Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-06-01

Welcome to Family Heirloom ("the service", "we", "us"). The service is built and run by a single independent operator. By creating an account or using the service, you agree to these Terms.

1. What this service is

Family Heirloom is a private space for families to share photos, recipes, and a family tree among themselves. Content is visible only to members of the family group it was uploaded to. We don't make content public, we don't sell access to it, and we don't use it for advertising.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you're under the age of majority in your jurisdiction, a parent or legal guardian must accept these Terms on your behalf.

3. Your account

You're responsible for keeping your password safe and for any activity that happens on your account. Tell us right away at [email protected] if you suspect your account has been accessed by someone else. One person per account, please.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the service to:

Upload content that is illegal where you live or where we operate — including, without limitation, content that sexually exploits minors, that violates intellectual property rights, or that incites violence.
Upload other people's personal information without their permission.
Attempt to gain access to other families' content, reverse engineer the service, or interfere with its operation.
Use the service to send spam, malware, or harassment.

We may remove content and terminate accounts that violate these rules. We try to be reasonable about it — if you think a removal was a mistake, write to us.

5. Your content

You own your content. Photos, recipes, names, relationships, anything you upload — it's yours. By using the service, you grant Brandon McGirl a limited, non-exclusive license to store, process, and display your content for the purpose of providing the service to you and the other members of your family group. This license ends when your content is deleted (see "Cancellation and deletion" below).

We don't claim ownership, we don't license your content to third parties, and we don't use it to train AI models.

6. Subscriptions, billing, and refunds

Paid plans are billed in advance through Stripe, either monthly or annually depending on your selection. Promotional codes may reduce the price for an initial period. After the promotional period, the plan renews at the regular rate until cancelled.

You can cancel any time from the Manage Billing page (which opens Stripe's hosted billing portal). Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period — you keep access until then. We don't issue prorated refunds for the remaining time in a billing period.

Family members other than the account owner may contribute toward a family's bill via the in-app Contribute flow. Contributions become account credit on the family's billing and are applied automatically to the next invoice. Contributions are not refundable.

7. Cancellation and data deletion

When you cancel a paid plan, your family group and all the content in it — photos, recipes, tree, folders, members — are permanently deleted at the end of the paid period. There is no extended grace period. Renew before the period ends if you want to keep your data.

If you cancel and then renew before the deletion date, everything is restored seamlessly. Once the deletion happens, content cannot be recovered.

8. Service availability

Brandon McGirl is a sole operator. We make our best effort to keep the service running and the data safe, using industry-standard providers (Cloudflare for storage and CDN, Backblaze for backups, Stripe for payments). We do not, however, guarantee uninterrupted availability, and we reserve the right to perform maintenance or, in rare cases, discontinue the service with reasonable notice.

9. Security

We do our best to secure the service: passwords are hashed with modern algorithms, content is served only over HTTPS, and we use providers that are themselves audited and security-reviewed. That said, no online service is 100% secure. You use the service at your own risk.

We will notify affected users in a reasonable timeframe if we ever experience a breach affecting their content.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DATA WILL NEVER BE LOST, ALTHOUGH WE WORK HARD TO PREVENT THAT.

11. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, BRANDON MCGIRL WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOSS OF DATA, PROFITS, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY, IF ANY, IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS.

12. Indemnification

You agree to defend and indemnify Brandon McGirl from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from content you upload or your violation of these Terms.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes we'll prompt you to re-accept the updated version inside the app. Continued use after a change means you accept the new Terms.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction where Brandon McGirl resides. Any disputes will be resolved in the courts of that jurisdiction, unless local consumer-protection law requires otherwise.

15. Contact

Questions, complaints, takedown requests, or anything else — write to us at [email protected].