We collect as little about your child as we can while still making them a book, and nothing about a child is collected until you have agreed to the notice to parents and we have checked that an adult set up the account. Nothing about your child is sold, shared for advertising, or used for advertising.
What we keep about your child
- A first name, or whatever you call them. There is no field for a surname.
- An age group, such as 5 to 7, rather than a date of birth.
- A picture they picked from a fixed set, and a hashed PIN or picture password, so they can open their own shelf.
- If you give them, the month of their birthday, and the month and year they turn thirteen.
- Their books: the choices they made, any beginning they wrote, the books themselves, the page they reached and their favorites.
- How their reading is going: the words their books contained and how often each came up, numbers about how a page went when they read it aloud, and what a reading check found if you ran one. Never a recording.
- Things they like, whether they chose them or you added them, and the stickers they have earned.
- A drawing of theirs, if you photograph it and send it to us.
- Safety alerts, with what they wrote, when a check objected to it and it was something we tell you about. These are kept for a year. See Safety alerts.
- In the shared library, their made-up reader name and its picture, the hearts and "Not for me" they pressed, any comments they wrote, and their weeks on the weekly board. See The shared library and comments.
What we never keep about your child
We do not keep your child's email address, surname, full date of birth, location or photograph, or anything that would follow them anywhere else. We never keep a recording of your child's voice: when they speak, the sound is turned into words and the recording is gone as soon as that is done. What your child types into the library search box is not kept either.
Learning what they enjoy
"Learn what they enjoy" is off unless you turn it on. When it is on, we also keep which books your child finishes, re-reads, keeps as a favorite or stops partway through, how quickly the pages turn, which words they tap for help, how a page they read aloud went, a short summary of what they enjoy, and an estimate of the level that suits them. Turning it off deletes what was learned, after you confirm.
You will find it on Readers: choose your child, open Safety, and look for "Learning what they enjoy". What your child likes says more.
What we keep about you
- Your name, your email address and a hashed password.
- A record that an adult set up the account: how, when, a one-way fingerprint of your card and the month it expires. We never see or keep your card number, which stays with our payment provider.
- Which version of each notice you agreed to and when. The internet address you were using is kept only as a one-way hash.
- Your plan, your book history, and whether a payment failed.
- A record of settings you change.
- If you use them: recordings you made of yourself reading, the keys for a connected Yoto player (encrypted), links you made to share a report card, the people you share your family with, and your questions to us.
- Whether you asked to hear about new things.
Who else sees any of it
A small number of companies help us run TaleTykes, such as our payment provider and the services that send email and turn speech into words. Each works under contract, only for the purpose named, and none may sell what they process or use it for advertising. The privacy notice names each one.
Other children see only what is described in The shared library and comments. Grown-ups you invite to read along see your readers and their books, and never your payments or your agreements; see What shared grown-ups see.
There is no advertising in TaleTykes and no tracking script from anyone else. We count what happens on the grown-ups' pages without cookies, and nothing is counted on your child's screens.
Reading, correcting or deleting it
You can download a copy of everything we hold, ask us to correct something, or remove a reader. See A copy of your data and How long we keep things. The notice to parents and the privacy notice set all of this out in full.
If you have a question about what we hold, write to privacy@taletykes.com.