Last updated: October 12, 2026
This is the privacy page for QTW Family (https://family.qtw-dodropinn.com), one of five sites run by QTW Do Drop Inn. It covers what is particular to this site. What all five sites have in common, including accounts, the email we send, backups, your choices and how to contact us, is in the main Privacy Policy.
We do not show advertising, we do not use an outside analytics service, and we do not sell personal information.
Who can see what you share
QTW Family exists so that families can share their lives with the members of their own family, and with nobody else. Your profile, what you post, your family tree, your messages and your photographs can be seen only by registered members of your own family. They are not shown to visitors who are not signed in, and they are not shown to members who belong to other families. Protecting that privacy comes first in how the site is built.
When you visit
Our web server keeps a log of each request: your IP address, the date and time, the page requested and the type of browser. We use it to keep the site running and to spot abuse. These logs are kept for 14 days.
Emoji are drawn using small images loaded from WordPress.org, which means WordPress.org’s server sees your IP address when a page loads.
When you join
You can join a family only with an invitation from someone who is already in that family’s tree. The invitation is sent to your email address, and you register with that same address, which is how the site knows which family you belong to. We record who invited you.
Any adult who has an account on the QTW Do Drop Inn sites can start a new tree for their own family and invite their relatives to it. A child cannot start a tree, so we ask for your date of birth before a tree is started.
Besides the account details described in the main policy, the Family sign-up form asks for your date of birth, which is required. We use it to know whether you are an adult or a child and to choose a voice suited to your age. It is not shown publicly. The form also lets you choose how the site should speak to you (its “voice”), offer to be a helper, and upload a family tree file (GEDCOM) from another service. Those are optional.
The family tree
A family tree holds information about people: names, sex, years of birth and death, where they live or lived, a photograph, notes, and how they are related to one another. Members can also add memories, stories and memorial photographs. Photos are kept without the hidden details a phone or camera adds to them, such as where and when a photo was taken and on what device; only which way up it goes is kept. Photos and other files members add are shown only to signed-in members: a family tree portrait only to members of that tree’s family, and other photos to members of a family on the site. Your browser may keep a copy for up to an hour so pages open quickly. An email address may be stored for a person so that they can be invited.
Much of this is about people who are not members of the site, including relatives who have never visited it and people who have died. It is added by the members who build the tree.
A family tree can be seen only by registered members of that family: the person who started it and the relatives who have joined it. Nobody else can see it. That includes visitors who are not signed in and members who belong to other families. The same is true of the memorial pages for relatives who have died. The people who administer the site can reach the data in order to run it.
Downloading and uploading a tree. The person who started a tree can download it as a GEDCOM file, the format other family-tree programs use. The file holds everyone in the tree with their names, sex, years of birth and death, places, notes and how they are related; email addresses and photographs are left out. Members whom the tree’s starter has made administrators of the tree can download it too, but in their copy anyone who may still be living appears only as “Living”. The file is made when it is asked for and goes straight to that person’s browser; it is not kept on our server. Once it is on their computer, what happens to it is up to them.
A signed-in adult who has no family tree here yet can upload a GEDCOM file to start one. The people in it become a new private tree that only that adult can see until they invite relatives. The uploaded file is read once and not kept.
If you are in a tree and want something about you changed or removed, ask the member who added it or write to us.
Invitations
When a member invites a relative, we store that person’s email address and send them an invitation by email. The invitation is kept until it is accepted or it expires.
Messages, check-ins and gatherings
Messages you send to family members, including voice and video messages, are stored on the site so they can be delivered and read. We also store your notification choices, check-ins, replies to gathering invitations, and scores and play-money balances from the family games. You may add a phone number to your notification settings; text-message delivery is not switched on, so nothing is sent to it at present.
Family videos
Family members can add videos to the In Memory pages, and add a video about anyone in their tree through Contribute. A video added about someone else is shown only after the tree’s owner, or that person, approves it; if they dismiss it, the video is deleted. A video is kept on our own server in a private folder the web cannot reach directly, and it plays only for signed-in members of that person’s family. We keep the file you uploaded and a copy converted so that it plays on every phone (at most 1280 pixels on its longest side), with one still picture from it shown before it plays. The video’s title, who added it and when are kept with it.
Photos and voice recordings added through Contribute are kept in the same private folder, and are shown or played only to signed-in members of that person’s family. A photo is saved again at no more than 2048 pixels on its longest side, which also removes the hidden details a camera adds to it, such as where it was taken. One added about someone else is shown only after it is approved, and is deleted if it is dismissed. Whoever added it, the person it is about, or the tree’s owner or one of its administrators can remove it, which deletes the file. A file that is uploaded but never sent is deleted after a day.
Whoever added a video, or the owner of the family tree, can remove it; removing it takes it off the site straight away. Otherwise we keep it until it is removed. An upload that is never finished is deleted after a day. Each night every video is also copied to a second computer of ours in the same building, as a backup. When a video is removed, that backup copy is kept for 30 more days in case it was removed by mistake, and then deleted.
Helper Corner
A member who belongs to a family tree can offer to be a Family Helper. We store the areas they can help with, a short note about themselves and whether they are available. Helpers help their own family only: when you ask for help, your request goes to a Helper in your family, and a Helper can bring in only another Helper from the same family. Thank-you notes to Helpers are shown only within that family.
Helpers from every family share one space, “Helpers Helping Helpers”, where they can post tips and questions for one another. Only Helpers can read it, and each post shows the name of the Helper who wrote it. It is meant for how-tos, not family matters, and Helpers are asked to leave out family members’ names, photos and anything private. A post stays until the Helper who wrote it, or a site administrator, removes it.
The Together Room
The Together Room is for your family only. To enter a room, start one, chat in it or add something to watch, you must be signed in and part of that family’s tree. Any family member can start a room or schedule a showing; whoever hosts it decides what plays and when.
Videos and music in a room are played from YouTube, in YouTube’s own player. When you open a room, YouTube sees your IP address, and if you play something it may store its own data in your browser. What is in a room’s list (the link, its title and who added it) is kept with the room.
Chat messages and reactions in a room are stored on our server with your name and shown to the family members in that room. They are deleted after 30 days, or straight away when the room closes: when the host closes it, when a scheduled showing is cancelled, or when nobody has used it for 30 days (a room whose showing is still to come stays open). Thirty days after a room closes, the room itself and its list are deleted too. To show who is in a room right now, we note that you have it open for about two minutes.
Video calls in the Together Room run on Jitsi Meet (meet.jit.si), a service operated by 8×8. Your sound and picture travel through Jitsi’s servers, not ours, and Jitsi sees your IP address. When you open the call, we pass Jitsi your name as it appears on this site, so the others in the call can see who you are. We do not record calls.
Children
Families include children, and this site is meant for the whole family. Children do not register themselves: a parent or guardian must register a child so that the child can take part. For anyone under 18 the sign-up form asks the parent or guardian to confirm that, and we record which member registered the child. A parent or guardian can ask us at any time to see, correct or delete a child’s information, or to close the child’s account.
Everything else
For accounts, the email we send, how long we keep things, backups, your choices and how to reach us, see the main Privacy Policy. Cookies used across the sites are described in the Cookie Policy.