This translation is provided for information only. The French version alone is authoritative.

Terms of use

Last updated: 8 September 2026

This is an informative translation. The French version is the legally binding one and prevails in the event of any divergence. Read the French version.

1. Purpose

Kinstrel is a free collaborative genealogy service built on a single shared graph: one real person corresponds to one record, which several contributors enrich. There are no walled-off trees; branches meet.

Creating an account constitutes acceptance of these terms.

2. Independence commitment

Three commitments, and only three, because these are the ones we actually control:

Exporting your data will remain free, complete and permanent. In GEDCOM

and JSON, without watermark, cap or trial period. An automated check genuinely runs that export at regular intervals, so the promise does not rest on good intentions alone.

Your data will not be sold. Not the records, not the documents, not the

email addresses, to anyone, in any form.

If the business is sold, you will be told, with enough notice to export

and leave if the buyer does not suit you.

We do not promise never to sell the business: that would be unverifiable, and would destroy the very trust this section seeks to build.

3. What you undertake

Enter only information you reasonably believe accurate, and mark as

hypothesis anything that is merely a line of enquiry.

Do not upload **identity cards, passports, driving licences, complete family

record books or bank details**. This prohibition is absolute: such documents would turn the service into a store of identity-theft material.

Do not upload documents concerning a living person other than yourself.
Do not use the service to monitor, harass or locate someone against their

will.

Respect a refusal: someone who asks not to be contacted again must not be, by

anyone.

4. What we undertake

Apply the visibility rules set out in the

Answer every report within one month.
Merge nothing automatically: no record can absorb another without a person

deciding it, and every merge remains reversible for thirty days.

Warn you of any substantial change to these terms.

5. Contributed content

You remain responsible for what you enter. By publishing information you accept that it becomes visible to other users within the limits set by the visibility rules, and that it remains in the shared graph even if you delete your account — under the conditions detailed in section 8 of the privacy policy.

You assign no rights: you keep control of your contributions and can retrieve them in full at any time.

6. Machine translation of support

Messages you send to support@kinstrel.com may be machine-translated by a third party named in the privacy policy, so that they can be handled whatever your language.

Exchanges concerning data protection, deletion of information, a report or the exercise of your rights are never machine-translated: they use pre-written, reviewed replies. A nuance lost on a legal commitment cannot be recovered.

7. Availability

The service is provided as is, with no guarantee of continuous availability. We do what is reasonable to keep it running, and backups are daily, encrypted and tested — but a free service cannot promise uninterrupted operation.

8. Suspension and termination

You can delete your account at any time, on your own, from your settings.

We may suspend an account that uploads forbidden documents, harasses others, or deliberately degrades the quality of the graph. Any such decision is notified and reasoned, and you may contest it at support@kinstrel.com.

9. Changes to these terms

Any substantial change is announced to registered users before it takes effect. Continued use constitutes acceptance; failing that, you may export your data and delete your account.

10. Governing law

French law. In the event of a dispute, an amicable solution will be sought at support@kinstrel.com before any legal action.