What information we collect

We collect only the information necessary to operate Afterwords and provide our services to you. Below is a complete breakdown of the categories of information we collect and why.

Category	What it includes	Why we collect it
Account information	Name, email address, password (hashed)	To create and manage your account
Memorial information	Name of your loved one, dates, biography, photos	To build and display the memorial page
Contributor submissions	Stories, photos, voice memos, contributor name and email	To collect and display memories on the memorial
Payment information	Transaction records, plan type (Stripe handles cards — we never store them)	To process and track subscription payments
Usage data	Pages visited, actions taken, browser type	To improve the platform and diagnose issues
Email addresses of invitees	Emails entered when inviting contributors or co-admins	To send invitation emails on your behalf

How we use your information

We use your information only for the purposes described when it was collected. We do not use your data for advertising, and we never sell it. Specifically, we use your information:

To operate your memorial — building and displaying the memorial page and all associated content
To send emails — including contributor invitations, gift notifications, account updates, and subscription reminders
To process payments via Stripe — handling subscription billing, one-time payments, and gift purchases
To moderate content — an automated review system flags submissions before they appear on your memorial, and you approve or reject them
To produce printed books — using memorial content and submitted stories and photos to fulfil Memory Book and Photo Album orders
To improve the platform — using anonymised, aggregated usage data to understand how our service is used and where it can be improved
To notify you of new submissions — when a contributor submits a story, photo, or voice memo to your memorial, we send you an email notification with a preview of the submission and a link to your submissions page

Who we share your information with

We work with a small number of trusted third-party service providers who help us operate the platform. These include payment processors, email delivery services, media storage providers, and platform infrastructure providers. Each provider is selected for their security standards and is contractually bound to use your information only for the purposes we specify. We do not share personal information with any provider beyond what is strictly necessary for them to perform their service.

We will never

Sell your personal information, share it with advertisers, use it to build marketing profiles, or disclose it to any party not listed above — except where required by law.

Memorial content and contributor submissions

Content about the loved one being honoured is entered by the account holder. The account holder is responsible for ensuring they have the appropriate rights to publish any photos, biographical information, or other materials they upload to the platform.

Contributor submissions — stories, photos, and voice memos submitted by friends and family — remain the intellectual property of the contributor. By submitting content, contributors grant Afterwords and the memorial account holder a non-exclusive licence to display that content on the memorial page and to reproduce it in printed Memory Books or Photo Albums ordered by the account holder.

Content moderation: Submissions are automatically reviewed by our content moderation system at the time they are submitted. Content that passes moderation is published immediately to the memory gallery and is visible to anyone with the memorial link. If a submission is flagged by the moderation system, it is hidden from the gallery automatically and the account holder is notified. The account holder can remove or hide any submission at any time from their submissions page — there is no requirement to approve content before it appears.

Memorial pages are accessible only via their unique, non-guessable URL. We do not publicly list, index, or make memorial URLs discoverable through search engines or any other public directory.

How long we keep your information

While your subscription is active, you have full access to all platform features, and all your memorial content, contributor submissions, and account data are stored and accessible.

When a subscription expires, your memorial content is preserved for one full year after expiry. During this period, the memorial page and all submitted content remain safely stored, but the memorial is set to private and new contributor submissions are paused. Renewal at any point within the year restores full access immediately.

If you request account deletion, all personal data associated with your account — including your memorial, submissions, photos, and account information — will be permanently and irreversibly removed within 30 days of your request.

Payment transaction records are retained for up to 7 years as required by Canadian financial and tax law, even after account deletion. These records contain no payment card data.

Your content is safe

If your subscription expires, your memorial and everything in it is preserved privately for one year. You can renew at any time within that year to restore full access. After one year without renewal, your account and all associated content will be permanently deleted.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you are located, you may have rights under PIPEDA (Canada), BC PIPA, GDPR (European Union), or CCPA (California). Regardless of your location, Afterwords respects and honours the following rights for all users:

Right to access — You may request a copy of all personal data we hold about you.
Right to correct — You may request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Right to delete — You may request that we permanently delete your account and all associated data.
Right to withdraw consent — Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.
Right to data portability — You may request an export of your memorial data in a structured, machine-readable format.
Right to complain — You may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.

To exercise any of these rights, email contact@afterwordsstoryco.com with the subject line "Privacy Request". We will respond within 30 days.

Children and minors

Afterwords is intended for use by adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 14. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal data from a child under 14, we will delete it promptly. If you believe we may have collected such data, please contact us immediately.

It is important to note that memorials created to honour young people who have passed away — including children and teenagers — are managed entirely by adult account holders. The loved one being honoured, regardless of their age, is not a data subject and does not have a data profile on our platform. Only the living account holder and contributors have personal data processed by Afterwords.

Cookies and tracking

Afterwords uses a minimal number of cookies to operate the platform. We do not use advertising cookies, third-party tracking pixels, or behavioural profiling tools of any kind.

Cookie type	Purpose	Duration
Authentication	Keeps you logged in to your account	Session / 30 days
Preferences	Stores display settings and user preferences	1 year
Analytics	Anonymised usage statistics to improve the platform	Up to 2 years

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Disabling authentication cookies will require you to log in each session. Disabling preference cookies may affect your experience on the platform.

How we protect your information

We take the security of your information seriously and implement reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect it. These include: HTTPS encryption for all data transmitted between your browser and our servers; hashed and salted password storage (we never store plaintext passwords); PCI-DSS Level 1 certified payment processing (we never see or store card data); secure, access-controlled infrastructure for media storage; and restricted internal access — only authorised team members can access user data, and only when necessary to operate or support the platform.

No method of data transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you believe your account has been compromised or you have discovered a potential security vulnerability, please contact us immediately at contact@afterwordsstoryco.com.

Changes to this policy

We will notify all registered account holders by email of any material changes to this Privacy Policy before those changes take effect. The notification will describe what has changed and why, and will provide a link to the updated policy.

Continued use of Afterwords after the effective date of any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy. If you do not agree with the changes, you may request account deletion before the effective date.

All previous versions of this Privacy Policy are available on request. To request a previous version, email contact@afterwordsstoryco.com.

Your privacy matters.