Privacy

Privacy Policy

Effective 26 October 2026. Includes our notice about children's privacy and our data retention policy.

1. Who we are

Thinkybooks (thinkybooks.com) is a storybook maker for families. Grown-ups make picture books, choose-your-path books and audiobooks, with AI pictures and narration, and can order printed copies.

In this policy, "Thinkybooks", "we" and "us" mean the operator of Thinkybooks. "You" means the grown-up who holds the account.

Operator: Thinkybooks. Contact: help@thinkybooks.com. Write to us about anything in this policy, including a child's information.

2. Who Thinkybooks is for

Accounts are for adults 18 and over: parents, guardians, grandparents, teachers and other grown-ups who make books.

Children use the reading side, with a grown-up's account. The library reader and Kid mode are made for children. They have no sign-up, no typing boxes, no microphone, no camera and no chat. A child never gets an account.

Accounts are for adults. Thinkybooks accounts are for parents, guardians, teachers and other grown-ups. Children use Thinkybooks through a grown-up's account, for example in Kid mode.

3. What we collect and why

We collect what we need to make, store, read, narrate and print your books, and to keep the service running. Each table says what, why, who processes it, and how long we keep it. "Companies that help us" are listed in full in section 5.

Your account

Photos you upload to make a character

Photos stored by older versions of Thinkybooks (before 26 October 2026) are being removed.

Characters (the paintings)

Voices (voice clones)

"Tell it out loud" (telling a story into the microphone)

Stories and books

Narration

A clip read in a cloned voice is a recording of that voice, so we treat it the same way as the voice.

Books you share or publish

Payments

Print orders

Reading activity, including Kid mode

When a child reads in Kid mode, we record the same reading activity, linked to the grown-up's account if the device is signed in. We use it only to run the service (keeping the session, counting reads, fixing errors). We never use it to profile a child or show them ads, and we collect nothing else from them.

Device and technical information

Your IP address is also used for a moment to stop abuse (rate limits). We don't save it.

Messages to us

AI agent connections

If you connect an AI assistant to your account (Profile → Connect an agent), we keep the connection's name, when it was made and last used, when it expires, the last four characters of the token, and a one-way scrambled copy of the token, never the token itself. We also record what each connection spent. These are kept until you delete your account.

4. Children's privacy (our COPPA notice)

The US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) protects the personal information of children under 13. Thinkybooks is used by families, so we follow these rules for any child, of any age, whose information is in an account.

What children's information we handle, and where it comes from

Children don't give us information. It comes from you, the grown-up. You may put your child in a book. That can include:

• their name and anything you write about them in a story;
• a photo, used once to paint a character (not stored), and the painted character that results;
• their voice, if you make a voice clone of them, and narration read in that voice;
• their words, if they tell a story into the microphone with "Tell it out loud" (turned into text, recording not kept);
• while they read: reading activity and a device identifier, used only to run the service (see Reading activity).

We treat all of it as your child's personal information, whoever pressed the button.

The permission we ask for

Each consent record holds who gave it, what kind it is, which item it covers, how it was given, when, and which version of the wording you saw. Deleting the item withdraws the consent.

What we don't do

• We don't ask for more information about a child than a feature needs, and we never make a child's participation depend on giving more.
• We don't show ads, sell information, share it for advertising, or build profiles of children.
• We don't use third-party analytics or tracking tools.
• We share a child's information only with the companies that run the feature it's used for (see section 5), and only for that feature.

Your rights as a parent

You can do all of this yourself in the app, without asking us:

• Review what we hold: Profile → Your data.
• Download a copy of it from the same place.
• Delete any character, voice or book, one at a time.
• Delete your whole account. This removes your books, characters, voices, files, the voice models held by Fish Audio, and your sign-in.
• Withdraw consent by deleting the item it covers, or your account. After that we collect no more of that information.
• Refuse any of it. You can make books without photos, voice clones or "Tell it out loud".

Prefer to ask? Email help@thinkybooks.com from the email on your account. If you write from another address, we'll need to confirm you hold the account before we act. We answer within 30 days.

