Subprocessors

A subprocessor is a company we pay to run part of TaleTykes for us and that receives personal information to do it. This page lists every one of them, what each does, what it receives, whose information that is, and where it processes it. It also lists the services a school or parent can choose to connect, which are not our subprocessors, and explains how we pick vendors and tell you about changes.

We share the minimum each company needs. Each one works under a written contract that limits it to providing its service to us, requires it to keep the information secure and confidential, and bars it from using the information for its own purposes. All of them process the information in the United States.

Current subprocessors

"Adult" means parents, guardians, teachers and administrators. "Child" means a child using a family plan. "Student" means a child using TaleTykes under a school agreement.

Vercel and Neon hold everything because they are where TaleTykes runs and stores data. They process it only to host the service for us, and data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

Stripe receives no information about children. We never see full card numbers: Stripe gives us the card brand, last 4 digits, expiry date and billing ZIP code.

AI vendors

Three subprocessors provide AI models: Anthropic for book text and writing feedback, Google for pictures, and xAI as a fallback for pictures. AI vendors operate under terms that bar them from training on what we send and limit retention.

They receive no child or student identifiers. Our system builds each request from book settings and menu choices, and a check runs on every request to block personal information before it leaves our servers. Children's names are added to books by our own server or the app after the text is written and checked, and only if a parent allowed names. Children never type to a model. Nothing an AI vendor returns reaches a child until our checks for decodability, readability, safety and format pass.

Read-aloud ("Listen") uses the speech voice built into the browser or the iPhone or iPad, so no vendor receives the text. When a parent allows read-aloud recording, the recording is scored on the device and never uploaded, so no vendor receives a child's voice.

The AI page explains how we use these models in more detail.

Services you choose to connect

Schools and parents can turn on the services below. They are not our subprocessors. Each is an independent service that you choose and have your own relationship with, under its own terms and privacy policy. We exchange only what the feature you turn on needs, using the narrowest access the service offers.

Tokens for these services, such as roster tokens and Google Classroom refresh tokens, are stored encrypted with our application keys. Students never sign in through Google, Apple, an LMS or SAML; they sign in on devices a grown-up trusted.

What we never share, and with whom

There are no other companies receiving information from TaleTykes. In particular, TaleTykes has:

• no analytics vendors or tag managers
• no advertising networks, ad measurement or marketing pixels
• no session recording or heatmap tools
• no third-party error-tracking or crash-reporting services; server errors stay in our hosting provider's logs
• no chat or support widgets
• no social media plugins or share buttons
• no embedded video or audio players from other sites
• no data brokers

Fonts are built into the site and served from our own domain. Book pictures and audio are served through our own server from private storage, never from public links.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not use any personal information, including children's writing, to train AI models.

How we choose and review vendors

Before a vendor receives personal information, we:

• check that we need it, and that we cannot do the job with less data or none
• review its security practices, including its independent audit reports where it has them
• review its privacy terms, and confirm it will not use our data for its own purposes or to train models
• sign a written contract with data protection terms, including confidentiality, security, breach notice and deletion when the service ends
• confirm it processes data in the United States
• decide exactly which fields it will receive, and build our code so it receives only those

We review each vendor at least once a year, and again if it changes its terms, has a security incident or changes how it handles data. If a vendor no longer meets our standards, we stop sending it data and replace it.

Notice of changes

We tell schools and account holders at least 30 days before we add a subprocessor that would receive personal information, or before we change what an existing subprocessor receives in a way that adds child or student data. We send the notice by email to account holders and school contacts, and we update this page and its change log.

If a change is needed sooner to keep the service running or secure, for example if a vendor stops operating, we will tell you as soon as we can and explain why.

Objecting to a change

A school may object to a new subprocessor in writing within the 30-day notice period, on reasonable data protection grounds, by emailing schools@taletykes.com. We will work with the school in good faith to address the objection. If we cannot, the school may end the affected part of its agreement and receive a pro-rated refund of prepaid fees, as our School terms describe.

A parent who objects can email privacy@taletykes.com. You can also cancel at any time from Account → Billing and delete your child spaces from Settings → Privacy & data.

A signed data privacy agreement may set different notice or objection terms. If it does, those terms apply to that school.

Change log

Questions

Email privacy@taletykes.com about personal information, or schools@taletykes.com about school agreements. Our Privacy policy, Notice for parents and Security overview have more detail.