Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 15, 2026  ·  Last Updated: March 15, 2026

1. Who We Are

The Story Pilot ("we," "us," or "our") is an AI-powered personalized literacy platform operated by Greg Bukuras. The service is available at thestorypilot.com and is designed for use by children ages 3–8 in educational settings under teacher and parent supervision.

2. Scope of This Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all users of The Story Pilot, including:

• Students — children ages 3–8 who use the app to read personalized stories
• Teachers and educators — who manage classes and monitor student progress
• Parents and caregivers — whose children use the app at home or in school

3. Information We Collect

We collect only the minimum information necessary to provide the service.

From students, we collect:

• First name (entered by the student or teacher at sign-in)
• Class code (used to connect a student to their class)
• Pre-story question responses (the answers a child gives before story generation)
• Comprehension question responses (answers given after reading the story)
• Story text generated (the personalized story created for each session)
• Reading level (set by the teacher)
• Session metadata (date, story ID, story type, Flesch-Kincaid grade level score)

From teachers, we collect:

• Class name and teacher name
• Student roster (first and last names, display names)
• Teacher settings and preferences

We do NOT collect:

• Email addresses, phone numbers, or home addresses
• Photographs or biometric data
• Social security numbers or government IDs
• Payment information (the app does not currently charge end users)
• Device location data
• Browsing history outside of this app

4. How We Use Information

We use the information we collect solely for the following educational purposes:

• Generating personalized stories for each student
• Displaying comprehension question results to teachers
• Tracking Massachusetts EEC Early Learning Standards progress per student
• Reporting Flesch-Kincaid reading level scores to teachers
• Allowing teachers to set and monitor student reading levels
• Enabling class management and student roster administration

We do not use student data to build user profiles, for targeted advertising, to train commercial AI models, or for any purpose beyond the delivery of this educational service.

5. COPPA Compliance (Children Under 13)

The Story Pilot is designed for children ages 3–8 and takes the requirements of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) seriously.

We rely on the school consent mechanism authorized by the FTC: when a school or teacher creates a class and adds students to The Story Pilot for educational use, the school provides consent on behalf of parents. This means:

• Teachers and school administrators are responsible for obtaining appropriate authorization before adding students to the platform
• We do not collect verifiable parental consent directly — this responsibility rests with the educational institution
• For home use without school authorization, parents or guardians should supervise use and may contact us to request data deletion at any time

6. FERPA Compliance

When The Story Pilot is used in a school setting, we act as a "school official" under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) with a "legitimate educational interest" in student data. This means:

• We access and use student education records only to perform services for the school
• We do not disclose student education records to third parties without school authorization
• Schools retain ownership and control of their students' education records
• Schools may request access to, correction of, or deletion of student records at any time

Schools wishing to enter into a formal Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with The Story Pilot are encouraged to contact us. We are willing to sign district-standard DPAs.

7. Data Storage and Security

Student and teacher data is stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted on Render (render.com), a U.S.-based cloud hosting provider. Story session audio is generated using ElevenLabs text-to-speech and is not permanently stored. Story text is generated by Google Gemini AI and stored as part of the session record.

We implement the following security measures:

• All data is transmitted over HTTPS (encrypted in transit)
• Database access is restricted to authorized application processes only
• Teacher dashboard access is protected by a password
• No student passwords are stored — students sign in via class code and first name only

8. Third-Party Services

The Story Pilot uses the following third-party services to operate:

• Google Gemini AI — generates personalized story text from student responses
• ElevenLabs — converts story text to natural-sounding speech (audio is not stored)
• Render — hosts the application and database (U.S.-based)
• Cloudflare R2 — stores story video files (no student data is stored here)

Student personally identifiable information (PII) is not shared with these services beyond what is technically necessary to generate and deliver the story. We do not permit these providers to use student data for their own commercial purposes.

9. Data Retention and Deletion

We retain student session data for as long as the associated class or student account is active. We do not retain data indefinitely.

• Schools and teachers may request deletion of any student's data at any time by contacting us
• Parents may request deletion of their child's data by contacting us
• We will complete deletion requests within 30 days of receiving a written request

10. No Advertising

The Story Pilot does not display advertisements to students or teachers. We do not allow third-party advertisers to collect data through our platform. Student data is never sold or used for advertising purposes.

11. Your Rights

Depending on your role and location, you may have the right to:

• Access the data we hold about you or your child
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of data
• Receive a copy of your data in a portable format (CSV export is available from the teacher dashboard)

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information below.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage schools, parents, and teachers to review this policy periodically. Continued use of The Story Pilot after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.