Is my archive really private? Who can technically see it?

Everything in an archive carries one of five visibility levels and starts at the most private one. Family members see what's shared at the family level, contributors see what's shared with contributors, and the public sees only what's been explicitly published — an item appears on the public Life Page only if both the memory and its chapter allow it. Nobody outside those circles has a way in.

The honest fine print is about us: like any service, DearestEllie's operators can technically access stored data. Our rule is that we do so only when needed for support you've asked for or for safety, and those accesses are audit-logged — recorded, attributable, and reviewable. We will always tell you the truth about this rather than imply a mathematical impossibility that no hosted service can honestly claim.