01 · The endless camera roll
We store everything—and delete almost nothing. Years later the album is a burden: too precious to erase, too chaotic to use.
Before they fade away — while you can still ask
Don’t just save the moment.
Save what it meant.
The stories we mean to keep
are the ones we almost never write down.
While the people who matter are still here
to answer, laugh, and add one more detail—
preserve what a moment meant.
A few lines are enough.
lock Original photos can stay on your device
Phone is fine for one sentence. Computer or tablet is better for longer writing and Guided story.
Discover
Not everything. What matters.
A life doesn’t need to be recorded in full. But the parts worth truly understanding shouldn’t be left out. Keep the moments that mattered—and what they meant—so a focused collection can still show who someone was.
We always think there will be time.
What slips away is rarely the day—it’s the story we never asked for.
The photos remain. The chance to add one more detail does not.
What felt ordinary then can become the story you can no longer ask for.
While you can still ask, keep what it meant. A few lines are enough.
Your Circle is the people whose stories matter to you—a parent, a friend, a mentor, someone you don’t want to forget.
Photos are raw memory. BeforeEmpty is the meaning layer.
What this moment meant—who it shaped, what it taught, how care was shown—becomes yours to keep, before the stories fade away.
What you build
Remember a moment for someone in your Circle.
Build a meaning layer that grows with care.
One path. Capture a moment for someone in your Circle, then keep the story and the meaning.
Capture
A photo if you have one. A few lines about someone in your Circle. That is enough to begin.
Story
What you wrote becomes the story. BeforeEmpty arranges it. It does not write a new one for you.
Meaning
The part you said mattered—kept with the story, so you can ask it later.
Keep
One Memory Card: the photo, the story, the meaning, the person, the year. Yours to keep and pass on.
Illustrative examples—not a leaderboard. Every story begins with one moment about someone who matters—family, a friend, a mentor.
Quiet beginnings—anonymous and illustrative. No public profiles. No scores.
A first family dinner that still shapes how care is shown
A childhood summer place returned to years later
A letter never sent—kept so the meaning isn’t lost
A mentor’s one principle—kept so it doesn’t stay only in your head
“I started with one photo of someone I didn’t want to forget. Months later I had preserved stories I never knew existed.”
— Early member (illustrative)
Examples are simulated for the homepage.
BeforeEmpty does not show other people’s private stories publicly.
Original photos and files can stay on your device. BeforeEmpty does not need to become the place where your entire digital life is stored.
Original photos and files can stay on this device, in a folder called your Vault. We keep the meaning you chose to save. Full writing and original photos stay on your device.
We keep what you chose to preserve, so you can return and ask. Full drafts and the photos stay with you unless you export them. Text you submit to Find meaning may be processed by our servers and AI providers.
Export what you’ve kept for your own storage. What you pass on is the meaning, in the words you wrote.
“Your memories stay yours. Photos stay on your device. The meaning you save can be asked later.”
Phone is fine for one sentence. Computer or tablet is better for longer writing and Guided story.
Beta summary for transparency.
This is not a substitute for formal legal counsel.
Final policies may be published before a public launch.
What BeforeEmpty is. BeforeEmpty is a private meaning layer for the people who matter to you—photos, moments, and stories you choose to preserve about them in My Circle, turned into structured meaning (life moments, values, patterns, Memory Cards). You can start with Preserve a moment, optionally continue in Guided story, and use Find meaning to ask from what you’ve preserved. It helps you save what you always meant to organize, before stories fade away. It is not a public social network, not an AI clone or digital twin of a real person, and does not claim ownership of your original media. It is designed for reflection and a private meaning legacy—not psychological profiles, personality assessments, or judgments about other people.
1) What usually stays on your device
Photos, videos, audio, and documents are designed to remain under your control on your device and are not uploaded to our cloud storage as part of normal Preserve a moment or Guided story flows. Optional Vault keeps evidence files on disk you control. Drafts may also be stored locally in your browser (IndexedDB). Find meaning likewise does not upload original media files to cloud storage APIs.
2) What we may store in the cloud
To run the service we may store: email address or other account identifiers you choose to provide; progress metadata (for example Guided story completion state and content/media hashes); billing or redeem-code state; and structured meaning summaries derived from moments you preserve (such as life-event titles/summaries, values, patterns, and Memory Card fields). We may store these structured summaries to provide the service; they are treated as personal data and handled according to these privacy practices. Where practical we prefer hashes and structured summaries over retaining full plaintext drafts as the primary cloud record.
3) When you Preserve a moment or continue in Guided story
Text meaning you submit can be sent to our servers so your meaning layer (life events, values, Memory Cards, and related story signals) can update. You control what you write and attach.
4) When you use Find meaning or Deeper conversation
Your current message is sent to our backend to generate a reply. Optional PDF / Word (.docx) attachments may contribute extracted text as context for that reply. Photos, video, and audio are not analyzed in Find meaning—keep them with Preserve a moment if they belong in your story. Replies are AI-generated approximations grounded primarily in moments you preserved—they do not represent or recreate a real person, and are not a real person speaking.
5) AI and infrastructure providers
To generate replies we may send a system prompt (meaning-layer and safety constraints), your message, and optional document context to third-party AI providers. Raw local media files are not sent in the current design. Providers may process data outside your country. Please do not include information you would not want processed by these providers (for example passwords, government IDs, or confidential third-party records). Family stories you choose to explore with Find meaning may still be sensitive—use Find meaning only if you accept third-party processing of that text.
6) Data use boundary
Moments and stories you preserve are used only to provide and improve BeforeEmpty services. We do not sell what you preserved, and we do not use your private content to train public AI models without your permission.
7) Export, backup, and deletion
ZIP export and Vault sync can include text, media, and metadata for recovery on devices you control. Reset or account-deletion flows clear cloud progress and this browser’s local IndexedDB records for the signed-in user where implemented. Account deletion requires an access code sent to your account email before cloud data is permanently removed. Deleting your account does not automatically delete files stored in your personal Vault folder, because those files are stored outside our control on your device.
8) Children
BeforeEmpty is intended for adults who are old enough to use the service under the laws where they live (age of majority where required). Adults may preserve moments involving children when they have the appropriate rights and permissions to do so. Children should not create accounts. If you are under the age of majority in your jurisdiction, do not create an account.
9) Your rights and choices
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete personal data we hold, or to withdraw consent for optional processing (for example turning off story learning). Use Contact & feedback (site footer or Settings) with your account email or ID. We aim to respond within a reasonable time during Beta.
10) Security and limits
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures, but no online service can guarantee absolute security. You remain responsible for device access, Vault folder permissions, and backups.
11) Policy changes
We may update this summary as the product evolves. Material changes will be reflected by updating the date/version shown above. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised summary for Beta purposes.