Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated: 26 June 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Lineamy.com (“we”, “us”, “our”), the operator of Lineamy.com (the “Service”), collects, uses, shares and protects personal information. We are committed to handling your information lawfully and transparently, including in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) of South Africa.
By creating an account or using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Policy.
1. Who we are
For the purposes of POPIA, Lineamy.com is the “responsible party” for the personal information described below that we process to operate the Service. If you record information about other people in your family trees, you act as the responsible party for that information, and we process it as an “operator” on your behalf (see section 7).
You can reach us about privacy matters at privacy@lineamy.com.
2. Information we collect
2.1 Information you give us when you register
- Your name and surname;
- Your email address;
- A password, which we store only as a secure cryptographic hash — never in plain text;
- Contact and address details you provide, such as street address, province/state, postal code, country and phone number;
- If you enable two-factor authentication (2FA), a secret used to verify your authentication codes.
2.2 Content you create
The Service exists to let you build family trees. The information you enter or upload may include names, dates and places of birth, marriage, divorce, death and burial, relationships (including biological, adopted, foster and step relationships), notes, source citations, and documents or images you upload. This content may contain personal information about other people, including living relatives.
2.3 Information collected automatically
- Technical data such as your IP address, browser type and device information;
- Essential cookies needed to keep you signed in (a session cookie) and to remember that you have seen the welcome tour;
- Basic, non-identifying usage information generated as the Service operates (for example, in-tree search counts on your own trees).
We do not use advertising cookies and we do not sell your information.
2.4 Third-party resources
Some pages load web fonts and software libraries from third-party content delivery networks (for example Google Fonts and cdnjs). When your browser requests these files, the relevant provider may receive your IP address and standard request information. We do not control those providers’ processing and recommend reviewing their own privacy notices.
3. How we use your information
- To create and maintain your account and provide the Service;
- To authenticate you and keep your account secure, including 2FA and protection against repeated failed sign-ins;
- To store, display and process the family-tree content you create, according to the visibility you choose;
- To send essential service messages, such as password-reset and email-verification messages;
- To maintain, troubleshoot and improve the Service;
- To comply with our legal obligations and to protect our rights and the rights of others.
4. Lawful basis for processing
Under POPIA we process personal information where: it is necessary to perform our agreement with you (to provide the Service); it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests or those of a third party in a balanced way (such as keeping the Service secure); you have consented; or processing is required to comply with the law. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time, although this may affect your ability to use the Service.
5. Visibility, sharing and disclosure
You control who can see each tree through its visibility setting:
- Private — visible only to you and to collaborators you invite;
- Unlisted — reachable only by someone who has the exact link;
- Public — visible to anyone on the internet and potentially indexable by search engines.
If you mark a tree as unlisted or public, any personal information it contains — including about living people — may be viewed by others. You are responsible for the content you publish (see section 7). To protect living relatives, you can mark individuals as living, which limits the personal detail shown to people other than you and your collaborators.
We do not sell personal information. We may disclose information: to service providers who host and operate the infrastructure on our behalf, under appropriate confidentiality obligations; where required by law, regulation or valid legal process; and to protect the rights, safety and property of our users, the public or us.
6. Children
Accounts are intended for users aged 18 or older, and the Service is not directed at children for the purpose of opening an account. Family-tree content may, of course, include information about children and deceased persons; where it does, you are responsible for having a lawful basis to record and (if applicable) publish that information.
7. Information about other people
When you add information about other living people to your trees, you are responsible for ensuring you have a lawful basis to do so, for handling that information responsibly, and for honouring any request from those individuals. We process such information on your instructions as part of providing the Service. If someone contacts us about information in a tree they do not control, we will generally refer them to the account holder who manages that tree.
8. How we protect your information
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including password hashing, optional two-factor authentication, transport encryption (HTTPS), access controls, and restricted direct access to uploaded files. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and to address vulnerabilities responsibly.
9. Retention
We keep your account information and content for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service. When a tree, document or your account is deleted, the associated records are removed from our active systems, and related content (such as the people, families and documents within a deleted tree) is removed together with it. We may retain limited information where necessary to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes or enforce our agreements. Routine backups may persist for a limited period before being overwritten.
10. International transfers
Our hosting and the third-party resources referred to in section 2.4 may process information on servers located outside South Africa. Where information is transferred across borders, we take reasonable steps so that it continues to receive an appropriate level of protection, consistent with POPIA.
11. Your rights
Subject to applicable law, you have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you;
- Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information (much of which you can edit directly in your account);
- Request deletion of your information or account;
- Object to certain processing, and withdraw consent where we rely on it;
- Obtain a copy of your tree data — you can export your trees in the standard GEDCOM format from within the Service;
- Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (see section 13).
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@lineamy.com. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.
12. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, notify you. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.
13. Contact & the Information Regulator
For any privacy question or request, contact us at privacy@lineamy.com.
You also have the right to complain to South Africa’s data-protection authority:
The Information Regulator (South Africa)
JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001
Email: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
Complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
Website: inforegulator.org.za