Privacy policy

Last updated October 16, 2026

OurSimons History is a private family-history project maintained by Brock Simon. This policy covers its public information pages, private archive at history.oursimons.com, and assistant connection at history-mcp.oursimons.com. Questions and requests can be sent to contact@oursimons.com. Other applications linked from OurSimons have their own data practices.

Information we handle

• Account and access information: your email address, display name, verified sign-in identifier, invitation, permissions, and connection approvals or revocations.
• Family research: names, relationships, places, historical events, stories, source references, documents, images, and research notes supplied to or preserved by the archive. Some restricted records concern living people.
• Requests and contributions: search terms and record identifiers needed to answer a request, plus corrections, submissions, attachments, or support messages you choose to send.
• Security records: connection identifiers, timestamps, tool names, access decisions, and, for some calls, the record identifier requested. Our application access logs do not store search text, document contents, passwords, or access tokens. Hosting and sign-in providers may process network and device information, such as IP addresses and browser details, to operate and protect their services.

Why we use it

We use this information to preserve and explain family history, verify invitations, enforce permissions, answer requested searches, review corrections, provide support, and investigate abuse or technical problems. We do not sell personal information, run advertising, or use archive information for advertising profiles.

Who can see the archive

Public information pages do not expose the research collection. Ordinary family members can read only reviewed historical records and separately permitted documents. Living or possibly living people and private research are excluded from that access. The maintainer and separately authorized research readers have broader access, which can include living-person records and original research snapshots. Research readers cannot edit through the assistant connection.

The maintainer can review account access, security records, and contributions. Other members do not receive access to your private submissions simply by joining. Share only material you are entitled to provide, and contact us before sending particularly sensitive information.

Connected assistants and service providers

When you connect ChatGPT or another compatible assistant, it sends requested tool inputs to the history service. We return only information allowed by your account and connection. Those results, including any permitted document content, become available to the assistant provider and may be retained in your conversation under that provider’s terms, privacy policy, and account settings. We do not receive your entire chat history merely because you connect the archive.

Cloudflare provides hosting, private data storage, website access protection, and contact-email forwarding. WorkOS provides the assistant sign-in service, and Google is used for account sign-in and the maintainer’s support mailbox. These providers process information needed to deliver their services. Information may be processed in countries other than your own. We may also disclose information when legally required or necessary to protect the service or people from abuse.

Cookies and public pages

The public information pages do not set application cookies or load advertising or analytics scripts. The private archive and sign-in providers use session mechanisms and necessary cookies to keep you signed in and enforce access. Hosting providers still process ordinary request information to deliver and secure pages.

How long information stays

Family research, source documents, revisions, and preserved snapshots are retained as a continuing historical archive unless the maintainer removes or restricts them. Account records, connection approvals, and security logs currently have no automatic expiry and remain until manually removed. Disabling an account or revoking a connection stops access; it does not automatically delete those records.

Support emails remain in the maintainer’s mailbox until manually deleted. Backup copies currently have no automated expiry. Removing an active record does not immediately remove it from earlier backups or from information already returned to an assistant. These are the current practices; we do not promise a fixed automatic deletion period.

Your choices and requests

You can revoke your own assistant connections at the private connections page, or ask the maintainer to disable your account. Revocation stops future reads but cannot retract previous conversations, downloads, or copies held by recipients.

Contact us to ask what information we hold about you, correct a mistake, request a copy, or request deletion or restricted visibility. We may need to verify your identity. We will consider the request, the rights of other people, the integrity of historical sources, and any applicable legal requirements, and explain any information we need to retain. To manage conversations held by an assistant provider, use that provider’s controls or contact it directly.

Security and changes

We use authenticated accounts, server-enforced permissions, private document storage, and encrypted connections. No system can guarantee complete security. Please report unexpected access or disclosure through our support page.

We will update this page when these practices change and revise the date above. Material changes affecting existing members will also be communicated through the archive or directly where appropriate.