Terms of use and privacy policy

Welcome to www.zoompast.com. Our mission is to help you organise and visualise family trees making them easy to explore for anyone you want to share them with.

By using this website we assume you agree to the following terms and conditions, including our data protection and privacy policy, and our cookie policy. We know that privacy is important to users of genealogy websites and have worked hard to reflect this in the terms of our data protection and privacy policy. Above all, it is our intention to be as reasonable as possible with these terms so if you see anything you’re not happy with please write to us and we will clarify or make a change to the terms. Thank you for agreeing to these terms of use, we hope you enjoy using ZoomPast.

Terms and Conditions

1. You are responsible for your own use of ZoomPast and any content you upload or share.

2. It is your responsibility to check that you have all the rights necessary to use any images or other material, including the personal data of others, that you upload to the ZoomPast website.

3. You agree not to use obscene or offensive images or language in your genealogies or elsewhere on the ZoomPast website.

4. We cannot be held responsible for the conduct of other users of the ZoomPast website or for any content they may choose to upload and share.

5. You grant us permission to store, access and host the information you upload to ZoomPast for the purpose of providing you with the best possible visualisation of your data under the terms of our data protection and privacy policy.

6. If you are accessing the personal data of others, which they have chosen to share with you, then you only have the right to view the data on ZoomPast, if you wish to have a copy of the data or use it for any other purpose you must contact and obtain appropriate permission from the individual who shared the data with you.

7. To have an account with ZoomPast you must be over 16, children under the age of 16 are still welcome to view our public trees without logging in.

8. You agree not to use the ZoomPast website for any purposes other than the intended purpose of constructing and sharing family trees.

9. You agree not to use ZoomPast to aid with the design of another related software product, whether free or commercial.

10. All the ZoomPast website software, design, code, text and graphics are protected by copyright and permission is not granted to download or reuse any of this content.

11. We offer ZoomPast™ for your use free of charge on an “as is basis”. We provide no warranty and accept no liability for damages.

Cookie Policy

We use cookies. By accessing our website you must agree to this.

Cookies are small files created when you visit a site and contain a unique, anonymous number. They are stored in the cookie directory of your hard drive and may not expire at the end of your session.

Most browsers allow you to refuse use of cookies if you wish, however this may affect your user experience of some parts of the site.

Cookies can be used in numerous ways. Our uses of cookies are primarily to enhance your experience of using the website. To be more specific we use cookies to...

1. Store a session identifier so that if you visit the same page for a second time it can react differently to when you visit it the first time. For example to recall if you have seen and dismissed messages that appear to new users.

2. Store your personal preferences for the website so that if you return another day you don’t need to change the settings again.

3. Keep you logged in (if you choose the ‘remember’ option when logging in) so that when you return to ZoomPast later on the same computer you won’t need to re-enter your password every time.

4. Operate Google Analytics which enables us to see usage statistics for our website, including which kind of devices are being used to browse our website. Our usage of Google Analytics anonymises your computer’s Internet Protocol address (IP address) and does not link with any other personal data of yours that we may have. Google store the information on usage of our website in accordance with their own privacy policy.

Data Protection and Privacy Policy

By using this website you acknowledge that you have read the terms of this Data Protection and Privacy Policy and that you consent to the collection of information from you and use of such information as described in this policy.

This website is operated by ZoomPast Ltd. We will protect and keep confidential information collected from you as a result of use of this website. Links within this site to other websites are not covered by this Data Protection and Privacy Policy.

We collect basic usage statistics and data entered voluntarily by users. Our key principles of privacy are: 1.) only to collect and use data where this helps provide you with a better service; 2.) the privacy setting for your family history data is ‘private’ by default.

Personal data that we collect from you and where it’s collected from

Any family history data you upload or enter after logging in

You may choose to upload or enter a range of information about your relatives and family history, including images and GEDCOM files. These are stored as one or more family trees.

Any connections to friends that you have made

You may choose to connect with others on ZoomPast, for example by sending them an invitation to join, or by connecting with existing members.

Your username and e-mail address

We store your username and e-mail address as the key to access the other information you have stored on ZoomPast.

Your profile

In addition to your e-mail and username, you can optionally add a full name, image, location and list of hobbies to your user profile on the site.

Your usage statistics

How many times you have logged into the site in total, when you first used the site and when you most recently used the site.

Internet Protocol address and session information...

We log users’ Internet Protocol addresses (a technical standard which allows data to be transmitted between two devices), which are recognised by our server, and session information such as the duration of the visit and the type of browser used.

Any information that you send to us by e-mail...

Any personal information you choose to send us by e-mail will also be stored by us and handled under the terms of this privacy policy.

How personal data is used and shared

The main use of your data, and the main purpose of ZoomPast is to enable you to explore compelling visualisations of your family history.

We take privacy seriously

1. We will not share your family history data without your prior permission.

2. Each family tree that you maintain on the side has its own privacy settings which can each be edited independently. All family trees are ‘private’ to you by default and will always remain so unless you choose to make a change to the privacy settings.

3. ‘Private’ trees are visible to you after logging in with your password. We can also view them internally but only do so for the purposes of improving our software or to respond better to a specific request coming from you relating to your data. They are not visible to any other users of the site.

