Terms of Use

1. Operator and scope

These Terms govern access to ESSENIAL websites, applications, recording tools, family archives, generated conversational experiences, demonstrations and related services (the “Service”). The Service is operated by [LEGAL ENTITY NAME, LEGAL FORM, REGISTRATION NUMBER], of [REGISTERED ADDRESS] (“ESSENIAL”, “we”, “us”). Contact: [SUPPORT EMAIL].

These Terms apply to visitors, Life Subjects, account holders, purchasers, Stewards, Witnesses, Contributors, invited Visitors, administrators and anyone accessing shared material. Our Privacy Notice, Cookie Notice and AI & Memory Transparency Notice form part of the agreement where applicable.

2. Eligibility and acceptance

You accept these Terms when you create an account, purchase or activate a Service, accept an invitation, upload or record material, or otherwise use the Service after being shown these Terms. If you act for an organisation, estate or another person, you confirm that you have authority to bind them.

The Service is intended for adults. A person under 18 may only participate with a parent or legal guardian’s verified permission and may not act as a Steward or purchase a subscription. The Service is not directed to children under 13 in the United States. Where EU consent rules apply, a child below the applicable national digital-consent age may use the Service only through a verified holder of parental responsibility. We may impose a higher minimum age for sensitive recording or generated likeness features.

You must not use the Service where prohibited by law or applicable sanctions. Consumer rights that cannot lawfully be waived remain unaffected.

3. What ESSENIAL is—and is not

ESSENIAL helps preserve a person’s stories, answers, recordings, photographs, documents, voice characteristics and approved contributions, then makes authorised material available through an archive or conversational presentation. Features may include transcription, search, summarisation, source display, age-based visual presentation and synthetic audio or imagery.

The Service may change as the product develops. Features labelled beta, prototype or demonstration may be incomplete and should not be used as the sole repository for irreplaceable material.

4. Roles and authority

A “Life Subject” is the person whose life and manner of expression are preserved. A “Steward” manages permissions and continuity under authority granted by the Life Subject or another lawful basis. A “Witness” or “Contributor” supplies attributed material. A “Visitor” receives limited access. Administrators operate the Service but do not thereby own family content.

Roles grant only the permissions shown in the Service. A Steward must follow the Life Subject’s recorded choices, applicable law, estate authority and the privacy of living people. Appointment as a Steward is not appointment as executor, attorney, guardian or trustee unless a separate valid legal instrument says so. We may request identity, consent, death, incapacity or legal-authority evidence and may pause disputed access.

5. Accounts and security

You must give accurate information, keep it current, protect login credentials and promptly report unauthorised access. Do not share an account; use invitations and assigned roles. You are responsible for activity reasonably attributable to your account until you notify us. We may require email verification, multi-factor authentication, identity evidence or renewed consent for sensitive actions.

6. Your content, ownership and the licence we need

“Your Content” includes recordings, transcripts, answers, images, documents, messages, metadata, family relationships, corrections, questions and instructions submitted to the Service. As between you and ESSENIAL, you retain the rights you hold in Your Content.

You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, encrypt, copy, format, transcribe, index, retrieve, display, transmit and otherwise process Your Content only to operate, secure, support and improve the Service for you and the people you authorise; comply with law; and enforce these Terms. The licence is sublicensable only to processors and service providers performing those purposes and ends when the content is deleted, except for limited backups, legal retention, material independently provided by another authorised person, and copies an authorised recipient lawfully exported.

Draft privacy-protective position: private archive content, a person’s voice and likeness will not be used to train general-purpose or third-party AI models, advertise products, or create an unrelated persona without separate, specific, revocable opt-in consent. De-identified operational metrics may be used to secure and improve the Service where lawful.

You confirm that you own Your Content or have all permissions needed for the uses, sharing settings and generated features you select. You must identify restrictions, confidential material and co-owned works. Public availability does not necessarily mean content is free to reuse.

7. Living people, deceased people, voice and likeness

You must obtain informed permission before uploading private information, communications, images, recordings, biometric material or sensitive facts about a living person, unless another lawful basis clearly applies. For minors, obtain permission from a parent or legal guardian. Do not reveal another person’s health, sexuality, beliefs, abuse history, criminal allegations, precise location, credentials, financial data or family secrets without a lawful basis and appropriate access controls.

Before creating a synthetic voice, animated portrait or conversational representation, the Life Subject must give separate, express and recorded consent while able to do so. If the subject is deceased or lacks capacity, creation or expansion is permitted only where applicable law and documented authority allow it; the Steward must not override an express refusal. Rights of privacy, publicity, personality, copyright, performers, moral rights and estate laws vary by jurisdiction and may survive death.

