Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October 5, 2026 · Effective Date: October 5, 2026

1. Introduction

ReadBy, operated by Jetpack Properties, LLC (d/b/a “Jetpack Publishing”), a Tennessee limited liability company ("we," "us," or "our"), provides a personalized children's storytelling app ("the App") for parents, grandparents, and caregivers ("you" or "Account Holders") to create bedtime stories for children ages 3-12+ ("Children").

We take children's privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your rights regarding that information.

This App is intended for use by adults (parents/caregivers) on behalf of Children. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from Children under 13.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Account Information (Provided by You)

2.2 Story Creation Data (Provided by You)

We do not collect a child's date of birth. We ask only for the birth month and year — the least information that lets us reliably place a child in the correct story band. The day of birth is never requested and never stored.

The birth month is used only on our servers, to calculate the child's current age at the moment a story is generated. It is never returned to the App and never written to our logs. We store the birth month and year rather than a fixed age because a stored age silently goes out of date: a child entered as five stays five forever, and would be served stories written for a younger child for years without anyone noticing.

2.2.1 Speaking a Story Idea (Speech-to-Text)

You can tap the microphone and say a story idea instead of typing it. ReadBy turns your speech into text on your device, using Apple's built-in speech recognition. The audio is not sent to ReadBy or to Apple; only the text is used, just like a typed idea. If your device can't do this on the device, speech-to-text won't turn on, and you can type your idea instead.

2.3 Voice Data (Provided by You)

Voice cloning is optional and available only to adults, behind a parental gate. Voice samples are processed by our voice-synthesis provider (Inworld AI) to create a voice model used to narrate your stories. We keep the cloned voice only while that voice profile exists in your account. We do not keep the recording itself on our servers; Inworld AI keeps the original recording for as long as the cloned voice exists, because it is what the voice is built from. When you delete a voice (by deleting your account in Settings → Delete My Account & Information, or by emailing support@readby.app to delete a specific voice), we delete the voice profile from ReadBy and send a deletion request to Inworld AI for the associated voice model and source recording; copies may persist briefly in routine backups before being overwritten in the ordinary course of business. We do not use voice recordings for advertising.

2.3.1 Voice Data Provided by Invited Family Members ("Family Voice Invites")

ReadBy lets you ("Account Holder") invite a trusted family member or other adult ("Voice Donor" — e.g., a grandparent or co-parent) to record a sample of their voice so it can narrate stories for the Children on your account. The Voice Donor records on a public web page hosted by ReadBy at readby.app/record/<token>; the Voice Donor does not need a ReadBy account.

How the flow works:

1. You generate a one-time invite link in the App and share it (text, email, etc.) with the Voice Donor. The link contains a single-use token; it does not contain any personal information about you or the Voice Donor.
2. The Voice Donor opens the link in their own browser, reads a short prompt aloud, and uploads the recording.
3. Their recording is sent to Inworld AI for voice-model creation (same provider and protections described in Sections 5 and 6). The recording and the resulting voice model are kept only while the voice exists on your account; when the voice is removed, we send a deletion request to Inworld AI for both (see Section 8).
4. Approval gate. The voice does not become usable in your App until you (the Account Holder) listen to a short preview and explicitly approve it. If you reject or cancel, the cloned voice and the original recording are deleted.
5. The Voice Donor or you may withdraw consent at any time by asking us to delete the voice (see Section 8). Removal triggers deletion at Inworld AI as well.

By sending an invite link, you confirm that you have permission from the intended recipient to invite them, and that you will only invite adults. The invite page itself reminds the Voice Donor that participation is voluntary and gives them a way to decline before recording.

We do not use Voice Donor data for advertising, to train our own AI, or for any purpose unrelated to producing narration on your account. Inworld AI's use of it is described in Section 2.3.2.

2.3.2 Voice Data Is Biometric Data

Under applicable law — including the FTC's Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (as amended in 2025) and certain state biometric privacy laws (such as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, and the Washington My Health My Data Act) — voice recordings and the voice models ("voiceprints") generated from them are classified as biometric identifiers. We treat this data with the highest level of care. Our full retention and destruction commitments for biometric data are published in our Biometric Data Retention & Destruction Policy.

What we collect: audio of the voice you voluntarily provide, and the voice model (voiceprint) generated from it by our voice-synthesis partner, Inworld AI.

How it is processed: the recording is transmitted over an encrypted connection (TLS 1.2+) to Inworld AI solely to create a personalized voice model used exclusively to narrate stories within ReadBy. We do not retain the raw recording on our own servers — only an opaque voice identifier and a one-way hash. Voice data is never sold, never used for advertising, and never used to train ReadBy's own AI. Inworld AI has confirmed to us in writing that voice audio processed through its speech services is not used to train its general-purpose AI models; under Inworld's terms of service it may use the audio and the voice model to operate and improve its own voice service.

