this Policy.
2. Information We Collect
In short: We collect personal information that you choose to provide to us (such as names, emails, and family story content), as well as some information collected automatically when you use Ancestroo. The rest of this section provides a more detailed explanation of the personal information we collect, how we use that personal information, and our lawful bases for processing that personal information.
1. Voluntarily Disclosed Information
The following table identifies the specific purposes for which you may voluntarily disclose personal information to us, along with our lawful bases for processing that personal information.
| Purpose for Collection | Type of Personal Information | How we collect that information | Lawful Basis for Processing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account Creation; Communications between you and Ancestroo; Receipt of Memory Books | Name, Email Address | Directly from you if you are a Billing Owner. Either from you or another Project Member if you are a Storyteller or Collaborator | Performance of a contract with you |
| Account login | Email Address | Directly from you if you are a Billing Owner. Either from you or another Project Member if you are a Storyteller or Collaborator | Performance of a contract with you |
| Purchases | Billing information | From you and processed by a third-party payment processor. Ancestroo does not have access to your billing information. | Performance of a contract with you |
| Creation of Memory Book | Whatever personal information you or another Collaborator chooses to include in Stories or other submissions to the Platform. This may include audio content, video content, photos, and other information included in submissions. | Directly from you or another Collaborator | Performance of a contract with you |
| Marketing communications | Email address | Directly from you | Your consent |
2. Sensitive Information
To the extent you submit personal information that is considered "special" or "sensitive" under applicable law, you hereby consent to Ancestroo's use of that personal information as necessary to provide the Services. You may withdraw this consent at any time by emailing hello@ancestroo.com. We do not collect any sensitive personal information about you unless you choose to provide it in your stories. If you do include sensitive information that is entirely up to you, and by doing so you consent to our processing of that information for the Services.
3. Automatically Collected Information
In short: Some information - such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and/or browser and device characteristics - is collected automatically when you use our Services.
Whenever you interact with the Services, we automatically receive and record information on our server logs from your browser or device, which may include your IP address, geolocation data, device identification, "cookie" and pixel tag information, the type of device you're using to access the Services, the amount of time spent on the Services, and the page or feature you requested. We use the data we automatically collect from you to improve the Services – for example, this data can tell us how often users use a particular feature of the Services, and we can use that knowledge to make the Services interesting to as many users as possible. We also use the data to ensure our advertisements are seen by users who are interested in our Services. You can learn more about our use of cookies and related technologies in our Cookie Policy. We collect this information with your consent (to the extent the information is not strictly necessary for our performance of the Services), to perform our contract with you, and for our legitimate interest of providing a smooth user experience on the Services. If we rely on your consent for the use of cookies (for example, for cookies from third-party advertisers, you can remove your consent by updating your preferences on the cookie banner.
3. How We Use Your Information
In short: We use the personal information we collect to provide and personalize the Ancestroo service, to communicate with you, and to improve our platform. We do not use your information for any purpose unrelated to Ancestroo's core mission of sharing family stories.
The information we collect is used for the following purposes:
| Purpose | Details |
|---|---|
| Providing the Service | We use your information to operate Ancestroo and deliver the features you expect. For example, we use your name and email to create your account and log you in, and we use the stories and content you submit to display them to you and any family members or others with whom you choose to share that content. |
| Service Improvement | Information about how you use Ancestroo (e.g., which stories you listen to or how often you visit) is used to understand usage trends and improve our platform. This helps us fix bugs, develop new features, and refine the user experience so that Ancestroo continues to meet the needs of our users. |
| Communication | We may use your email address to send you service-related notices and updates. For example, we might send confirmations when you sign up, notifications about story contributions or comments, or announcements about new Ancestroo features. We may also respond to you if you contact us with a question or support request. |
| User Stories and Sharing | Ancestroo is about sharing family stories. If you choose to share a story with specific people (for example, by inviting family members to view a story or by generating a shareable link), we will use your information to facilitate that sharing. This might include sending an invitation email to the address you provide for your family member or loved one. |
| Marketing (Opt-In) | Ancestroo does not bombard you with marketing, but if you explicitly opt in to receive our newsletter or promotional communications, we may use your name and email to send you updates about Ancestroo that we think you'd like. You can opt out of these communications at any time (see Your Rights and Choices below). |
| Legal and Security | We use information as necessary to enforce our Terms of Service, to prevent fraud or other misuse of Ancestroo, and to ensure the security of our users and Services. For example, we might use certain data to detect malicious activity and to protect the rights and safety of our users or others. If required by applicable law, we may use personal information to comply with our legal obligations (such as responding to lawful requests by authorities). |
We will not use your personal information for purposes beyond those listed above without asking for your consent. In particular, we do not use your data for any third-party advertising purposes, profiling, or selling your information, as explained next.
4. Analytics
Ancestroo uses analytics tools to understand how our users engage with the site. In particular, we use Google Analytics to help us collect and analyze usage information. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to gather data about our site visitors, such as what pages you visit and how long you spend on the site, and it provides us with aggregated reports. This information helps us analyze trends and improve Ancestroo's functionality and content.
Google Analytics may collect identifiers like your IP address and information about your browser, but we do not provide Google with your name or the content of your stories. Google may set its own cookies on your browser to perform these analytics services. The data collected through Google Analytics is governed by Google's Privacy Policy and Google's rules about data usage for sites that use its analytics tool.
5. Sharing Your Information
In short: We do not sell or give away your personal information to unrelated third parties for their own use. We only share your information in limited scenarios necessary to run Ancestroo or as required by law, as outlined below.
