Heirloom · Privacy

Your family's stories belong to your family.

Last updated 16 June 2026

Heirloom exists to keep something irreplaceable — a parent's voice, a grandparent's memories. We treat that material with the care it deserves. This policy explains, in plain language, what we collect, why, and the promises we will not break. It is written to meet Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Who we areThe people behind Heirloom

Heirloom is a keepsake life-story service and the companion product to SeniorsLink.ca. We operate from British Columbia, Canada. When this policy says “we,” it means the team that builds and runs Heirloom.

What we collectThe information you choose to share

Account details — the name and email of the family member who sets up an archive, so we can save your place and let you sign back in.
The life story itself — the recordings, transcripts, written chapters, photos, and timeline that your loved one and your family create. This is the heart of the service, and it is yours.
Family members you invite — names and emails of relatives you choose to give access to, or who send in a question.
Basic technical information needed to run the service securely (e.g. a sign-in token). We do not build advertising profiles.

ConsentNothing happens without it

Consent isn't a checkbox we bury — it's built into the product. The person whose story is being preserved (or a family member acting with their authority) signs a clear consent before recording, and can set exactly what is permitted: recording, transcription, compiling a book, companion use, and — separately and off by default — anything involving their voice. You can withdraw consent at any time, and we honour it.

How we use itOnly to make the keepsake you asked for

To hold gentle interviews, weave the answers into chapters, build the archive, and print the book.
To let the family members you authorize read and listen — now, or only after your loved one has passed, exactly as you decide.
Every published chapter is approved by a named family member before it is printed or shared. That approval is recorded on a tamper-evident log.

Four promises we will not break

We never sell your family's information. Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone.
We never invent words. Every sentence traces back to something your loved one actually said.
Voices are real recordings, by default and by design. Heirloom never generates speech in a living person's voice. One carefully-guarded exception exists: after a loved one has passed, immediate family may choose a Memorial Voice — a recreation built from their real recordings, created only with the family's written consent, labeled "a recreation, not an original recording" everywhere it plays, and revocable (permanently deleted) at any time.
It's yours, forever. One payment. You can read, listen, and download your whole archive at any time, with no subscription standing between your family and their memories.

Who can see itDisclosure & sharing

Your archive is private to the people you name. With your explicit, revocable consent, Heirloom can share a loved one's own recorded words with the SeniorsLink companion app so it can reminisce in their real words — and only while that consent is switched on. We use a small number of trusted service providers (for secure hosting, email delivery, and book printing) who may only process what's needed to deliver the keepsake, under confidentiality obligations.

Where it livesStorage & security

We protect your information with appropriate safeguards and keep an append-only audit record of sensitive actions (consents, approvals, posthumous unlocks). Your family's voice recordings and photographs are stored on Canadian servers, in Toronto; some supporting account and story data is processed by our trusted hosting providers in North America. No system is perfectly secure, but we treat your stories as the irreplaceable things they are. We keep your archive for as long as your family keeps it with us — that's the point of an heirloom — and when you ask us to delete it, we delete it rather than "archive" it, keeping only what the law requires us to keep.

Your rightsAccess, correction, export, deletion

See everything. The archive is yours to read and listen to in full, any time.
Correct it. You review and approve every chapter; you can ask for changes before anything is finalized.
Take it with you. Download a complete, self-contained copy of the archive that opens in any browser, with no account required.
Delete it. Ask us to permanently delete an archive and we will, subject to any record we're legally required to keep.

ChildrenNot directed at minors

Heirloom is created by and for adults preserving an older loved one's life story. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under the age of majority except where a family includes a child's name or photo within their own private story.

Changes & contactReaching us

If we update this policy, we'll revise the date above and, for meaningful changes, let account holders know. Questions about your privacy, or a request to access, correct, or delete information, can be sent through our contact page — it reaches the person accountable for privacy at Heirloom, and we'll respond promptly. If you're not satisfied with our answer, you also have the right to raise a concern with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Read our Terms of Service →