Privacy policy

Reading needs nothing from you

Every story and every puppet-show script is free to read without an account, and we don't run ads or advertising trackers. Your reading preferences (which puppets you own, saved stories and shows, the recently read list, your child's age band, text size, which notifications you've read, and the day or dusk theme) live in your browser's local storage, on your device. We can't see them.

We do count visits with Google Analytics (through Firebase): which pages get read, and a few moments on the way to Pro (the Pro sheet opening, a checkout starting, Pro switching on), so we can see what helps families. It never sees a story's text, a hero's name, or your card details, and we don't use it for advertising.

Making a story or a show

When you use Make a story or Build a puppet show, or turn on notifications, the site quietly creates an anonymous session: a random ID with no name or email attached. We use it only to apply fair daily limits on the writing tools and to know which device asked for notifications.

Your picks (age band, hero animal, lesson, mood, and which puppets are in the cast) are sent to OpenAI, the AI service that writes the story or script, and to the same service when you press Listen. If you type a name for the hero, that name is part of the story request too, so use a first name or a nickname. Everything that comes back passes through an automated safety check before you see it.

Your own puppets

You can add your family's own puppets and stuffies to the basket with a name and what they are (a dragon, a robot). Those two words go to OpenAI when a story or show is written with that puppet in it, and when you ask us to paint its face. The painted face is kept in our private storage under a random address only your device knows.

If you use a photo instead, your browser shrinks it before it leaves your device, we crop it to a small square, and it passes through OpenAI's automated safety check before we keep it, in the same private storage. We never use these photos for anything else. A face stays in that private storage after you delete the puppet, so stories and shows you saved with it keep working; write to us at the address below if you want one removed.

Your puppets live on your device, and in your account too if you sign in, so they are ready on every phone.

If you create an account

An account is optional and exists for one reason: your saved custom stories and shows, and your own puppets, sync to every device you sign in on. We store your email address (or your Google or Apple sign-in; Apple may hand us a private relay address instead of your real one, and your name only if you share it) and those saved items, nothing more. Accounts and saved items live in Google Firebase, on servers in the United States.

You can add a profile photo to your account. It takes the same path as a puppet photo: shrunk in your browser, cropped to a small square, passed through OpenAI's automated safety check, and kept in our private storage until you remove it in Settings, which deletes it. If you signed up with Google, you can also add a password so your email signs in the classic way; Firebase stores it the same way as any email sign-in.

Stories Nest is made for grown-ups to use with their kids. Accounts belong to the grown-up; we don't knowingly let children open one.

Narration audio

The Listen voice for shelf stories and scripts is generated once and kept in a private cache so it plays instantly for every Pro family. Narration for your own stories and shows is generated the first time you press Listen and kept in the same private cache under a fingerprint of the text, so it plays instantly next time and on your other devices; nothing about you is attached to it. To light up the words as they are read, the finished audio is transcribed once by the same AI service and the timing is kept in that cache too.

Paying for Pro

Stories Nest Pro is bought inside the iPhone and Android apps, and payment goes through the App Store or Google Play: the website has no checkout and we never see your card number. We use RevenueCat to receive the store's confirmation of your purchase; it sends us your subscription status attached to your account id, never your card. We store that status and until when it runs, plus the purchase events themselves as our accounting record, so that Pro follows your account to every device and to the website.

Cancelling Pro stops the charges; it doesn't delete your account or anything you saved.

Notifications

The bell in the app shows news from us (new stories, new shows, the occasional announcement) and works without an account. Which ones you've read is remembered on your device only.

If you turn on notifications, your browser or phone creates a push address for this device and we store it with your session, anonymous or account, so we can send them. We use it for new stories and shows on the shelf and occasional news, never for ads. We also note which kind of device (the website, the Android app, or the iPhone app) your session opened Stories Nest on most recently, so a nudge goes to that one instead of to every device. Turning notifications off in the app, or in your phone's settings, or clearing the site's data in your browser, removes the address.

Getting in touch

The contact form on our website and the Help and support panel in the app both run on Sensei Dash, the support desk our studio runs. When you send a message, what you typed goes there: your name, your email address, a subject, a category and your message on the website form, or your account's sign-in along with the subject, category and message in the app. A message sent from the app also carries the short line your browser uses to describe itself, so we know which phone or browser to look at. We use it to answer you, and for nothing else. A story's text, a hero's name, and what your family has been reading are never part of it.

While you are typing, the form keeps a draft in your browser's local storage on that device, so a closed tab doesn't lose your words. It clears when the message sends. In the app, the support panel also remembers on that device which of your messages you have already opened.

Deleting things

Deleting a saved story or show in the app removes it from your device, and from the cloud too when you're signed in. To close your account entirely, email us and we'll remove it along with everything saved under it.

Questions

Write to hello@storiesnest.app and a human will answer. If this policy changes in a way that matters, we'll note it here with a new date.