Privacy Policy

Who we are

OnceUponaBookshelf is an iOS app made by Luke Welch, based in the United Kingdom. For anything in this policy, contact [email protected].

Our approach

This is an app for children, so we collect as little as possible. It's built with no user accounts and no sign-up. We do not build profiles beyond what's needed to serve an ad (see Advertising below), and we do not sell data or share it for marketing beyond that one purpose, which itself requires your permission.

What the app handles

Information	Why	Where it is kept
Your child's first name and age	To write a story that is personal and pitched at the right reading age	On your device. Sent to Cloudflare Workers AI only if the story can't be written on-device and you've agreed to cloud fallback.
Story idea, interests and theme you choose	To decide what the story is about	On your device. Sent to Cloudflare Workers AI only under the same cloud-fallback conditions.
Stories, and any narration audio	So you can read and replay them	Only on your device.
A random, anonymous device identifier	To apply fair-use limits and prevent abuse of our service	Our service. It is a random number, not linked to you, your child, or your Apple ID.
Your device's advertising identifier	To serve and measure the ad shown while a story is written, and to personalise it if you allow tracking	Google AdMob. Only collected if you don't have Remove Ads, and only used for tracking if you say yes to the separate "Allow Tracking" prompt — declining still shows an ad, just not a personalised one.
Subscription status	To confirm with Apple that Remove Ads (or the legacy Unlimited Stories subscription) is active	Checked with Apple. We never see your payment details.

What we never ask for

We do not collect surnames, dates of birth, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, photographs, contacts, location, or health data. The app requests no device permissions beyond those needed for the features you turn on, such as narration audio playback.

On-device generation, and when the cloud is used instead

OnceUponaBookshelf tries to write every story on-device, using Apple's on-device model running locally on your iPhone — in that case, your child's details never leave the device. On a device that can't run the on-device model, the app asks your permission and then sends the story request to our cloud service instead. Either way, we keep nothing once the story is delivered back to your device.

Who your information is shared with

Writing a story in the cloud, and narrating a story aloud, both need services outside the app. The app shows you this and asks your explicit permission before anything is sent. You can withdraw that permission at any time in Settings → Privacy → AI story services.

Service	What it receives	What it does
Cloudflare	Your child's first name, age, and the interests and story idea you choose — only when a story can't be written on-device	Writes the story text (Workers AI), and passes narration requests to ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs	The finished story text, which contains your child's first name	Reads the story aloud
Google AdMob	Your device's advertising identifier — only if you don't have Remove Ads, and only for tracking if you separately allow it	Shows the ad played while a story is written; personalises it if you allow tracking
Apple	Purchase and subscription information; story requests handled on-device	Handles all payments, and powers on-device story generation

These companies process the information under their own privacy policies, linked above. Only Google AdMob is ever used for advertising, and only for the ad shown during story generation — none of the others are authorised to use anything they receive for advertising or marketing. Some are based outside the UK, so information may be transferred internationally; where that happens it is covered by the safeguards in those providers' terms.

Advertising

Writing a personalised story is free for everyone. If you don't have Remove Ads, a short ad (Google AdMob) plays while the story is written — you're never asked to watch an ad separately, and generation happens at the same time rather than after it. Before any ad is requested, a parent has to answer a simple arithmetic question, so a child holding the phone is never the one an ad gets served to.

Where required (the EEA, UK and Switzerland), Google's own consent screen asks whether you're happy with personalised ads before any ad request is made. Separately, iOS itself asks permission to track — declining either doesn't stop the app working or block story generation, it just means the ad shown is not personalised. Remove Ads (a one-year subscription) turns the ad off entirely.

How long anything is kept

• We keep no stories and no personal details. Once a story is written and sent back to your device, we hold nothing.
• Anonymous fair-use counters expire automatically within about 26 hours.
• Stories and audio saved in the app stay on your device until you delete them or remove the app.
• We don't hold your advertising identifier ourselves — it goes straight to Google AdMob under its own retention rules, which you can read in its privacy policy linked above.

Children's privacy

The app is bought and set up by a parent or guardian, and is designed to be used together with a child. Any details about a child are entered by the adult, who gives permission before they are shared. A child's first name is optional — you can skip it during setup and the app works normally. If you believe a child has entered information you would like removed, delete the child's profile in Settings, or contact us.

Your rights and choices

Because we keep nothing on our side, you stay in control on your device:

• See and change anything about a child in Settings → Children.
• Delete a child's profile, and every story and audio file belonging to them, in Settings.
• Withdraw consent for sharing with AI services, or change your ad privacy choices, at any time in Settings → Privacy.
• Turn off tracking for iOS in general, or for this app specifically, any time in your device's own Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
• Erase everything by deleting the app from your device.

Under UK data protection law you also have the right to access, correct, or erase personal data, and to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. Email us and we will help.

Changes

If we change how information is handled, we will update this page and the app will ask for your permission again before sharing anything under the new terms.

Questions

Email [email protected].