Privacy

Your family. Your stories.

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.