Choose how long it stays.

Your retention choices

• Seven days: a short-lived birthday surprise.
• Thirty days: more time to revisit the memories.
• A custom expiry date: choose the day you want access to end.
• Thirty days after their birthday: available when you supply a birthday date.

The creator shows the exact expiry before saving. Check that date before you share, and use the management controls to review or change it later. Shared URLs remain stable when a story is edited.

When access ends

Every new story and photo request checks whether the story is active and unexpired. Expiry, revocation, or deletion prevents fresh access even if a cleanup job has not yet removed the underlying files. A photo already loaded on a device may remain on that screen.

Private photos are served through an authorized application route. Sunward does not rely on a publicly accessible photo bucket or a permanent download URL for recipient access.

Revoking a story permanently stops access and makes its content eligible for cleanup. Deleting a story also requests removal of its stored personal content. Once content has been physically removed, it cannot be restored by extending the expiry date.

When files are removed

Deletion requests and expired stories are handled by a scheduled, retryable cleanup process. The operational target is to run cleanup at least daily, so removal normally occurs within twenty-four hours after content becomes eligible. It removes eligible story content and private photographs. Abandoned staged uploads become eligible after their two-hour draft window plus a ten-minute safety interval. A failed storage deletion remains eligible for retry rather than being reported as complete.

Scheduling, outages, and provider errors can delay physical removal. An authorized administrator can see whether cleanup is pending or complete and retry it. Access checks continue to block expired or revoked content during that delay.

A contentless record of a deleted or expired story is retained for thirty days after physical cleanup to track its status. Minimal admin audit records—an actor, action, timestamp, and opaque story identifier—are retained for ninety days. Rate-limit records are purged after their enforcement windows expire. These records do not retain the deleted birthday photos, answers, or message.

Copies Sunward cannot retract

Deletion from active storage does not remove screenshots, downloaded social cards, photos already saved by recipients, messages containing the link, or reposts on another platform. If you post a card to Instagram, Snapchat, or another app, delete it there as well if you no longer want it shared.

Infrastructure backups and security logs can have separate retention periods set by the hosting, datastore, or storage provider. Sunward cannot promise instant erasure from all backup systems or copies. The active application blocks access even while provider backups may still exist. This deployment uses an authorized photo proxy; if a future deployment uses temporary signed photo URLs, those URLs are bearer credentials and can remain usable until their own expiry.

Manage or remove your story

Use the private management controls you received when saving. You can edit the content and expiry, revoke access, or delete the story. Save the management credential separately from the recipient URL and never post it publicly.

If you lost the management credential, or appear in a story you want removed, email Dinesh. Include the recipient link and explain your connection to the content. Do not include passwords or management secrets. Verification may be needed before a request can be fulfilled.

Contact Dinesh at dineshmadaka007@gmail.com for help, privacy questions, and deletion requests. You can also find Sunward’s creator on Instagram at @dineszz.here (opens a new tab). Please send private requests by email, without including passwords or management credentials.