Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

ChildhoodReads is operated by ChildhoodReads, 418 Broadway STE N, Albany, NY 12207, USA. We are the data controller responsible for your personal data. You can reach us at hello@childhoodreads.com.

2. Information We Collect

We collect the following information when you use ChildhoodReads:

• Account information: Email address, name, and password (if you create an account) or Google profile information (if you sign in with Google).
• Photos: Photos you upload of people, pets, or objects to create character portraits.
• Book content: Character descriptions (names, ages, genders, animal types, object descriptions), story themes, reading level selections, and any text you write or edit.
• Payment information: Processed securely by Stripe. We never see or store your credit card details.
• Shipping addresses: If you order a printed book, we collect your name, street address, city, state, postal code, country, and phone number for fulfillment.
• Subscription usage: If you subscribe, we track the number of books created per billing period.
• IP addresses: We record your IP address when you visit pages on our site, for analytics and security purposes.
• Device information: Your browser's user agent string is recorded with your session for security.

3. How We Use Your Information

Your information is used to provide and improve the ChildhoodReads service:

• To generate personalized storybooks (story text and illustrations)
• To manage your account, saved books, and subscription
• To process payments and calculate applicable sales tax
• To fulfill printed book orders (manufacturing and shipping)
• To send transactional emails (book ready, order confirmation, shipping updates)
• To monitor site usage and performance (page view analytics)
• To detect and prevent fraud or abuse

We do not sell your data. We do not use your photos, stories, or personal information for advertising, profiling, or any purpose beyond providing the service.

4. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services:

• Fal.ai (image generation): Your photos are sent to Fal.ai to generate character portraits and page illustrations. Photos are processed and then deleted from Fal.ai's servers. They are not retained or used for model training.
• Anthropic Claude (story and scene generation, image analysis): Character names, ages, genders, and your chosen theme are sent to generate story text and scene descriptions. Photos may be sent for animal breed detection and portrait description via Claude's vision capabilities.
• Stripe (payments and tax): Payment processing and sales tax calculation are handled by Stripe under their privacy policy. Stripe may use your IP address and billing address to determine applicable tax rates.
• Google (authentication): If you sign in with Google, we receive your email, name, and Google ID. We do not access any other Google data.
• Lulu (print fulfillment): If you order a printed book, your shipping address and book files (cover and interior PDFs) are sent to Lulu for manufacturing and delivery. Lulu processes this data under their own privacy policy.
• ip-api.com (geolocation): IP addresses of site visitors may be sent to ip-api.com for approximate geographic location (country, city) for admin analytics. No personal identifiers beyond the IP address are shared.

5. Cookies & Tracking

We use the following cookies:

• cr_session: A secure, HTTP-only session cookie that keeps you signed in. Expires after 30 days. This is a strictly necessary cookie.
• cr_admin: A secure, HTTP-only cookie for admin dashboard access. Expires after 24 hours.

We do not use tracking cookies, analytics cookies, or advertising cookies. We do not use Google Analytics or any third-party tracking scripts. We record page views with IP addresses in our own database for internal analytics only.

6. Data Retention

• Account data and books: Retained for as long as your account is active. Deleted within 30 days of an account deletion request.
• Page view logs (IP addresses): Retained for up to 1 year, then automatically deleted.
• Order and payment records: Retained for 7 years for tax and legal compliance.
• Uploaded photos: Stored on our servers for the duration of your account. Original photos sent to AI providers are processed in real-time and not retained by them.

7. No Model Training

Your photos, stories, and personal data are never used to train AI models. They are used exclusively to generate your personalized books and are not shared with any third party for training purposes.

8. Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your data, including: encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS) for all data in transit, secure server hosting on AWS with restricted access, hashed passwords (bcrypt), and HTTP-only cookies to prevent cross-site scripting. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. International Data Transfers

Your data is processed and stored in the United States on AWS servers. Our third-party providers (Fal.ai, Anthropic, Stripe, Lulu) also process data in the United States. If you are located outside the US (including the European Economic Area), your data will be transferred to and processed in the US. By using our service, you consent to this transfer. We rely on our providers' standard data protection agreements and certifications to ensure adequate protection.

10. Children's Privacy (COPPA)

ChildhoodReads is a service for parents and guardians to create books for their children. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. All account creation, photo uploads, and purchases are performed by parents or guardians. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 without parental consent, we will delete it promptly.

11. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Rectification — request correction of inaccurate data
• Erasure — request deletion of your data and account (“right to be forgotten”)
• Data portability — export your books (PDF) and request a copy of your account data
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Restrict processing in certain circumstances
• Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@childhoodreads.com. We will respond within 30 days.

12. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area, we process your data on the following legal bases:

• Contract: Processing necessary to create your books and fulfill your orders (account data, book content, payment, shipping).
• Consent: Processing of photos you voluntarily upload. You can withdraw consent by deleting your photos or account.
• Legitimate interest: Page view analytics, fraud prevention, and service improvement. We balance our interests against your rights and only collect minimal data.
• Legal obligation: Retention of payment and order records for tax compliance.

13. Data Breach Notification

In the event of a data breach that poses a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify affected users within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, and will notify the relevant supervisory authority where required by law.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via email or a prominent notice on our website. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent revision.

15. Contact

For any privacy-related questions or requests:

ChildhoodReads
418 Broadway STE N
Albany, NY 12207, USA
hello@childhoodreads.com