Terms of Service

1. Your account

You must be at least 18 years old to create or use an independent Passing Tree account. Provide a display name that does not impersonate someone else and use a sign-in method you control. A legal name, public profile photo and marketing subscription are not required.

Keep your sign-in account and verification codes secure. Do not share access or use another person’s account without permission. You are responsible for activity you authorize through your account, including activity by connected assistants.

2. Trees for other people and pets

An adult may maintain a tree about a child, another person or a pet. This does not create a login for that subject or give you authority to act as that person. Respect their privacy and any rights they or their guardian have. Do not use a tree to impersonate, harass or expose someone’s sensitive information.

Care permissions operate within Passing Tree. They do not replace a will, guardianship arrangement, power of attorney or other legal authority, and do not guarantee permanent storage.

3. Your content and our permission to provide the service

You retain the rights you hold in stories, photos, recordings and other material you add. You must have the rights or other lawful permission needed to upload and share it. Other contributors retain their rights in their contributions.

You give Passing Tree a nonexclusive permission to store, copy, process, format and display your content as needed to operate the features you choose, including delivering it to the audience you select and using service providers for storage and delivery. This permission does not transfer ownership of your content to us or authorize us to sell your private memories.

This permission lasts while we need to provide your chosen features, subject to deletion, backups and retention described in our Privacy Policy. Copies already received by others may remain outside our control.

4. Sharing, invitations and contributions

Your tree starts private. Review the audience and selected media before sharing a memory or Grove post. A public post is available beyond your connections. Sharing one memory does not open your whole tree or make your profile publicly discoverable.

Accepting an invitation to a memory, becoming a connection, following someone and saving a copy are separate choices. Some contributions require the owner’s review. You may not assume that access to someone’s story gives you permission to republish it elsewhere.

You may send invitations to people you reasonably expect would welcome them. Do not send spam or repeated unwanted requests. Email delivery and continued access to external media are not guaranteed.

5. Respectful and lawful use

Do not use Passing Tree for illegal activity, threats, abuse, exploitation, impersonation, infringement or nonconsensual disclosure of private material. Do not upload malware, attempt to access another person’s private data, bypass permissions or interfere with the service. Respect other members’ decisions to decline, disconnect or block contact.

We may restrict access, remove content or suspend an account when reasonably necessary to protect people or the service, investigate abuse or comply with applicable obligations. Where appropriate, you may contact us to ask about an account restriction.

6. AI and external services

AI help and connected assistants are optional. Review their output for accuracy and permissions before keeping or sharing it. Generated writing may be inaccurate and is not a verified account of an event. Connecting an assistant gives it only the access you approve; you can revoke that access.

Sign-in providers, connected assistants and linked or embedded media operate under their own terms and privacy policies. We do not control their availability or their handling of information you choose to send them. Passing Tree is not an emergency service or a substitute for professional advice.

7. Changes, availability and ending use

You may stop using Passing Tree at any time. Use the available controls to delete content and revoke sharing, or contact us about account deletion. Keep your own copies of irreplaceable material. We work to maintain the service, but cannot promise uninterrupted access, error-free operation or indefinite preservation.

If paid features are introduced, their price and applicable conditions will be shown before purchase. Creating an account under these Terms does not itself authorize a charge.

We may update the service and these Terms. The current version and effective date will be shown here. Material changes will be communicated through the service or appropriate account communications; where necessary, we will ask you to accept them before using affected features.

8. Your rights and questions

Nothing in these Terms removes rights or remedies that applicable law does not allow us to exclude. These Terms do not require arbitration or waive your right to bring an individual or collective claim where available under applicable law.

For questions about these Terms, content rights, account access or deletion, contact hello@passingtree.com. See the Privacy Policy for the current status of that contact channel. Please avoid sending sensitive content in an initial inquiry.