Terms of Service
Effective Date: February 14, 2026
Last Updated: February 14, 2026
Introduction
Welcome to Rishta. These Terms of Service ("Terms") constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Rishta ("we," "us," or "our") governing your access to and use of the Rishta website, mobile applications, and related services (collectively, the "Services").
By creating an account, accessing, or using the Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not access or use the Services.
Description of Services
Rishta provides a platform for creating, managing, and sharing digital family trees. Our Services enable you to document your family history, add biographical information about family members, establish relationships between individuals, and optionally share your family trees with other users or make them publicly accessible.
The Services include features for uploading photos and other content, exploring public family trees created by other users, and connecting with others who may share common ancestors or family connections. We continuously work to improve and expand our Services, and we may add, modify, or remove features at our discretion.
Eligibility and Account Registration
Age Requirements
You must be at least 13 years of age to create an account and use the Services. If you are between 13 and 18 years of age (or the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction), you may only use the Services under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to be bound by these Terms.
By using the Services, you represent and warrant that you meet these age requirements and have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement.
Account Creation and Security
To access certain features of the Services, you must create an account by providing accurate, current, and complete information, including your name and email address. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials, including your password, and for all activities that occur under your account.
You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to or use of your account. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account if we suspect any unauthorized use or security breach.
You may not create an account on behalf of another person without their permission, and you may not maintain more than one active account without our prior written consent.
User Content and Intellectual Property
Your Content
When you use the Services, you may create, upload, or contribute various types of content, including family trees, biographical information about individuals, photographs, stories, and other materials (collectively, "Your Content"). You retain all ownership rights in Your Content.
By submitting Your Content to the Services, you grant Rishta a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform Your Content in connection with operating and providing the Services, including for purposes of promoting and redistributing part or all of the Services.
This license continues even if you stop using the Services, but only for the limited purpose of allowing the Services to continue functioning for other users who may have incorporated Your Content into their family trees or who have collaborated with you on shared trees.
Content You Add About Others
When you add information about other individuals to your family trees, you represent and warrant that you have the right to share such information and that doing so does not violate any applicable laws or third-party rights, including privacy rights.
You acknowledge that once information is added to a public family tree or shared with other users, it may be copied, stored, or incorporated into other users' family trees, and we cannot control how other users may use such information.
Information About Deceased Individuals
Historical and genealogical information about deceased individuals is generally considered to be in the public domain. When you contribute information about deceased persons to public family trees, you acknowledge that such information may be used by other users for genealogical research and family history purposes.
Our Intellectual Property
The Services, including their design, functionality, text, graphics, logos, and other content provided by Rishta (excluding Your Content), are owned by or licensed to Rishta and are protected by intellectual property laws.
You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of our Services or included software, nor may you reverse engineer or attempt to extract the source code of that software, except as expressly permitted by applicable law or with our written permission.
Acceptable Use Policy
You agree to use the Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. Specifically, you agree not to:
Violate Laws or Rights. Use the Services in any manner that violates any applicable law, regulation, or these Terms, or that infringes upon the rights of others, including intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or publicity rights.
Misrepresent Information. Knowingly provide false, misleading, or inaccurate information about yourself or others, or impersonate any person or entity.
Harass or Harm Others. Use the Services to harass, abuse, threaten, defame, or otherwise harm other users or individuals, or to engage in hate speech or discrimination.
Interfere with the Services. Attempt to interfere with, disrupt, or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the Services, our servers, or networks connected to the Services.
Unauthorized Access. Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any portion of the Services, other users' accounts, or any systems or networks connected to the Services, through hacking, password mining, or any other means.
Automated Access. Use any robot, spider, scraper, or other automated means to access the Services for any purpose without our express written permission, except as permitted for public search engine indexing.
Commercial Use Without Permission. Use the Services for any commercial purpose without our prior written consent, including advertising or offering to sell goods or services.
Malicious Code. Upload or transmit viruses, malware, or any other malicious code, or otherwise attempt to compromise the security or integrity of the Services.
We reserve the right to investigate violations of these Terms and to take appropriate action, including removing content, suspending or terminating accounts, and reporting violations to law enforcement authorities.
Tree Visibility and Sharing
Privacy Settings
When you create a family tree, you may designate it as either "Private" or "Public." Private trees are visible only to you and to users with whom you explicitly choose to share the tree. Public trees are visible to all users of the Services and may appear in search results and community features.
You may change the visibility settings of your trees at any time through your account settings. However, please be aware that if a tree has previously been public, other users may have already viewed, copied, or incorporated information from your tree into their own trees, and we cannot control or remove such copied information.
Living Persons
By default, information about living persons in your trees is kept private even if the tree itself is public, unless you explicitly choose to make such information public. We encourage you to exercise caution when adding information about living individuals to protect their privacy.
Collaboration and Sharing
The Services may allow you to share trees with specific users or to collaborate with others on building family trees. When you share a tree or collaborate with others, those users will have access to the information in that tree according to the permissions you grant them.
