TapTalesPrivacy policy
TapTales is for parents to make and read picture stories with a small child. It has no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and it does not ask you to make an account. This page says what leaves your device and why.
Stays on your device and in your iCloud
- Your stories, pictures and recordings. They are stored on your device and synced through your own iCloud account (Apple CloudKit). We never receive them and can't read them.
- Reading a story aloud. When you use “Read one aloud”, speech is turned into text on your device. Your reading isn't sent anywhere.
- Settings and progress. Kept on the device.
What our server receives
The app talks to our server to show how many storyteller-narrated stories you have left — it checks when you open your shelf or a story's editor, whether or not you subscribe — and to make that narration when you tap Narrate. Requests carry:
- An install identifier that Apple gives every app from us (the vendor identifier). On a device without a subscription, this is what requests are counted against, so we can refuse ones over the limit. It is not linked to your name and can't identify you outside the app.
- Your subscription receipt, signed by Apple, so the server knows whether Pro is active. A subscriber's narration is counted against the subscription's Apple transaction number rather than the device.
- Your iCloud account identifier — a random-looking code Apple gives your iCloud account in this app, not your email address or name. The server only compares it with a short list of accounts we've given unlimited recording; we don't save it anywhere unless you ask to be added to that list.
- The words of the story, a page at a time, only when you tap Narrate. Our server passes them to a voice provider, ElevenLabs, which returns the audio. We do not keep the text after the audio is made. The provider handles it under its own privacy policy.
- A story identifier and a month, to count stories against your monthly allowance.
What we keep is small: for each install or subscription, which story identifiers were narrated in which month, and a running total of what narration has cost. No story text, no audio, no names.
Our server runs on Supabase. Like any web service, it sees the internet address a request comes from, and its logs may hold request details for a short time; we don't use them for anything but fixing problems.
We use all of this only to run the app. We don't sell it, share it for advertising, or use it to track you across other apps or sites.
Family sharing
If you add someone in Settings → Family sharing, the stories you choose are shared with that person through Apple's iCloud sharing. The people you share with can see and, if you allow it, add to those stories, including the names on recordings. Sharing is between your iCloud accounts. We don't receive it.
Permissions
- Microphone, to record a page or a whole story in your voice.
- Speech recognition, to turn a story you read aloud into tiles, on the device.
- Face ID, only if you switch on the option that asks for it before a story closes. TapTales never sees your face data.
Children
TapTales is used by children but managed by a parent or guardian, who writes the stories and holds the subscription. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. The only identifiers we receive come from the parent's device, as described above.
This website
This site is hosted by Vercel. It has no cookies, no analytics and no forms, and everything it loads, fonts included, comes from this site. Vercel sees the internet address of each visit, as any web host does, to serve the page and keep it secure.
Deleting your data
Delete a story in the app and it leaves your iCloud. Delete the app and iCloud data in Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Storage. The identifiers and story counts on our server contain nothing that identifies you by name; email us if you want them removed.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes we'll update the date above. Questions: support@taptales.xyz.