Privacy Policy

How we collect, use, and protect your information.

Last updated: May 2026

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how PENNA, LLC, the company that operates PennaStory (“PennaStory,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), collects, uses, shares, and protects your personal information when you use our service to create personalized children's books. This Policy is incorporated into our Terms & Conditions; capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given in the Terms.

2. Information We Collect

We collect the following types of information:

Email address (for account creation and magic-link authentication)
Children's names, ages, and other Child Information you choose to provide (for story personalization)
Photos of your child — “Source Photos” — for creating an illustrated Character Avatar
Story preferences and interests (for story generation)
Shipping addresses (for book delivery)

Payment information is handled entirely by Stripe. We do not store credit card numbers or other payment credentials on our servers.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

Create and manage your account
Generate your personalized Book (story, illustrations, and print file)
Fulfill and ship your order
Communicate with you about your order and account
Detect fraud, abuse, or violations of our Terms
Improve our service quality using de-identified, aggregated data that cannot reasonably be used to identify you or any child

4. Photo Handling and Biometric Information

Source Photos are processed by our AI providers solely for the purpose of generating an illustrated Character Avatar of your child. The Character Avatar is a stylized, AI-generated illustration — it is inspired by your child but is not a photorealistic reproduction.

We delete original Source Photos from our active production systems promptly after the Character Avatar is generated and you have had a reasonable opportunity to confirm it — typically within seven (7) days of Book finalization, and in no event later than thirty (30) days after Character Avatar creation. Source Photos may persist temporarily in encrypted backups that are overwritten on a rolling basis and are not used for any production purpose.

The Service performs facial-feature analysis of Source Photos during the limited Character Avatar generation window. To the extent any data we process constitutes “biometric information” or “biometric identifiers” under applicable law (including the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act and similar state statutes), we collect it only with your informed consent (provided when you accept the Photo & Data Acknowledgment), use it only to generate the Character Avatar, never sell or profit from it, and delete it as described above.

We never use Source Photos, Character Avatars, or Child Information to train, fine-tune, or improve any AI model — ours or any third party's. This prohibition is contractual with each of our AI providers. If you later choose to edit your character, you will need to upload a new photo.

5. Third-Party Service Providers

We work with trusted third-party service providers to deliver our service. Each provider has its own privacy policy governing their handling of your data, and each is contractually prohibited from using Source Photos, Character Avatars, or Child Information to train AI models:

Stripe — Payment processing
Lulu — Book printing and shipping
OpenAI — AI illustration generation (GPT Image models) and AI story/text generation
Anthropic (Claude) — AI story and text generation
Google (Gemini) — AI text generation, photo description analysis, and pipeline quality assessment
OpenRouter — AI model routing and provider fallbacks
Mailgun — Transactional and magic-link email delivery
DigitalOcean — Application hosting and cloud storage (Spaces)

We do not sell or rent Source Photos, Character Avatars, or Child Information, and we do not share them with advertisers or for any marketing or commercial purpose other than providing the Service to you.

6. Data Retention

Source Photos: Deleted from active systems promptly after Character Avatar generation, and no later than thirty (30) days after Character Avatar creation
Character Avatars and Child Information: Retained while your account is active so you can re-order, reprint, or create new Books featuring the same child. After twelve (12) months of account inactivity, we will notify you and may delete after a thirty (30)-day grace period
Finalized Book files: Retained with your account so you can download or re-order, unless you specifically request deletion
Account data: Retained until you request account deletion

7. Children's Privacy

PennaStory is intended for use by parents and legal guardians (or other adults with verifiable parental permission) who wish to create books for their children. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. All information about children is provided by the responsible adult on their behalf. If we learn that a child under 13 has created an account, we will terminate it and delete associated personal information in accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

8. Data Security

We protect your data through:

SSL/TLS encryption for all data in transit
Encrypted cloud storage for data at rest
Strict access controls limiting data access to essential personnel
Regular security reviews of our systems and practices

No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. If we become aware of a security incident affecting your information, we will notify you as required by applicable law.

9. Your Rights

You may delete any Character Avatar, any piece of Child Information, or your entire account at any time through your account settings or by contacting us. We will honor verified deletion requests within thirty (30) days, subject to limited exceptions for legal compliance, fraud prevention, and backups that are overwritten in the ordinary course.

For Nebraska Residents

Under the Nebraska Data Privacy Act, you have the right to access, correct, delete, obtain a copy of, and opt out of certain processing of your personal data. To exercise these rights, contact us at the address below. We will respond within forty-five (45) days, subject to any extension permitted by law, and you may appeal a decision regarding your rights request.

For EU Residents (GDPR)

You have additional rights including:

Right to access your personal data
Right to rectification of inaccurate data
Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”)
Right to data portability
Right to object to processing

For California Residents (CCPA)

You have the right to:

Know what personal information we collect and how it is used
Request deletion of your personal information
Opt out of the sale of personal information (we do not sell your personal data)

10. Cookies

We use session cookies solely for authentication and maintaining your logged-in state. We do not use third-party tracking cookies or advertising cookies.

11. International Data Transfers

Your data may be processed by our AI providers and infrastructure partners in the United States. By using the Service, you consent to the transfer and processing of your information in the United States.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by email. For material changes, we will provide at least 30 days' notice before the changes take effect. Material changes affecting how we handle Source Photos, Character Avatars, or Child Information will not apply retroactively to previously uploaded content without your consent.

13. Contact

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at [email protected] or via mail at PENNA, LLC, 9421 Keystone Dr, Lincoln, NE 68516.