Terms of Use

These terms are the agreement between you and Britt Boerdery (Pty) Ltd, trading as unsTree. Please read them with our Privacy Policy. By creating an account or using unsTree you agree to both.

1. Who we are

unsTree is a trading name of Britt Boerdery (Pty) Ltd
Registration number: 1966/012354/07
VAT number: 4290110370
Registered address: 36 Charl Road, Lichtenburg, 2740, South Africa
Information Officer: Ian Britt (director)
Privacy and legal requests: privacy@unstree.com
Help with payments and the site: support@unstree.com

unsTree is run from South Africa. We call ourselves "we" or "us" below.

2. Your account

• You must be 18 or older to open an account.
• One account is for one person. You sign in with a link or code sent to your email, so keep your email account safe.
• You can ask us to delete your account at any time (see section 1 for how to reach us).

3. What you add belongs to you

• Everything you add - people, dates, stories, photos, scans and notes - stays yours. We do not own it.
• You allow us only to store it, make copies for backups, and show it to you and the people you invite. We need that to run the site.
• We never sell your family history and never copy it into anyone else's tree.

4. You are responsible for what you add

• You add information at your own discretion. We do not check it and we are not responsible for it.
• Only upload things you have the right to share, such as your own photos or records you are allowed to copy.
• Take care with information about living people. Keep it to what is needed for your family tree.
• Do not add anything illegal, hateful or meant to harm someone. We may remove it and close the account.

5. Your tree is private

• Your tree is visible only to you and the family members you invite. There are no public pages and no shared world tree.
• We may suggest that someone in your tree is the same person as someone in another tree. A link is made only if both tree owners agree, and it says only that they are the same person. Neither side can see the other's records, photos or stories.
• Anyone you invite to your tree can see what is in it. Invite only people you trust.

6. Storage

• Every account gets 250 MB of storage free.
• If you need more, you can buy a yearly storage plan. The price is shown before you pay.
• When a plan ends and is not renewed, we email you before the end date. Your account then becomes read-only for 90 days: you can still view and download everything, but not add more. After those 90 days we delete files above the free 250 MB. We never delete your free 250 MB because a plan ended.

7. AI research helper

• AI can be wrong. Anything the AI writes is marked as an AI draft until you check it.
• AI use is paid for in advance with credits. The cost is shown before you use it.

8. Payments

Payments are handled by our reseller, Paddle, who is the seller of record and handles payment details, tax and receipts. Paddle's own terms also apply to your purchase. When you can get your money back is explained in our Refund Policy. AI credits are sold in packs of US$5, $10, $20 and $50 (1 credit = 1 US cent) and do not expire; an account can hold at most US$100 of unused credits.

9. Keeping your data safe

We back up the database every night and work hard to keep the site running and your data safe, but no website can promise that nothing will ever be lost or that it will always be available. Keep your own copies of photos and documents that matter to you.

10. Our responsibility

unsTree is provided as it is. As far as the law allows, we are not liable for indirect loss, or for what users add. Nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act or other law that cannot be excluded.

11. Ending

You can stop using unsTree at any time and ask us to delete your account. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms.

12. Changes

If we change these terms, we will ask you to agree to the new version the next time you visit. The date of this version is shown at the top.

13. Law

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.