TreeHouse

Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

TreeHouse is operated by Treehouse App, LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company with a registered address at 3 Whitewater Ln, Egg Harbor Township, NJ 08234-7376, United States (“TreeHouse”, “we”, “our”, or “us”). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect personal information when you use the TreeHouse mobile application, this website, and related services (collectively, the “Service”).

If you have any questions about this Policy or your personal data, contact us at treehousefamilyapp@gmail.com.

2. Scope

This Policy applies to personal data we process as a controller in connection with the Service. It does not apply to payment processing performed by the Apple App Store or Google Play, which is governed by Apple’s and Google’s own terms and privacy policies. SMS messages we send for account verification are addressed in our separate SMS Privacy Policy.

3. Information we collect

Information you provide to us:

  • Account details: email address, phone number, name, date of birth (if you choose to provide it), profile photo, password (stored only as a salted hash).
  • Family content: family and relationship data, family-tree entries, photos, videos, audio, stories, comments, future messages, events, and family invitations you create or upload.
  • Communications: messages you send to us for support or other purposes.

Information collected automatically:

  • Device and technical information: device model, operating system and version, app version, language, time zone, mobile carrier (where applicable), and crash diagnostics.
  • Log and usage information: IP address, access times, pages or screens viewed, actions taken in the app, and approximate location derived from IP.
  • Push notification tokens issued by your device’s operating system to allow us to deliver notifications.
  • Subscription status received from the Apple App Store or Google Play indicating whether you have an active in-app subscription (we do not receive your full payment-card details).

We do not use cookies or similar advertising trackers in the mobile app. The marketing website may use strictly necessary cookies for basic functionality.

4. How we use your information

We use personal data to:

  • Create and maintain your account, authenticate you, and operate the Service.
  • Store, transmit, back up, and display the content you and your family members upload, including generating thumbnails and resized image variants.
  • Send transactional messages, such as one-time passcodes, security alerts, push notifications about activity in your family group, and important service updates.
  • Provide customer support and respond to your requests.
  • Detect, prevent, and investigate fraud, abuse, security incidents, and violations of our Terms.
  • Maintain, debug, and improve the Service, including diagnosing crashes and performance issues.
  • Comply with legal obligations and enforce our agreements.

We do not sell or rent your personal data, we do not use your data for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not engage in automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects about you.

5. Legal bases for processing (EEA, UK, and other GDPR-equivalent jurisdictions)

Where the EU GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on the following legal bases:

  • Performance of a contract — to provide the Service you request, including account creation, content storage, and family-sharing features.
  • Legitimate interests — to keep the Service secure, prevent abuse, debug and improve features, and operate our business, balanced against your rights.
  • Consent — for push notifications on platforms that require it, and any other processing where we ask for your permission. You may withdraw consent at any time.
  • Legal obligation — to comply with applicable law, court orders, and lawful requests from public authorities.

6. How we share information

We share personal data only as described below:

  • Other family members. Content you add to a family group (photos, videos, stories, comments, family-tree entries, events, future messages) is visible to other members of that family group according to their role (Owner, Editor, or Viewer). Once content has been shared into a family group, leaving the group does not automatically remove that content from other members’ devices or copies they may have already viewed or downloaded.
  • Service providers (sub-processors). We use the following third parties to operate the Service. They process personal data on our behalf under contractual data-protection terms:
    • Supabase, Inc. — authentication, database, and serverless functions (United States).
    • Cloudflare, Inc. — object storage for media files via Cloudflare R2, plus image-variant generation (global edge network).
    • Apple Inc. and Google LLC — in-app subscription billing and platform push delivery (Apple Push Notification service and Firebase Cloud Messaging).
  • Legal and safety. We may disclose information when we believe in good faith that it is necessary to comply with law, respond to lawful requests, enforce our Terms, protect the rights, property, or safety of TreeHouse, our users, or others, or prevent fraud or illegal activity.
  • Business transfers. If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets, personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any change in ownership or use of your personal data.

7. International data transfers

TreeHouse is based in the United States. The Service may store and process personal data in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other countries where our service providers operate. Where we transfer personal data out of the EEA, the UK, or other jurisdictions with cross-border transfer restrictions, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

8. Data retention

We retain personal data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service. When you delete your account or otherwise request deletion, we will hard-delete your personal data from our active systems within a reasonable period. Residual copies in routine encrypted backups are purged within thirty (30) days. We may retain limited information for longer where required to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud or abuse, or enforce our agreements.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

EEA, UK, and similar jurisdictions (GDPR / UK GDPR): the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to processing of your personal data; the right to data portability; the right to withdraw consent; and the right to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection supervisory authority.

California (CCPA / CPRA): the right to know what personal information we collect, use, and disclose; the right to delete; the right to correct inaccurate information; the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information (we do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising); the right to limit the use of sensitive personal information; and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising your rights.

Other US states (including Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Oregon, Texas, and others with comprehensive privacy laws) provide similar rights to access, delete, correct, and opt out of certain processing.

You can exercise most rights from within the app (for example, by editing your profile or deleting your account). For other requests, email treehousefamilyapp@gmail.com. We will verify your request using information already associated with your account, and we will respond within the time required by applicable law. You may also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf, subject to verification.

10. Children

The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Account holders must be at least 13 years old. Family-tree entries about children (for example, a parent recording their child’s name and date of birth as part of a family tree) are treated as personal data of the account holder who entered them, not as a separate child’s account. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account or that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13, please contact us at treehousefamilyapp@gmail.com and we will promptly delete the information.

11. Security

We use technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal data, including encryption in transit (TLS), encryption at rest where supported by our infrastructure, access controls for our personnel, and routine logging and monitoring. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for the activity that occurs under your account.

12. Family-shared content — important notice

TreeHouse is designed for collaborative sharing within a family group. Content you upload to a family group is, by design, visible to other members of that group. Family Owners control membership, and Editors and Viewers may have varying levels of access depending on the family’s settings. Before uploading photos, videos, or other content, consider whether you are comfortable with all current and future members of that family group seeing it. Removing yourself from a family does not retract content already shared into the group, and other members may retain copies they have already downloaded or saved.

13. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you through the Service or by email before the changes take effect, and we will update the “Last updated” date above. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

14. Contact us

For questions, requests, or complaints relating to this Policy or our processing of your personal data, contact us at:

Treehouse App, LLC
3 Whitewater Ln
Egg Harbor Township, NJ 08234-7376
United States
treehousefamilyapp@gmail.com