Retention and deletion: voice models are retained while the associated voice profile (or your account) is active. Inworld AI retains the original recording for as long as the cloned voice exists — it is the source the voice is built from — and has confirmed that this source audio is not covered by its zero-data-retention option. When you delete a voice or your account, we delete the voice profile from ReadBy and send a deletion request to Inworld AI for the associated voice model and its source recording; Inworld states that this removes both from its active systems. You may request deletion of your voice data at any time, and you may use ReadBy without providing any voice data (built-in system voices are available as an alternative).

2.4 Payment Information

All purchases are processed through Apple's In-App Purchase system. We do not collect, store, or have access to your credit card number, bank account, or other financial payment information. Apple provides us only with a purchase receipt to verify your subscription status.

2.5 Automatically Collected Information

The App does not embed any third-party analytics or advertising SDK, and does not perform cross-app/device tracking (no IDFA, no App Tracking Transparency prompt). On-device crash and performance diagnostics use Apple's built-in frameworks (MetricKit / App Store Connect) — no third-party crash-reporting SDK is included in the App. Our backend servers use Sentry for server-side error monitoring; those reports are scrubbed of personal information and never include story text or any child's data. Any general usage metrics we keep are aggregated, de-identified, used only to improve reliability, and never used for advertising or tracking. Reading activity is different and we describe it plainly: we record which stories each Child finishes so that we can show you their progress and their most-read stories. That record is linked to the Child's profile rather than de-identified, is never sold, never used for advertising, and never used to train third-party AI models. It is deleted when you delete that Child profile or your account.

2.6 Photo Avatars (Optional)

You may optionally provide a photograph (selfie or uploaded image) to generate a paper-cutout avatar in the ReadBy art style. This applies to both the parent/narrator avatar setup and the optional kid-character builder.

How the flow works:

1. You tap "Take a Selfie" or "Upload a Photo" in the avatar source picker.
2. For child-character photos: a parental gate (math problem) appears before the camera or photo library opens. This is a deliberate friction point to ensure a parent is involved when a child's photo is provided.
3. After capture/upload, you crop the photo to head-and-shoulders.
4. The cropped photo is sent in a single request to Google Gemini (gemini-3-pro-image-preview) along with a paper-cutout style reference and an instruction prompt. The response is the generated paper-cutout PNG.
5. You see the result on a preview screen with three choices: Use this, Try again, or Build it Myself instead (which routes to the manual tile-builder, no photo needed).
6. On Use this: the source photo is deleted from our storage immediately. Only the generated paper-cutout PNG is retained as your avatar.
7. On Try again: the source photo is kept until your final selection is made (so we can regenerate with a different method without re-uploading).

Generation cap. To prevent runaway usage costs, every account is limited to 3 paper-cutout generations total (across selfie + photo + manual builder). After 3 attempts, the most recent result is locked in as your avatar.

Source photos are never re-used as input to any other model context (story generation, audio synthesis, etc.). The photo is only ever sent to Gemini once, in the single request that produces the avatar.

Children's photos handled per COPPA. Photographs of children require two separate things before capture: the parental gate described above, which confirms an adult is present, and verifiable parental consent as described in Section 5, which is the parent's recorded agreement to this specific collection. The gate is not the consent. By passing the gate and giving consent, the parent or guardian confirms they have authority to provide the child's photograph and have read this Privacy Policy. We do not retain source photos of children beyond the single avatar-generation step (delete-on-approve), and we never use any child photo for advertising, training, or any purpose unrelated to generating the user-requested avatar.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Generate personalized stories using AI (see Section 5)
• Create voice narration from your voice profiles
• Maintain your account and saved story library
• Process subscriptions via Apple In-App Purchase
• Improve the App through aggregated, de-identified metrics (no third-party analytics or advertising SDKs)
• Show you a Child's reading progress — including their most-read stories — by recording which stories that Child finishes
• Ensure safety through content filtering and moderation
• Communicate with you about account issues or important updates (not marketing)

We do NOT use your information for:

• Targeted advertising
• Selling to third parties
• Marketing to Children
• Building advertising profiles

4. Children's Privacy (COPPA Compliance)

ReadBy is designed for adult Account Holders creating stories for Children. We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as follows:

• No direct data collection from Children. All account creation and data input is performed by the adult Account Holder.
• No child accounts. Children do not have separate logins or profiles.
• Parental control. The Account Holder controls all data associated with their account, including Children's names used in stories.
• No behavioral tracking of Children. We do not track, profile, or target Children.
• Verifiable parental consent. Creating an account requires a valid email address. That is account setup, not consent. Parental consent under COPPA attaches to the act of collecting a child's photograph, and it applies to every account on every plan — paying for ReadBy is not the same as consenting to it, and neither one substitutes for the other. Before a child's photograph can be collected, we obtain verifiable parental consent by the "email plus" method: we send the required direct notice to the parent's email address, take their consent there, and then send a second, delayed message confirming what was agreed and carrying a link to withdraw it. Consent can be withdrawn at any time, and withdrawing it withdraws it everywhere. Voice recordings are collected only from adults — the Account Holder, or an adult they invite — behind a parental gate and a separate written release, and are therefore not subject to COPPA parental consent.
• Biometric data. Voice recordings and voice models are treated as biometric identifiers; see Section 2.3.2 and our Biometric Data Retention & Destruction Policy. Where required by state law, we obtain a separate written release before collecting a person's voice (see Section 2.3.1 for family-member recordings).