Opting in to share your family history data with others

1. Each family tree has an independent privacy setting.

2. You may choose to share trees with specific individuals or with all your connections ‘friends’ on the site.

3. You may choose to give editing rights to specific individuals of your choice - these are distinct from just giving others to right to view the tree only.

4. You can choose to make your tree completely public, in which case anyone can see it.

5. You can change your privacy settings for each tree at any time so can unshare data that was previously shared.

6. Users are not permitted to make a copy of any data that was shared with them by other users - this helps protect the user ability to make data private again that was previously shared (see terms and conditions).

7. Other than as stated above, we will not share your family history data with any other party.

Connecting with ‘friends’ on ZoomPast

1. If users want to connect with other ‘friends’ on the site they can search by username, name and e-mail address.

2. Your e-mail address is only used here as a way of matching you to a person who already knows your e-mail address through some other means and has entered it into the search box.

3. Any search hits that appear show the profile image of the person (if any) and the username or name of the person. They show no family history related information.

4. It is not possible to search for connections on the basis of family history so your family history data is kept totally private from searches for connections.

5. Both sides have to agree before they connect as ‘friends’ on ZoomPast.

E-mails

1. We may need to e-mail you directly to help you with using ZoomPast, for example if you click on the link to request your password be reset.

2. If you agreed by ticking the box, we will also use your e-mail to send you occasional updates about ZoomPast, including optional surveys that help us improve our service.

3. If you enter the e-mail addresses of other individuals to invite them to join ZoomPast it is your responsibility to check they are happy with this.

4. If you have received an invitation email then we will have stored your email address as part of providing a smooth invitation process but you will not get further messages from us after the initial invitation unless either you choose to sign up, or your email is entered again by a user to invite you.

5. If you connect with a ‘friend’ on ZoomPast they will be able to see your email address.

6. Other than as stated above, we will not share your e-mail addresses with any other party.

Images

1. Images uploaded to ZoomPast are stored by us at reduced resolution only

2. Each image is viewable via a long URL string, so it is shared with anyone who has the URL string which acts like a password. This reason for this system is to make it easier for people to access and recover their own images from ZoomPast or upload their GEDCOM files to other service enabling them to retain access to the images.

If required by law...

We may disclose some or all of the information collected from you if required to do so by law or other legally binding obligation.

Quotes and endorsements...

We keep a record of quotes and endorsements for OneZoom. If you have emailed or otherwise communicated text that we wish to use for this purpose we will write to request your permission separately. Quotes and endorsements once agreed may become visible to the publicly visible on our website.

Internet Protocol address and session information...

This information is only used for system administration of the website and to compile statistics which we use to review use of the website.

Where your personal data is stored

1. Our website and database containing your personal data are hosted by DigitalOcean on a virtual server infrastructure known as a ‘Droplet’. For more information see https://www.digitalocean.com/legal/privacy/ and search for ‘Droplet’.

2. Our Droplet is based in New York and includes a backup to ensure we can restore our system and your data in case of a disaster. We store backups for the last two days within the Droplet and backups for the last month encrypted on Amazon Glacier. Backups more than 1 month old are deleted.

3. The data in e-mails which are sent and received by ZoomPast are treated separately and processed with a Gmail service and may be read and replied to from the personal computers of our team members.

How your personal data is kept secure

1. We use HTTPS to encrypt your data in transit between our server and your web browser. This is to prevent data from being intercepted.

2. We use a cross site request forgery token (csrf-token) to prevent another website from hacking in by pretending to be a user of ZoomPast.

3. We have user access control via passwords to prevent other users from accessing your data without permission.

4. E-mails in general are not a secure method of communication. We unfortunately cannot guarantee the confidentiality of any messages transmitted between you and us via e-mail as these are potentially accessible by the public.

Your rights regarding your personal data stored by us

Introduction to your rights

1. Broadly speaking, you can view, copy, edit and delete any of your personal data held by us.

2. To do this you will need to verify your identify as the owner of the data by logging into ZoomPast using your password or by emailing us from the address you used to set up the account.

3. If you have lost access to both your password and the email associated with your account we will still work with you to ensure your control over personal data but you would need to provide us with some other form of identity verification so we know it is you.

Viewing and requesting a copy of your own personal data

1. You can view your family history data from the ‘my trees’ menu - this is the main function of ZoomPast.

2. You can obtain a copy of any of your personal family history data held by us by downloading each of your family trees which will be delivered to you as a zip file containing a GEDCOM and all the associated images.

3. You can view and make a copy of your profile data from the ‘profile’ menu after logging in.

4. You can view and make a copy of your friend connections from the ‘friends and family’ menu after logging in.

5. You can request a copy of any other data (e.g. your personal usage statistics) by emailing us to request it.

Editing your personal data

1. You can edit your family history data, profile and friend connection data from the same place that you view such data (described above).

2. You can change your preference for receiving email messages by clicking on ‘profile’ and then ‘edit profile’.

3. You can change your sharing preferences for each tree by going to the ‘my trees’ menu then ‘edit sharing’.

Deleting your personal data

1. You can request deletion of all your personal data in one go by emailing us.

2. You can delete individual family trees yourself from the ‘my trees’ menu item.

3. Smaller parts of data you can delete yourself as part of the ‘edit’ functionality, for example you can click to edit your full name from the ‘edit profile’ part of ZoomPast and change the contents of the name box to be blank, then you will have deleted your name information.

4. Please note that we retain backups for one month as described above.

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