As platforms such as FamTree create digital spaces for shared memories and rituals, they face challenges related to long-term data governance and content rights that most corporate apps have never needed to consider. Mihail Touretskiy, founder and chief product architect of Family.Space and FamTree, explains why these complexities will define the next generation of collaborative platforms.

The Invisible Market: Families Need Their Own Infrastructure

Most families still juggle a messy mix of tools. They chat on WhatsApp, leave reminders on sticky notes, and rely on Facebook to remember birthdays — until the algorithm forgets. These scattered habits are not just inconvenient; they reveal a huge gap where a well-designed product could deliver real value.

“Tools like Slack or Notion were designed for task management, not for memory preservation,” notes Touretskiy. “Family apps need to survive generational change — you’re not optimising for daily active users, you’re designing for continuity.”

Core Use Cases: More Than a Digital Family Tree

At first glance, preserving family memories may seem like a sentimental endeavour. But once these memories are digitised, families face practical challenges. They are involved in matters far more complicated than choosing Christmas gifts. How to structure their archives, define content rights, and ensure long-term stewardship — today’s families need more than storage apps. The modern family with tradition at its core requires platforms designed for co-creating stories, bridging generational gaps, and managing the delicate layers of shared authorship.

These are not just product challenges — they require clear legal frameworks to ensure content is preserved, accessible, and respectfully managed in different contexts. Here are just a few of the fundamental problems family technology is built to solve, as Touretskiy explains.

Collaborative memory spaces: Most family stories are spread across old photo albums, random cloud folders, and relatives’ memories. Apps like FamTree digitise and contextualise these archives, allowing families to co-create timelines, add personal anecdotes, and preserve stories that would otherwise fade.

Intergenerational communication: Families span multiple generations, each with different technology habits and comfort levels. A family app needs to have built-in translation tools, adaptable interfaces, and communication formats that work equally well for grandparents and Gen Z cousins.

Family logistics: Organising family events, caregiving duties, or even memorials often descends into chaotic group chats. Structured tools within family apps can simplify this, turning emotional stress into collaborative planning.

Shared authorship models: Unlike corporate documents, where hierarchy defines permissions, family content is emotionally shared. Platforms need to offer clear, transparent authorship layers that determine who can edit, delete, or inherit content, avoiding future disputes.

“Each of these areas involves emotional nuances that generic collaboration tools can’t handle. Family tech has to respect those dynamics while still offering structure,” says Touretskiy.

The Legal Layer: Who Owns a Family Timeline?

One of the trickiest aspects of collaborative family platforms is authorship and data ownership. Unlike social media, where a post belongs to the individual, family archives are co-created and co-owned.

“Let’s say a family recipe is uploaded by a grandmother, edited by her daughter, and rewritten by a grandson. Who owns the ‘final’ version?” Touretskiy asks. “If one relative wants to delete a photo while another insists it stays, how does the app mediate? You need protocols in place before the conflict arises.”

FamTree embeds authorship layers into every piece of content. The original author controls editing rights unless explicitly shared. Access permissions and edit logs are transparent to prevent future disputes.

Touretskiy’s expertise in data privacy law — with almost 15 years’ experience as a partner at a leading international law firm — plays a crucial role in designing these frameworks.

Cross-Border Families, Cross-Border Laws

In a globalised world, a single family app might serve users across five continents, each with different privacy regulations: GDPR in Europe, data localisation laws in India, and emerging frameworks in MENA.

“One of the biggest challenges is building compliance logic that adapts dynamically to user location,” explains Touretskiy. FamTree has designed onboarding flows that trigger specific privacy protocols based on the user’s location. For families spread across multiple jurisdictions, this isn’t a ‘feature’ — it’s the foundation of legal trust.

Beyond Features: Why Family Tech Needs New Infrastructure

Building for families isn’t about adding collaborative tools on top of existing platforms. It’s about rethinking the entire infrastructure.

“Memories should outlive product lifecycles,” says Touretskiy. “This is not about gamifying engagement. It’s about giving people confidence that their family history is safe, accessible, and respected — even decades from now.”

For start-ups entering this space, the product goal isn’t user retention metrics or monetisation hacks. It’s about earning a family’s trust across generations.

Looking ahead, Touretskiy predicts that digital inheritance frameworks will soon become a standard part of legal systems worldwide. “Today, many jurisdictions don’t have clear regulations on who owns a family’s digital archive after a relative passes away. But this will change,” he explains.

“We’ll see the rise of digital wills, cross-border agreements, and industry-wide standards on managing generational data. Start-ups that think about these questions now will shape how families handle digital heritage for decades to come.”