Privacy Policy
Last updated: 28 October 2026
For kids: Your stories are yours, and they stay on your device. When you press the magic button, your story goes to a helper robot to make it better, then comes straight back. We don’t keep it. Never type your full name, school, address or phone number. If something feels wrong, tell a grown-up.
1. Who we are
Storynook is a story-writing website for children aged 5 to 12 at www.storynook.kids, run by Storynook Kids (“we”, “us”) from New South Wales, Australia. This is a test version shared with families and friends. You can contact us at storynookkids@outlook.com.
We built Storynook to collect as little as possible. There are no child accounts, and we never ask a child for a name, email, school or address.
2. What we collect, and why
| Information | Why | Where it is kept |
|---|---|---|
| Story text, when your child presses Make it shine, Coach me first, Turn it into a play, Story Builder or Drawing ideas | To create the result and check it is safe | Sent to our AI provider (OpenAI) and returned straight away. We do not keep it. |
| Story text, when your child chooses the storyteller voice in Read it to me | To turn the story into spoken audio | Sent to Google’s text-to-speech service and returned as audio. We do not keep it. The audio is saved only on your device so it can be replayed. |
| Stories, saved book pages, drawing photos, settings and Family key | So your child can come back to them | Only in the browser on your device. Not sent to us. |
| Internet (IP) address, approximate location (country, region, city), device type (phone, tablet or computer) and the website you came from | To count visitors, see which countries use Storynook, and stop misuse | Our database. Deleted about 90 days after the last visit. |
| Counts of actions, such as stories polished, plays made, pages printed, and the age group chosen | To understand which features help | Our database, as totals only. Daily totals kept for 13 months. |
A small cookie called snv with a random number | So a returning visitor is counted once | Your browser, for up to 12 months |
| Family key records: a scrambled copy of the key, its expiry date, a short note we write when we give the key out, the last 4 characters, and random numbers for up to 3 devices | To check that a key is real and is not overused | Our database, until 12 months after the key ends |
| Feedback form: rating, what you liked, ideas, and optionally a first name, age group and country | To improve Storynook | Emailed to us and saved in our database. We keep the latest 500 messages and delete emails after 24 months. |
The grown-ups check. When we ask “What year were you born?”, the answer is checked on your device and forgotten straight away. It is never saved or sent to us.
Removing personal details. Before a story or feedback message is sent, we try to remove email addresses, phone numbers, web links and street addresses. No filter is perfect, so please remind your child not to type them.
We never: ask a child for a full name, email, school or address; collect photos of children; show ads; use advertising or tracking cookies; or sell, rent or swap any information.
3. The AI helper
Storynook uses OpenAI’s business service (API) to polish stories, write plays, build Story Builder stories and suggest drawing ideas, and OpenAI’s safety check (moderation) to block unsafe content. Under OpenAI’s API terms, what we send is not used to train their models by default. OpenAI may keep requests for up to 30 days to detect misuse, then delete them. AI results can be wrong or odd, so a grown-up should look over them.
4. Companies that help us run Storynook
| Company | What for |
|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services (Amplify) | Hosting the website |
| OpenAI | AI helper and safety check |
| Google Cloud | Storyteller voice (text-to-speech) |
| Upstash | Our database for visit counts, Family key records and feedback |
| ip-api.com | Looking up the approximate location of an internet address |
| Resend | Emailing feedback messages to us |
| Google Fonts | Loading the fonts on the page |
Some of these companies store or process information outside Australia, including in the United States. We use well-known providers that protect information, and we only share what each one needs.
5. Children and parents
- Storynook is for children aged 5 to 12, used with a parent, carer or teacher. Please sit with your child the first time.
- Children can use Storynook without giving us any personal information.
- Stories stay on your device, so we cannot see, return or delete them. You can delete them from the bookshelf or by clearing your browser data.
- If you think your child has sent us personal information, for example in a feedback message, email us and we will delete it.
6. Keeping information safe
We use secure (HTTPS) connections, store Family keys only in scrambled form, limit who can access our systems, and limit how often keys and the AI can be used from one connection. If a data breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will tell the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) where the law requires it.
7. Your choices and questions
You can ask us what information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, or ask a question about privacy by emailing storynookkids@outlook.com. We will reply within 30 days. To find records linked to a Family key, we may ask for its last 4 characters.
If you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992.
8. Changes
We will update this page when Storynook changes, for example when buying Family keys online or an encrypted cloud copy becomes available. The date at the top shows the latest version.