Privacy Policy & Disclaimer

Famgrid(“we”, “us”, or “our”) operates a private family directory platform. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and what rights you have in relation to it.

Famgrid is a private, invite-only platform. We do not sell advertising, profile users for marketing purposes, or make family data publicly accessible. This policy applies to all users of the platform, including community administrators, members, and household members added by others.

1. Who This Policy Applies To

This policy applies to:

• Registered members who create their own Famgrid account.
• Community administrators who set up and manage a family community.
• Household members added by a registered member (including spouses, children, and dependants who may not have their own login).
• Visitors to the platform who have not yet registered.

2. Data We Collect

2a. Information You Provide

When you register or use Famgrid, you may provide:

• Account credentials: name, email address, and password.
• Profile information: phone number, WhatsApp number, home and work address, city, country, occupation, employer, industry, and photograph.
• Family relationship data: marital status, branch/lineage, and links to other members.
• Household member data: names, ages, and profile details of spouses, children, and dependants added to your household.
• Memorial records: names, dates of birth and death, burial location, photographs, and notes for deceased family members.
• Community data: family codes, branch structures, and administrative notes.
• Communications: messages sent to us via the contact form or support channels.

2b. Information Collected Automatically

When you use the platform, we automatically collect limited technical data:

• Log data: IP address, browser type, operating system, pages visited, and timestamps.
• Session cookies: strictly necessary to maintain your login session.

We do not use advertising cookies, third-party analytics trackers, or any fingerprinting technology.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your personal data only for the following purposes:

• To provide the Famgrid platform and all its features (directory, family tree, search, export).
• To authenticate your identity and maintain your session.
• To enable other members of your family community to find and contact you.
• To send transactional emails (account verification, password reset, material policy changes).
• To allow administrators to manage membership, roles, and access within their community.
• To maintain an audit trail of changes within each community.
• To detect, investigate, and prevent misuse, fraud, or security incidents.
• To comply with applicable legal obligations.

We do notuse your data for advertising, behavioural profiling, or sale to third parties — ever.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

We process personal data under the following legal bases (relevant to users in the EU, UK, and similar jurisdictions):

• Contractual necessity: to provide the service you have signed up for.
• Legitimate interests: to maintain platform security, prevent abuse, and improve the service — balanced against your privacy interests.
• Consent: where you voluntarily submit optional profile information (e.g., photograph, occupation).
• Legal obligation: where we are required by law to process or retain data.

For household members who do not have their own login, the registering member takes responsibility for ensuring that the addition of their data is appropriate and, where required by law, consented to.

5. Children's Data

Famgrid allows registered members to add minor children as household members. We recognise that this involves processing personal data relating to children, which requires particular care.

• Children under 13 may not create their own Famgrid account.
• Household members (including children of any age) may be added by a parent or guardian who takes responsibility for the appropriateness of that data.
• We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13 independently.
• If you believe that a child's data has been submitted without appropriate consent, please contact us immediately using the details in Section 13.

In jurisdictions with specific children's privacy laws (including COPPA in the United States and equivalent regulations elsewhere), we rely on the parent or guardian's consent when they add a child as a household member.

6. Administrator Responsibility

Each Famgrid community is managed by one or more administrators. Administrators have elevated responsibilities:

• Administrators are responsible for ensuring that members are added with appropriate consent and that data entered into the community is accurate and lawful.
• Famgrid acts as a data processor on behalf of community administrators, who are the data controllers for their community's content.
• Administrators must not add members without their knowledge or consent.
• If you have a concern about data held within a specific community, your first point of contact should be that community's administrator.

Famgrid reserves the right to suspend or terminate communities where administrator conduct is found to violate this policy or applicable law.

7. Data Sharing

7a. Within Your Family Community

Your profile data is visible to other authenticated members of your family community. The scope of visibility is governed by your community's administrator settings and your own profile completeness.

7b. Service Providers

We share data with a limited number of trusted third-party service providers who help us operate the platform:

• Cloud infrastructure and hosting providers.
• Email delivery providers (for transactional emails only).
• Payment processors (for subscription billing; we do not store payment card data).

All service providers are bound by data processing agreements that prohibit them from using your data for any purpose other than providing services to us.

7c. Legal Disclosure

We may disclose personal data if required to do so by law, court order, or regulatory authority, or where we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to protect the safety of any person or to prevent serious harm.

7d. No Sale of Data

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal data to any third party, under any circumstances.

8. International Data Transfers

Famgrid serves family communities across multiple countries. Your data may be stored on servers located in a different country from where you reside. Where we transfer data outside your home jurisdiction, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with applicable data protection law (including, where relevant, GDPR Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent mechanisms).

9. Data Retention

• Your personal data is retained for as long as your account or your household membership remains active.
• Community data is retained for as long as the community subscription is active.
• Memorial records are retained indefinitely unless an administrator removes them, as they serve a long-term historical and family record purpose.
• Audit log data is retained for a minimum of 12 months.
• Following account deletion, we may retain certain data for a limited period where required by law or for fraud prevention purposes.

You may request deletion of your account and associated personal data at any time (see Section 10).

10. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: request that inaccurate or incomplete data be corrected.
• Deletion: request that your personal data be deleted (subject to any legal retention obligations).
• Portability: request your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Restriction: request that we limit processing of your data in certain circumstances.
• Objection: object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Withdrawal of consent: where processing is based on consent, withdraw it at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in Section 13. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

If you are located in the EU or UK and believe we have not handled your data lawfully, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

11. Security

• All data is encrypted in transit using HTTPS/TLS.
• Data at rest is encrypted using industry-standard encryption.
• Passwords are hashed and never stored in plain text.
• Access to production data is restricted to authorised personnel only.
• The platform undergoes independent security audits annually.
• Daily backups are maintained and tested.

No system is perfectly secure. In the event of a data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify relevant supervisory authorities within 72 hours and will inform affected users without undue delay, as required by applicable law.

12. Cookies

We use strictly necessary session cookies to keep you logged in while you use Famgrid. We do not use:

• Advertising or marketing cookies.
• Third-party analytics cookies (e.g., Google Analytics).
• Tracking pixels or cross-site fingerprinting.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling session cookies will prevent you from logging in to the platform.

13. Contact Us

For any questions about this Privacy Policy, to exercise your data rights, or to report a concern about data held within a community, please contact us via the contact form. We aim to respond to all privacy-related enquiries within 30 days.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law, our practices, or the platform's features. When we make material changes, we will:

• Update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this document.
• Notify all active community administrators by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect.
• Post a notice within the platform.

Continued use of Famgrid after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. If you do not agree with a material change, you may request deletion of your account before it takes effect.

15. Fictitious Data Notice

All names, photographs, family structures, and personal details used in Famgrid's own demonstrations, marketing materials, promotional content, and sample communities are entirely fictitious and created for illustrative purposes only. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or deceased, or to real events, places, or family structures, is purely coincidental and unintentional. Famgrid and its operators expressly disclaim any responsibility or liability for any such resemblance.

16. Disclaimer of Warranties

Famgridis provided “as is” without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not warrant that the platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of harmful components. Use of the platform is at your own risk.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Famgrid and its operators shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, the platform.