We do not share your personal data with third-party companies for their independent marketing or advertising. The circumstances in which we may share information are:
- Service Providers: We employ trusted third-party companies to help us operate and improve Ancestroo. This includes web hosting providers, data storage services, and email delivery services. For example, we may store data on secure cloud servers (such as services provided by Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud) in order to keep Ancestroo running smoothly. We also use Google Analytics as described above, which means Google will process certain usage data on our behalf. These service providers are bound by contracts to only use your information for the services we request (e.g. storing data or providing analytics) and not for their own purposes.
- Other Ancestroo Users and Sharing Functionality: Content you post on Ancestroo (such as a story you write or a voice recording you upload) can be seen by others only in two cases: (1) if they are members of your private Ancestroo group or project (for example, family members you have invited to join and view the stories), or (2) if you choose to share a story via a public link. In those cases, anyone with the link can view that story and any personal information it contains. Important: You control whether and with whom a story is shared. If you keep your stories private on Ancestroo, only you (and anyone you explicitly authorize on Ancestroo) can view them.
- Legal Compliance: We may disclose your information if we are required to do so by law or legal process, or if we have a good-faith belief that such disclosure is necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulations, or legal obligations. This includes responding to lawful requests by public authorities (e.g., a court order or subpoena), or to enforce our Terms of Service, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Ancestroo, our users, or the public.
- Business Transfers: If Ancestroo or its owning company is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, or sale of company assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We would ensure that any acquiring entity honors the commitments we have made in this Privacy Policy regarding your personal data.
- With Your Consent: Other than as described above, we will only share your personal information with third parties if you direct or consent to us doing so. For example, if in the future Ancestroo partners with another service to offer an integrated feature, we would only share data if you opt in to that integration.
Aside from the scenarios above, Ancestroo will not share, sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. In particular, we do not share any user information with advertisers or social media companies for advertising purposes. California residents can rest assured that Ancestroo does not "sell" personal information as defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
6. Data Retention and Account Deletion
We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Policy or as required by law. In general, this means we keep your information while you have an active account with Ancestroo. Family stories and content you provide will remain stored in your account until you choose to remove them or delete your account – we will never delete your story content unless you ask us to do so or you close your account.
If you decide to delete any specific story or other content, you can do so through the Ancestroo interface. Once you delete content from your account, it will no longer be visible to you or others on Ancestroo, and we will permanently erase that content from our systems in the normal course of business (this may not be instantaneous, but we will remove it from all of our active databases and will subsequently delete it from backups according to our retention schedules).
If you wish to delete your account entirely, you may do so by contacting us. When you delete your account, all personal information associated with your account (including profile information and all the stories and content you uploaded) will be deleted from our active databases. We will permanently delete your content from our systems within a reasonable time after account deletion.
Please note that in certain cases we may retain minimal information after account deletion if necessary for legal compliance or legitimate business purposes. For example, we might retain records of transactions or communications you had with us (such as support emails or purchase records, if any) for accounting or legal reasons. Also, some information may persist in routine backups for a short period, but will be purged according to our backup retention policy. Rest assured, any data retained for these purposes will not be used for any other purpose.
7. Security Measures
We are committed to protecting your personal information. Ancestroo implements commercially reasonable physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect the data we hold from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, and disclosure. These security measures include encryption of data in transit, encryption of data at rest, secure hosting environments, and restricted access to personal data by our staff on a need-to-know basis. We also rely on reputable third-party hosting providers that employ robust security practices to store your data.
8. Your Rights and Choices
In short: You have control over your personal information. Subject to applicable law, you can access, update, or delete your information, and make certain choices about how it is used. We will not deny you our services or treat you differently for exercising these rights.
- Access and Correction: You have the right to access the personal information we hold about you. This means you can request a copy of your information and ask us to correct any inaccuracies. Much of your basic information can be reviewed and updated directly by logging into your Ancestroo account. If you need assistance or wish to request a comprehensive export of your data, you can contact us and we will provide you with that information, barring certain exceptions under law.
- Deletion: Apart from deleting content or your entire account as described in Section 6 above, you can also request that we delete specific personal information we have about you. We will honor such requests and delete your data, provided we do not have a legal obligation or overriding legitimate interest to retain it. Once your account is deleted, or you request data deletion, you may lose access to Ancestroo services that rely on that data. (If you change your mind, deletion is permanent, so we may not be able to recover your stories once they're deleted.)
- Opt-Out of Communications: If you have subscribed to any optional Ancestroo newsletters or marketing emails, you have the choice to opt out at any time. You can click the "unsubscribe" link in any promotional email we send. Note that even if you opt out of marketing messages, we may still send you transactional or service-related communications (such as password resets or important notices about your account) as these are necessary for the functioning of the Services.
We will never discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.
To exercise your rights or make any requests regarding your personal information, please contact us using the information in the Contact Us section below. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests (for example, by confirming you have access to the email associated with your account) to ensure that we don't disclose or delete data improperly. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe and let you know if any additional information is required to process your request.
9. Age of Users
Ancestroo is intended for use by individuals who are 13 years of age or older. Children under the age of 13 are not permitted to register for or use the Services, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as Ancestroo evolves or as privacy regulations change. The date of the last modification will be posted at the beginning of this Policy. It is your responsibility to check from time to time for updates. By continuing to access or use the Services, you are indicating that you agree to be bound by the modified Policy.
11. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact us at hello@ancestroo.com. We are here to help and will do our best to address any issues.