Privacy Policy

Keptale makes personalized picture books. To do that we handle something genuinely sensitive — photographs of your child — so this policy is written to be read, not skimmed.

Your child's photos

Photos you upload are used for one purpose: making your book. Google's Gemini draws the illustrations from them, and other AI models, reached through a service called OpenRouter, use them to check each picture (and, in some books, to describe your child). Those companies may keep them in their own logs for a limited time under their own policies. We don't use your child's photos to train AI, we don't sell them, and we never use them for any other customer's book.

We delete our copy once your book is drawn, or 14 days after upload if you don't order. The drawings we make from them (your child's character and the pages) are kept with your book if you order, so we can reprint it. If you don't order, we currently keep the drawings too. If you choose to share your book's reveal, we keep one small ‘before’ photo for it until you ask us to remove it. Email hello@keptalebooks.com and we'll delete them. Please don't upload photos with other children in them.

What else we collect

The details you type (your child's name, the optional bedtime-hug person and town, the dedication, and your child's birthday month and day if you give it), your email address (used only to send you your preview link and order updates — no newsletter unless you ask), and a shipping address and phone number if you order a printed book (the courier needs a phone to deliver). Payment is handled entirely by Stripe — we never see your card number. Printed books are manufactured and shipped by our print partner, who receives your name, shipping address, phone number and email for the delivery, and the finished book files, nothing else.

Gifts

If you buy a Keptale as a gift, we use your email address for your receipt and the gift link, and nothing else. We never ask for the child's parent's contact details and we never contact them: you send them the link. The name you sign it with and your dedication are shown to the parent and printed in the book.

What we keep

The generated book itself (illustrations, story text, and PDFs) is retained so we can reprint your order and fix problems. If you'd like a book permanently deleted, email us and we'll do it.

Consent

By uploading photos you confirm you are the child's parent or legal guardian, or have their guardian's permission. That attestation is the legal basis on which we process a child's likeness.

Birthday reminders (opt-in, and off unless you ask)

When you make a book we may ask for your child's birthday — the month and day. We use it for one thing: if you tick the reminder box, we use it to know when to email you.

That box is unticked by default and nothing is sent unless you tick it. If you do, you'll get a short reminder before your child's birthday and before the holidays — a few emails a year at most, no newsletter. We keep a record of the exact wording you agreed to and the date you agreed to it, because Canada's anti-spam law (CASL) requires us to be able to show it. Every reminder has a one-click unsubscribe, and you can also just reply and ask us to stop. Leaving the box unticked changes nothing about your order.

We never sell or share your email address, and a birthday is only ever used for the two purposes above.

How we know which link brought you here

When you arrive from one of our own links — a pin, or the code on the back of a book — the address carries a short label saying where it came from, and we record that label with the visit so we can tell which links are worth making. It describes the link, never you: there is no cookie, no advertising identifier, no profile, and no IP address stored. The label is held in your browser's tab memory and disappears when you close the tab. We use no third-party analytics and no tracking scripts of any kind.

The code on the back of your book

Every printed Keptale has its own QR code on the back cover. Scanning it opens a page on our site that invites you to make another book — and it tells us that a book was scanned, so we can see whether that code is useful. The page shows nothing about the book or the child— no name, no artwork, no order details — because the code is printed where anyone can photograph it. We don't record who scanned it, and there is no cookie or tracker on that page.

Sharing (always your choice)

During checkout you can optionally allow us to share your child's photo-to-storybook transformation in Keptale's own marketing. The box is unticked by default, saying no changes nothing about your order, and you can withdraw permission any time by emailing us.

You can only give permission for your own child. If a photo you upload also shows other people — other children at the playground, friends at a birthday party — we have your permission and not theirs, so we will never publish it. Before anything is used in marketing we check each photo for other people in the frame and set aside any that has them. Nothing is ever published from a photo showing a child other than your own.

Contact

Questions, deletion requests, or anything else: emailhello@keptalebooks.com or reply to any email we've sent you, and we'll get back to you.