If you think a child under 18 has made an account, or we hold a child's information without a parent's permission, tell us and we'll delete it.

5. Companies that help us (service providers)

We use these companies only to run Thinkybooks features. They receive only what the feature needs. We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for advertising.

Most of these companies are in the United States. We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or as part of a sale or merger of Thinkybooks (and this policy would still apply to it).

6. Data retention policy

This is our written policy for how long we keep information, including children's information. We keep it only as long as we need it for the reason we collected it, then delete it.

7. Your choices and rights

• See and download what we hold: Profile → Your data.
• Correct it: edit your books, characters and voices any time. Your name and email come from Google; change them there.
• Delete any book, character or voice, or your whole account, in the app.
• Unpublish a book or stop sharing it at any time.
• Ask us at help@thinkybooks.com. We answer within 30 days.

We give these rights to everyone, wherever you live.

8. What can be public

• Your books are private by default. Only you see them until you share or publish.
• Share links. When you share a book, anyone with the link can read it.
• The public library. When you publish, our team reviews the book first. Once approved, anyone can find and read it, with the title and the author name you chose. You can unpublish it.
• A book's title and cover can be opened by its address (thinkybooks.com/read/project-…), even if you haven't shared it. That address isn't listed anywhere, but someone who has it, or guesses it, can see the title and cover, not the pages.
• Shared characters and voices. You can choose to share a character or a grown-up's voice with other families, after our review. A child's voice can never be shared.
• Stored files (pictures, narration, print files) are kept at web addresses that aren't listed anywhere public. Anyone who has a file's exact address can open it, so be careful where you paste one.

9. How we protect it

We keep a written information security program. In short:

• Encryption in transit. Everything travels over HTTPS.
• Owner-only access. Database rules let each account read and change only its own books, characters and voices. Our servers check who you are before every paid or private action.
• Least privilege. The keys that can see everything are held only on our servers, never in the app in your browser, and only a few people can reach them.
• Less to lose. We don't keep uploaded photos or voice recordings, and we don't store payment cards.
• Deletion. Deleting an item or account removes its records and files, and the voice models at Fish Audio. Information is deleted on the schedule in section 6.
• Incidents. If something goes wrong, we contain it, find out what was affected, and tell affected families and authorities as the law requires.
• Review. We review this program at least once a year and whenever we add a feature that handles new kinds of information.

No system is perfectly secure. If you see a problem, tell us at help@thinkybooks.com.

10. Cookies and your device

We don't set cookies of our own, and we run no third-party analytics or advertising tools. The app keeps a few things in your browser's storage so it works: your sign-in session, settings (theme, text size, narration speed, music), Kid mode, reading progress, a random identifier for counting visits, and your recent pictures. Clearing your browser's site data removes them.

Our pages load fonts from Google, and signing in uses Google. Google sees your IP address and browser type when that happens.

11. If you live outside the US

We're based in the United States and so are most of our providers. Your information is processed in the US. You have the same rights as everyone else (section 7).

If the GDPR or UK GDPR applies to you:

• Why we may use your information: to provide the service you asked for (our contract with you); with your consent (photos, voices, publishing); to meet legal duties (tax records for orders); and for our legitimate interests in keeping Thinkybooks secure and working.
• Your rights: access, correction, deletion, a portable copy, objecting to or restricting how we use it, and withdrawing consent at any time.
• How: in the app, or email help@thinkybooks.com.
• Complaints: you can complain to your local data protection authority (in the UK, the ICO). We'd like the chance to help first.

12. US state privacy rights

Some US states (including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and others) give residents rights to know what personal information is collected, to get a copy, to correct it, and to delete it. We give these rights to everyone (section 7). We don't sell personal information or share it for targeted advertising, and we don't use sensitive information to infer things about you. We won't treat you differently for using your rights. You may use an authorised agent; we'll ask them to show they act for you.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change is important, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. We won't use a child's information in a new way without first asking for a parent's permission.

14. Contact us

Questions, requests or worries about privacy, including about a child: help@thinkybooks.com.

See also our Terms of Service.