Subscriptions and Payments
Free and Paid Services
Rishta may offer certain features of the Services for free and other features as part of paid subscription plans. The specific features, pricing, and terms applicable to any paid subscriptions will be described on our website or in the Services at the time of purchase.
Billing and Renewals
If you purchase a paid subscription, you agree to pay all applicable fees as described at the time of purchase. Subscriptions may automatically renew at the end of each subscription period unless you cancel prior to the renewal date. You authorize us to charge your payment method for any renewal fees.
We reserve the right to change our pricing upon reasonable notice. Price changes will not affect your current subscription period but will apply to subsequent renewal periods unless you cancel your subscription.
Cancellation and Refunds
You may cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings. Upon cancellation, you will continue to have access to paid features through the end of your current billing period, after which your account will revert to the free tier.
Except as required by applicable law or as otherwise specified in our refund policy, subscription fees are non-refundable. We do not provide refunds or credits for partial subscription periods or for subscriptions that are cancelled mid-period.
Termination
Termination by You
You may terminate your account and stop using the Services at any time by deleting your account through your account settings. Upon account deletion, your Personal Information and family trees will be permanently deleted in accordance with our Privacy Policy, except as required for legal compliance or where other users have incorporated information from your public trees into their own trees.
Termination by Us
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Services, with or without notice, for any reason, including if we reasonably believe that you have violated these Terms, engaged in fraudulent or illegal activity, or if your conduct poses a risk to other users or to the integrity of the Services.
We may also terminate accounts that have been inactive for an extended period, though we will make reasonable efforts to provide advance notice before doing so.
Effects of Termination
Upon termination of your account, your right to access and use the Services will immediately cease. However, certain provisions of these Terms will survive termination, including provisions relating to intellectual property, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and dispute resolution.
Disclaimers and Limitations of Liability
No Warranty
THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
We do not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that any defects will be corrected. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any content available through the Services, including user-generated content and genealogical information.
Accuracy of Information
Family trees and genealogical information on the Services are contributed by users and may contain errors, inaccuracies, or incomplete information. We do not verify the accuracy of user-contributed content and make no representations or warranties regarding its accuracy or reliability.
You acknowledge that genealogical research may reveal unexpected or sensitive information about family relationships, and you assume all risks associated with such discoveries.
Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, RISHTA AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AND AFFILIATES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR USE, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
IN NO EVENT SHALL OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL DAMAGES, LOSSES, AND CAUSES OF ACTION EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU HAVE PAID TO RISHTA IN THE TWELVE MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100), WHICHEVER IS GREATER.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain warranties or liabilities, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.
Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Rishta and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and affiliates from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to:
Your use of or inability to use the Services; Your Content or any content you submit, post, or transmit through the Services; your violation of these Terms; your violation of any rights of another person or entity, including privacy rights or intellectual property rights; or any activity that occurs under your account, whether or not authorized by you.
We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which case you agree to cooperate with our defense of such claim.
Dispute Resolution and Governing Law
Governing Law
These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.
Dispute Resolution
In the event of any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services, you and Rishta agree to first attempt to resolve the dispute informally by contacting us at support@rishta.life and providing a detailed description of the dispute.
If the dispute cannot be resolved informally within 30 days, either party may initiate formal proceedings.
Jurisdiction and Venue
You agree that any legal action or proceeding relating to these Terms or the Services shall be brought exclusively in the courts located in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of such courts.
General Provisions
Entire Agreement
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any other legal notices or additional terms published by us on the Services, constitute the entire agreement between you and Rishta regarding your use of the Services and supersede any prior agreements.
Modifications to Terms
We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. We will provide notice of material changes by posting the updated Terms on our website and updating the "Last Updated" date. For significant changes, we may also notify you by email or through a prominent notice on the Services.
Your continued use of the Services after any changes to these Terms constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the modified Terms, you must stop using the Services.
Severability
If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect. The invalid or unenforceable provision shall be replaced with a valid, legal, and enforceable provision that most closely reflects the original intent.
Waiver
Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision unless acknowledged and agreed to by us in writing. No waiver of any breach of these Terms shall constitute a waiver of any subsequent breach.
Assignment
You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your rights and obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms or any rights under these Terms without restriction, including to any affiliate or successor in interest of our business.
Force Majeure
We shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performing our obligations under these Terms due to causes beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, labor disputes, or governmental actions.
Third-Party Services
The Services may contain links to third-party websites or services that are not owned or controlled by Rishta. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party websites or services. You acknowledge and agree that Rishta shall not be responsible or liable for any damage or loss caused by or in connection with your use of any third-party content, goods, or services.
Contact Information
If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback regarding these Terms or the Services, please contact us:
Email: support@rishta.life
Address: Syed Ajmal, 319, Aimanzai Jalal Nagar, Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India - 242001
Thank you for using Rishta to preserve and share your family's legacy.