Privacy policy

Last updated: October 22, 2026

Branchlings makes illustrated pick-your-path stories starring your family. Because the stories are about children, and children use the app, we collect as little as a story needs, keep it only as long as we need it, and never sell it or use it for advertising.

Who we are

Branchlings is run by PhantomLabs LLC, john@phantom-labs.com. We’re the only company responsible for the personal information collected in Branchlings.

The short version

A grown-up agrees before we keep anything about a child.
We ask for a child’s first name or a nickname, their age, and what they love, and how everyone in the stories looks. Never a surname, address, school or location. The app stops anyone typing an email address, phone number, address, web link or school name into a story.
Photos are optional, used only to check they’re safe and paint a character, and deleted within 7 days.
Stories are written, painted and read aloud by our AI provider, OpenAI, which works for us under contract, doesn’t train its AI on what we send, and deletes it within 30 days.
There’s no advertising, no chat, nothing public, and nothing shared with other families.
You can see and change what we keep, get a copy, stop us collecting more, or delete everything, at any time.

What we collect, and how we use it

From the grown-up

Sign-in. The app signs this phone in with a random id, which is enough to read the free sample stories. To make stories, a grown-up signs in first, so you can sign back in on any phone. With Apple or Google, we keep only the account id they give us (not your name or email). With an email and a password, we keep your email address (only to sign you in, and to send you a code if you forget your password), a scrambled form of your password that can’t be turned back into it, and a record of each sign-in (when, and whether the password was right) for a year.
Consent. What you agreed to and when, with the words you were shown.
Purchases. Your plan and credits. Payment happens with Apple or Google; we never see your card.
Settings and feedback. Topics and words your family leaves out of stories, and feedback you choose to send (an optional note).

About each child and the people in their stories (entered by a grown-up, or by a child with a grown-up)

A first name or nickname, their age (to set the reading level), their birthday month only if you choose to give it (for a birthday story that month; never the day or year), pronouns if you give them, favorite things, and reading settings.
How each character looks: what you describe or design (hair, skin, glasses, a hearing aid, a head covering and so on, only if you add them), and what they love. The same for anyone else you add: family, friends, pets.
Photos, only if you choose to paint a character from one. A photo is checked for safety, used to paint the character, and deleted within 7 days (straight away if you ask). The painting stays. We never make or keep a face template. For anyone but your own children, the app asks you to confirm they (or, for a child, their parent) said yes first, and notes when you did.

From a child, while making and reading stories

Their story ideas. “My idea!” and the story builder let a child type an idea or a place (“a picnic on the moon”). It’s checked for safety and for personal details, then used to write the next part of the story. A grown-up can switch “My idea!” off for each child.
What they pick at each fork in a story.
No recordings of children: the app’s microphone is only for a grown-up who chooses to record themselves reading a page of a story (on Plus and Pro, behind the grown-up PIN when there is one). That recording is kept with the story on our servers and played to your family, is never sent to our AI provider, and is deleted with the story, when the page’s words change, or when you take it off. (If a child dictates with the phone’s keyboard, the phone’s maker handles that under its own terms, and we receive only the typed words.)

Made for you

Stories, their pictures and narration, and paintings of your characters. They’re yours to keep and read again.

Collected automatically

The app notes when it was last opened (once a day), so we can delete families who stop using it (below).
Analytics events, sent from our servers only, with a random family id: things like “a story was started” with its settings and reading level. No names, words, photos, device details or location. See “Identifiers we use to run the app”.

What we never collect: surnames, addresses, schools, phone numbers or email addresses of children, precise or approximate location, contacts, recordings of children, advertising ids, or anything from other apps.

