Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 29, 2026

At Akoni Books ("we," "us," or "our"), we take your privacy seriously — especially when it comes to children's data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect the information you provide when using our personalized children's storybook service at www.akonibooks.com.

1. Information We Collect

When you create a personalized storybook, we collect the following information:

• Child's photo: A photograph of your child's face, used solely to generate personalized illustrations.
• Child's first name: Used to personalize the story text and illustrations.
• Child's age: Used to tailor the story's reading level and content.
• Appearance details: Optional descriptions such as skin tone, hair color, and eye color, used to improve illustration accuracy.
• Payment information: Processed securely through Stripe. We do not store your credit card details on our servers.
• Email address: If provided, used to deliver your digital book and communicate about your order.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use the information you provide exclusively for the following purposes:

• Book generation: Your child's photo, name, and appearance details are sent to third-party services to computer-generate story text and illustrations for your personalized book. During this process we create a cartoon-style illustration of your child — your "character" — which we keep alongside your book to enable re-downloads and future printable extras (coloring pages, activity sheets, audio readings of the story, and similar). The character is a stylized derivative; the original photograph is deleted within 24 hours.
• Order fulfillment: To process payments, generate your digital PDF, and fulfill print orders.
• Service improvement: Aggregated, anonymized usage data may be used to improve our service quality.

We do not use your child's data for advertising, profiling, or any purpose beyond creating your storybook.

3. Data Retention and Deletion

• Photos: Your child's uploaded photo is automatically deleted from our servers within 24 hours of book completion (typically within minutes). The original photo is not stored long-term.
• Books and AI-generated character illustration: We keep your generated books and the cartoon-style illustration of your child until you request deletion, so that you can re-download your book at any time and access future printable extras featuring your child's character. The illustration is a stylized derivative of the original photo (for example a watercolor or cartoon rendering) and is not a photograph.
• Unpaid previews: If you start creating a book but don't complete the purchase, the partial draft is automatically deleted after 30 days.
• Print orders: Files for printed books are kept while your order is being printed and shipped, and for 30 days after delivery, to support reprints in case of damage in transit.
• Inactive accounts: If your account has been completely inactive for 5 or more years, we may notify you by email and delete your data unless you respond.
• Account data: Email address and order history are retained as long as necessary for customer support and as required by tax and accounting law.
• Deletion requests: You may request immediate deletion of all your data — including your child's character illustration — at any time by emailing hello@akonibooks.com. We confirm completion within 7 business days.

3a. Self-service deletion rights

You can delete your books yourself, without emailing us. Two options:

• Delete one book: Send a POST request to /my-books/<book_id>/delete with your magic-link token (the same token sent to your email when you request library access via My Books). The book directory, illustrations, audio, PDF, and Hero Pack are removed from our storage; the Firestore book record is deleted; and an audit-log entry is recorded as proof of your request. The action is immediate and irreversible.
• Delete every book associated with your email: Send a POST request to /my-books/delete-all with the same magic-link token. We delete every book stored under that email address. The same audit and irreversibility apply per book.

Both endpoints require a typed confirmation field ("confirm": "DELETE") to prevent accidental triggering.

What we retain after deletion (regulatory or contractual reasons):

• Stripe payment records — required for tax and accounting law.
• An audit log entry recording your deletion request — proves to you and to regulators that the deletion happened.
• If you have an in-flight Gelato print order, the printed book itself ships to you regardless. We do not auto-cancel print orders. To cancel a printed-but-not-yet-shipped order, contact Gelato support directly.

This satisfies CCPA right-to-delete and GDPR right-to-erasure for users in those jurisdictions, alongside the email-based pathway above.

4. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to deliver our product:

• Anthropic: For generating story text. Subject to Anthropic's Privacy Policy.
• Google: For generating illustrations (Gemini), hosting (Cloud Run), and analytics (Google Analytics). Subject to Google's Privacy Policy.
• Stripe: For payment processing. Subject to Stripe's Privacy Policy.
• Resend: For transactional emails (order confirmations, book-ready notifications). Subject to Resend's Privacy Policy.
• Gelato: For printing and shipping physical book orders. Your shipping address is shared with Gelato to fulfill print orders. Subject to Gelato's Privacy Policy.
• Sentry: For error monitoring to improve service reliability. Subject to Sentry's Privacy Policy.

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with any third party for marketing or advertising purposes.

5. COPPA Compliance (Children Under 13)

We are committed to complying with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Our service is designed for parents and guardians to create books for their children:

• We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. All information is provided by a parent or legal guardian.
• A parent or guardian must initiate and complete the book creation process.
• We collect only the minimum information necessary to generate the personalized book (photo, first name, age).
• Children's photos are automatically deleted within 24 hours of book generation. We do retain an AI-generated cartoon-style illustration derived from the photo (the child's "character") alongside the book, so the parent or guardian can re-download and access future printable extras. The illustration is a stylized derivative and is not a photograph.
• Parents may review, request deletion of, or refuse further collection of their child's information — including the character illustration — at any time by contacting us.

6. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your data, including:

• HTTPS encryption for all data in transit
• Secure, access-controlled cloud infrastructure
• Automatic deletion of original photographs within 24 hours of processing
• Encryption at rest for all retained book files and character illustrations

7. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction or deletion of your personal data
• Withdraw consent for data processing at any time
• File a complaint with a data protection authority

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. Continued use of our service after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please contact us:

Email: hello@akonibooks.com