Built to protect the people inside.
Dearest Ellie was built around one principle: the people in these archives deserve to be protected. Here's how we think about privacy.
Your stories belong to your family
We do not sell your data, train AI on your content, or share your archive with anyone outside the people you choose. Your memories are yours.
Private by default
Every archive is private until you decide otherwise. Nothing is published to a Life Page without your approval. You choose who sees what, section by section.
Contributor submissions are pending until you approve
When a contributor shares a memory, it is visible only to you until you approve it. You can edit, keep private, or decline any submission — nothing goes live without your review.
End-to-end encryption in transit
All data is transmitted over TLS. Media files are stored encrypted at rest. Access is controlled by a permissions model you manage.
You own the export
You can export your full archive at any time — memories, letters, media, timeline — in open formats. If you ever leave, you leave with everything.
We keep what we need, nothing more
We store the content you give us, the people you invite, and enough to run the service. We do not build advertising profiles or sell behavioral data.
You can delete your data
You can delete an entire archive at any time — every memory, photo, letter, and note is permanently removed. You can delete your account too, once you've exported or handed off any archive you steward, so no family loses their archive when you leave.
Children are protected first
A contributor marked as a child never has their memories shared until a named guardian approves. We don't ask children for more than the memory they want to share, and a steward reviews everything before it appears.
AI is optional, and never trained on your family
The Family Archivist is off until a steward turns it on, and we record who gave consent and when. AI-assisted content is clearly marked and reviewed before it's shared. We never train models on your private content.