Always your choice
Photos are optional and never part of signing up. We ask for your permission before any photo is used, and you can say no and still explore our stories.
Privacy
Their stories are theirs.
Their photos stay safe.
How we protect children’s photos, what we do with your family’s information, and the rights you have under UK GDPR.
Draft for review · Updated
Keeping photos safe
Six promises about your child’s photo.
Cleaned on upload
Every photo is redrawn as plain pixels. Hidden details such as location, camera and date information are removed, and it is resized.
Used, then let go
A photo chosen for one book is used only while its pictures are made, then the temporary copies are discarded. It is not saved to your account.
Never used to train AI
Illustration requests go only to providers that keep no copy and do not train on them. If that cannot be guaranteed, we don’t make the pictures. There is no fallback.
Private by default
Photos and finished books sit in private storage and are only shown to your signed-in family. Nothing is public unless you choose to share a book link.
Remove it any time
Delete a saved photo or a whole child profile yourself from family settings, or ask us to close your account and delete what we hold.
Draft for review. This policy is being prepared for launch. Our business name and address, final provider list and retention schedule still need to be confirmed before it is adopted.
Who we are
This policy explains how Me Time Stories uses personal information when you visit our website, create an account, add child profiles, personalise and read books, share stories or use the author workspace.
Me Time Stories is the “data controller” for this information, which means we decide how it is used and are responsible for protecting it under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Our full legal business name and registered address will be added here before this policy is adopted.
Contact us about anything in this policy at info@metimestories.co.uk.
Photos and AI illustrations in detail
A saved profile photo
If you choose to save a portrait for a child, we keep it privately so it can be reused for that child’s books. It is re-encoded on upload to remove image metadata and resized. You can replace or remove it at any time in family settings. Removing it also switches off features that depend on it.
A photo for one book
A photo chosen in the book-creation form stays on your device until you start creating. We then process it, together with a crop of the face, only to illustrate your child, and discard those temporary copies afterwards. It is not saved as a profile photo.
How the pictures are made
Illustrations are created through OpenRouter and a compatible image-generation provider. Every photo request requires zero data retention, refuses data collection and blocks fallback to other providers. If a provider cannot meet those restrictions, the request fails rather than being sent elsewhere. Photos and finished pictures are never used to train AI models.
The finished book
We save the finished book, its personalised illustrations and a record of your permission so we can provide your library. The illustrations may look like your child, so we treat them as personal information too. Removing a source photo does not automatically delete finished books, or copies already downloaded or shared.
What we collect
- Adult account details: your name, email, date of birth (to confirm you are an adult), your password stored only as a one-way hash, and whether your email is confirmed. If you sign in with Google, we receive the details needed to verify your identity.
- Child profiles: name, date of birth, “about me” and story answers, an optional saved photo, and settings for child sign-in and creation features.
- Books and author content: chosen stories, personalisation answers, uploaded artwork or PDFs, generated illustrations, page text, saved books and sharing settings.
- Payments and permissions: your plan, credits, payment status, order references and records of the permissions you give. Card details are handled by Stripe and never reach us.
- Support and security: messages you send us, and technical information such as IP addresses, errors and sign-in attempts, used to keep the service safe and working.
Please keep story answers to what a story needs. Avoid adding health, financial or other sensitive details.
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
UK GDPR requires a lawful basis for each way we use personal information. These are the bases we rely on:
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Running adult accounts, books you buy and billing | Contract: needed to provide what you’ve asked for, including steps before a purchase. |
| Child profiles and personalising stories | Legitimate interests in providing the family service a parent or guardian requests, balanced carefully against children’s rights. Consent where a feature needs it. |
| Saved photos and photo illustration | Consent: your specific permission for the photo feature, which you can withdraw at any time. |
| Security, preventing misuse and support | Legitimate interests in keeping the service safe and fixing problems, with extra care for children’s information. |
| Accounting and legal records | Legal obligation: records we are required by law to keep. |
We don’t sell personal information and we don’t use it for advertising.
