Terms and Conditions

1. Acceptance of these Terms

These Terms form a legally binding agreement between you and Oasis Tree (Pty) Ltd (“OasisTree”) governing use of the OasisTree app and platform (the “Service”). By registering for an account or otherwise accessing the Service, you confirm you are at least 18, have read these Terms, and agree to them. Under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, your electronic acceptance is a valid and binding agreement under South African law.

2. Account registration

You must be at least 18 to register an account. OasisTree does not support direct account registration by anyone under 18. Children appear on the platform only as profiles within a family tree managed by an adult account holder, subject to the competent-person consent described in our Privacy Policy. One account per natural person; you are responsible for your account’s security and activity.

3. The Service

OasisTree provides a platform for building a family tree, preserving memories of living and deceased relatives, and storing sensitive family records in a protected Family Vault, across a free tier and paid tiers. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service, with reasonable advance notice where practicable. OasisTree is in a private beta with invited families and is not yet available to the public. Current status is on our homepage.

4. Subscriptions and payment

During the private beta, invited families use OasisTree free and no payments are taken. The prices on our Pricing page are the plans we intend to offer from public release. Before any paid plan can be bought, these Terms will set out how payment works, including your cooling-off and cancellation rights under the Consumer Protection Act and the ECT Act. We will not store full card details.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Break South African or applicable international law.
• Infringe OasisTree’s or any third party’s intellectual property.
• Upload malicious code or attempt unauthorised access to any system or data.
• Harass, threaten, or defame any person, including other family members.
• Add a minor to the platform without being a competent person for them, or without the required consent.
• Misrepresent family relationships or engage in fraudulent conduct.
• Circumvent security or access controls, including on the Family Vault.
• Store or process unlawful content, including child sexual abuse material.

6. Intellectual property

OasisTree’s software, design, brand, and trademarks belong to Oasis Tree (Pty) Ltd. We grant you a limited, personal, non-commercial licence to use the Service. You and your family retain ownership of the content you create — profiles, photos, videos, stories, and Heritage Messages (“Family Content”). We do not claim ownership of it. By uploading Family Content, you grant us a limited licence to host and display it solely to provide the Service to the family members you’ve given access to — a licence that ends when you delete the content or close your account. We do not use Family Content to train third-party AI models or licence it to any third party.

7. Two open questions, stated honestly

Two content-ownership questions are genuinely unresolved and are flagged here rather than answered with an invented position:

• When one family member writes something on another’s profile, whose account owns that content — the writer’s, or the profile owner’s? Both are legitimate designs with different implications; a decision is pending.
• If you deposit an item in the Family Vault and later delete your account, who owns that item afterwards — the family, or your estate? Also pending, and requires legal input before we state a position.

This document will be updated once both are decided.

8. Heritage Messages are not legal wills

A Heritage Message recorded in the Family Vault has no legal force to distribute property, assets, or an estate. It is a personal record for your family, not an instrument of testamentary succession. For a legally binding will, consult a qualified attorney under the Wills Act (No. 7 of 1953).

9. Disclaimers and liability

To the extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind. Nothing in these Terms limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act that cannot lawfully be excluded.

10. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Disputes are first addressed through good-faith negotiation, then mediation and, if necessary, arbitration through the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa, seated in Johannesburg. South African consumers may also refer unresolved disputes to the National Consumer Commission.

11. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via in-app notification or email at least 30 days before taking effect.

12. Contact

Support and general enquiries: support@oasis-tree.com. Entity: Oasis Tree (Pty) Ltd. Physical address: 11 AYR Close, New Germany, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

13. This website and its assistant

The website assistant answers from approved OasisTree information. Its answers are general information about OasisTree, not legal, financial or other professional advice, and if an answer and these Terms or our Privacy Policy disagree, these documents apply. Requesting an invite does not guarantee a place in the private beta; we invite families in stages. How the website handles your information is set out in Sections 14 to 16 of our Privacy Policy.