Privacy Policy

1. Who this Service is for, and children's data

The StoryBoo account holder must be an adult (see our Terms of Service). Children may use the app only through an adult's account and under that adult's supervision. StoryBoo relies on the account holder's confirmation and does not currently perform automated age verification. If you believe a child created an account, contact us.

Information about children that you provide. Onboarding currently asks for a child's first name, age, gender, and basic appearance choices; an additional appearance description is optional. The same kinds of details may be used when creating later characters or stories. You may use fictional details. Please be aware that:

• you, the parent or guardian, decide what to share, and you can use made-up details instead;
• we recommend using first names only and avoiding identifying details (no surnames, schools, addresses, or similar);
• please avoid descriptions that reveal sensitive characteristics — such as a child's racial or ethnic origin, health, or disability (special categories of data under Art. 9 GDPR); where you include appearance details so a character can be illustrated, we process them solely to generate your story, images, and narration, and never to profile, categorize, or make decisions about any person;
• these details are used solely to generate your stories, images, and narration (which involves processing by our AI providers — see Section 5), and to show your characters and stories back to you in the app;
• we never use them for advertising or marketing, and we never sell them;
• do not publish stories to Explore that identify a real child (see Section 4);
• you can edit or delete characters and stories, subject to the deletion mechanics and exceptions in Section 8.

2. Data we collect

2.1 Data you provide

• Account data — email address, sign-in method (email/password, Google, or Apple), identifiers, display name, and provider profile photo where supplied. Passwords are handled by Firebase Authentication; we do not receive the password itself. Apple may provide a relay email if you choose Hide My Email.
• Profile data — an optional in-app profile picture/avatar selection.
• Content you create — stories (title, description, genre, target age, page text), characters (name, gender, age, appearance description), generated images and audio associated with them, favorites, and likes.
• Onboarding data — referral source, platform, reading frequency, reading method, reading goal, target age, and number of children. These answers are required to complete the current onboarding flow. The backend keeps aggregate counters for referral source, platform, reading frequency, target age, and child count, and also stores the selected reader age on your user record; other answers may pass through our backend without being retained in your profile.
• Voice input — if you use dictation, microphone audio is processed by the speech-recognition service provided by Apple or Google and the resulting transcript becomes part of the prompt you submit.
• Communications — feedback, story reports, appeals, ratings, and emails. In-app feedback records include your account ID, message, subject, timestamp, user-agent, and an encoded/truncated IP-derived value used for abuse prevention and rate limiting.

2.2 Data created when you use the Service

• Usage data — stories created and read, reading progress, language preference, and subscription plan status.
• Moderation data — if your content is reported, removed, or banned, or if you submit a report or appeal, we keep records of those events and decisions (see Section 8 for retention).
• Subscription data — your subscription status, product (monthly/yearly), trial eligibility, renewal and expiry information, and an anonymous identifier used by our subscription-management provider. We never receive or store your payment card details — payment is handled entirely by Apple or Google.
• Technical data — IP address, request timestamps, device/app integrity signals (Firebase App Check, where supported), user-agent, and diagnostic or error information. App Check is not enforced on every backend endpoint. We do not intentionally create an advertising fingerprint. (For the website, see Section 11.)
• Product analytics — the app includes the Firebase Analytics SDK (Google) and the PostHog SDK (PostHog EU Cloud, stored in the European Union), which we use to understand how StoryBoo is used so we can improve it. Both receive the same kinds of events. They record:
  • automatically — app opens and sessions, session length, first opens, app version, operating system, device model, and approximate location at country level (derived from your IP address and not stored as a precise location);
  • screen views — which screens of the app you open;
  • feature events — signing up and signing in (including method), creating a character (the character's age and gender, and how many characters long its description is — never the character's name and never the description text itself), completing onboarding (your answers to the onboarding questions: referral source, platform, reading frequency, reading method, reading goal, target age, and number of children), answering the “are you enjoying StoryBoo” prompt, starting story generation (genre, target age, page count, whether images are requested, image style, how many characters are included, and how many characters long your prompt is — never the story text or the prompt itself), publishing a story, viewing the subscription paywall and its source, product-loading failures, and purchases (package and entitlement);
  • user properties — your subscription plan (Basic or Plus) and your chosen app language.
  These events are linked to your Firebase account ID and to a Google-generated app instance identifier, so they are personal data rather than anonymous statistics. We do not send your stories, prompts, character or child names, description, appearance or interest text, email address, or display name to Analytics. The only details about a character that are sent are the three listed above — its age, its gender, and the length of its description — which we use to understand who the app is being used for. This data is not used for advertising: the app contains no advertising SDK, we do not collect the advertising identifier (IDFA/AAID), Google Analytics advertising features and Google Signals are not enabled, and this data is not used to track you across other apps or websites.

