Privacy policy

Last updated 24 October 2026

fTree is a family tree for families to build together, on the website at ftree.co.zw and in the fTree app. It is run by Codestallion in Zimbabwe (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what we collect, why, who else handles it, and the choices you have. We wrote it to be read, not skimmed past.

The short version

• Your family tree belongs to your family. It is only visible to the people the tree’s owner invites.
• We don’t sell your information, we don’t show you adverts, and we don’t use your family’s data to train anyone’s AI.
• Details of living relatives are hidden from members who can only look, unless the tree’s editors choose otherwise.
• You can download your tree, and delete your account, at any time.

What we collect

Your account

• Your name, email address and password (stored only as a secure hash).
• If you sign in with Google or Apple: the account identifier they give us, and your name and email address. We don’t receive your Google or Apple password, contacts or anything else in that account.
• Security records: the browsers and phones you have signed in on (a device name such as “Chrome on Android”, its IP address and when it was last used), so we can ask for an emailed code on a device we don’t recognise. If you turn on two-factor sign-in or passkeys, the details needed for those.

Your family tree

Everything you and your relatives add: people’s names, dates and places of birth, marriage and death, where they live, totems and praise names, relationships, life events, stories, photos and captions, suggestions, and the story book. Some of this is about people who are not fTree users — including living relatives. If you add someone, please make sure they would be comfortable with it, and remove details if they ask you to.

How fTree is used

• A history of changes to each tree (who added or changed what, and when), which members of that tree can see.
• Invitations you create, and who accepted them.
• Basic technical logs (such as IP addresses and errors) that our servers keep for a short time to keep fTree running and secure.

The app

The app keeps a copy of what you last saw, and the photos it has downloaded, on your phone so it still works without signal. It stores your sign-in token encrypted on the phone. It uses your camera and photo library only when you choose to add a photo. It does not track you or collect your location.

Why we use it

• To run fTree for you — showing your tree, keeping it in sync between the website and the app, and letting the people you invite see and add to it.
• To keep accounts safe — sign-in codes for new devices, and spotting misuse.
• To email you — sign-in codes, email verification, password resets and replies to your questions. We don’t send marketing emails.
• To improve fTree — overall counts (for example, how many trees exist), never by reading your family’s stories.

Who else handles your information

We use a small number of trusted services to run fTree. Each only receives what it needs:

• Laravel Cloud — hosts the website, the database and stored photos.
• Cloudflare — delivers the website securely and protects it from attacks.
• Resend — sends fTree’s emails.
• Google and Apple — only if you choose to sign in with them.
• Anthropic — only when an editor uses the family assistant. The message they type, the conversation so far and a list of the people in the tree (names, dates, places and relationships) are sent so the assistant can suggest changes. Anthropic processes this to answer and does not use it to train its models.
• OpenStreetMap — place names (such as “Gutu, Zimbabwe”) are looked up to place them on the family map. Only the place name is sent, never who it belongs to.

Some of these services store or process data outside Zimbabwe. Where they do, they protect it under their own security and privacy commitments. We don’t sell or rent personal information to anyone, and we only share it otherwise if the law requires us to.

Who can see a family tree

Only members of that tree. The tree’s owner decides who is invited and whether each person can only look or can also edit. Members who can only look see names but not the details of living relatives, unless the tree’s settings allow it. fTree’s administrators can access a tree only when needed to keep the service running, to fix a problem you’ve asked us to look at, or where the law requires it.

How long we keep it

We keep your account for as long as you have one. Family trees are kept while the family uses them. When you delete your account, your account and sign-in details are deleted; what you added to a family tree stays part of that tree for the rest of the family, unless the tree is deleted or you ask us to remove it. Backups are deleted on a rolling basis within about 30 days.

Your choices and rights

Under Zimbabwe’s Cyber and Data Protection Act and similar laws elsewhere, you can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, correct it, have it deleted, or object to how we use it. Much of this you can do yourself:

• Edit or remove people, stories and photos you can edit, in the tree.
• Download your family tree as a GEDCOM file (editors).
• See and sign out the devices you use, in Settings → Security.
• Delete your account in Settings → Profile.

For anything else — including a request about information someone else added about you — email us at hello@codestallion.africa. If you’re not happy with our answer, you can complain to POTRAZ, Zimbabwe’s data protection authority.

Security

fTree is served only over encrypted connections. Passwords are hashed, photos are stored privately and shown through short-lived links, and new devices need an emailed code. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong password and tell us straight away if you think your account has been misused.

Children

You must be at least 16 to create an fTree account. Family trees naturally include children; parents and guardians should decide what is recorded about them.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we’ll tell you on fTree or by email before the change takes effect. The date at the top shows when it last changed.

Contact

Codestallion, Zimbabwe — hello@codestallion.africa