We share personal information only with service providers who run parts of Branchlings for us, under contracts that let them use it only for our service and require them to keep it secure:

OpenAI writes, paints and reads the stories, and runs our safety check. It receives what a story needs: first names, ages, how characters look and what they love, story ideas, and a photo only to check it’s safe and paint a character from it (never with the person’s name). It keeps what we send for up to 30 days to watch for misuse, longer only if the law requires it or to look into misuse. It never trains its AI on what we send.
Convex hosts our database and files.
RevenueCat tracks purchases: a random family id and your purchase records; its library also sends device details such as app version and OS.
PostHog holds product analytics sent only from our servers: a random family id and events such as “a story was started”; no names, typed words, photos or device details; location lookup off.
Apple provides Sign in with Apple and the App Store. Google provides sign-in when the app offers it, and Google Play later.

The full list, with what each receives and how long it keeps it, is in our vendor list. These providers are part of how Branchlings works, so the app can’t make stories without them; you can still say no to photos separately.

We don’t sell or rent personal information, share it for advertising, or make it public. Nothing a child creates is shown to other families. We may disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect a child’s safety; for example, we must report apparent child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Identifiers we use to run the app

We use two persistent identifiers, only to run and improve the app (what the COPPA Rule calls support for internal operations):

A random family id, which keeps your family’s stories together, records purchases (with RevenueCat), and counts how the app is used (with PostHog).
A random id for this phone’s sign-in, which keeps the phone signed in.

We make sure they aren’t used for anything else. Analytics are sent from our servers (not from the phone), location lookup is switched off, and neither id is used to contact anyone, build a profile of anyone, show ads, or send reminders to children. (The only reminder the app sends is an optional bedtime reminder a grown-up switches on, and it stays on the phone.) A family that signs in with an email has that address kept with the account, only to sign in, as described above.

Children’s privacy (COPPA)

Branchlings is for families with children, including children under 13. Under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act:

Consent first. We don’t keep anything about a child until a grown-up has read this notice and agreed. Photos need a separate yes.
Only what’s needed. A child can use every feature without giving more information than the feature needs.
Your rights as a parent. You can at any time:
- See what we keep: each child’s details are on their character page in the Cast tab, their stories on the shelf, and their recent ideas in the Grown-ups area. For a copy of everything, tap Settings → Privacy → Get a copy of your data, or email us.
- Correct it: edit any character.
- Delete it: remove photos in Settings → Privacy, remove a character in the Cast tab, or delete everything in Settings → Your family’s account → Delete account. We can also delete one child’s details on request.
- Stop us collecting more: switch off AI story making (no new stories are made, and nothing more is sent to our AI provider), switch off photos, or switch off “My idea!” for a child. Or delete the account.
We’ll check a request comes from the family (for example, the email the app prepares includes your family’s reference) and answer within 30 days.

How long we keep it

Nothing is kept forever. In short: photos 7 days at most; the words of a child’s idea that didn’t make it into a story 30 days; a grown-up’s recording of a story page until you take it off, the page’s words change, or the story or account is deleted; safety and feedback records a year; email sign-in records a year; everything else until you delete it or your account, and your whole family is deleted automatically if the app isn’t opened for 95 days (for a family not saved with Apple, Google, or an email and password, which nobody can open again after that) or 400 days (any family without a subscription).

Our full data retention policy is part of this notice.

How we protect it

All data is encrypted in transit, and our providers encrypt it at rest. Only named staff can reach production systems, each with their own account and two-factor authentication. We have a written information security program, reviewed every year. No system is perfectly secure; if something goes wrong we’ll tell you as the law requires.

Teens and other laws

Branchlings has readers up to 17. We treat everyone’s information the same careful way, whatever their age: we don’t sell it, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or use it to profile anyone. Depending on where you live (for example California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas and other US states), you may have more rights, such as knowing what we collect, correcting it, deleting it, or appealing a decision; email us and we’ll help.

Branchlings is offered to families in the United States only.

Changes

If we change how we collect, use or share children’s information, we’ll tell you in the app and ask for your consent again before it applies to your family.

Contact

PhantomLabs LLC, john@phantom-labs.com.