Privacy Policy

Children's Privacy & COPPA Compliance

StorySquiggle complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We take the privacy of children very seriously.

• Children cannot create accounts directly. All accounts on StorySquiggle are parent or guardian accounts. Only parents or legal guardians aged 18 or older may register.
• Parents control all data. Parents and guardians have full control over any information associated with their account, including data related to their children's use of the platform.
• We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child without parental consent, we will delete that information promptly.
• No direct contact with children. We do not contact children directly for marketing or any other purpose. All communications go to the parent or guardian's email address.
• No behavioral advertising to children. We do not serve targeted advertisements to children based on their activity.

Information We Collect

We collect the following types of information to provide and improve our service:

Account Information (Parent/Guardian)

• Email address
• Full name
• Password (stored securely using industry-standard encryption)
• Payment information (processed securely by Stripe; we do not store card details)

Child-Related Information (Provided by Parent)

• Child's age or age range (used to tailor story content appropriately)
• Reading preferences and interests
• Custom story instructions (themes, values, learning goals)

Usage Information

• Stories created and reading choices made
• Character preferences and customizations
• Reading progress and history
• Device type and browser information (for platform compatibility)

How We Use Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Story personalization: Generating age-appropriate, interactive stories tailored to your child's interests, age, and reading level.
• Age-appropriate content: Ensuring all content is suitable for the specified age range and filtering out inappropriate material.
• Reading progress tracking: Saving story progress so children can return to where they left off.
• Account management: Processing subscriptions, authenticating users, and providing customer support.
• Platform improvement: Understanding how families use StorySquiggle to improve our features, content quality, and user experience.
• Safety and security: Detecting and preventing fraud, abuse, and violations of our terms.

Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to operate StorySquiggle. We carefully select partners who maintain strong privacy and security practices:

• AI Story Generation Services: We use artificial intelligence services to generate story content. No child personally identifiable information (PII) is shared with these services. Only story parameters such as age range, theme, and character traits are sent.
• Image Generation Services: We use AI image generation services to create character and story illustrations. No child PII is shared with these services.
• Stripe (Payment Processing): Payment processing is handled by Stripe for parent/guardian accounts only. Stripe's privacy policy governs payment data. We do not store credit card numbers.
• Amazon Web Services (Cloud Storage): Generated images and story assets are stored securely on AWS infrastructure with encryption at rest.
• Vercel (Hosting): Our frontend application is hosted on Vercel's platform.

We do not sell, rent, or share personal information with third parties for their marketing purposes.

Parental Rights

As a parent or guardian, you have the following rights regarding your child's information:

• Review: You may review any personal information we have collected related to your child by logging into your account or contacting us.
• Deletion: You may request that we delete your child's personal information and associated data at any time.
• Refuse further collection: You may refuse to allow any further collection or use of your child's information by deleting your account.
• Data export: You may request a copy of your data in a portable format.
• Contact us: To exercise any of these rights, please email us at privacy@storysquiggle.com.

We will respond to all parental rights requests within 30 days.

Data Security

We take the security of your information seriously and implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect it:

• Encryption in transit: All data transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted using HTTPS/TLS.
• Secure password storage: Passwords are hashed using industry-standard cryptographic algorithms (scrypt) and are never stored in plain text.
• Access controls: Access to personal data is restricted to authorized personnel who need it to operate and improve the service.
• Regular security reviews: We regularly review and update our security practices to address emerging threats.

Data Retention

• Active accounts: Stories and account data are retained for as long as your account is active.
• Free tier stories: Stories created on the free tier expire and are automatically deleted after 7 days.
• Account deletion: When you delete your account, all associated personal data, stories, characters, and reading history will be permanently deleted within 30 days.
• Deletion requests: You may request deletion of specific data at any time by contacting us.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use essential cookies to maintain your session and keep you logged in. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. Essential cookies are necessary for the platform to function and cannot be disabled.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. For significant changes affecting children's data, we will notify parents via email.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, your data, or your parental rights, please contact us:

Email: privacy@storysquiggle.com