Privacy

The short version

Reading preferences are stored in this browser. Reading and downloads do not require an account.

Reading preferences stored in your browser

Reading preferences may be stored in this browser by the Animations, Dark mode, Auto-advance, and Remember my place controls. None is sent to Young Machines:

• aifables-animation-preference remembers whether you have switched illustration motion off (it is on by default).
• aifables-reader-theme remembers your light or dark colour theme.
• aifables-audio-auto-advance remembers whether the next fable should start automatically (it is on by default).
• aifables-remember-place records whether you have switched off Remember my place (it is on by default).
• aifables-reading-place stores the most recent section identifier only while Remember my place is on.

These values stay until you change the setting, choose Forget my place, or clear site data in the browser. They contain no name, account identifier, reading history, or analytics identifier.

Hosting data

This site is hosted by GitHub Pages. GitHub states that it logs visitors’ IP addresses for security purposes when a Pages site is visited, whether or not the visitor is signed in to GitHub. We do not receive or keep those server logs.

GitHub processes hosting data under its own privacy statement. Its description of Pages data collection is available in GitHub’s Pages documentation.

The audiobook recordings, story animations, and translated EPUB and PDF editions are served from GitHub’s public release storage for this project, under the same GitHub privacy statement. We do not receive or keep logs of those downloads either.

Children and families

The book is written for shared reading around age ten. There are no profiles, public comments, purchases, or newsletters on this domain. Story pages offer adults an optional way to send the author a private note, which asks for no name or email; see Private reader notes.

Downloads and external links

Downloading the PDF or EPUB makes an ordinary request to the same GitHub Pages host. Playing or downloading an MP3 requests the recording from GitHub Releases and its asset host. The audio players do not preload recordings. Optional text following runs in your browser and sends no listening data to us. Links to other websites are governed by those sites’ own privacy practices.

Private reader notes

Some pages let you send us a private note: a comment on a passage, a suggested edit, or a note about a page as a whole. Notes on this site are for adults: parents, carers, teachers and librarians. They are not for children. If you think a child has sent us a note, contact us and we will delete it.

Who sees your note. Only Nell Watson and the editorial team. Notes are never published as comments and are not visible to other readers.

What we collect. The text of your note, the passage you selected and the address of the page, the time you sent it, whether you are writing as a parent, carer, teacher, librarian or other adult, and your confirmation that you are 18 or over. We don’t ask for your name or email on this site; replies appear on your private notes page.

What we do not collect. We do not store your IP address. To prevent spam we keep a one-way, salted hash of it that changes every day and is deleted within two days. Cloudflare Turnstile checks that a person is sending the note. It loads only when you open the note panel, and Cloudflare’s privacy policy applies to it.

Where it is stored. In a database run for us by Cloudflare (Cloudflare Workers and D1). Cloudflare may process it outside the UK and EU, under its data processing terms, which provide the safeguards UK and EU law require for such transfers.

How we use it. To correct and improve the work.

Your rights in what you send. When you send a note you agree that we may use, edit, adapt and publish it in any edition or format without payment, and you waive your rights in it as far as the law allows (the full wording is next to the Send button).

Keeping and deleting. After sending, you get a private link where you can see your notes, read any reply, and delete any note at any time. You can also ask us to delete your notes through Nell Watson’s contact page. Spam is deleted after 30 days. Notes we don’t use are deleted two years after you send them. Notes we use are kept for as long as the work is published.

In your browser. The note panel keeps a random key and a short list of your notes in your browser’s local storage, so it can show your private link and lightly highlight passages you have commented on. The key reaches us only when you send a note or open your private notes page, and we store only a scrambled form of it. Clearing this site’s data in your browser removes them.

Legal basis. We rely on your consent, which you give when you send a note. You can withdraw it at any time by deleting your notes.

Your rights. You can ask for a copy of your notes, have them corrected or deleted, or object to how we use them, using the contact details on this page. If you are unhappy with how we handle them, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk) or the data protection authority where you live.

Who is responsible. The data controller for reader notes is Eleanor (Nell) Watson, EthicsNet Ltd (company number 11412076), 11 Kingfisher Business Park, Arthur Street, Lakeside, Redditch, B98 8LG, United Kingdom.

Contact and changes

Young Machines is operated by Nell Watson, Inc. Questions about this notice can be sent through Nell Watson’s contact page. If the site’s data collection changes, we will update this notice before the change takes effect.