Our Commitments

Trust & Ethics.

We are stewards of irreplaceable things. This page explains exactly how we honor that responsibility — in structure, not just in words.

Ownership Consent Roles AI Limits Levels of Presence Privacy Permanence Disputes AI Charter

01 — Ownership

Your memories.
Your family.
Your archive.

Everything uploaded to Heaven.org belongs to the family — not to us. We do not claim license to your content, we do not monetize it, we do not share it with third parties, and we never will.

Our role is that of a steward: we provide the infrastructure, the security, and the permanence. You provide the soul. That distinction is structural — built into how Heaven.org is designed, not just stated in a policy document.

✦
No data resale. Ever.
We will never sell, license, or share your family's memories with advertisers, data brokers, researchers, or any third party — regardless of business pressure or ownership change.
✦
No advertising model.
Heaven.org will never carry advertising. Our business model is built on subscription and services — never on using your attention or your data as the product.
✦
Export anytime.
Families can export a complete archive of all memories, files, and metadata at any time, in standard formats. No lock-in. Your memories leave with you if you choose to go.
✦
Acquisition protection.
If Heaven.org is ever acquired, the new owner will be contractually required to honor all ownership and privacy commitments — or families will be notified and given a full export window.

03 — Roles

A clear chain
of stewardship.

Every space on Heaven.org has a defined role structure. Permissions are structural, not optional — they cannot be bypassed or overridden without proper authorization.

Steward
Primary authority
The person whose life is being preserved — or, if passed, the primary family member designated to manage the space. The Steward sets all permissions, approves Custodians, and controls public visibility.
Full edit and delete rights
Invite and remove all contributors
Control public / private status
Assign and revoke Custodian rights
Enable or disable AI features
Export complete archive
Inner Circle
Trusted contributors
Family members and close friends invited by the Steward to contribute memories, photos, stories, and context. Inner Circle contributions are submitted for Custodian approval before being preserved.
Submit memories for approval
Upload media (pending approval)
View all approved content
Cannot publish without approval
Cannot change space settings
Cannot invite others
Custodian
Operational steward
Designated by the Steward to manage the space after passing — or to manage day-to-day operations for a living person. Custodians approve contributions, manage access, and preserve the space's integrity over time.
Approve or reject contributions
Invite Inner Circle members
Manage access and permissions
Receive legal/estate notifications
Cannot override Steward decisions
Cannot enable AI without consent

04 — AI Boundaries

AI is a librarian,
not a performer.

We believe AI has a role in legacy preservation — but that role must be precisely defined and strictly enforced. These are not aspirational guidelines. They are structural constraints built into how the platform works.

AI Can

✦ Organize and tag uploaded memories by theme, time period, and context
✦ Surface connections between memories contributed by different people
✦ Suggest organizational structures for a growing archive
✦ Transcribe handwritten documents or audio recordings (with attribution)
✦ Help the Steward write prompts to gather better stories from contributors
✦ In Phase 3 (with explicit consent): respond as the person using only documented materials, clearly labeled as AI-assisted

AI Cannot

— Invent, infer, or fabricate memories, opinions, or beliefs
— Generate new thoughts the person never expressed
— Evolve or update a person's perspective after death
— Simulate a person without explicit pre-mortem consent
— Operate without a clear label that it is AI-assisted
— Access or process a space's content for any purpose outside the platform
"The person is frozen in time — able to represent everything they knew about themselves, but unable to generate or change. Just represent."

— John Portaro, Founder

05 — Levels of Presence

Built in stages.
Unlocked by consent.

Heaven.org is not an AI product that happens to store memories. It is a memory platform that earns the right to offer more — one level of trust at a time.

