PrivacyPolicy

The short version

ThatStoryThing is built for grown-ups and children to share stories together.

We try to collect as little information as we reasonably can.

We don’t sell personal information.

We don’t run advertising.

We don’t build advertising profiles.

We don’t want your child’s name, school, birthday, address, or life story.

Dragons may collect treasure. We don’t.

1. Who this policy is for

This Privacy Policy explains how ThatStoryThing handles information when you use our website, reading experience, story-generation features, and related services.

ThatStoryThing is designed to be used by a parent, guardian, caregiver or other trusted grown-up together with a child.

The grown-up controls the device. The child listens, imagines and makes choices through the grown-up.

If you have questions about this policy, contact:

[email protected]

2. What information we collect

We collect only the information needed to operate the service, understand whether it is working, and provide the features you choose to use.

2.1 Basic usage information

When you visit ThatStoryThing, our first-party analytics may record:

• a random anonymous browser identifier
• page views
• story starts
• story completions
• the story being read
• whether the same browser has visited before
• the page or website that referred you, where available
• campaign tags such as UTM source, medium or campaign, if present
• timestamps

We use this information to answer fairly basic questions such as:

• Are people finding ThatStoryThing?
• Are they starting stories?
• Are they finishing them?
• Are they coming back?

We do not use this information for advertising.

Our analytics system does not intentionally store:

• names
• email addresses
• precise location
• full IP addresses
• advertising IDs
• device fingerprints
• story audio

We built this analytics system ourselves rather than handing the job to an advertising network.

2.2 Story choices and reading activity

To make interactive stories work, ThatStoryThing may process things such as:

• the age band selected by the grown-up
• story choices
• story progress
• story state needed to continue the adventure
• information needed to avoid repeating or breaking a story experience

Some of this information may be stored locally in your browser so the experience can remember where you are or what you previously selected.

We try not to collect personal information where ordinary story state will do the job.

2.3 Generative story information

ThatStoryThing may use generative AI behind the scenes to help create or continue stories.

When generative features are used, information needed to create the story may be sent to AI or infrastructure providers for processing.

This may include:

• selected story themes or story sparks
• age band
• previous story events
• choices made during the adventure
• limited story context needed to generate what happens next

We do not intend for children to provide personal biographies, private details or identifying information as part of the story experience.

Please don’t include things such as a child’s:

• full name
• home address
• school
• phone number
• email address
• passwords
• other private information

The adventure does not need to know where anybody goes to school.

3. Voice and microphone use

ThatStoryThing may offer an optional voice follow-along feature.

If you choose to use it, the microphone is used only to help the software follow along with the person reading aloud.

Our intended design is:

• microphone use is optional
• it is controlled by the grown-up
• audio is not kept as a recording
• audio is not used to create a voice profile
• reading is not graded
• pronunciation is not scored
• the child is not being evaluated

The microphone is there to help the story keep its place, not to audition anybody for Shakespeare.

Where possible, speech processing may happen directly on the device. If a feature requires external processing in the future, this policy will be updated before that feature is launched.

4. Information about children

Children’s privacy matters especially to us.

ThatStoryThing is designed around shared adult-child use, not independent child accounts or a child talking privately with an AI companion.

We intentionally avoid features such as:

• AI friends or companions
• private child chat
• AI narration replacing the grown-up
• advertising aimed at children
• behavioural advertising profiles
• unnecessary collection of children’s personal information

The grown-up remains the person operating the service.

If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child that we did not need or should not have collected, we will take reasonable steps to remove it.

Parents or guardians can contact us at:

[email protected]

to ask questions or request access to or deletion of personal information associated with their family where we can reasonably identify it.

5. Accounts

Current launch position: ThatStoryThing does not require a child account.

If adult accounts are introduced later, this policy will be updated to explain:

• what account information is collected
• why it is collected
• how long it is retained
• how to delete an account

We will not quietly add a pile of account tracking and hope nobody notices.

6. Payments

When paid features are introduced, payments may be processed by a third-party payment provider such as Stripe.

We do not intend to store full payment-card details ourselves.

Payment providers may collect information necessary to process a purchase, such as:

• name
• billing information
• payment-card details
• transaction information

Their handling of that information is governed by their own privacy policies.

We may retain limited transaction records where required for accounting, tax, fraud prevention or legal obligations.

7. How we use information

We use information for purposes such as:

Providing the service

To load stories, remember necessary story state, process choices and continue an adventure.

