Last updated: 2026-08-06
Responsible for data processing on this website (see also the Imprint):
Jens Wittmeyer, Alsstr. 21, 53227 Bonn, Germany
E-mail: [email protected]
When you register, we store your e-mail address and a cryptographically hashed password in our self-hosted identity system (Ory Kratos, running on our own servers in Germany). A session cookie keeps you logged in, this cookie is strictly necessary for authentication (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR; § 25 (2) TDDDG) and therefore requires no consent. We also record the date and version of your acceptance of the Terms of Service at registration.
The core feature of this service is AI-assisted story generation. Story premises, prompts, chapter text, character and scene descriptions that you enter or generate are sent to the Google Gemini API (Google LLC, USA) for processing. We use Google's paid API tier, for which Google contractually commits not to use your prompts or the generated output to train its models (Google Cloud / Gemini API data-processing terms, incl. EU Standard Contractual Clauses for the transfer to the USA). This processing is governed by the Google Cloud Data Processing Addendum, which incorporates the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/914) as the transfer mechanism for personal data sent to Google LLC in the USA.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, the processing is the service you request. Do not include personal data (yours or anyone else's) in prompts unless you want it processed as part of your story.
Optionally, you can connect your own LLM-provider API key (e.g. OpenAI, Azure, OpenRouter, Google). In that mode, your browser talks to your chosen provider directly, the content never passes through our servers, and we are not a party to that processing. Your contract and the provider's privacy terms apply. Your key is kept in your browser only and is never transmitted to us.
Our servers process your IP address to deliver the website, to rate-limit requests, and to prevent abuse of anonymous features (e.g. guest ratings, creation limits). Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a functioning, abuse-free service). Access logs containing IP addresses are deleted after 14 days unless a specific incident requires longer retention.
AI generation is metered through an internal credit system. We keep a ledger of your generation events (timestamps, feature used, credit cost, not the story content itself) to enforce usage limits and to be able to audit balances. This ledger is retained for the lifetime of your account. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR.
We use a self-hosted instance of Plausible Analytics. Plausible uses no cookies and stores no persistent identifiers: your IP address and user agent are processed transiently into a hash that rotates daily and cannot be traced back to you; only aggregate statistics are kept. All analytics data stays on our own infrastructure and is never shared with third parties. Guided onboarding is measured only with bounded welcome choice, journey, milestone, device-class and outcome categories. Those events contain no account, story, chapter or choice IDs and no story or prompt content. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
We store functional preferences (theme, layout state, recently viewed stories, display settings) and guided-tour progress or dismissal choices in your browser's local storage. Tour progress is scoped to the guest or signed-in account in that browser and does not sync across devices. For signed-in accounts, the numeric version of the welcome you acknowledged is also saved with your account preferences so the same welcome does not repeat in another browser. These values are technically necessary UI state and contain no tracking identifiers (§ 25 (2) TDDDG, no consent required). We do not use a cookie banner because we use no cookies or storage that would require consent.
For signed-in accounts we keep a small discovery map on your account: a fixed list of feature-discovery markers (for example "first used dark mode", "first applied a theme") and simple usage counters. It contains no story content, no free text and no identifiers of the stories you read - only which app features you have used and how often. Your browser collects these markers locally and periodically syncs them to your account; before your first sign-in nothing leaves your browser, and any locally collected markers are only merged into your account if you agree when asked. The map is shown back to you in full on your achievements page, powers optional discovery hints, and is analyzed only in aggregate to improve the app. It is deleted with your account. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
Account e-mails (verification, password recovery) are delivered via Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, 17 rue Salneuve, 75017 Paris, France) as our e-mail processor. Brevo processes your e-mail address and the message content for delivery only and stores e-mail data on servers within the EU. Processing is governed by Brevo's data-processing agreement, which incorporates the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/914) for any sub-processing outside the EU/EEA.
The same channel carries Specials order requests: if you submit a request to have a special produced from a story, we e-mail your account address, the story, and the options you chose (including any dedication text and, if you name one, a gift recipient you supply - a name, username or e-mail address for someone else, who need not have an account). That message is the entire record of the request; no separate order is stored. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (steps you requested before a contract) for your own data, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in fulfilling the order you asked for) for a gift recipient's data.
The same channel also carries the weekly progress e-mail for the Learning area, opt-in and per language: a summary of words due for review, grammar rules worth revisiting, and where you left off. It stops on its own after three weeks without recorded practice and resumes automatically once you practice again. Every copy carries a one-click, no-login unsubscribe link that turns it off for every language at once; you can also turn it on or off per language from your grammar profile page. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (your opt-in consent).
Images you upload or generate for stories are stored on our servers and are automatically checked by self-hosted moderation classifiers (no third party involved). See the Terms of Service for what you may upload.
If you submit a copyright report or counter-notice, we store the contact data and statements you provide for the purpose of processing the claim and as an audit trail, see the Copyright Policy. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(c) and (f) GDPR.
Some help and tutorial pages contain video guides hosted on YouTube (Google Ireland Limited, Ireland; parent: Google LLC, USA). We embed them with a two-click solution: when the page loads, only a preview image stored on our own servers is shown and no data is transmitted to Google. Only when you click the play button is the video loaded from youtube-nocookie.com(YouTube's extended privacy mode). From that moment, Google processes your IP address, browser information and your interaction with the player, and may set its own cookies or storage; a transfer to Google LLC in the USA on the basis of the EU Standard Contractual Clauses is possible. Details: Google privacy policy.
Legal basis: your consent expressed by clicking play (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR; § 25 (1) TDDDG). You can withdraw it for the future at any time by simply not activating further videos; every page reloads in the data-free preview state. Reading the written guide never requires activating a video.
Processors: Google LLC (USA, Gemini API, see 2.2) and Sendinblue SAS (Brevo, France, see 2.8), each under a data-processing agreement; transfers outside the EU/EEA are covered by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. If you activate an embedded video, Google (YouTube) additionally processes data as described in 2.11. All other processing (identity, analytics, moderation, storage) runs on our own servers in Germany. We never sell or share your data for advertising.
You have the right to access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21, in particular against processing based on legitimate interest). You can lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Art. 77), e.g. the data protection authority of NRW.
To delete your account and associated personal data, e-mail us at [email protected]. We will process deletion requests within the statutory period; an in-app self-service deletion is planned.
We will update this policy when data flows change (e.g. if additional LLM providers are activated) and indicate the date of the last revision above.