Privacy notice · 9 September 2026

Privacy

Obey Stories is not accepting payments yet. Privacy rights apply to the prelaunch service too.

Who is responsible

The operator identity and contact address have not yet been supplied for this notice. This notice is incomplete until those details are published. Private brief collection remains closed while the required privacy information and review are incomplete.

Use our private contact form for privacy questions and requests.

Email: support@obeystories.com.

What we collect and why

Account data includes an account identifier, email and display name when provided, sign-in timestamps, membership status and credits. We use it to provide and secure the account and requested service under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. Continuing without email still creates an account identifier; it does not make all use anonymous.

We process support messages to answer requests and provide the service. Where a request is outside a service contract, our basis is our legitimate interest in answering enquiries. Abuse prevention, access controls and operational troubleshooting rely on our legitimate interest in protecting users and the service, subject to a balancing assessment. Where a specific law requires a record, Article 6(1)(c) applies. We do not rely on those interests alone to justify processing special-category intimate data.

Your reading choices

Saved activity is off until you explicitly agree in privacy settings. It covers requested favorites, completed editions and writing or narration ratings. Optional reading and listening positions require the additional Save my place setting. Playback alone does not save a completion record. You can read and listen without agreeing to saved activity.

These choices may reveal intimate preferences. We use consent under Article 6(1)(a) and, where they reveal sex life or sexual orientation, explicit consent under Article 9(2)(a). We record the consent version and time. Withdrawal stops new activity storage and erases the saved favorites, positions, completions and ratings. Private briefs have separate consent.

Public rating averages appear only after at least five completed readers or listeners have rated an edition. Individual ratings and completion records are never public. Limited operational notifications can include the edition, medium, rating and time; their stored identifiers may remain linkable and are treated as personal data.

Optional product measurement

Product measurement is off by default and uses your consent. If you enable it, we count actions such as opening a story, playing a preview or finishing audio. New event records contain no account ID, name, email, IP address, browser identifier, edition identifier, story text or custom directions. Requests still pass through the hosting service, whose access and security logs may contain request metadata. We do not describe the complete data flow as anonymous. You can switch measurement off in privacy settings.

Intimate preferences

A private brief can reveal sex life or sexual preferences. Private brief collection and generation remain closed until the privacy assessment, provider agreements and required controller information are complete. Before accepting briefs, we will identify the active providers and their transfer and retention arrangements.

When this feature opens, explicit consent under Articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a) will cover processing a brief to create and deliver its private story. Use fictional names and do not supply another person's personal information. Delete an individual brief and its stories in privacy settings to withdraw, without deleting your account or cancelling membership. An already submitted provider request may finish, but a deleted brief's result will not be stored again. Withdrawal does not change the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

Paid-reader applications

If you apply to the paid-reader program, we store your email address, application reference, eligibility declarations, consent version and time. With your explicit agreement, we use these to process your application and send instructions and related correspondence. Applying may reveal an interest in adult fiction. It does not subscribe you to unrelated marketing.

Our private owner dashboard shows your application. Slack receives a reference-only alert; the email provider receives your address to deliver instructions. Duplicate email addresses are blocked, and short-lived rate-limit records help prevent abuse. Email addresses are not verified until you reply. One application per person is also a program rule.

Application records have a configured 365-day cleanup period and abuse-prevention records two days, subject to the cleanup status described below. To update, withdraw or request deletion, use the contact form. Applicant correspondence and payment records, if you are selected, are handled separately. We do not require public reviews, and your feedback will not be published without separate permission.

Launch emails

Joining the waitlist requires separate agreement to receive launch emails. Signup may reveal an interest in adult fiction. We rely on consent and, to the extent the data reveals sex life or sexual orientation, explicit consent. This is not agreement to unrelated marketing. Withdraw through the contact form or the unsubscribe mechanism provided with launch emails.

Service providers and international transfers

Google Firebase provides authentication, database and file storage services. Vercel hosts the application and handles web requests. Google sign-in is optional and involves Google's own account service. ElevenLabs produces selected catalog narration from business-controlled manuscripts. Customer private generation and payment processing remain closed.

If configured, Purelymail or a configured email relay delivers transactional messages and Slack receives limited operational alerts. Recipient addresses are resolved for email delivery; these alerts do not contain private story text, private directions or support-message bodies. These are service notices, separate from marketing consent.

Provider processing or support access may occur outside the EEA. Applicable safeguards can include a European Commission adequacy decision or Standard Contractual Clauses with any necessary supplementary measures. The service-specific locations, active optional providers and applicable safeguards are still being verified. Contact us for the available transfer information. We will update this notice with the confirmed arrangements; this paragraph does not certify that the review is complete.

Cookies and browser storage

The obey_session cookie maintains sign-in for up to five days. The obey_age_confirmed cookie remembers the age declaration for up to 180 days. Firebase authentication also uses browser storage to maintain the requested sign-in. These features serve authentication or age-access functions. Clearing site storage or signing out removes or resets relevant browser state.

The application does not intentionally install advertising cookies. Nonessential cookies or equivalent tracking must remain off until consent, with an equally accessible rejection choice and easy withdrawal. We are verifying the deployed site, including provider scripts and browser storage, before making a complete cookie inventory. An age declaration is not consent to analytics or marketing.

Retention

Account data, saved activity and private stories remain until deletion or withdrawal, subject to applicable legal requirements. Our configured cleanup periods are 90 days for product events and notification records, 365 days for waitlist entries, 730 days for support requests, two days for support rate-limit records, eight days for generation usage counters and 180 days for retention-run records.

The scheduled retention worker currently reports expired records; deletion requires the separately enabled cleanup process. Production execution, provider log periods and backup expiration are being verified. These configured periods must not be read as confirmation that every expired production record has already been erased. Any legal hold must have a specific purpose, legal basis, restricted access and review date.

Deletion and required records

Account deletion removes the profile, private briefs, generated stories, private audio, saved activity and unused credits. The account-deletion button requires active memberships to be cancelled first, but individual brief deletion and saved-activity withdrawal remain available. Contact us to exercise erasure rights independently of that button; we assess each category and retain only what a valid exception requires.

Required subscription records may retain payment-provider identifiers after the account link is replaced. Hashing an identifier is not a guarantee of anonymity. Such records remain protected personal data when linkable. Provider-held copies, messages already delivered and backups require separate retention or deletion handling. Contact us for help with copies not included in the self-service export.

Your rights and complaints

Under the GDPR you can request access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability where applicable, and object to processing based on legitimate interests. You can withdraw consent at any time. We respond without undue delay, normally within one month. If a permitted extension is needed, we explain it within that first month. Requests are normally free and we ask only for identity verification proportionate to the request.

Use account privacy settings or the contact form. An account export is a convenient copy, not a limit on your access rights. You can complain to Lithuania's State Data Protection Inspectorate (VDAI) or another competent supervisory authority, including where you live or work in the EEA.

We do not use solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. We do not sell private story text or use it for advertising. Required account data enables sign-in and service delivery; optional saved activity, measurement and launch-email consent can be refused without losing ordinary reading access.

Changes

We update this date and explain material changes before new processing begins. We obtain fresh consent where a new purpose requires it.