Your Family Stories. Your Files.
Every memory your family saves belongs to you — not to us, not to advertisers, and not to anyone else. This page explains exactly how that works, in plain English.
Where Do My Memories Actually Live?
Think of a safe deposit box at a bank.
The bank keeps your box locked in their vault — but the bank staff cannot open it, cannot read what's inside, and have no reason to look. Only you have the key.
MyGenLink works the same way. Your memories are kept in a private, locked digital space that only your family can open. We hold the space — but we cannot see inside it, we do not look, and we have nothing to gain from doing so.
That's the key difference between MyGenLink and a free app like Facebook. Facebook's entire business is built on reading what you post and selling that information to advertisers. Ours is built on charging a fair price so we never have to look inside your box at all.
What Free Apps Don't Tell You
Pressing “delete” doesn't actually delete.
On Facebook, Instagram, and Google Photos, deleting a photo is like putting a letter in someone else's bin — they can still read it before emptying it, and they often do. Copies can sit in their storage for years, used to train AI or shown to advertisers, even after you've “removed” it.
Every word you write is being studied.
Free apps make money by reading everything you post — who's in your photos, what you talk about, who you're connected to. They build a profile on you and sell it. It's not a secret; it's their entire business model. Your grandmother's stories deserve better than that.
“Friends only” doesn't mean private.
Setting a post to “friends only” decides who can see it on screen. It does nothing about what the company does with it behind the scenes. The post is still theirs to read, analyse, and keep — indefinitely.
Our Promises to You
- 🚫
No ads. Ever.
We charge a flat annual fee. That's how we keep the lights on. We have no advertisers, no sponsors, and no one to sell your information to. The moment we took an advertiser's money, we'd have to start reading your mail. We won't do that.
- 🤖
Your memories are never fed into AI.
AI systems learn by reading vast amounts of text and photos. Your family's stories and pictures will never be used to teach a machine anything. Full stop.
- 🗑️
When you delete something, it's gone.
Not moved to a hidden pile. Not kept “just in case.” When you remove a memory or close your account, it is permanently destroyed — like putting it through a shredder, not into someone else's drawer. We have no reason to keep it, so we don't.
- 📦
You can take everything with you, any time.
On any plan, at any time, you can download a complete copy of your family's archive — every memory, photo, video, and conversation — as plain files that open on any computer. No special software needed. No account required to read them. Once it's on your computer, it's yours completely.
Easy Save — Your Own Copy, On Your Own Device
One tap packages up everything your family has saved and delivers it straight to your computer — sorted into folders, labelled by chapter, ready to open like any other file. Think of it as getting your photo album posted to your door, except instant and digital.
How to get your copy:
- 1Tap "Profile" in the top-right corner of the archive
- 2Scroll down to the "Your Data" section
- 3Tap "Download My Family Archive"
- 4Choose where to save it — your Desktop is the easiest place to find it
- 5Open the folder that appears — your memories are inside, ready to read
Where Does It Save On My Computer?
It depends on which internet browser you use. Here's exactly what to expect:
Chrome or Edge (most Windows computers)
A window will pop up asking where you want to save it — just like saving a document in Word. Pick your Desktop so it's easy to find, or a USB drive if you want a copy you can unplug and store somewhere safe.
Firefox or Safari (common on Macs and iPhones)
It saves automatically to your Downloads folder — the same place email attachments go when you save them. On a Mac, look in Finder under “Downloads.” On Windows, open the yellow folder icon on your taskbar and look for “Downloads.”
Keep two copies
Save one copy on your computer and a second copy on a USB drive or an external hard drive kept somewhere safe — a drawer, a filing cabinet, even a fireproof box. Computers can break. If you have two copies in two different places, you'll always have the other one.
What's Inside the Download?
When you open the downloaded folder, you'll find everything organised and labelled — no technical knowledge needed:
- 📁
A folder for each chapter
Childhood, School Years, Career, and so on — each memory is its own document inside, like pages in a book. Any computer can open them.
- 🖼️
The original photos and videos
Saved right alongside each memory, exactly as they were. Double-click to open them, just like any photo on your computer.
- 💬
Questions and answers
All the questions your family asked each other — and the answers — collected in one document.
- 👥
A list of family members
Everyone who was part of this archive, saved as a simple text file.
- 📄
A plain-English guide
A short note explaining what each file is, so anyone who finds this in 20 years knows exactly what they're looking at.
None of these files need any special software. They will open on computers built today and on computers built decades from now. Your family's stories are written in the simplest format possible — on purpose.
Questions? Write to us at hello@mygenlink.family
← Back to Profile