Privacy Policy

Tidbit is made by Tidbit Studios LLC, a company based in the United States. We decide how the personal information described in this policy is used, so we are responsible for it. In UK data protection law that makes us the "controller". You can reach us about anything here at support@tidbitbooks.com.

Here is the heart of it, in plain language:

• Your photos are analyzed on your device. Grouping the people who turn up again and again, sorting your photos into trips, and choosing layouts all happen on your iPhone. That work is never uploaded to us.
• Only the photos you choose ever leave your phone. When you order a book, the specific photos in it are sent securely so our print partner can produce it. Nothing else is uploaded.
• We never sell your data, and never train AI on your photos. We do not sell your photos or personal information, and we do not use your photos to train AI models.
• You stay in control. Tidbit needs access to your photo library to build your book, and you can turn that access off in iOS Settings or delete your account and its data whenever you want.

Photos are the center of Tidbit, so this is the most important section.

When you set up Tidbit, iOS asks for access to your photo library. Tidbit needs access to your full library, because the whole point is that it looks across your photos for you and finds the trips, people, and moments worth printing, instead of leaving you to hunt for them. That access is not permanent: you can change or remove it at any time in iOS Settings.

Once you grant access, Tidbit looks through your photos to help you build a book. Almost all of this happens on your device, and none of it is uploaded to us:

• Grouping the people in your photos. Tidbit notices when the same person turns up in more than one photo, so you can build a book around the people who matter most to you. This happens on your iPhone and stays on your iPhone. We never receive it, and it is only ever used to sort your own photos into your own book.
• Understanding your photos. It reads basic details like the date a photo was taken, the location saved in the photo if there is one, and simple scene information, to suggest which photos belong together and which to feature.
• Designing the book. It arranges your chosen photos into layouts and previews, all rendered on your device.

The only time photo content leaves your phone is when you place an order. At that point, the specific photos you selected are combined into a single print-ready file on your device and uploaded over a secure, private link so our print partner can produce and ship your physical book. How long we keep that file is set out under "How long we keep information" below.

We do not sell your photos, we do not use your photos to train AI models, and we do not upload the rest of your library. Only the photos in a book you actually order are sent for printing.

If you choose to save a finished book or organized memory back to your photo library, iOS will ask for permission to add to your library, and Tidbit only adds the items you ask it to.

Some books let you add a short spoken story to a page. If you record one, the audio is captured on your device. If you ask Tidbit to turn it into written text, the recording is sent securely to a third-party AI service, which transcribes it and sends back text you can edit. It is sent for that transcription only, and it is not used to train AI models.

We use voice recordings and their transcripts only to create the story text for your book, and you can delete a recording or its text at any time.

The same goes for a spoken request to the book helper (described below): the recording is sent to that same transcription service only to turn it into text. Tidbit keeps the text of the request, not the recording.

Tidbit does not track your live location and does not use background location. The only location it uses comes from the photos you already took, when your camera saved where a photo was shot.

To turn those coordinates into friendly place names like a city or region for your book, Tidbit looks them up through a mapping service over a secure connection. It uses Apple's location service, and occasionally a second mapping service, which only ever receives the coordinate rounded to roughly a kilometer. Either way, only a coordinate is sent. Your photos are not, your name and account are not, and the place name that comes back is stored on your device.

To save your books and use them across sessions and devices, Tidbit needs an account. You create one by signing in with Apple or with Google, so there is no Tidbit password to set or remember. Apple or Google confirms it is you and passes us your email address and, if you have one on file with them, your name. We never see your Apple or Google password.

If you use Sign in with Apple, you can choose to hide your real email address, and Apple will give us a private relay address instead. Tidbit works exactly the same either way.

We use your email to sign you in, send you order updates, and provide support. You can add or change the name you would like used in the app or printed in a book.

When you order a book, we collect what we need to make and deliver it: your order contents, shipping name and address, and contact details.

