Firsthand
Your family's stories are yours
These are some of the most personal things a person can share. Here is exactly how we treat them — in plain language, no fine print.
Who can see what
A room code only helps Firsthand find an archive. It does not open the family's private stories.
Each family member opens the archive with their own private invitation. The organizer uses their account or a separate organizer link. These links can be replaced or turned off.
A chapter opens to the public only when the organizer chooses to share that chapter. Its sharing link can be turned off without deleting the private archive.
Some older archives may stay safely locked while we confirm their steward. Nothing is deleted while access is being recovered.
If an answer is not connected to a family member's invitation, we save it for the organizer to review. It stays out of the storyteller's chapters until the organizer confirms who spoke.
Your data is yours
You can download everything your family has shared at any time — a readable keepsake and a complete data file — from your family's page. No need to ask, and no waiting.
Leaving is easy
If you ever want to stop, you can delete your Firsthand archive completely. Deleting erases everything — every answer, every note we kept, the whole archive. It does not go to a trash bin; it is gone.
Zero data training
Your stories do not become training data
We never train AI models on your stories.
- Your stories are used to answer your request, not to build a model.
You can export everything or erase everything any time.
Kept in their own voice
We keep the actual recording of every answer for as long as your archive exists, so you can hear your loved one tell it in their own voice.
- Keeping a recording is not training on it — we never use these recordings to train AI.
- There is no expiry clock: a recording is deleted only when you delete the archive itself.
You can download or permanently delete every recording at any time.
Our promise
We will never sell your family's stories, and we will never use them to advertise to you. Firsthand is a place to be heard, not a product that mines what you say.
Questions about your privacy? Reply to any email from us — a person will answer.