Terms & Conditions

A private service for one family. Family members text updates, photos or voice notes to a dedicated number; those contributions are gathered into a weekly newsletter delivered by email. It is not a social network, not an app store product, and not a public publishing platform. There are no feeds, no likes, no public profiles and no ads.

There are two ways in, and both need your okay:

• The administrator asks you directly, in person or on the phone, and adds your number only after you say yes.
• You text the Life Lately number yourself, which we treat as you choosing to join.

Joining means you agree to receive the occasional check-in reminder by text and, if you ask for it, the newsletter by email. You can leave at any time as described below.

Reply STOP to end all texts from Life Lately immediately, PAUSE to suspend reminders and RESUME to restart them, REMOVE to hold one update back from the newsletter, or DELETE to ask that your stored updates, photos, voice notes and memories be erased. Reply HELP for a short list of these commands. Requests are honoured promptly and without anyone making a fuss about it.

You keep ownership of anything you send. By sending it, you give the family permission to keep it and include it in the newsletter. In return we ask that you only send things you have the right to share, and that you have nothing against being named in a family newsletter before you send a photo of someone else's child or a story about another person.

Please don't send: anything you don't have the right to share, anything abusive or unlawful, other people's private or medical or financial information, or material intended to promote a business.

The newsletter only reflects what people themselves sent. Names, dates and facts come from family members, not from us; nothing is invented, and nobody's words are put in their mouth. The administrator reads every issue before it is sent and may leave something out — an update, a photo, or a whole section — without needing to explain why. On a quiet week the newsletter will simply be shorter rather than padded out.

Message and data rates may apply — your mobile carrier charges you as normal for texting, and we charge you nothing. Texts and emails depend on third-party carriers and providers, so while we go to reasonable lengths to keep things flowing, we cannot guarantee that any particular message arrives, and voice notes are stored as recordings rather than turned into text.

One person runs Life Lately for this family. They can add or remove members, edit or remove submissions, change reminder timing, and shut the whole thing down. Family members who want any of that done should ask them directly.

Life Lately is offered as it is, and may be changed, paused or ended at any time — including if the outside services it depends on stop working. We'll tell people in the family before anything that affects them changes, and these terms will be updated with a new date at the top of this page.

To the fullest extent the law allows, the operator of Life Lately is not liable for indirect or consequential loss arising from use of the service, and the service is provided without warranties of any kind beyond those that cannot legally be excluded. Nothing here limits liability that the law says cannot be limited.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States. For anything at all — a question, a correction, a deletion request, or a complaint — email lucymtinley@gmail.com.