2.3 Data stored only on your device

Some data stays on your device and is not sent to us: cached stories, images, and audio for faster loading and offline reading; app preferences; and locally scheduled notifications (for example the optional free-trial reminder). You can clear this by clearing the app's storage or deleting the app.

3. How we use your data, and the legal bases

We use personal data to:

We do not use your data for advertising, we do not sell or rent personal data, and we do not use your stories, characters, or other content to train AI models (see Section 5 regarding our AI providers).

Automated content-safety filters may flag or prevent content. Moderation decisions can be challenged using the in-app feedback form or by email; we provide human review where required by law.

4. What other users can see

• Not listed by default. Your stories and characters are not shown in Explore unless you publish a story. Stored media uses direct file URLs; anyone who obtains a valid URL may be able to access that file. Narration files currently use direct public URLs, including narration for an otherwise private story.
• If you publish to Explore, signed-in StoryBoo users can see the title, story/page text, images, language and translations, genre, image style, target age, page count, cover, and interaction counts. Other users can like, favorite, rate, report, block the author, and listen to narration. The public record contains an internal author account ID for these functions, but the app does not publish your email or display name.
• Unpublishing. You can unpublish or delete a story. It will stop appearing in Explore, but cached public media may remain available for up to about one hour and previously obtained direct media URLs or residual copies may persist as described in Section 8.

5. Who we share data with (processors and partners)

We share personal data only with the service providers needed to run StoryBoo, under contracts that restrict them to processing it on our instructions. They fall into these categories:

• Cloud infrastructure and analytics — hosting, authentication, database, file storage, server functions, and the product analytics described in Section 2.2. Our infrastructure provider is Google (Firebase / Google Cloud), and data is primarily stored in the United States.
• Product analytics — PostHog — the same feature and screen events described in Section 2.2, together with your account ID and a device identifier, are also sent to PostHog, which we use to understand how the app is used. StoryBoo uses PostHog's EU Cloud, so this data is stored in the European Union. Story text, prompts, names and description text are not sent to PostHog, and it is never used for advertising.
• AI generation — OpenAI — prompts, story text, character details, and generated content are sent to OpenAI for text, image, translation, narration, and safety functions. OpenAI states that API data is not used to train its models by default unless the customer opts in; StoryBoo has not opted in. Depending on the API, OpenAI may retain data for abuse monitoring for up to 30 days, subject to legal or security exceptions.
• Subscription management — RevenueCat — account or pseudonymous identifiers and purchase, product, and entitlement events. No payment-card data.
• App distribution and payments — the Apple App Store and Google Play process your purchase under their own privacy policies. They tell us that you subscribed, never your payment details.
• Speech recognition — Apple or Google may process microphone audio when you choose dictation, according to the platform and device settings.

If you would like the current list of the specific providers we use, contact us (Section 13) and we'll tell you.

We may also disclose data where required by law or to protect the rights, safety, or property of our users (especially children), the public, or StoryBoo — for example, reporting content that sexualizes minors to relevant authorities.

We do not share personal data with advertisers, data brokers, or social networks.

6. International transfers

We are based in the EU/EEA, and our infrastructure providers store and process data primarily in the United States. Where personal data is transferred outside the EU/EEA, we rely on safeguards recognized under GDPR — primarily the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework (in which our providers participate, where certified) and/or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, together with the providers' technical and organizational security measures. You can contact us (Section 13) for more information about transfer safeguards.

7. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures, including TLS in transit, cloud-provider encryption at rest, authentication and authorization rules for protected records, integrity signals where supported, and restricted administrative access. Some generated media is delivered through bearer-style or public URLs as explained in Section 4, so do not share those URLs. No system is perfectly secure; we will provide breach notices where required by law.

