Privacy policy

It’s My Story (“we”, “us”) makes personalised books. We are based in the United Kingdom and are the controller of the personal information described in this policy.

If you have any question about your information, or want to use any of your rights, email [email protected].

Your account

• Your name, email address and password (stored only as a secure hash, never in plain text), and a phone number and profile picture if you add them.
• Sign-in records such as when your account was created, and security events like password changes.

The stories you create

• Your story idea, the characters’ names, ages, descriptions and personalities, the dedication you write, and your choices of style, reading level and narrator.
• Photos you upload of a character. These often show children. We use them only to create that character’s illustrations (see “How we use photos” below).
• The finished words, illustrations, audio narration and PDF files of your book.

Orders and payments

• Delivery and billing details: name, address, postcode, country, phone number and email address.
• What you ordered and its status, tracking information and any coupon used.
• Payment references from our payment provider. We never see or store your full card number.

When you contact us

• Your name, email address, phone number (if given), organisation details and your message, when you use our contact or organisation enquiry forms or email us.
• Your email address and approximate country if you join a waiting list.

Books you upload or sell

• PDF books you upload to print, and for marketplace creators, the book, cover, author name, description and price you submit.

Technical information

• Your IP address, used briefly to protect the site from abuse (for example, limiting repeated sign-in attempts), and basic records of errors and how the book reader performs.

Only an adult account holder can upload a photo or describe a character. By doing so you confirm that you are the child’s parent or carer, or that you have permission from the person in the photo (or their parent or carer) to use it this way.

• A photo is analysed to describe the character’s appearance, and sent with that description to our image provider to draw the character consistently throughout the book.
• Photos are never used for advertising, never shown on our website and never sold. We do not use them to recognise or identify anyone.
• Photos and illustrations are kept in our cloud storage at long, unguessable web addresses that aren’t listed or linked anywhere public, so they can be shown in your account and your book. Anyone given such an address could open it, so please don’t share them.
• Please only include the details a story needs. You don’t need to give a child’s surname, school or address.

We use your information only for the reasons below, and UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each:

We don’t send marketing emails unless you have asked to hear from us, and you can stop them at any time.

We share information only with the service providers who help us run It’s My Story, and only what each one needs:

• Story and illustration providers: the AI services that create your story’s words, illustrations and narration from your idea, characters and photos.
• Our payment provider: takes card payments. It receives your name, email address and payment details.
• Our print partner: prints your book and arranges delivery. It receives your print files and delivery details.
• Website and storage providers: protect and deliver our website and store files such as illustrations, photos and PDFs.
• Our hosting and email providers: run our servers and database, and send the emails you receive from us.

Some providers process data outside the UK, for example in the United States. When they do, we rely on the safeguards UK law requires, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or the UK–US data bridge. We never sell your information. We may disclose it if the law requires us to. To find out which provider handles a particular kind of information, email [email protected].

If you use voice typing, your browser’s own speech service turns your speech into text; we receive only the text.

• Your account, stories and photos: while your account is open. Deleting a story removes it from your account; ask us and we’ll delete its files too.
• Orders and payment records: for as long as needed to fulfil and support your order, and for six years afterwards for accounting and tax law.
• Messages and enquiries: for up to two years after we last hear from you, unless they become part of an order or agreement.
• When you close your account, we delete your stories, photos and personal information within 30 days, except records we must keep by law.

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the information we hold about you;
• correct anything that is wrong or incomplete;
• delete your information, including closing your account;
• restrict or object to how we use it, or move it to another service.

Email [email protected] and we’ll reply within one month. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

Our website uses encrypted connections (HTTPS), passwords are stored only as secure hashes, sign-in sessions use secure cookies, and access to our systems is limited to the people who need it. No system is perfectly secure, so please choose a strong password and keep it to yourself.

We only use cookies that are needed for the site to work, such as keeping you signed in. We don’t use advertising or tracking cookies. See our cookie settings for the full list.

We’ll update this page when our services or the law change, and tell you by email about any change that affects how we use your information.