Children’s information
Accounts are for adults. Parents and guardians create and manage child profiles, choose whether to use photos and control child sign-in. Children cannot create their own account. If you provide information about someone else, please make sure you have the right to do so.
A note for young readers
Your grown-up helps set up your story world. We use the name and story details they give us to make books feel like yours. If they choose to use a photo, a computer helps draw you into the pictures, and then lets the photo go. Your photo and story are private. Ask your grown-up before sharing a book or your sign-in code, and tell a trusted grown-up if anything makes you feel uncomfortable.
Who we share it with
We share information only where a feature needs it, or for a legitimate operational or legal reason:
- Hosting, database, private file-storage and email providers that run the service for us.
- Google, if you choose Google sign-in, and Stripe, when you pay.
- OpenRouter and a compatible AI provider, when you request illustrations or author writing help, under the restrictions above.
- Authorised Me Time Stories staff, for support, moderation and security. Their access matches their role and their account actions are logged.
- People you give a book-share link to, and authorities or advisers where the law requires it.
International transfers
Some providers may process information outside the UK. Where they do, we use a recognised safeguard, such as UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement. The final list of providers and locations will be confirmed before launch, and you can ask us for the current arrangements at any time.
How we protect it
- Photos, illustrations and books are kept in private storage and served only to the signed-in account they belong to, with instructions not to cache them.
- Passwords and child sign-in PINs are stored as one-way hashes, never as readable text.
- Each family’s records are kept separate, so one account cannot reach another’s books or photos.
- Staff access is limited by role, and changes staff make to accounts are recorded.
- Photos chosen for a single book are processed in memory and never written to permanent storage.
No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach is likely to put you at risk, we will tell you and the ICO as the law requires.
How long we keep it
We keep account details, child profiles, story answers and books for as long as your account is open, so your library is there when you return. Temporary book photos are discarded straight after processing. A saved profile photo stays until you remove it or close your account.
When you ask us to close your account, we remove your information, apart from records we must keep for a legal reason, such as payment, consent or dispute records. Our full retention schedule, including backup deletion periods, will be added before this policy is adopted.
Cookies, storage and analytics
We use your browser’s storage to keep you signed in and remember a few reading preferences. Adult sign-in lasts only for the browser tab. Child sessions can stay on a device until sign-out or expiry. Google and Stripe may set their own cookies when you use their services.
We don’t use advertising cookies. With your permission, we count visits anonymously to understand how the site is used and improve it: the pages viewed, time spent on each, where a visit came from (such as a search engine or a campaign link), the type of device and how far people get through steps such as sign-up. To tell return visits apart, we keep a random visitor number in your browser’s storage. We never record names, answers, photos or account details, nothing is shared with advertisers, and visits are deleted after 13 months.
Nothing is counted until you choose “Allow”, and browsers that send a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal are never counted or asked. Children’s reading spaces never ask. Choosing “No thanks” or stopping counting removes the visitor number from your browser.
Your rights under UK GDPR
You have these rights over your personal information. A parent or guardian can use them on a child’s behalf.
Access
Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you or your child.
Correct
Fix anything inaccurate or incomplete. Most details can be edited in your account.
Delete
Ask us to erase your information. This is sometimes called the right to be forgotten.
Restrict
Ask us to pause using your information while a concern is looked into.
Take it with you
Receive information you gave us in a portable, machine-readable format.
Object
Object to uses based on our legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time.
Withdraw permission
Withdraw photo permission whenever you like. It stops future use but doesn’t undo earlier lawful use.
Complain
Raise a concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator.
Making a request
Email info@metimestories.co.uk. It’s free, and we will reply within one month. Complex requests can take up to two months longer, and we’ll tell you if that happens. We may need to confirm your identity first. You never need to send a child’s photo to make a request.
If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You can also complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
AI and automated decisions
We use AI only to create illustrations and, for authors who ask, to draft page text. We don’t use automated decision-making that has legal or similarly significant effects on you or your child, and we don’t build profiles to target you.
Changes to this policy
We will update this page when our practices change and show the date at the top. If a change significantly affects your family’s information, we will let you know and ask for fresh permission where needed.