Payments are handled by our payment provider, Stripe. Your full card number is entered with Stripe and is never seen or stored by Tidbit. We receive only what we need to confirm the payment and support your order.

To deliver your book, we share your shipping details and the print file with the production and shipping partner who makes and sends it.

Tidbit can write short stories to go with your photos. To do this, it sends text descriptions derived from your photos, such as the date, place, and scene, along with any voice story you chose to transcribe, to a third-party AI service, which drafts suggested wording.

It does not send your actual photos to generate this text. The suggestions are a starting point that you review and edit before ordering, and they are not used to train public AI models.

In the book editor you can tell Tidbit what to change in your own words, like "fewer beach photos" or "make it shorter". To work out what you mean, Tidbit sends your request to a third-party AI service along with a short summary of the book: its title and style, how many pages and photos it has, the names of the places in it, and the names you have given people in Tidbit, with how many of the book's photos each person is in. So the helper can follow along, each request also includes what you and the helper have said to each other while you edit that book, until you leave it or start over.

It never sends your photos, and it never sends anything about an individual photo. Working out which photos match what you asked for, like which ones are of the beach, happens on your iPhone, and so does choosing which to add or take out. You see every change before it is made and can undo it.

We keep your requests, the helper's replies, and whether you used its suggestions for up to 90 days, so we can see what people ask for and make the helper better. They are deleted sooner if you delete your account, and they are not used to train public AI models.

To fix bugs and understand which features genuinely help, we collect basic, privacy-minded usage analytics through our analytics provider. This includes things like which screens you visit and whether a step succeeded or failed, along with general device and app version information.

This data is linked to your account so we can support you, and it never includes the content of your photos, the people in them, or anything Tidbit works out about them on your device. These usage analytics are not used to follow you around other companies' apps or websites. Advertising is a separate thing, and the next section covers it.

We advertise Tidbit on large ad platforms, the kind behind search, social, and video ads. To know whether an ad actually led to anything, we tell those platforms when someone installs the app, starts checkout, or completes an order, along with the order total.

None of that is tied to you personally. Tidbit does not use the advertising identifier that would let these platforms recognize you in other apps and websites, so it never asks your permission to track you. What they receive is that an install, a checkout, or an order happened and what it was worth, with nothing attached that says who you are. Apple reports app installs to advertisers itself, in a way built so that no one person can be picked out of the count.

We never send your photos, who is in them, what your book is about, or anything Tidbit worked out about them on your device.

If your App Store account is in Canada, the European Union or EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, Tidbit does not use these ad measurement tools at all.

All of this is about the app. Our website works a little differently, as explained under "Our website" below.

If you allow notifications, we use our notification provider to send order updates such as when your book ships, and, if you opt in, occasional product news. You can turn notifications off at any time in iOS Settings.

This website uses our analytics provider to count visits and see how people move through the site, including recordings of how pages are used, with anything typed into a form hidden. To do this it keeps a small file and similar storage in your browser.

If you visit from the United States, the site also loads Google's ad tag, so we can tell when a visit from one of our ads leads to someone tapping through to the App Store. Google's tag keeps its own small files in your browser to do this, and Google may use them to recognize your browser on other websites too, under Google's own privacy policy. You can turn off personalized ads in your Google account's ad settings.

If you visit from the UK, the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, or Canada, the site stores nothing in your browser for analytics or ads. It still counts your visit, but without saving anything on your device, it makes no recordings, and it never loads Google's ad tag. The same goes when we can't tell where a visit comes from. We work this out from your internet connection each time a page loads. If an earlier visit from somewhere else left these files in your browser, they go unused, and you can clear them.

You can clear or block these files in your browser settings whenever you like, and the site keeps working. The site does not change what it does when a browser sends a "Do Not Track" signal.

We use the information described above to:

• Provide the app and let you design, preview, and save books.
• Make, print, and deliver the books you order, and handle reprints or returns.
• Process payments and prevent fraud.
• Provide support and send order and account updates.
• Keep Tidbit secure and reliable, and improve how it works.
• Meet legal, tax, and accounting obligations.

