Privacy Policy

What we hold

• Your stories and photos. The words you shared and the pictures you sent, as they appear in the book.
• Names, as the family uses them. First names, nicknames, and how people are related, because that is what a family story is made of.
• Basic visit and performance data. Our host runs cookieless analytics that record that a page was opened, roughly what country and what kind of device, and how fast it loaded. We use it to see whether the site is working, never to identify a reader. Like any web host, it also sees the network address a request came from.
• A small cookie. When you enter the family password or open a personal link, the site puts a small cookie in your browser that says you are allowed in. From the family password it is a token and nothing else. From a personal link it is that token plus the short id out of your link, so the site knows which shelf to show you. No name, no email, nothing you typed. Reading the books sets no other cookie.
• If you have a personal link: a short id, a label, and your list of books. Some readers are sent a link that is meant for them. When that happens, the settings that run the site hold the id in their link, a short label the editor reads to tell one link from another, and the list of books on that person’s shelf. That is a record tied to a person, and we say so plainly.

What we do not hold

• No phone numbers and no email addresses. Family numbers stay on a family member’s own phone. They are never written into Kwento.
• No sign-up, no username, no profile you fill in. The family password is shared, so there is nothing to sign up for. A personal link is the same: you tap it and you are in. There is no account to create and no form to fill in.
• No analytics tied to a person. The cookieless analytics do not know who you are. But if you have a personal link, our host’s ordinary request logs can show that your particular link was opened. We do not watch for this, and we have no dashboard that does. We cannot say we could never tell, so we do not say it.

What we never do

• We do not sell your personal information.
• We do not share your information with third parties or affiliates for their marketing or promotional purposes.
• We do not use your stories for advertising.
• We do not send marketing or promotional messages of any kind.
• We do not send automated texts or automated email. There is no Kwento phone number and no notification list.

Where it lives

The books and the photos are files, kept in a private repository and served by our hosting provider (Vercel) on servers in the United States. The pages ask search engines not to index them.

We keep a book for as long as the family wants it. When something is removed we take it out of the live book and everything published after that, but a removed page can linger for a while in our private backups and version history before it ages out, and we cannot reach a copy someone already saved.

AI, and where it stops

A family member uses AI tools to help with the work of putting a book together: looking up historical background, checking a date, drafting a caption for them to approve or rewrite. AI does not write the family’s own words. The body of every story is what the person actually said or wrote, kept in their spelling, their punctuation, and their language. Anything a tool turned up is checked against what the family remembers before it goes anywhere near a page.

Who can see your stories

Anyone the family gives the password to, plus us and Vercel, who have to be able to reach the files to keep the site running. Nothing is posted publicly, and we share nothing with anyone else.

The family password is a key. We cannot stop someone who has it from passing it on. That is the honest limit of a shared key.

Personal links work the same way. A personal link is a key that opens a specific set of books and nothing else. Anyone who is forwarded a copy of the link can open those same books. The books it cannot open, the link cannot open either, no matter who is holding it.

A personal link can be switched off on its own, and switching one off leaves everybody else alone. Ask, and we take that link out. Changing the family password is the other way, and that one signs the whole family out at once, so it is the heavier tool.

Photos are served only to someone holding the family password or a valid personal link, and a personal link reaches only the photos inside the books on that shelf. A photo link on its own opens nothing. See our Terms of Use for how the service works.

Your choices

Ask and it comes out. You do not owe anyone a reason. That covers your own words and photos, and it covers a story someone else told that you would rather not have up. You can also ask for a copy of what you shared, or ask us to correct something that is wrong. Requests go to the address below.

This holds whether or not you ever sent us anything. Stories mention people who never shared a word with us and who may not know the book exists. If that is you, or you are responsible for someone it describes, you have the same say as anyone else.

If you live in California or another state with privacy rights, you can ask to know what we hold about you, and to correct it, get a copy of it, or have it deleted. Kwento is run from the United States, so information is handled there. We will not treat you differently for asking.

Security & children

We keep the books behind a password and limit who can reach the files. We do not create accounts for anyone, and we do not collect information directly from anyone under 18. Children appear in family stories only with a parent’s permission, and a parent can withdraw that permission at any time.

Contact

Questions or requests about your information: email arvin@koobo.co or use our contact page. Koobo LLC, Irvine, California.