Privacy policy

Last updated 1 October 2026

White Glove Genealogy researches family history. We trace surname lines back through old records, many of them handwritten. Our research engine uses AI to help read those records. Every finding we give you cites its source, and any reading we are unsure of is marked [?].

This page explains what information we collect about you, why we collect it, who helps us handle it, and how long we keep it. It also explains your choices. We have tried to keep it short and plain. If anything is unclear, please contact us at the enquiry form on our home page.

What we collect today

Right now this website does one thing with your information: it takes enquiries and waitlist sign-ups. When you use the enquiry form, we collect:

your name;
your email address;
your message;
a surname you would like researched, if you choose to give one;
the plan you are interested in, if you choose to tell us.

We also record two technical details. The first is your browser’s “user agent,” a short line of text that says which browser and device you used. The second is a scrambled version of your internet (IP) address. We scramble it with a one-way method called a salted SHA-256 hash. We do not store your actual IP address. We use these two details only to stop spam and to limit how often the form can be sent from one place.

Analytics, cookies and your browser

We use Vercel Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights to see how many people visit and how fast our pages load. These tools do not use cookies. We do not use advertising trackers. Because of this, we do not show a cookie banner.

This website sets no cookies today.

Our research log page stores one small note in your browser (in what is called “local storage”). It remembers the last log entry your browser saw, so we can mark what is new since your last visit. That note stays on your device. It is never sent to us.

What we will collect when accounts open

We plan to offer client accounts soon. When they open, and only if you create an account or place an order, we will also collect:

Account details, such as your name, email and sign-in information. Sign-in will be handled by Clerk.
Family trees and GEDCOM files that you upload or that we build for you.
DNA match data, but only if you choose to share it with us.
Payment details. Payments will be handled by Stripe, with Affirm for financing. Your card details go straight to Stripe. We never see or store them.
Record images, such as scans of archive records found during your research. These will be stored with Vercel Blob.

We will update this page before any of this starts.

Why we use your information

To reply to your enquiry and keep you posted if you join the waitlist.
To carry out the research you ask for and deliver your results.
To take payment and keep the records the law requires.
To keep the site secure and free of spam.
To see, in general terms, how the site is used so we can improve it.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it for advertising. We do not use it to build advertising profiles.

The people in your research

Our work is mostly about ancestors who have died. It may also include living relatives whom you name or who appear in the records. We follow your instructions about what is included in the reports and other materials we prepare for you. If you would like a living person left out, tell us and we will do so.

Companies that help us

Like most small businesses, we use trusted service providers to run the site and the research. They handle information on our behalf and only for the purposes we set. They are:

Vercel, which hosts the website and provides our cookieless analytics.
Neon, which runs our database.
Resend, which sends our emails.
Clerk, for sign-in, once accounts open.
Stripe and Affirm, for payments and financing, once checkout opens.
Anthropic, whose AI model, Claude, helps us read records and write up research.

Your information is not used to train AI models. This is subject to the terms of the AI provider, which we check and rely on. Some of these providers may store or process information in countries other than your own, including the United States.

How long we keep information

Enquiries and waitlist sign-ups are kept for 24 months. Then they are deleted.
Account and research data are kept while your account is open. If you ask us to delete them, we will do so within 90 days.
Records the law requires, such as tax records of payments, are kept for as long as the law says, even after a deletion request.

Keeping information safe

We use reputable providers and sensible safeguards. Information travels over encrypted connections. We store a scrambled version of your IP address rather than the real one. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect what you trust us with.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

show you the personal information we hold about you;
correct anything that is wrong;
delete your information;
give you a copy of your information in a form you can take elsewhere.

We honor the privacy rights given by US state laws, such as California’s. If you visit from the European Union or the United Kingdom, we also honor your rights under the GDPR. These include the right to object to some uses of your information and to complain to your local data protection authority.

To use any of these rights, contact us at the enquiry form on our home page. We may need to confirm who you are before we act. We will not treat you differently for using your rights.

Children

This website is not meant for anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you think a child has sent us information, please tell us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We will update this page as our services grow, especially when accounts and payments open. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If we make an important change, we will point it out clearly on the site or by email.

Contact us

Questions or requests about your privacy are welcome. Please contact White Glove Genealogy at the enquiry form on our home page.