Consent can be withdrawn prospectively. Withdrawal may prevent future generation and sharing but cannot always recall copies already lawfully exported or received. We may retain a minimal consent and audit record where legally necessary.

8. AI, synthetic media and provenance

We will identify conversational outputs and materially generated or manipulated audio, images or video as AI-generated or synthetic at the first appropriate interaction. Where technically required, outputs may carry machine-readable provenance markers. Original recordings and witness testimony should be distinguishable from generated presentation.

The Service is designed to ground responses in authorised archived sources and to acknowledge gaps. Sources can still be mistaken, subjective or disputed. Users must not remove AI labels, source information or safety notices, or present generated material as an original recording, current communication, legal instruction or verified historical fact.

You may report an output, request a correction, add context or restrict access. More detail appears in the AI & Memory Transparency Notice.

9. Acceptable use

You must not use the Service to:

• impersonate a living or deceased person deceptively; commit fraud; manipulate an estate, election, transaction or vulnerable person; or fabricate consent or authority;
• harass, threaten, stalk, exploit, defame or expose private information; create non-consensual sexual, violent or humiliating material; or target protected groups;
• provide instructions for crime, self-harm, abuse or evasion of lawful safeguards;
• upload malware, scrape archives, reverse engineer protected components, probe security, evade access controls, automate access without permission, or disrupt the Service;
• infringe copyright, confidentiality, privacy, data-protection, publicity, personality or other rights;
• train, benchmark or build another model, identity system or dataset from Service content without written permission and all required consents;
• sell, publicly broadcast or commercially exploit another family’s archive or generated persona without authority; or
• use the Service contrary to law, sanctions, these Terms or a person’s recorded restrictions.

10. Invitations, witnesses and sharing

You may invite people only where you have a lawful reason to contact them and provide accurate contact details. Do not upload address books or send repeated unsolicited invitations. An invitation does not disclose archive content until the recipient verifies the invited channel and receives permission.

Witness statements and corrections must remain attributed unless a lawful, documented exception applies. Conflicting memories may coexist; a Steward must not silently rewrite testimony to manufacture certainty. People receiving shared content may use it only for the purpose and audience authorised by the sharer.

11. Trials, subscriptions, gifts, prices and payment

Commercial terms require confirmation before launch.

Before payment, we will state the service, trial conditions, price, currency, taxes, billing interval, renewal terms, storage limits, minimum commitment, cancellation method and any effect of cancellation on the archive. No charge will be based on silence or a pre-ticked box. If a free or discounted period converts to paid service, the conversion date and price will be disclosed and expressly accepted.

Subscriptions renew only as disclosed at checkout. We will provide legally required reminders and a cancellation method no harder than sign-up. Price changes apply prospectively after reasonable notice and any required fresh consent. Gift purchasers do not own the recipient’s content. Payment processors may apply separate terms.

12. Cancellation, refunds and mandatory consumer rights

You may cancel future renewal through [ACCOUNT PATH / CONTACT]. Cancellation does not erase content unless deletion is also requested. The archive will enter the retention/export state disclosed at purchase.

EU/EEA consumers generally have a 14-day statutory withdrawal right for distance contracts. If you ask us to begin a service during that period, you may owe a proportionate amount for service supplied; loss of a withdrawal right for digital content requires prior express consent and acknowledgement where law permits. We will provide the model withdrawal information and form at checkout.

Nothing in these Terms excludes non-waivable guarantees or remedies. Australian consumers retain all rights under the Australian Consumer Law, including consumer guarantees; any remedy limitation applies only to the extent permitted. United States cancellation, automatic-renewal and state consumer rights also apply according to residence.

13. Incapacity, death, succession and disputes

A Life Subject may nominate Stewards and document when access changes after incapacity or death. Activation may require evidence and waiting, challenge or secondary-verifier procedures. We do not determine inheritance, capacity, kinship or the validity of a will.

Where claims conflict, we may freeze changes or disclosure while requesting consent records, identity evidence, estate documents or a binding decision. We will prefer the Life Subject’s latest valid recorded instructions, subject to mandatory law. A deceased subscriber’s archive will not automatically become public. The policy for fees, stewardship, inactivity, business closure and long-term preservation must be disclosed before paid launch.

14. Privacy, sensitive data and security

Our Privacy Notice explains data categories, legal bases, recipients, international transfers, retention and rights. Voiceprints, facial templates, health details and similar information may be sensitive or biometric data and require heightened safeguards and, where required, express consent.

