Privacy

What is stored

• Your account: name, email address and a hashed password, managed by the sign-in library (better-auth). Each signed-in session stores a session token, its expiry, and the IP address and browser user agent it was created from.
• Your preferences: speaker profile (learner or native speaker), self-reported English level and coaching tone.
• Stories you add: their title, text, summary, tags and key points.
• Your recordings: the audio of each retelling, with its length, size and format.
• Transcripts and analyses: the transcript of each recording, its measurements (pace, fillers, pauses, pitch, volume, vocabulary, accuracy), scores and coaching feedback.

Where it is stored

Account and session data are kept in one Postgres database, and everything else in a second Postgres database; your name and email address are also copied into that second (app) database. Recordings are stored as files on the server's disk or, if the operator configures it, in an S3-compatible object storage bucket (such as Cloudflare R2). The operator may run these databases and storage on their own server or with a hosted provider.

Who processes it

Analyses are made with Groq's API. To analyse a retelling, your recording is sent to Groq for transcription, and the transcript is sent to Groq together with the story text, its key points, the measurements and your preferences to check story accuracy and write feedback. Your name and email address are not sent. Groq's handling of that data is governed by Groq's own terms and privacy policy.

Narration audio for the stories you add is generated on this SoulfulStories instance itself, without sending the story text to a third party.

If the operator uses hosted storage or a hosted database (for example Cloudflare R2, Neon, Supabase or Amazon RDS), that provider also stores your data. No other third party receives your data, and nothing is sold or shared for advertising.

How long it is kept

Your data is kept until you delete your account. The operator can set a recording retention period: when it is set, recordings older than that number of days are deleted automatically, while their transcripts and analyses are kept. A recording deleted this way shows a note on its results page instead of the player. Sessions expire on their own and end when you sign out.

Export and deletion

In Settings, Download my data gives you a ZIP file with your profile and preferences, the stories you added, every analysis (including transcripts and feedback) and your recordings.

Delete account permanently deletes your account, sessions, preferences, stories, recordings, transcripts and analyses. It cannot be undone.

Cookies and browser storage

SoulfulStories has no ads, no analytics and no tracking cookies. Your browser stores only:

• the sign-in session cookie, which keeps you signed in;
• your light or dark theme choice, in local storage;
• a flag noting that the welcome setup was already shown, in local storage.

Fonts are served by this site, so loading a page does not contact Google or other font services.