THE 60-SECOND VERSION FOR PARENTS
- Only a parent or guardian can create an EmoTales account. Children never sign up on their own.
- Child profiles use a first name or nickname only — never a full name, email, or phone number.
- We don't run behavioral advertising to children, and we never sell any child's personal information.
- Every child profile sits behind the parent's account PIN. Parents can view, export, or delete a child's stories and profile at any time from the Parent Dashboard.
- Emoji selections and generated stories may be processed by a third-party AI provider to generate the story text — see Section 5.
01Who this policy covers
This Privacy Policy explains how EmoTales ("EmoTales," "we," "us") collects, uses, and protects information when a parent or guardian ("Parent," "you") creates an account and sets up one or more child profiles ("Child Profile") to use the EmoTales app or website (the "Service").
EmoTales is designed to be used by children only under the direct supervision and account ownership of a parent or legal guardian. A Child Profile is not a standalone account — it exists only inside, and is controlled by, a Parent Account.
02Information we collect
2.1 From the parent, when creating an account
| DATA | WHY WE COLLECT IT |
|---|---|
| Name and email address | Account creation, login, service communications |
| Password (stored hashed) | Account authentication |
| Parent Account PIN (stored hashed) | Gates access to account settings, billing, and any switch out of a Child Profile |
| Billing details | Processed by our payment processor for subscription plans — see Section 6 |
| Consent records | Proof of verifiable parental consent, required under children's privacy law |
2.2 About the child, when a parent creates a Child Profile
A Parent sets up each Child Profile directly. We collect the minimum necessary to run the story feature:
| DATA | WHY WE COLLECT IT |
|---|---|
| First name or nickname, chosen by the parent | Personalizes the story and the child's in-app greeting |
| Age or age range | Adjusts story vocabulary, length, and themes to be age-appropriate |
| Avatar or profile icon (from a preset library, not a photo) | Lets the child recognize their own profile |
| Emoji selections made during story creation | The direct input used to generate each story |
| Generated stories, saved favorites, and reading history | Lets the child revisit stories and lets the parent review what was created |
We do not ask a child to enter a full name, email address, phone number, school, home address, precise location, or photo. If a child types free text into a story customization field, we filter it for personal information before it is used, and it is never required to complete a story.
2.3 Collected automatically
- Device & technical data: device type, operating system, app version, crash logs, and general performance data.
- Usage data: which features are used, how many stories are generated, and session length, collected at the Parent Account level and aggregated so it cannot be used to build a profile of an individual child for marketing purposes.
- We do not use a Child Profile's activity to serve targeted or behavioral advertising, and we do not combine a child's data across apps or websites for advertising.
03Children's privacy & parental consent
EmoTales is built around the requirement that children under 13 (or the relevant age of digital consent in your region) may only use the Service through a Child Profile created and supervised by a verified Parent. We do not knowingly allow a child to create their own account, and we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from a child without verified parental consent.
3.1 Verifiable parental consent
Before a Child Profile can be created, we confirm the account holder is an adult through our sign-up flow (including payment-method or identity verification, consistent with COPPA-recognized consent methods) and present a clear description of what data will be collected about the child and how it will be used, before consent is given.
3.2 What we never do with a child's information
- We never sell a child's personal information.
- We never require a child to disclose more information than is reasonably necessary to generate a story.
- We never use a Child Profile's information for behavioral advertising or to build an advertising profile.
- We never allow public posting of a child's name, avatar, or stories outside the Parent's own account, unless the Parent explicitly enables a specific sharing feature and directs a story to be shared (e.g., emailing a story to a grandparent).
3.3 A parent can withdraw consent at any time
A Parent may review, update, or revoke consent, and delete a Child Profile and all associated data, at any time from the Parent Dashboard, or by contacting us at the address in Section 14. See Section 9 for the full list of parental controls.
04How we use information
- To create and personalize each generated story based on the child's emoji selections and age range.
- To operate the Parent Dashboard, account, and subscription billing.
- To maintain a child's story library and reading history within their profile.
- To keep the Service secure, prevent misuse, and troubleshoot technical issues.
- To send account, billing, and safety-related communications to the Parent (never directly to a Child Profile).
- To improve story quality and app performance, using aggregated and de-identified usage data.
05AI story generation
When a child selects emoji to start a story, that selection — along with the profile's age range, and, if applicable, the story's language setting — is sent to an AI story-generation provider to produce the story text. We are selective about what is included in this request:
- The child's first name or nickname is only included where needed to personalize the story text itself, and is never linked back to the Parent's billing or contact information in that request.
