Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 14, 2026

The short version: TapStory does not collect, store, transmit, or share any personal information, from anyone, ever -- including from children. There are no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, and no network connection required for the app to function. Everything you create in TapStory (recordings, stories, your tag library) stays on your device.

1. Who this applies to

TapStory is a mobile app for iOS, designed to be used by a parent or guardian to create content, and by a child (typically a toddler or preschooler) to play it back by tapping an NFC tag against the phone. This policy covers both the setup/authoring experience (used by the parent) and the playback experience (used by the child).

2. Information we collect

We do not collect any information. Specifically:

Data type	Collected?	Notes
Account / profile information	No	TapStory has no accounts, sign-in, or user profiles.
Usage analytics	No	No analytics SDK of any kind is included in the app.
Advertising identifiers	No	TapStory contains no advertising or ad-tracking code.
Location data	No	TapStory never requests or accesses location.
Voice recordings	Stored locally only	If a parent records custom narration, that audio file is saved only in the app's local storage on that device. It is never uploaded, transmitted, or shared with us or anyone else.
Custom story/word text	Stored locally only	Text a parent types for on-device speech synthesis is stored only in local app storage and is spoken by the device itself -- it is never sent anywhere, including to Apple's or any third party's servers.
NFC tag contents	Stored locally only	Tags store a small reference id; what that id refers to lives only in the app's local library on the phone that wrote it.

3. How on-device data is used

Everything TapStory stores -- your tag library, custom recordings, and typed story text -- exists solely to make the app work on that one device: to play back the right content when a tag is tapped, and to let you manage what you've created in "My Tags." None of it leaves the device under any circumstance we control.

4. Permissions TapStory requests, and why

Near Field Communication (NFC)

Used to read the reference id on a tag when it's tapped, and to write that id onto a new tag when you create one. TapStory only ever reads tags it can understand and only writes tags you explicitly ask it to write; it does not scan for or read unrelated NFC devices, payment cards, or passports.

Microphone

Used only if you choose to record your own voice for a story, word, or song, instead of using the built-in on-device text-to-speech option. Recordings are saved to local app storage and are never transmitted anywhere.

5. Children's privacy

TapStory is designed so that a young child interacts only with an intentionally locked-down playback screen that has no text input, no camera, no purchasing, and no way to reach the internet, settings, or any other part of the device. By default, that screen doesn't even change when content plays -- tapping a tag plays audio only, and an on-screen display mode is an opt-in setting a parent can turn on. All content authoring (typing text, recording audio, writing tags) happens behind a parent gate intended to keep a young child from accessing it unsupervised.

We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children, and in fact do not collect personal information from anyone -- children or adults -- at all. TapStory is built to comply with the spirit of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by the simplest possible means: there is no data collection to regulate.

6. Third-party services

TapStory does not integrate any third-party SDKs, analytics providers, advertising networks, or cloud services. On-device speech synthesis uses Apple's built-in AVSpeechSynthesizer, which runs entirely on the device and does not send text to Apple or any other party.

7. Data retention and deletion

Since all data lives only on your device, you are always in full control of it. You can delete an individual story, card, or song from "My Tags" in the app, or erase everything at once via Settings -> "Erase All My Tags & Recordings." Uninstalling the app also removes all of its local data, per standard iOS behavior.

Note: because physical NFC tags store only a reference id (see the app's technical documentation), deleting a library entry or erasing all data will stop any physical tag that pointed at it from working. This is a direct, expected consequence of how the app is built to keep tag capacity a non-issue -- it is not data being "sent" anywhere to be deleted.

8. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the "Last updated" date above will change accordingly. Since the app requires no network connection and phones home to no one, updates to this policy will never be pushed to your device automatically -- check this page directly for the current version.

9. Contact

Questions about this policy or the app can be sent to support@tapstory.app.

Note for the developer: this is a template privacy policy that accurately describes TapStory's actual behavior as implemented in this codebase (no network calls, no third-party SDKs, local-only storage). Replace the placeholder contact email above with a real one, and have this reviewed by a lawyer before submitting to the App Store or publishing to real users -- App Store Connect will also ask you to fill out an App Privacy questionnaire that should match this document.