Privacy policy

Last updated: 13 November 2026

Adventure Bookworms makes story videos, reading lessons and, through Bookworms Luister, Afrikaans stories to listen to and read along with. This policy covers adventurebookworms.com, adventurebookworms.co.za and luister.adventurebookworms.co.za.

The short version: accounts belong to grown-ups, we store as little about children as the service needs, we never show adverts to children, and we never sell anyone's information.

Who we are

Adventure Bookworms is run from South Africa. For anything about your information, write to support@adventurebookworms.com.

What we store about you, the grown-up

Your name and email address.
Your password, which our sign-in provider stores in scrambled form. We cannot read it.
If you sign in with Google: your name and email address from Google. We never receive your Google password or access to anything else in your Google account.
Whether you are a teacher, your country, and the date you gave consent.
What you bought, the amount and the date. Card payments are handled by Paystack; we never see or store card numbers.
Teachers only: the lesson material you upload.

What we store about your child

A first name or nickname. We do not ask for a surname.
An age group, a language and a chosen cartoon avatar.
An optional 4-digit PIN, stored in scrambled form.
Progress: which lessons and stories were opened, stars, badges and certificates.

We do not collect a child's photo, date of birth, address, school, contact details or location. Children do not have accounts of their own and cannot message anyone through the site.

Why we store it

To give you an account and keep it secure.
To show each child the right lessons and stories and remember where they got to.
To award certificates with the child's name on them.
To deliver what you paid for and keep the records the law requires.
To answer you when you ask for help, and to improve the service.

We do not sell personal information, we do not show adverts to children, and we do not build advertising profiles of children.

Children and consent

Only an adult may create an account. When you sign up you confirm that you are 18 or older and that you are the parent, guardian or teacher of the children you add, and you consent to us storing the child details listed above. We rely on that consent to process a child's information.

You can withdraw consent at any time by removing a child's profile or asking us to delete your account.

Cookies and measurement

A sign-in cookie keeps you logged in, and a cookie remembers which child is playing. The site cannot work without these.
On the grown-up pages we use Google Analytics and a Google Ads tag to count visits, sign-ups and purchases. Ad personalisation is switched off.
These measurement tools are never loaded on the children's lesson pages or on the story pages.

Companies that help us run the service

Supabase: our database and sign-in system, on servers in Ireland.
Vercel: hosts the website, and keeps standard technical logs such as IP addresses for security.
Paystack: processes payments.
Google: sign-in with Google, and the measurement tools described above.
ElevenLabs: turns story and lesson text into narration. It receives the text only, never information about you or your child.
OpenAI: helps teachers draft lessons from their own material and checks narration. It receives no information about children.

These companies process information on our behalf, under their own security and privacy commitments. Some are outside South Africa, so your information may be stored or handled in other countries.

How long we keep it

For as long as your account is open.
You can remove a child's profile yourself at any time in your parent account. That deletes the child's progress too.
To delete your whole account, write to support@adventurebookworms.com. We will do it within 30 days.
Purchase records are kept for as long as tax law requires, which is usually five years.

How we protect it

All traffic to the site is encrypted. Access rules in the database mean each grown-up can see only their own children's details. If a security problem ever puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the Information Regulator as the law requires.

Your rights

You may ask what we hold about you and your child, ask us to correct or delete it, object to how we use it, or withdraw your consent. Write to support@adventurebookworms.com.

If you are unhappy with our answer, you may complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, 010 023 5200, inforegulator.org.za. If you live outside South Africa, your local privacy law may give you similar rights, and we will honour them.

Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or how we use it, we will update this page and change the date at the top. For a significant change we will also email account holders.