Privacy Policy

StoryNest aims to handle personal information fairly, lawfully and only for clear purposes. We use the principles of Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) — including accountability, lawful processing, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, security safeguards and respecting your rights — as a reference for how we handle data.

Email address and password when you sign up. Passwords are handled by our sign-in service and are not visible to StoryNest staff.

If you choose Google sign-in, we receive your name, email address and profile picture link from Google.

Your display name or pen name, and your account role (reader, writer or administrator).

For writers: story titles, descriptions, cover images, genres, tags, chapter titles and text, publication and review status, and editor notes on submissions. Published stories, with their pen name, are visible to the public.

Your favourite stories, your reading progress (the chapter you reached), and a record each time a chapter is opened, used to count reads. If you are signed in, read records are linked to your account.

When you report a story we store the reason you give and your account. When you use the contact form we store the name, email address, subject and message you enter, and your account if you are signed in.

Like most websites, our hosting and sign-in services automatically process technical information such as IP address, browser type, device information and timestamps to deliver pages, keep you signed in and protect the service. Your browser stores a sign-in session on your device so you stay logged in. StoryNest does not use advertising or third-party tracking cookies.

To create and run your account; show your library and progress; let writers draft, submit and publish stories; review and moderate content; count reads for writers; respond to reports, complaints and contact messages; and keep StoryNest secure and working. The basis for this is providing the service you asked for, your consent where you choose to share information, and our legitimate interest in running a safe platform. We do not sell your personal information.

Everyone: published stories and their pen names, covers, descriptions and read counts.

Only you: your favourites, reading progress and account settings.

Writers: their own drafts and read records for their own stories.

StoryNest administrators: submissions, reports, contact messages, user display names and roles, as needed to operate and moderate the platform.

Access is limited by permission rules in our database.

StoryNest is hosted on Lovable Cloud, which provides our database, file storage and sign-in services and processes data on our behalf to run the site. If you use Google sign-in, Google processes your sign-in under its own privacy policy. These providers may store data on servers outside Ghana. We do not currently use payment, email marketing or advertising providers, and no payment information is collected.

We keep account, profile and story data while your account is active. Drafts and unpublished stories you delete are removed from the database. Reports and contact messages are kept as long as needed to deal with them and keep a record of moderation decisions. When an account is closed, we remove or anonymise its personal information unless we need to keep some of it to resolve disputes, prevent abuse or meet legal obligations. Short-term backups held by our hosting provider may persist for a limited time.

You can update your display name in My Library, remove favourites, and delete your own unpublished stories at any time.

You may ask to access the personal information we hold about you, correct it, object to its use, or have it deleted. Send your request through our contact page using the email linked to your account. We may need to confirm your identity before acting, and some requests are handled manually by our team.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the data protection authority in your country — in Ghana, the Data Protection Commission.

StoryNest is not designed for young children. If you believe a child has given us personal information without appropriate permission, contact us and we will review and remove it.

We use the access controls provided by our hosting platform, and encrypted connections (HTTPS), to protect your information. No online service can guarantee complete security, so please use a strong, unique password.

We may update this policy as StoryNest changes — for example if payments are introduced. We will update the dates above and give notice on the site for significant changes.

For privacy questions, concerns or requests, use our contact page and select or mention "Privacy" in the subject.