We use reasonable administrative, technical and organisational safeguards, but no system is perfectly secure. You must keep independent copies of irreplaceable material. We will respond to personal-data breaches as required by law and will not promise encryption or controls that the deployed system does not actually provide.

15. Reports, takedowns and moderation

You can report unlawful, infringing, unsafe or non-consensual material to [TRUST & SAFETY EMAIL/FORM]. Include the material, location, reason, rights affected and contact details. We may restrict access while investigating, preserve evidence, contact relevant account holders, remove content or suspend accounts.

Where the EU Digital Services Act applies, we will provide a sufficiently specific reason for content restrictions, a free internal complaint route for eligible decisions, and information about applicable out-of-court dispute settlement. Good-faith reporters and affected users must not be penalised merely for exercising legal rights.

For Australian users, our reporting process will cover applicable cyber-abuse, child cyberbullying, non-consensual intimate imagery and other unlawful or harmful material, with urgent safety risks prioritised, consistently with applicable Online Safety Act requirements and eSafety expectations.

US copyright notices should be sent to the designated agent listed in section 22 and include the information required by 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3). Counter-notices may be submitted where applicable. A formal DMCA agent designation is required before relying on US safe-harbour procedures.

16. ESSENIAL intellectual property and feedback

The Service software, design, branding and documentation are owned by us or our licensors. We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, revocable right to use the Service under these Terms. No right to our marks, source code or other users’ content is granted. Feedback may be used without restriction or payment, but we will not treat private archive content as feedback.

17. Suspension, export, deletion and termination

You may stop using the Service and request export or deletion through the available controls. We may proportionately restrict content or access for a material breach, security risk, fraud, unlawful use, non-payment or legal requirement. Except where urgent or prohibited, we will give notice, reasons, an opportunity to remedy and a reasonable export period.

Deletion is subject to backups, fraud/security logs, legal holds, financial records, consent evidence, other contributors’ independent rights and copies already exported by authorised recipients. The applicable retention schedule is described in the Privacy Notice. Sections intended by their nature to survive termination—including ownership, licences needed for retained copies, liability, disputes and legal compliance—survive.

18. Service disclaimers

To the extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as available”. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability, that every memory is accurate, that generated output will match a person’s intentions, that every source will be found, or that digital formats will remain usable indefinitely. We do not provide legal, probate, medical, mental-health, financial, historical-certification or emergency services.

These disclaimers do not exclude express commitments or statutory warranties and guarantees that cannot be excluded, including applicable EU/EEA digital-content remedies and Australian Consumer Law guarantees.

19. Liability

Nothing limits liability where limitation is unlawful, including liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, gross negligence where applicable, death or personal injury caused by negligence, breach of non-waivable consumer guarantees, or data-protection liability that cannot be limited.

Subject to that rule, neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss not reasonably foreseeable when the contract began. Our proposed aggregate liability cap is [THE GREATER OF FEES PAID IN THE PRECEDING 12 MONTHS OR A FIXED AMOUNT—COUNSEL TO CONFIRM BY MARKET]. Any user indemnity will apply only to business users or to losses directly caused by a user’s knowing unlawful conduct, rights infringement or material breach, and only where lawful.

20. Complaints, disputes and applicable law

Please first contact [COMPLAINTS EMAIL]; we aim to acknowledge complaints within [NUMBER] days. You may also complain to a competent privacy, consumer or online-safety regulator.

These Terms are governed by [GOVERNING LAW] and courts at [VENUE], but this choice does not deprive consumers of mandatory protections or courts available in their country of residence. EU/EEA and Australian consumers retain mandatory local rights. No mandatory US arbitration or class-action waiver is included in this draft pending a deliberate business and legal decision.

21. Changes to the Service or Terms

We may update these Terms for legal, security or product reasons. We will identify the date, explain material changes and provide advance notice where required. A change will not retroactively broaden rights to private content or synthetic likenesses without fresh consent. If a material change harms a paid consumer and they reject it, legally required cancellation or refund rights apply.

If any provision is unenforceable, it will be limited only as necessary and the rest remains effective. Delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver. Assignment by us must protect existing content and privacy commitments; users may not transfer an account or stewardship role except through Service controls or law.

22. Contact and legal notices

• Operator: [LEGAL ENTITY AND ADDRESS]
• General support: [SUPPORT EMAIL]
• Privacy/DPO: [PRIVACY EMAIL; DPO IF REQUIRED]
• Trust and safety: [REPORTING EMAIL/FORM]
• DMCA agent: [NAME, ADDRESS, EMAIL; REGISTER WITH US COPYRIGHT OFFICE]
• EU representative: [IF REQUIRED]
• UK representative: [IF REQUIRED]