Privacy Policy

The short version

DecaStory is a personal project built by a UC Davis student. It collects only what it needs to work: your email to log in, and the stories you create. It doesn't sell your data, run ads, or share anything with third parties beyond the infrastructure services that power the app. Guest mode stores nothing tied to your identity except an anonymous cookie for usage counting.

Who runs this

DecaStory is an independent personal project. It is not a company. If you have questions or requests about your data, contact: ajcharles05@ucdavis.edu

What we collect — signed-in accounts

• Email address — used only for login. Never used for marketing.
• Password — hashed and stored securely by Supabase. We never see it in plaintext.
• Stories you create — the story content, your choices, and any focus prompts you write are stored so you can return to them.
• Feedback ratings — if you give a thumbs up or down on a story, that rating and any optional comment are stored on your story record.
• Daily slide usage count — a count of how many slides you've generated today, used to enforce the fair-use daily limit.

What we collect — guest mode

Guest stories are never saved to our database. When you close the tab, they're gone.

• Anonymous guest ID — a random identifier generated in your browser and stored in a cookie for up to one year. It has no name, email, or account attached to it. It's used only to count how many distinct guest visitors use the app, and to apply a daily usage limit per guest browser.
• Guest feedback — if you submit a thumbs up/down in guest mode, the rating, genre, and your anonymous guest ID are stored. No personal information is attached.

What we don't collect

We do not collect your IP address, device fingerprint, location, real name, phone number, payment information, or any information about how you use other websites. We run no advertising and use no third-party analytics scripts (no Google Analytics, no tracking pixels).

Third-party services

DecaStory uses the following infrastructure to operate:

• Supabase — database and authentication. Your account data lives on Supabase's servers. Supabase Privacy Policy
• Vercel — hosting and deployment. Web requests pass through Vercel's infrastructure. Vercel Privacy Policy
• Google Gemini — AI story generation. The text you write in the opening and focus fields is sent to Gemini to generate your story. It is not stored by DecaStory beyond what's needed for story continuity, but is subject to Google's API terms. Google Privacy Policy

Cookies

DecaStory uses one cookie: decastory_guest_id, set only in guest mode, containing a random identifier with no personal information attached. Signed-in sessions use Supabase's standard auth cookies to keep you logged in. No advertising or tracking cookies are used.

Your rights

You can:

• Delete any story you've created at any time from The Vault.
• Request deletion of your entire account and all associated data by emailing ajcharles05@ucdavis.edu.
• Clear your guest ID cookie at any time through your browser's cookie settings.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, the "last updated" date above will reflect that. Since this is a personal project without a user mailing list, changes won't be pushed by email — check this page if you want to stay current.