Privacy policy
Last updated: October 14, 2026
Kinroll is made by The Open Apps, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("we", "us"). This policy covers the Kinroll Family Tree plugin in ChatGPT, the website kinroll.ambientapp.ai, and the printed books ordered through it. It explains what we collect, why, who receives it, how long we keep it, and how to delete it.
The short version
- Kinroll keeps the family tree you build: the people, dates, places and relationships you add, and the transcriptions of documents you share, so every fact keeps its source.
- Kinroll doesn't know who you are. It keeps your trees under a scrambled form of the anonymous ID that ChatGPT sends, never your name, email address or chat.
- Kinroll never receives the photos or scans you share in ChatGPT. ChatGPT reads them and sends Kinroll the transcription and the facts it states.
- Government ID numbers (Social Security, national ID, passport and similar numbers) are removed from every text before it is saved, and from imported GEDCOM files.
- Living people's dates, places and notes are kept out of everything that leaves your tree: GEDCOM exports, posters and printed books show only their names, or "Private".
- No ads, no analytics, no cookies, no selling of data.
- Say "Delete my family tree" in ChatGPT to delete a tree and everything in it at once.
What we collect
| What | Where it comes from | Why we need it |
|---|---|---|
| A scrambled (hashed) form of the anonymous user ID that ChatGPT sends with each request | ChatGPT | To keep your trees yours, in any chat. We never receive your name, email address or chat history from ChatGPT. |
| Your family trees: names, other names, sex, dates and places of births, marriages, deaths and other events, relationships, short notes, and whether someone is living | You, in ChatGPT, typed or read from your documents by ChatGPT | To build and show your tree, export it, and lay it out as a poster or book |
| Sources: the kind of document (for example a birth certificate), its date, place and issuer, and ChatGPT's transcription of it | You, in ChatGPT | So every fact keeps the record it came from |
| GEDCOM files you import | You, attached in ChatGPT | To build a tree from them. We read the file once and keep the tree, not the file; ID numbers, causes of death and health, religion or ethnicity facts in it are left out. |
| Book and poster files: the print copy of your tree they are made from (living people by name only), page images, PDFs and posters | Made by us from your tree when you ask for a book preview or a poster | To show you previews and give you the poster and the print files |
| Order details, if you order a printed book: your name, shipping address, phone number and email address, the copies, the amount paid and the shipping status | You, on the checkout page; Stripe; Lulu | To take payment, print and ship your book and tell you about your order |
| Technical logs: the time, the page or tool used, counts (for example how many people a call added), and errors. For requests from ChatGPT, also the app type and language ChatGPT reports, your approximate country, and scrambled forms of the user and conversation IDs | Your browser or ChatGPT | To keep the service running and secure and to find problems. Logs never contain names, dates, places, transcriptions or file links. We don't store IP addresses in logs. |
| Support messages: your email address and message | You | To answer you |
We don't collect contacts, precise location, payment card numbers (Stripe handles them), photos or ChatGPT conversations. We don't use your data to train AI models.
Living relatives. Family trees name people who never signed up. You decide what you add about them, and you should only add what they would be comfortable with. Kinroll treats anyone born within the last 100 years without a death record as living, and when nothing is known about a person, treats them as living too. Their details stay in your own tree and out of every export, poster and printed book, unless you ask for a full GEDCOM backup for yourself.
Sensitive information. Kinroll asks ChatGPT to leave causes of death and other medical details out of transcriptions; a cause of death that is still there under its label is replaced with "[medical detail removed]" before saving. Facts about health, religion, ethnicity or similar sensitive matters are not saved, from chat or from GEDCOM files, and government ID numbers are removed. Please don't add such details about living people in notes either.
About ChatGPT. You use Kinroll in ChatGPT, where OpenAI handles the conversation under OpenAI's privacy policy. We send ChatGPT the parts of your tree a request needs: names, years, facts and source titles.
How we use it
- To build, show and correct your family tree, keep its sources and point out possible duplicates and conflicting records.
- To export your tree as a GEDCOM file when you ask.
- To lay out posters and family books, and, when you order, to take payment, print and ship your book.
- To prevent misuse, keep the service secure, and answer support requests.
Who receives it
| Recipient | What they receive | Why |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Tool results: parts of your tree, previews and links | So ChatGPT can show your tree to you |
| Anyone you give a download link to | The GEDCOM file or poster behind that link, for as long as the link works (one hour for GEDCOM files) | You chose to share it |
| Hetzner Online GmbH | Our servers and database, in the European Union | Hosting |
| Lulu Press, Inc. (only if you order a book) | The book's print files, your name, shipping address, phone number and the order reference | To print and ship your book. Lulu's packing slip shows no prices. |
| Stripe, Inc. (only if you order a book) | Your payment and checkout details | To take payment |
| Postmark (ActiveCampaign, LLC) (only if you order a book) | Your email address and the order emails | To send order confirmations and shipping updates |
We may disclose information when the law requires it.
How long we keep it
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Family trees and their sources | Until you delete them, or 24 months after the tree was last changed |
| GEDCOM download links | One hour |
| Book previews and posters | 12 months after they were last made, unless you delete the tree first |
| Ordered books' print files | 30 days after shipping |
| Order name, address, phone and email | 12 months after delivery; amounts and order references are kept 7 years for accounting |
| Technical logs | 30 days |
| Support messages | 12 months after the last reply |
Deleting sooner. In ChatGPT, say "Delete my family tree": the tree, its people, facts and sources, and its book preview and posters are deleted at once. "Remove Aunt Rosa from my tree" deletes one person. You can also email kinroll@ambientapp.ai.
Children
Kinroll is for a general audience aged 13 and up and is not directed at children under 13. If you think a child under 13 has given us personal data, email kinroll@ambientapp.ai and we will delete it.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or export your data, or to object to how we use it. You can export your tree yourself at any time ("Export my tree as a GEDCOM file"). For anything else, email kinroll@ambientapp.ai and we will answer within 30 days. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
Cookies and storage in your browser
The website sets no cookies and loads nothing from other companies, except that the checkout page for printed books loads Stripe's payment form. The Kinroll card in ChatGPT may keep your last view in ChatGPT's own widget storage.
Where data is processed
We are based in the United States. Our servers are run by Hetzner Online GmbH in the European Union. OpenAI, Stripe, Lulu and Postmark may process data in the United States and other countries, each under its own privacy and security commitments.
Changes
We will post any change to this policy here and update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use data you have already given us, we will say so in ChatGPT before it takes effect.
Contact
Email kinroll@ambientapp.ai.