Parental Rights Under COPPA

As an Account Holder, you have the right to:

• Review any personal information associated with your account
• Delete your account and all associated data (see Section 8)
• Refuse further collection by deleting your account
• Request a copy of your data in a portable format

To exercise these rights, contact us at support@readby.app.

5. Artificial Intelligence and Story Generation

ReadBy uses AI to generate personalized stories. Here's how it works:

• Story text is generated by Anthropic's Claude AI based on your inputs (character names, settings, plot ideas). The AI does not retain your inputs after generating the story.
• Voice narration is generated by Inworld AI's text-to-speech system using your voice profile.
• Content safety: All generated content passes through a 6-layer safety pipeline including profanity filters, age-appropriateness checks, and content moderation before being shown to you.

AI Data Handling

• Your story inputs are sent to Anthropic's API for processing. Anthropic does not use API inputs for model training (per their API data policy).
• Voice samples are sent to Inworld AI for voice model creation. Voice models are associated with your account and not shared.
• Generated stories are stored in your account library on Google Cloud Platform.
• No AI-generated content is used for advertising or shared with third parties.

6. Third-Party Service Providers

We use the following third-party services to operate the App:

We require all third-party providers to maintain appropriate security measures and to process data only for the purposes described above.

7. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your information:

• Encryption in transit: All data is transmitted over TLS 1.2+
• Encryption at rest: Sensitive data is encrypted using AES-256
• Secure credential storage: Passwords are hashed (never stored in plain text); tokens are stored in iOS Keychain
• Access control: Server access is restricted to authorized personnel
• PII protection: Personal information is masked in logs and error reports
• Breach notification: In the event of a data breach affecting personal information, we will notify affected users within 72 hours

8. Data Retention and Deletion

Deleting Your Data

You can delete your account, and with it every voice recording, voice model and photo, at any time in Settings → Delete My Account & Information. To delete a specific voice or photo without closing your account, email support@readby.app and we will delete it within 30 days.

Deleting a single child. Removing one child from Settings → Manage Children Profiles deletes everything belonging to that child — their profile, their avatar and any images made from their photograph, and their saved stories — while leaving the rest of your family's account intact.

Order of deletion. Where a request covers more than one kind of data, we remove anything derived from a photograph of a child first, because that is the most sensitive category we hold. Everything else in the request is then removed. Choosing a narrower option never means we keep something you asked us to delete — it only limits what the request covers.

Upon deletion, we will:

• Remove your account, stories, and voice profiles from our servers within 30 days
• Request deletion of your data from third-party processors — including deletion of voice models and source recordings at our voice provider (Inworld AI); residual provider/backup copies are overwritten in the ordinary course of business
• Note: Some de-identified records may be retained after deletion, specifically: (a) aggregated, de-identified operational metrics (not linked to you or a Child, and never from a third-party analytics SDK), retained to maintain service reliability; and (b) de-identified transaction/payment records — from which the identifiers linking a purchase to you (your account ID and the Apple linking token) have been removed — retained to meet tax, accounting, and fraud-prevention obligations. We never collect or store card numbers or bank-account details (all payment is processed by Apple). Retained records are held only as long as necessary for those purposes and are then destroyed.

9. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:

• Access: Request a copy of your personal data
• Correction: Update inaccurate information
• Deletion: Delete your account and associated data
• Portability: Receive your data in a machine-readable format
• Objection: Object to certain data processing activities
• Restriction: Limit how we process your data

California Residents (CCPA)

California residents have additional rights under the CCPA, including the right to know what personal information is collected and the right to opt out of the sale of personal information. We do not sell personal information.

European Residents (GDPR)

If you are in the EEA/UK, our legal basis for processing is: (a) contractual necessity for account and service operation, (b) legitimate interest for security and improvement, and (c) consent for optional features like voice profiles.

To exercise any of these rights, contact support@readby.app.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by:

• Posting the updated policy in the App
• Sending an email to your registered address for significant changes
• Updating the "Last Updated" date at the top

Continued use of the App after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices:

• Email: support@readby.app
• Website: https://readby.app
• Mailing Address: 54 Music Square East, Suite 300, Nashville, TN 37203, USA

For COPPA-related inquiries, please contact us at the email above with "COPPA Request" in the subject line.