We do not sell your personal information. We share only what is needed, and only with partners who help us run Tidbit and are required to protect your information and use it solely for the services they provide to us. These include:

• Printing and shipping. Our production partner receives your print file and shipping details to make and deliver your book.
• Payments (Stripe). Processes your payment securely.
• Sign-in (Apple and Google). Whichever one you sign in with confirms it is you and passes us your email address. They do not receive your photos or your books.
• Cloud hosting and storage. Hosts your account and securely stores order files.
• Analytics. Helps us understand usage and fix problems.
• Advertising platforms. Receive the fact that an install, a checkout, or an order happened, and the order total, so we can tell whether our ads are working. Never tied to you personally, and they never receive your photos or anything about what is in them.
• Notifications. Delivers order updates and optional product news.
• Email delivery. Sends order and account emails, and the occasional product email, which you can unsubscribe from.
• A third-party AI service. Transcribes any voice story or spoken request you record, drafts stories from photo-derived text, and turns book helper requests into suggested changes. It never receives your photos.
• Place names (Apple and a second mapping service). Turn a photo coordinate into a city or region name for your book. They receive a coordinate and nothing else.

If you would like the names of the specific companies we work with in any of these categories, email us at support@tidbitbooks.com and we will send you the current list.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the rights, safety, and property of our users and of Tidbit. If Tidbit is ever part of a merger or acquisition, we will continue to protect your information and tell you about any change.

• Your account. For as long as you keep it.
• The print file for a book you order. Kept while your account is open, so we can reprint your book if anything goes wrong with it and help with any question about your order. It is deleted when you delete your account, or sooner if you ask us.
• A print file from a checkout you did not finish. Deleted automatically after about a day.
• Order records. When you delete your account, we remove your name, email address, shipping address, and print file from your orders. What remains is the record of the sale itself, such as what was bought, when, and for how much, which we keep for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
• Book helper requests. Up to 90 days, as described above.
• Usage analytics. Kept to understand how Tidbit is used over time. You can ask us to delete yours whenever you like.

Information that lives on your device, such as your trips, how your photos are grouped by the people in them, and the rest of the work Tidbit does on your photos, stays on your device. It is removed when you delete that content or remove the app.

You are in control of your information:

• Revoke permissions. Turn off photo, microphone, or notification access in iOS Settings whenever you want. Tidbit needs photo access to build a book, so turning it off stops it from making new ones, and it never stops you from removing it.
• Access and correct your data. View and update your account details in the app, or email us for help.
• Delete your account. Delete your account from within the app, or email us and we will do it for you. That removes your account, your print files, and your personal details from past orders. If you would also like your usage analytics deleted, email us and we will do that too.
• Opt out of marketing. Unsubscribe from product emails and turn off notifications at any time. We may still send essential order and account messages.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights over your personal information, such as the right to access, correct, delete, or port it, or to object to certain processing. We extend these choices to all of our users and do not sell personal information. Email us and we will help you exercise your rights. If you live in the UK, Canada, or Australia, the section for your country below sets out your rights in full.

Tidbit is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with information, email us and we will delete it.

We protect your information with encryption in transit, secure and time-limited upload links for print files, encrypted storage, and access controls that limit who can see your data. No service can promise perfect security, but we work hard to keep your information safe and to use as little of it as possible.

Tidbit is operated from the United States, and the partners who help us run it may process and store information in the United States and other countries. Wherever your information is handled, we take steps to protect it as described in this policy.

UK data protection law (the UK GDPR) gives you specific rights and asks us to tell you a few more things. They are all here.

