Privacy Policy

1. Overview

Altered Stories ("we", "us") is a print-on-demand platform for AI-assisted custom apparel. This policy describes what information we collect when you use the platform, which service providers process it on our behalf, and the choices and rights you have. We collect only what we need to create your designs and fulfill your orders, and we do not sell your personal information.

2. Information We Collect

Account information

Sign-in and account management are handled by Clerk, our authentication provider. Clerk collects and stores your name, email address, and sign-in credentials. In our own database we store your Clerk account identifier alongside your designs, carts, and orders — not your password.

Photos you upload

Reference images you upload (for example, photos of your pet or yourself) are stored in Vercel Blob storage. New uploads are stored as private files: their addresses are not directly readable, and the platform displays them through short-lived, time-limited access links. Images uploaded before this private-storage rollout were stored at public but unguessable, randomly-suffixed addresses; if you would like an older upload removed, contact us and we will delete it.

Designs you generate

We store your design prompts, the chat conversation used to refine a design, and the resulting generated image. Finished generated designs are the shareable product: they are stored at publicly accessible addresses so that design pages can be viewed and shared.

Order and payment information

Payments are processed entirely by Stripe through Stripe Checkout. We never see, receive, or store your card number or other payment credentials. Our order records contain Stripe's reference tokens (such as the checkout session identifier and any promotion-code identifiers), your email address, the items you ordered, and the amounts paid.

Shipping address

Your shipping address is collected by Stripe during checkout and is passed to Printify, our print-and-fulfillment partner, so your order can be produced and delivered. We do not keep your shipping address in our order records; if an order hits a processing error, the order details (including the address) may be captured temporarily in error-recovery records used to retry fulfillment.

Analytics

We use Vercel Web Analytics, which is cookieless — it does not use cookies or persistent identifiers to track you across sites. Our conversion events carry only internal identifiers and amounts, never prompt text or email addresses.

Cookies

We use cookies only to make the platform work: a session cookie from Clerk keeps you signed in, and a guest-cart cookie (kept for up to 30 days) remembers your cart before you sign in. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

3. Service Providers (Subprocessors)

We share personal information only with the service providers that run the platform, and only what each one needs:

• Clerk (authentication) — your name, email address, and sign-in credentials
• Stripe (payments) — your payment details and billing/shipping information, collected directly by Stripe at checkout
• Printify(printing & fulfillment) — your name, shipping address, email address, and the design to be printed
• Vercel (hosting, image storage, and analytics) — uploaded and generated images, and cookieless usage analytics
• OpenAI (AI image generation) — your design prompts and the reference images you choose to include in a generation

4. Your Privacy Rights (GDPR / CCPA)

Depending on where you live — including under the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) — you may have the right to:

• Access a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate personal information
• Delete your personal information
• Receive your information in a portable format
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information (we do not sell or share personal information for advertising)
• Not be discriminated against for exercising these rights

To exercise any of these rights, email support@alteredstories.com from the address associated with your account. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request, and we will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes described above:

• Order records are retained as long as necessary for accounting, tax, and legal compliance
• Designs and uploaded images are retained while your account is active, so you can reorder, and are deleted on request
• Diagnostic and error-recovery records are kept for a limited period to debug and retry failed operations

To request deletion of your account data, contact support@alteredstories.com.

6. International Transfers

Our service providers are U.S.-based companies, and your information is processed in the United States (and in other countries where those providers operate). If you use the platform from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in your country.

7. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will note material changes by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Your continued use of the platform after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

8. Contact

For privacy questions or requests, contact us at support@alteredstories.com. For our terms of use, see the Terms of Service.