Privacy policy

Tiny Hero Books makes personalized printed picture books. This page explains what we collect to make a book, who helps us make it, and how long we keep it. The service is for adults: parents, grandparents and other gift-givers.

What we collect

• About the child, as you describe them in ChatGPT or in the form on our website: first name, age, a description of how they look, what they love, who else is in the story, and an optional dedication. We never ask for photos, surnames, birthdays, schools or health details.
• The book: the story text, the illustrations we draw, and your edits.
• When you order: your name, email address, phone number (for the courier) and shipping address. Card details go straight to PayPal, our payment provider; we never see or store them.
• If you ask us to email you a preview's link: that email address, kept with the preview. We use it to send the link and one reminder 3 days later, unless you order or stop the reminder, and for nothing else.
• An anonymous ID from ChatGPT. ChatGPT gives apps an ID for the user or, if not, for the conversation; it does not reveal who you are. We keep a scrambled (one-way hashed) copy of it with each book, only to limit new previews to 3 a day.
• On our website, a scrambled copy of your internet address. We keep only a one-way hashed copy with each book, for the same limit of 3 new previews a day.
• On our website, which kind of site sent you, as one word such as “google”, “pinterest” or “direct”, kept with the book so we know which places bring parents to us. Never the page you came from, and nothing about you.

How we use it

• To draw the illustrations, lay out the book, print it and ship it to you, and to email you about your order.
• Your child's name is never sent to the AI that draws the pictures. Drawing instructions say “the main character”; the name is added only when we lay out the pages.
• On our website, the AI that writes the story does not see the names either. Before your description is sent, we replace your child's name and the other characters' names with placeholders, in any spelling, and we put the names back in ourselves. The story writer never sees the dedication; only the safety check reads it, with the names replaced.
• We do not sell your data, use it for advertising, or put books in public galleries.

Who helps us

• OpenAI draws the illustrations from the scene descriptions. When you make a book on our website, it also writes the story and checks the description for harmful content, both without the names. If you use Tiny Hero Books inside ChatGPT, your conversation there is covered by OpenAI's own privacy policy.
• Vercel (hosting and image storage) and Neon (database) store book data in the United States. Vercel also checks that the book form is used by a person and not a bot, and counts visits to our pages without cookies: it keeps no visitor identifier for more than 24 hours, and links to books and orders are counted without their numbers.
• Lulu prints and ships the book and receives the print files, your shipping address and the phone number for the courier.
• PayPal processes the payment and receives the delivery address with it.
• Resend sends our emails (about your order, and a preview's link if you ask for it): it receives your email address and each message. The emails never include your child's name.

How long we keep it

• Previews that are never ordered are deleted after 30 days, with the email address you gave for the link, if any. A check runs every day.
• Ordered books, including the child's details and the illustrations, are deleted 90 days after delivery. The post does not tell us the day a parcel arrives, so we count delivery as 35 days after the printer ships it.
• An order refunded before printing is deleted like a preview that was never ordered.
• Our providers keep their own records under their own policies (for example PayPal's payment records and Lulu's order records).
• Payment and order records that tax law requires us to keep are kept without the child's details.

Children

Tiny Hero Books is not meant for children to use on their own, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. Information about a child is provided by the adult making the book, who confirms they are allowed to share it.

Your choices

You can ask us for a copy of your book data, or to delete it sooner, by writing to support@tinyherobooks.com. We answer within 30 days, usually much sooner.

Cookies and your browser

We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we count visits without cookies. On our website, your browser keeps a short list of the books you started, so you can find them again, and, for the current visit only, that one word about where you came from. The list stays on your device; the word is sent to us only with a book you make.