• Our UK representative. We have appointed Prighter Ltd as our representative in the UK for data protection matters, under Article 27 of the UK GDPR. If you are in the UK, you can contact Prighter about your personal information through their online form at https://prighter.com/q/16690478051, or by post at Prighter Ltd, 20 Mortlake Mortlake High Street, London SW14 8JN, United Kingdom. Prighter passes your request on to us. You can always contact us directly too.
• To give you the service you asked for. Your account, building and saving books, transcribing your voice stories, drafting story text, making the changes you ask the book helper for, taking payment, and printing, delivering, and supporting your order. We use your information for these because we need it to provide Tidbit to you under our terms (the legal basis is our contract with you).
• To run, protect, and improve Tidbit. Usage analytics, keeping Tidbit secure, preventing fraud, sending occasional product emails, and measuring whether our ads work. We rely on our legitimate interest in running and improving our business, and we have weighed it against your interests. You can object to any of this at any time.
• To keep the records the law requires. Order, tax, and accounting records (the legal basis is a legal obligation).
• With your permission. Notifications, which you allow in iOS and can turn off whenever you like (the legal basis is your consent).

Your rights. You can ask us for a copy of your information, ask us to correct it, delete it, or limit how we use it, ask for a copy in a common format to take elsewhere, and object to any use based on our legitimate interests. You can always object to marketing, and we will stop. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Email us to do any of this. It is free, we will reply within one month, and we may ask you to confirm it is really you.

Automated decisions. Tidbit chooses photos and layouts for your book automatically, but it never makes decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

What you need to give us. To use Tidbit you need an account, which gives us your email address through Apple or Google, and to order a book we need a shipping name and address. Without them we cannot provide the app or deliver your book. Everything else is optional.

Information leaving the UK. Tidbit Studios LLC is based in the United States, so information you share with Tidbit is handled in the US. When our service providers handle it for us outside the UK, we rely on the safeguards UK law provides: the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified to it, or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses in our contracts with them. Email us for a copy of the safeguard that applies.

Complaints. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first at support@tidbitbooks.com. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and do our best to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

These rights apply to everyone in Canada. People in Quebec also have the rights in Quebec's private-sector privacy law.

• Access and correction. You can ask what personal information we hold about you and have it corrected. We answer within 30 days.
• Portability. You can ask for the information you gave us in a structured, commonly used format.
• Withdrawing consent. You can withdraw your consent to any use of your information at any time. Deleting your account does this in one step.
• Information leaving Canada. Your account, your orders, and your print files are stored in the United States, and the partners who help us run Tidbit may process information in the United States and other countries. When we deliver a book in Canada, it is printed and shipped by our production partner's lab in Canada. Before your information leaves Canada, we check that it will be protected to a standard comparable to the protection it has at home, and that check covers each category of partner listed above. Each partner is bound by a written agreement to use your information only to provide its service to us, and to keep it secure.
• Complaints. If we don't resolve a concern to your satisfaction, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. In Quebec, you can also contact the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec.

Our person in charge of protecting personal information is the Founder of Tidbit Studios LLC. You can reach them at support@tidbitbooks.com.

Here is what you should know about how we handle your personal information, and what you can do about it.

• Access and correction. You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it. It is free, and we will reply within 30 days.
• Without giving your name. You can browse this website without telling us who you are. To use the app and order a book, we need an account and a delivery name and address, so those cannot be anonymous.
• Information sent overseas. Tidbit Studios LLC is based in the United States, so information you share with Tidbit is held there. Some of our service providers handle it in other countries too, including the United Kingdom, where our production partner is based. When we deliver a book in Australia, it is printed by our partner's lab in Australia. We take reasonable steps to make sure every provider protects your information as this policy describes, and each is bound by a written agreement to do so.
• Complaints. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first at support@tidbitbooks.com. We will reply within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

We may update this policy as Tidbit grows or as laws change. When we do, we will revise the date at the top, and for meaningful changes we will let you know in the app or by email before they take effect.

Tidbit Studios LLC operates the app and is responsible for the information described here. If you have any question or request about your privacy, email us at support@tidbitbooks.com and a real person will get back to you.

Our person in charge of protecting personal information is the Founder of Tidbit Studios LLC, at support@tidbitbooks.com.