Generating stories

To provide generative story content appropriate to the selected age and previous choices.

Improving ThatStoryThing

To understand whether people can find, start and finish stories, and where the experience causes friction.

Safety and security

To prevent abuse, investigate technical problems and protect the service.

Communicating with you

If you contact us, we may use your email address and message to respond.

Legal obligations

Where necessary to comply with applicable law or valid legal requests.

8. What we do not do

We think this deserves its own section.

ThatStoryThing does not intend to:

• sell personal information
• rent personal information
• run third-party behavioural advertising
• create advertising profiles about children
• sell story history to advertisers
• use an AI companion to build a relationship with a child
• record bedtime conversations for later listening
• turn the reading experience into a data-harvesting exercise

No ads. Ever. Dragons are allowed to interrupt. Advertisers are not.

9. AI providers and infrastructure

Generative features require computing infrastructure.

That means limited story information may be processed by providers that help us:

• generate story content
• host the service
• deliver website content
• provide database/storage infrastructure
• process payments
• provide security

We aim to send only the information necessary for the feature being used.

Those providers operate under their own security, retention and legal obligations.

We will update this policy if the categories of providers materially change.

10. AI model training

Our preferred policy is simple:

ThatStoryThing will not intentionally use identifiable children’s personal information to train advertising systems or general-purpose AI models.

Whether anonymous story interactions may be used to improve ThatStoryThing’s own story systems is something we should define clearly before launch.

Until that decision is finalized, we should not make a broader public claim here.

11. How long we keep information

We try not to keep information longer than necessary.

Anonymous analytics

Retained only for as long as useful for understanding product usage and performance.

Browser-based story state

May remain on the user’s device until it is cleared, replaced or no longer required.

Support emails

Kept as long as reasonably necessary to respond, maintain support history, or meet legal obligations.

Payments

Transaction records may be retained where legally or financially required.

Voice

Raw voice recordings are not intended to be stored.

As the product expands, we will document specific retention periods where they become relevant.

12. First-party analytics

ThatStoryThing uses a small first-party analytics system rather than a large third-party advertising platform.

The system currently uses Cloudflare infrastructure to store anonymous event records.

It records only limited events such as:

• page view
• story started
• story completed

The purpose is product measurement, not surveillance.

We do not need to know who you are to know whether a story got finished.

13. Cookies and local browser storage

ThatStoryThing may use local browser storage to remember things such as:

• selected age band
• story progress
• anonymous browser identifier
• returning-visitor state
• other settings necessary for the experience

This information helps the product work without requiring unnecessary accounts.

We do not use local storage for behavioural advertising.

14. Sharing information

We do not sell personal information.

Information may be shared only where reasonably necessary with:

• hosting and infrastructure providers
• AI processing providers
• payment providers
• security or technical service providers
• legal authorities where required by law

We try to keep what we send to outside providers to the minimum necessary.

15. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect information.

These may include:

• HTTPS encryption in transit
• access controls
• restricted infrastructure permissions
• limited collection of personal information
• keeping sensitive data out of analytics where possible

No internet-connected service can promise perfect security.

Collecting less information in the first place is one of the ways we reduce risk.

16. Your privacy choices

Depending on where you live, you may have rights relating to your personal information.

These may include the right to:

• ask what information we hold
• request correction
• request deletion
• object to certain uses
• request a copy of information
• withdraw consent where consent is the basis for processing

Because much of our usage data is intentionally anonymous, we may sometimes be unable to connect an anonymous browser record to a particular person.

That is partly the point.

Contact:

[email protected]

17. International users

ThatStoryThing may be used by families in different countries.

Our infrastructure providers may process information in countries other than the one where you live.

Where required, we will use appropriate safeguards for international data processing and transfers.

18. California and other regional privacy rights

Users in California and certain other jurisdictions may have additional privacy rights.

ThatStoryThing does not sell personal information or share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.

Where applicable, users may request:

• access
• correction
• deletion
• information about data practices
• other rights provided by local law

Requests can be sent to:

[email protected]

19. Changes to this policy

ThatStoryThing will evolve.

Dinosaurs may appear. Privacy practices should not appear by surprise.

If we materially change what information we collect or how we use it, we will update this policy and change the Last updated date above.

Where required by law, we will provide additional notice.

20. Contact

Questions, requests or concerns about privacy can be sent to:

[email protected]

ThatStoryThing

New Zealand