How long we keep things

How long we keep each kind of information, what is never kept at all, how deletion happens each day, and what happens to removed readers, closed accounts and quiet accounts.

Safety and privacyUpdated

Nothing we hold is kept for longer than we have a reason to keep it. A job runs once a day and deletes whatever has passed its time, and every run is written to our records so there is evidence it happened.

The main periods

WhatHow long we keep it
A removed reader, with their books, pictures, drawings, reading checks and listening30 days after you remove them
A closed account and everything in it, including the sign-in30 days after you close it
A recording you made of yourself reading a bookAs long as the book is kept; it goes 30 days after you remove the reader
A link you made to share a report card30 days after you make it. Turning it off stops the link at once.
Your child's signed-in sessions30 days after each one ends
Records of books being made, and what they cost90 days
Payment events from our payment provider90 days
A record of each email we sent you90 days
A record that your child asked Pip something, without their words90 days
Records of our safety checks, which can include your child's words90 days; anything still waiting for a person is kept until someone has looked at it
The individual moments behind the estimate of which books suit your child, if learning is on90 days, and deleted at once if you turn learning off
Safety alerts we sent you, with your child's words where a check objectedA year
Counts of what happened on the grown-ups' pages400 days
Your child's weeks on the weekly board8 weeks
The words of a comment that our staff, or reports from other families, took down30 days; the record that the comment existed goes after 90 days
Reports about a shared book or a comment90 days after they are dealt with

Kept while your child is on the account

These go when you remove the reader, after the usual 30 days:

  • the words your child has met in their books, and numbers about how their reading aloud went
  • when they moved to a different age group
  • their reader name and its picture, the hearts and "Not for me" they pressed, and the comments they wrote, unless a comment is taken down first

Your agreements, and the record of what was done with them, go only when the whole account goes, because they are the evidence that we asked your permission.

Never kept at all

  • A recording of your child's voice, whether they are talking to Pip or reading a page aloud
  • The words your child says while reading a page aloud
  • A comment that was refused because it held something that could identify or reach a person. We keep only a note of what kind of detail it was.
  • Your card details, which stay with our payment provider. We keep only a one-way fingerprint of the card.

Removing a reader or closing your account

Nothing is deleted on the day. The reader or account is marked, disappears from the app, and is deleted 30 days later. After that it cannot be brought back.

  • To undo removing a reader within the 30 days, get in touch with us. See Removing a reader.
  • To undo closing your account, sign in before the 30 days are up. A closed account opens "Close your account" and no other page, and "Keep my account" is there. See Closing your account.
  • Closing an account stops its plan with it, so there is nothing to cancel first; see Closing your account.

Quiet accounts

An account with no readers on it that nobody has signed in to for a long time is written to before anything happens. The email says how many days you have. If nobody signs in by then, the account and everything in it are removed. Signing in once stops the clock. The current periods are on the retention page, and Quiet accounts says more.

When something must be kept longer

Very rarely, the law requires us to keep something past its usual time, for example for a report we are obliged to make. When that happens, the daily job leaves what is covered in place until the requirement ends.

The full policy, with every line, is on the retention page.

If you have a question about any of this, write to privacy@taletykes.com.

Next in Safety and privacy: Getting a copy of your data, and asking us about it

Was this article helpful?

  • How stories and pictures are checked

    The checks on what your child asks for, on the finished story and on every picture, what your child sees when a check says no, and when a person reads something.

  • What your child can type or say

    The few places your child can use their own words, what is refused, and what happens to your child's voice when they speak.

  • Safety alerts

    When we tell you about something your child wrote or said, what the emails say, where to read the alerts, what to do, and the help lines we list.

  • The shared library, comments and the weekly board

    What other children can see of your child, how reader names, hearts, comments and the weekly board work, and the switches on each reader's Safety tab.

Still need a hand?

Write to us at support@taletykes.com and a person will answer. There are no bots and no ticket numbers.

For anything urgent about a child's safety or privacy, write to privacy@taletykes.com. Short answers to common questions are on the questions page.