8. Retention and deletion

• Account data and content — generally kept while your account exists. In-app account deletion removes Firebase authentication, the main user record and user subcollections, story and character records, related storage folders, generation jobs, and public stories associated with the account. RevenueCat deletion is attempted separately and may fail or follow its own retention duties.
• Deletion exceptions — account deletion does not currently guarantee immediate removal of every record keyed by your account ID. Story reports and appeals, an account-deletion marker used to prevent subscription webhooks from recreating a deleted account, feedback/abuse records, analytics, backups, and like/rating records stored under other users' public stories may remain where needed or until separately removed.
• Individual content — deleting a story removes its main record and related story-media paths. Deleting an individual character removes its database record, but a previously generated character-image file may remain until account deletion or operational cleanup.
• Backups — residual copies in backups are overwritten on our normal backup cycle.
• Aggregate statistics — non-identifying counters (e.g., total stories created, survey tallies) are retained indefinitely; they cannot be linked back to you after deletion.
• Moderation and legal records — we may retain records of serious violations, bans, appeals, and related identifiers for as long as needed to enforce our Terms, prevent banned users from returning, and comply with legal obligations, even after account deletion.
• Product analytics — user/event data used in Firebase Analytics explorations is configured for up to 14 months; the period may reset with new activity depending on the property setting. Standard aggregated reports can persist longer. Account deletion does not automatically delete Analytics data; contact us for a separate access or deletion request.
• Feedback — there is currently no automatic deletion schedule for feedback and its abuse-prevention metadata. We keep it while needed for support, safety, dispute, and legal purposes, and will assess deletion requests subject to those needs.
• Server logs — routine infrastructure logs (which can include IP addresses) are retained for short periods per our cloud provider's default cycles and then deleted.
• AI providers — content sent to OpenAI for generation is retained by OpenAI only for its limited abuse-monitoring window per its API data-usage policies.

If you simply uninstall the app, your account and data are not deleted — sign back in and delete your account, or contact us.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live (and in all cases under GDPR if you are in the EU/EEA), you have the right to:

• Access your data — the in-app JSON export covers core authentication details, stories, characters, and certain reports/appeals, but is not a complete export of every backend, feedback, subscription, community, or analytics record; contact us for a broader access request;
• Rectify inaccurate data — most data (display name, characters, stories) can be edited directly in the app;
• Delete your data — use in-app account deletion or contact us (see Section 8 for what is retained);
• Portability — receive eligible data you provided in a structured, machine-readable format; use the core-data export and contact us if you need additional eligible data;
• Object to or restrict processing based on legitimate interests, including product analytics. The current app has no self-service analytics toggle. Contact us and we will assess and action the request as required by law; uninstalling or ceasing use stops future app events from that installation but does not erase existing analytics;
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, without affecting prior processing;
• Complain to a supervisory authority — in Sweden, the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY, www.imy.se); you may also complain to the authority in your country of residence.

To exercise any right that isn't available in-app, contact us (Section 13). We will respond within the timeframes required by law (under GDPR, normally one month) and may need to verify your identity first. We do not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

California residents: we do not “sell” or “share” personal information as defined by the CCPA/CPRA, and we do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes requiring a right to limit. You may exercise access, deletion, and correction rights as described above.

10. Notifications

The app uses local notifications scheduled on your device (for example, an optional reminder before a free trial ends). These are controlled by your device's notification permission, which you can change anytime in system settings. In-app inbox messages (such as moderation notices) are delivered through your account, not through push tracking. We do not send marketing push notifications.

11. Cookies and website

This section is about our website only. The analytics used in the mobile app is separate and is described in Section 2.2.

Our website at www.storybooapp.com is an informational site. It does not set advertising cookies, and it does not use cookies for analytics.

The website is hosted by Vercel Inc., which provides cookieless Web Analytics. It can process the page URL and filtered query parameters, referrer, timestamp, country/region/city, device type, operating system, and browser details. Vercel uses the IP address and user-agent to create a salted hash for a visitor session and states that the hash is discarded within 24 hours; it is not designed for cross-site tracking. We use this under our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) in measuring basic website use.

Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts; Google necessarily receives connection data such as your IP address and user-agent when delivering them.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date below shows the current version. For material changes — especially any that would expand how we use children's data, which we do not anticipate — we will give you reasonable advance notice in the app or by email before the change takes effect.

13. Contact us

Per Arneng — individual operator of StoryBoo and data controller
Postal address: Ekollonvägen 77, 443 50 Lerum, Sweden
Email: support@storybooapp.com
Website: www.storybooapp.com

If you are in the EU/EEA and prefer, you may contact your local supervisory authority; in Sweden this is IMY (www.imy.se).