- We do not send a child's photo, precise location, or contact details to any AI provider, because we never collect them in the first place.
- Generated stories pass through an automated content-safety filter tuned for children's content before they are shown to the child.
- Our AI providers are contractually restricted from using data submitted through EmoTales to train their own general-purpose models, and from retaining it beyond the period needed to generate and return the story.
Stories are generated automatically and, while filtered for age-appropriateness, are not individually reviewed by a person before being shown to a child. We encourage parents to read stories together with younger children. See the Terms of Service, Section 7, for the full content disclaimer.
06Who we share information with
We do not sell personal information, and we do not share a child's personal information with third parties for their own marketing purposes. We share information only with:
- Service providers who help us run EmoTales under contract — such as cloud hosting, the AI story-generation provider (Section 5), customer support tooling, and our payment processor for subscription billing — bound by confidentiality and data-protection obligations.
- Payment processors, who handle subscription payment details directly; EmoTales does not store full card numbers.
- Legal or safety purposes, if required to comply with a law, regulation, court order, or to protect the safety of a child or the public.
- A successor entity, in the event of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale — in which case Parents will be notified and any pre-existing privacy commitments to children's data will carry forward.
07How long we keep information
We keep a Child Profile's data for as long as the Parent Account remains active and the profile has not been deleted. If a Parent deletes a Child Profile, associated personal information (name/nickname, age, avatar, emoji selections, and stories) is deleted from active systems within [30 days], except where retained briefly in backups or where retention is required for legal, security, or fraud-prevention purposes. If a Parent Account is inactive for [12 months], we will notify the Parent before any associated Child Profile data is deleted.
08How we protect information
- Passwords and the Parent Account PIN are stored using industry-standard hashing — never in plain text.
- Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest.
- Access to Child Profile data within EmoTales is limited to staff and systems that need it to operate the Service, and is logged.
- Switching away from an active Child Profile, or reaching account/billing settings, requires the Parent Account PIN.
No method of storage or transmission is 100% secure. If we become aware of a security incident affecting a Child Profile's personal information, we will notify affected Parents and relevant authorities as required by applicable law.
09Parental controls & rights
From the Parent Dashboard (PIN-protected), a Parent can at any time:
- Review every piece of information collected about each Child Profile.
- Edit or correct a Child Profile's nickname, age range, or avatar.
- Export a child's story history.
- Delete an individual story, or delete an entire Child Profile and all associated data.
- Revoke consent for further collection about a Child Profile, which will pause story generation for that profile.
- Delete the entire Parent Account, which deletes all linked Child Profiles.
Requests can also be made by emailing the address in Section 14; we will verify the requester is the account's Parent before acting on the request.
10Regional privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights over your (and your child's) personal information:
- EEA / UK (GDPR & UK GDPR): rights to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or port personal data, and to object to certain processing. Parental consent is the legal basis for processing a Child Profile's data under Article 8 GDPR.
- California (CCPA/CPRA): right to know, delete, and correct personal information, and to opt out of "sale" or "sharing" — EmoTales does not sell or share personal information as defined under CCPA/CPRA.
- India (DPDP Act, 2023): processing of a child's personal data requires verifiable parental consent, and we do not carry out tracking, behavioral monitoring, or targeted advertising directed at children, as restricted under the Act.
- Other jurisdictions: where local law grants equivalent rights (e.g., PIPEDA in Canada), we extend the same request process described in Section 9.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in Section 14. We may need to verify your identity as the Parent before fulfilling a request.
11Cookies & analytics
On our marketing website, we use essential cookies (to keep you logged in and remember settings) and limited analytics cookies to understand aggregate site usage. Inside the app itself, and specifically within any Child Profile experience, we do not run third-party advertising cookies or trackers. Parents can manage marketing-site cookie preferences through the cookie banner or their browser settings.
12International data transfers
EmoTales may process and store information in countries other than your own, including [the United States and other global cloud infrastructure regions]. Where we transfer personal information out of the EEA, UK, or other regions with data transfer restrictions, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses or an equivalent recognized transfer mechanism.
13Changes to this policy
If we make a material change to how we collect or use a Child Profile's information, we will notify the Parent by email and require renewed consent before the change takes effect for that Child Profile. Non-material updates will be posted here with a revised "Effective date."
14Contact us
Questions about this Privacy Policy, or requests relating to a child's data, can be sent to:
- Email: support@emotales.com