FF Stories - Privacy Policy

 # Privacy Policy — FF Stories

Last updated: June 22, 2026

FF Stories ("the app", "we", "us") is a reader for fanfiction hosted on Archive of Our Own (AO3). The Sanctuary is built around a single principle: **what you read is your business, not ours.**

This document explains, in plain language, what data the app touches and what it deliberately does not.

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## What we don't do

- **We don't sell your data.** Ever. To anyone. There is no advertiser, broker, or partner who pays us for it.

- **We don't run third-party analytics.** No Google Analytics, no Firebase, no Mixpanel, no Sentry, no Amplitude. The app is shipped without any SDK whose purpose is to watch what you do.

- **We don't track you across other apps or websites.** We have no cross-app identifier.

- **We don't show advertisements.**

- **We don't store your AO3 password on our servers.** Authentication happens directly between the app and Archive of Our Own. We keep only the session cookies AO3 issues — locally on your device.

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## What stays on your device

All of the following lives only on your iPhone or iPad. It is not transmitted to us, to Apple beyond what iCloud Backup does if you've enabled it, or to any third party:

- **AO3 session cookies** used to keep you signed in.

- **Reading history and bookmarks** the app remembers so you can resume where you stopped.

- **Highlights, notes, and Illuminations** you create while reading.

- **Reading analytics** — fandoms, characters, tags, and authors you read — used solely to compute your **on-device** recommendations. This data never leaves your device.

- **The Oracle.** On Apple Intelligence-capable devices, the app uses Apple's on-device Foundation Models to re-rank your recommendations. The AI runs entirely on your hardware. Nothing about your reading is sent to a server.

- **The Sacred Voice (Text-to-Speech).** Read-aloud uses Apple's on-device speech synthesizer (or, on capable devices, the on-device Kokoro neural voice). Your text is never sent off-device for speech.

- **Sigil unlocks, theme choices, and other preferences.**

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## What leaves your device

We are honest about the three places data does travel:

### 1. Archive of Our Own (the source of the fanfiction itself)

The app fetches works, comments, kudos counts, and bookmarks from `archiveofourown.org` on your behalf — the same way your web browser would. When you sign in, kudos a work, leave a comment, or post a chapter, those actions are sent **directly to AO3** using AO3's own API and your AO3 session. We do not see, store, or intercept that traffic.

AO3's privacy practices are governed by [the Organization for Transformative Works' Terms of Service and Privacy Policy](https://archiveofourown.org/tos).

### 2. Our push-notification server (only if you enable notifications)

If — and only if — you grant the app permission to send notifications, the app registers your device with Apple Push Notification Service and then sends the resulting **device token**, your **time zone**, and the **app version + build number** to a small server we operate at:

> `https://fanfic-pocket-reader.herokuapp.com/api/devices`

That server's sole job is to send you push alerts when works you follow are updated. It stores nothing else about you — no name, no email, no reading history, no AO3 identity. If you revoke notification permission in iOS Settings, we stop talking to this server entirely. You may also email us (see below) and we will delete your device record on request.

### 3. Apple (for subscriptions)

If you become a Guardian of the Sanctuary by subscribing to one of the monthly tiers (Candle, Flame, or Beacon), the **purchase itself is handled by Apple's StoreKit**, not by us. We receive only the receipt confirming the subscription is active. We never see your payment method, billing address, or Apple ID password.

Subscriptions auto-renew monthly via your Apple ID until you cancel them in **Settings › [your name] › Subscriptions**.

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## Permissions the app may ask for

- **Notifications** — only if you choose to receive push alerts for new chapters.

- **Photo Library** — only if you choose to save a screenshot or image from a story.

- **Microphone** — historically requested by the read-aloud feature for audio-session configuration. The current version does not transmit microphone audio anywhere; this permission may be retired in a future update.

You can revoke any of these at any time in **iOS Settings › FF Stories**.

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## Children's privacy

FF Stories is intended for adult readers of fanfiction. We do not knowingly collect any information from children under 13. If you believe a child has used the app in a way that exposed personal data to us, please contact us and we will erase any such record we hold.

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## Data retention and deletion

- **Local data** — reading history, highlights, sigil unlocks, settings — is retained on your device until you delete it (in-app, or by uninstalling the app).

- **Push notification record** I use only local pushes, nothing is retained anywhere.

- **Subscription receipts** are stored by Apple under Apple's privacy policy; we keep only the active-subscription status flag locally on your device.

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## Changes to this policy

If we change anything material about how the app handles data, we will update this page and bump the "Last updated" date at the top. Substantive changes will also be summarized in the app's release notes on the App Store.

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## Contact

Questions, deletion requests, or anything else, write to:

riyapekar@gmail.com

I answer every message personally. There is no support ticketing system, because there are no analytics.

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FF Stories is an independent reader for Archive of Our Own. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the Organization for Transformative Works.