The Preservation Promise
People are trusting us with something more valuable than data.
They are trusting us with their lives.
Museums accept this responsibility when they take custody of an object. Libraries accept it when they accept a family's papers. We are asking for something more personal than either: the record of an entire life, and eventually, what is handed to the people who loved that person. This page explains how we intend to look after it.
Our promises
- Every life deserves an accurate record.
- Your Record belongs to you.
- Your story is yours to tell.
- Your private memories remain private.
- Nothing is shared without your permission.
- Your family controls your legacy — not strangers.
- We will never build our business by selling your personal story.
- We will never manipulate your attention.
- We will never encourage outrage because it increases engagement.
- We exist to preserve lives — not monetise them.
Ownership
Ownership here is not a setting buried in a menu. It is the shape of the whole product.
- Members own their Records.
- Members can export everything.
- Members can print everything.
- Members can download everything.
- Members can designate Legacy Trustees.
- Members decide what is shared.
- Members decide what remains private.
Preservation without portability is only custody. If you ever want to leave, you take everything with you — the words, the photographs, the recordings, the book.
Legacy Trustees
A member may appoint people they trust to help care for their Record. A spouse. A child. An attorney. A sibling. A friend. Each trustee is given only the responsibilities the member chooses to give them.
Who may be appointed
- Spouse or partner
- Child
- Sibling
- Parent
- Friend
- Attorney or legal representative
What they may be trusted with
- Read only
- Continue the Record
- Publish Legacy
- Order Life Books
- Manage the Family Archive
Everything remains controlled by the owner. Naming a trustee changes nothing today, and nothing is ever released automatically.
Digital heirlooms
A Record is not a file. Over a lifetime it becomes a shelf of things a family can hold.
- A Life Book
- A designed biography, written in the words of the person who lived it.
- A Family Archive
- Photographs, documents and traditions kept together for the people who come after.
- A Voice Collection
- Stories told aloud, so a grandchild can hear how they actually sounded.
- A Recipe Collection
- The dishes a family returns to, in the hand of the person who made them.
- A Lessons Collection
- What a life taught, set down plainly enough to be useful to someone else.
- A Family Tree
- Not names and dates — doorways into the people behind them.
- Letters
- Written to be read later, by the person they were written for.
- Photographs
- Kept with who, where, when and why, so they still mean something in fifty years.
- A Business History
- What was built, why it mattered, and what it cost.
The future
Technology will change.
Phones will change.
Computers will change.
Formats will change.
Human stories should remain.
We believe stories deserve to outlive the technology that happened to carry them. RealLife exists to make sure they do.
The RealLife Pledge
We are not here to become rich from your information.
We are here to help you preserve an accurate record of your life.
In your own words.
On your own terms.
For the people you love.
Technology changes. Human stories don't.
The Preservation Promise explains our philosophy and our commitments. It is not a legal document and it does not replace one. Our terms and privacy policy remain separate.