Preserve
Phase 1 — Active Now
Safe, private, collaborative memory archive. Photos, video, voice, writing, and documents — organized into a life story. No AI. No interaction. Just preservation. This is Heaven.org at its most fundamental — and it would be enough on its own.
Default
Narrate
Phase 2 — Year 1–2
AI-assisted organization and storytelling. The archive becomes a documentary — timeline playback, contextual linking, optional voice narration using the person's actual recorded voice. AI acts as editor, never as narrator inventing new content.
Opt-in
Presence
Phase 3 — Future
Optional, consensual, family-controlled interactive presence. Responds to questions using only documented material. Clearly labeled. Personality frozen at time of passing. Can be paused or revoked by Custodian at any time. Requires explicit pre-mortem consent. Will never be required or default.
Future · Opt-in only

06 — Privacy Architecture

Private by default.
Public by choice.
Never by accident.

Every space created on Heaven.org is private from the moment it is created. Nothing becomes visible outside the contributor circle without a deliberate, explicit decision by the Steward.

Public visibility also requires a minimum of two contributors — preventing any single person from publishing a one-sided narrative about someone else's life.

🔒
End-to-end encryption
All memories are encrypted at rest and in transit. Heaven.org staff cannot read the contents of private spaces.
👥
Invitation-only access
Contributors must be personally invited by the Steward or Custodian. There is no way to find or request access to a private space.
📋
Full audit trail
Every action — who added what, when, and who approved it — is logged and visible to the Steward. Transparency within the family circle.
🚫
No cross-space data sharing
Content from one space is never used to inform, train, or influence another. Spaces are completely isolated from each other.

07 — Permanence

What happens
if Heaven.org
shuts down?

We are building for 100 years. But we also have to be honest: companies fail. The question is what we've put in place to protect families if that ever happens.

Our Permanence Protocol
If Heaven.org ever faces shutdown — for any reason — we commit to the following:
1.
Families receive a minimum 180-day notice before any service interruption.
2.
A full export of all space content is made available in standard, open formats (PDF, MP4, JPG, MP3) — at no cost.
3.
Heaven.org will partner with a nonprofit or archival institution to ensure long-term hosting continuity where possible.
4.
In an acquisition scenario, new ownership is contractually bound to these permanence commitments or must trigger the protocol above.
5.
We will establish a Legacy Reserve Fund — a portion of all revenue held in escrow specifically to fund family data preservation in a wind-down scenario.

08 — Dispute Resolution

When families
disagree.

Memory is subjective. Families don't always agree. We have built a structured process for when that happens — one that protects the person being preserved, not the loudest voice in the room.

1
Custodian review
The Custodian reviews the disputed content and attempts to resolve it within the family circle. All submissions remain private and pending during this period.
2
Contested flagging
If resolution isn't reached, the content can be marked "contested" — visible to contributors but clearly labeled as disputed, pending resolution. Not published publicly.
3
Heaven.org mediation
For unresolved disputes, families can request a Heaven.org Trust Review. Our team reviews the content against community guidelines and the space's documented consent record — not to take sides, but to ensure the guidelines are being applied fairly.
4
Parallel archive
In rare cases of irreconcilable family conflict, we support the creation of a separate, independently stewarded space. Memories are not erased — but they can be separated when that's what the family needs.

09 — AI Ethics Charter

Our commitments to the people whose lives we preserve.

This charter governs every AI capability we build, consider, or deploy — now and in the future. It is not a legal document. It is a binding statement of values that our product decisions must answer to.

Human authorship is sacred.
Every memory on Heaven.org is human-authored. AI may organize, surface, and present — but it never writes in a person's voice without their documented consent. The line between human memory and AI interpretation is always visible.
Consent precedes capability.
No AI feature is unlocked without explicit consent from the relevant parties. We will never deploy a capability first and ask forgiveness later. This applies to every phase of the product roadmap.
AI is never the authority.
In any dispute between a family member and an AI interpretation, the family member is right. Always. AI serves families — families do not serve AI convenience.
Transparency is non-negotiable.
Every AI-assisted element is labeled. Always. Users will always know when they are interacting with something AI-assisted vs. something directly contributed by a human.
The right to be forgotten.
Any living person can request complete removal from Heaven.org — their own space, their contributions to others, any AI-derived data referencing them. Erasure is permanent and verifiable.
Grief is not a data point.
We will never use behavioral or emotional signals from grieving families to optimize engagement, retention, or upsell. Heaven.org measures success by how well lives are preserved — not by how long people stay on the platform.