Privacy Policy

Inkling helps parents create personalized children's books. To do that, we ask for a photo of your child plus a few details about them. Here's what matters most:

• Your child's photo is deleted from our storage as soon as the book's illustrations are generated — typically within ten minutes of upload.
• We never sell your data, and we don't use your photo or your child's information to train any AI model.
• We share data only with the processors needed to run the service (auth, payments, image generation, printing). They're listed below.
• You can request deletion of your account and all associated books at any time by emailing support@inklingbooks.app.

To create your book and account, we collect:

• Account information — your email and the basic profile that comes from your sign-in method (Google, Facebook, or email).
• Child details — the first name, age, gender, hair color, hair type, and eye color you enter on the create-a-book form, plus any optional dedication.
• The photo you upload of your child, used only to generate the illustrated character (see below).
• Order details — if you order a printed book, the shipping address you provide and the payment confirmation we receive from Stripe.
• Generated content — the story text, illustrations, cover, and PDF that Inkling produces for your book.

The photo you upload is the most sensitive thing we touch, and we treat it that way. Specifically:

• It is uploaded over HTTPS to private object storage (Cloudflare R2). It is never publicly accessible.
• It is sent to our image-generation provider (Fal.ai) only to produce the illustrations on your book's pages. Fal.ai processes the photo to generate outputs and does not retain it for training purposes per its terms of service.
• Once your book's illustrations are complete, we delete the original photo from our storage in a dedicated cleanup step. This typically happens within five minutes of upload — the duration of a generation job.
• We do not retain your photo beyond that window, and we do not use it for any other purpose.

We use the following third-party processors:

• Clerk — account sign-in and session management.
• Stripe — payment processing for book orders. We never see or store your full payment-card details.
• Cloudflare R2 — private storage for generated images and PDFs.
• Anthropic (Claude) — story-text generation. Receives your child's name, age, gender, hair/eye details, theme, and interests; does not receive the photo.
• Fal.ai — illustration generation. Receives the photo and the scene prompts during the generation job only.
• Lulu Direct — printing and shipping for book orders. Receives your shipping address and the finished book PDF.
• Vercel — application hosting.
• Neon — managed Postgres database for account and book records.
• Meta (Facebook + Instagram) — used to measure the performance of ads we run on Facebook and Instagram so we can stop the ones that don't work. See the “Advertising and measurement” section below for what we share and how to opt out.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your data with third parties for their own advertising or marketing.

Inkling advertises on Facebook and Instagram. To measure whether those ads actually lead to people creating and ordering books, we share a limited set of information with Meta in two ways:

• Meta Pixel — a snippet of Meta's code on our site that records page views, when someone starts creating a book, and when an order is placed. The Pixel automatically reads a small set of details from the browser (URL, referrer, browser type) and may include hashed customer email and IP address for matching.
• Conversions API — when a book is created or an order is placed, our server sends a matching signal to Meta from our backend. This uses the same hashed identifiers and includes the order amount for attributed purchases.

The email and IP address are hashed (one-way SHA-256) before they leave our servers. Meta uses them only to match site visitors to existing Meta users so we know which ads worked. We do not share names, addresses, your child's information, or the photo you upload with Meta.

You can opt out of this measurement at any time:

• Use a browser with tracking protection on (most modern browsers, including Safari and Firefox by default, already block third-party Pixel events).
• Adjust your ad preferences on Facebook or Instagram directly to limit how Meta uses data from advertisers.
• Email support@inklingbooks.app to request that we delete attribution data associated with your account.

Inkling is a service for parents and guardians. We do not market to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from anyone under 13. The information we receive about a child is provided by you, the parent, on the create-a-book form. If you believe a child has independently provided information to us, please contact support@inklingbooks.app and we will promptly delete it.

• Uploaded photos: deleted within ~10 minutes of upload, immediately after illustrations are generated.
• Books and account data: kept while your account is active so you can re-read or re-order your books.
• Orders: retained as long as required for tax, accounting, and consumer-protection obligations.

You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or delete your account and all associated books at any time. To make a request, email support@inklingbooks.app from the address on your account. We'll act on verified requests within a reasonable time.

We use a small number of cookies:

• Sign-in cookies (Clerk) — strictly necessary to keep you signed in.
• First-party attribution cookie (inkling_attr) — an anonymous identifier we set on your first visit so we can attribute ad clicks to book creations and orders. Expires after one year.
• Meta Pixel cookies (_fbp, _fbc) — set by the Meta Pixel script described in “Advertising and measurement” above.

Inkling is operated from the United States. Our processors may store data in the US or other regions. By using Inkling you consent to your information being processed in the United States and any other regions where our processors operate.

If we change this policy in a material way we'll update the “Last updated” date at the top and, where appropriate, notify you by email. Continued use of Inkling after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Questions, concerns, or requests? Email support@inklingbooks.app.