Privacy Policy

When You access or use the Yap Training Tool available at storyfirst.club/yap (“Website”/“We”/“Us”/“Our”), We do not require You to create an account, register, or share any Personal Data in order to access or use the Website. This Privacy Policy sets out the manner in which any Personal Data is collected from or about You, the purpose for which it is processed, and Your rights in respect of such Personal Data, in compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”) and other applicable law.

This Privacy Policy is intended to be read in conjunction with Our Terms of Use. To the extent applicable, all definitions, provisions, and obligations set forth in the Terms of Use are incorporated herein by reference and shall apply to this Privacy Policy as if set out in full herein. By accessing and using the Website, You confirm that You have read, understood, and agree to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy. If You do not agree with these terms, You are advised to refrain from accessing or using the Website.

Overview of Data Processing

The Website operates without a User account, a centralised database, or a backend artificial intelligence service. Recordings, transcripts, and delivery scores generated in the course of Your use of the Website are processed and retained solely within Your browser and are not received, stored, or otherwise accessed by Us. Two categories of processing by third parties are material to this Privacy Policy and are addressed in greater detail below: (i) where speech-to-text conversion is performed using certain browsers, the underlying audio is transmitted to and processed by the relevant browser vendor; and (ii) where You voluntarily submit Your email address through the Hook Library sign-up form, such submission is made directly to Our email service provider and may thereafter be used to send You periodic communications regarding StoryFirst.

Data Fiduciary

For the purposes of the DPDP Act, the “Data Fiduciary” in respect of the Personal Data described in this Privacy Policy is StoryFirst Academy. StoryFirst Academy is a trading name and does not constitute a company, limited liability partnership, partnership, society, or other separately registered legal entity. All communications, requests, and grievances concerning Your Personal Data may be addressed to hello@storyfirst.club.

Data Collected

“Personal Data” means any information/data about an individual who is identifiable by or in relation to such information/data.

You may access and use the Website and its services without registering, signing up, creating an account, or logging in. No name, phone number, profile, or usage history is collected or stored by Us, and nothing pertaining to Your use of the Website is transmitted to Us in the ordinary course.

Where You choose to submit the Hook Library sign-up form, the following Personal Data is collected directly by Kit (ConvertKit), acting as Our Data Processor, and only because You have voluntarily chosen to provide or generate it:

1. Your email address; and
2. Your IP address, captured automatically upon submission of the form.

We do not deploy analytics, advertising pixels, session recording, device fingerprinting, or any artificial intelligence application programming interface (“API”) on the Website.

Consent Notice for Email Sign-Up

Purpose Limitation and Use of Data

Your email address and IP address shall never be sold, rented, traded, transferred, used for third-party advertising, used to build a profile of You, or used for any purpose other than as stated at the point of collection. Should We wish to use it for any other purpose, We shall seek Your fresh consent before doing so.

Cookies and Local Storage

The Website does not use any first-party cookies of its own, nor any first-party local storage to store session data. The following third-party technologies are embedded on the Website and may set their own cookies:

1. Kit (ConvertKit): the Hook Library sign-up form is embedded on the homepage and on every results screen. The script for this embed, together with any cookies set by Kit, loads automatically upon rendering of the relevant page, irrespective of whether You choose to interact with or submit the form. Where You submit the form, Your email address and IP address are additionally transmitted to Kit, as further described below.
2. Google Fonts serves the typefaces displayed on the Website. Google Fonts does not set cookies; however, as with any request made over the internet, Your browser’s request to Google Fonts’ servers includes Your IP address.

Where You access or interact with any other third-party product, service, or link made available through the Website, such third party may deploy its own cookies or similar technologies. We advise You to review the privacy policy of any such third party, as We do not control, and are not responsible for, its data practices.

Processing of Audio and Microphone Data

The microphone is activated only upon Your initiation of a practice session and is deactivated immediately upon its conclusion. On desktop devices, Your voice is additionally held in Your browser’s memory for the limited purpose of enabling playback on the results screen; such recording is not transmitted to Us, resides only within the page, and is permanently deleted upon Your leaving or restarting the exercise. On mobile devices, this local playback recording is not made, so as to prioritise microphone access for the speech-recognition engine.

We do not receive, and have no means of receiving, Your audio at any point. The Website has no server configured to accept audio uploads, no storage facility for audio, and no artificial intelligence API to which audio is transmitted.

Speech-to-Text Processing

Transcripts are generated using the Web Speech API built into Your browser. The manner of processing depends entirely on the browser You use:

1. Chrome, Edge, and Chrome on Android: Your audio is streamed to Google’s speech-recognition servers, transcribed there, and the resulting text is returned to the Website. This processing does not occur on Your device, and Google processes such audio under its own privacy policy, and not under this Privacy Policy.
2. Safari, and browsers on iPhone/iPad: Apple’s speech-recognition engine performs this function, frequently on-device, although Apple may process some audio on its own servers, under Apple’s privacy policy.
3. Firefox and most in-app browsers: generally do not support this feature; in such cases, no transcript is generated, though the duration of Your practice session continues to be recorded locally.

If You would prefer that no audio leave Your device under any circumstance, You may use the Website without generating a transcript; the duration of Your session will still be recorded, though no delivery score will be produced.

Scoring, Downloads, and Sharing

Words-per-minute counts, filler-word counts, and the delivery score are calculated using client-side JavaScript running on Your own device, based on the transcript text and session timer; none of this data or the computation thereof is transmitted to Us.

Any transcript file or score-card image is generated within Your browser and saved by Your browser to Your chosen download location. A “challenge a friend” link contains only a reference to the relevant practice question (topic, level, and question number), and does not contain Your voice recording, transcript, or score.

Data Security Measures

We are committed to safeguarding any Personal Data provided to Us by taking appropriate, reasonable, and industry-standard security measures against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction of data, including:

1. restricting access to Personal Data to authorised personnel only;
2. relying on Kit (ConvertKit)’s own security and encryption safeguards for the storage of email addresses and IP addresses collected through the Hook Library form; and
3. periodic internal review of Our data collection and processing practices.

As the Website itself operates without any server-side storage of Your recordings, transcripts, or scores, no security measures in respect of such data are applicable to Us, since We never receive or hold such data in the first place.

Data Transfer

Save for the transfer of Your email address and IP address (where provided) to Kit (ConvertKit), as described above, We do not transfer, share, or disclose any Personal Data to any third party. Kit (ConvertKit) acts as Our Data Processor and stores such data on servers located outside India, processing it strictly on Our instructions and subject to its own privacy policy and security commitments.

Data Retention

Your email address and IP address, where provided, are retained only until You unsubscribe or request Us to erase them, following which they are removed from Our mailing list; a record that You have unsubscribed may be retained solely to ensure that We do not contact You again. No other Personal Data is retained by Us, as none is collected in the ordinary course of Your use of the Website.

User Rights

As a Data Principal under the DPDP Act, You have the right to:

1. Access: request a summary of the Personal Data We hold about You and the manner of its processing;
2. Correction: request correction, completion, or updating of any Personal Data that is inaccurate or incomplete;
3. Erasure: request erasure of Your Personal Data where it is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected;
4. Withdraw consent: withdraw Your consent at any time, as easily as it was given;
5. Nomination: nominate another individual to exercise these rights on Your behalf in the event of Your death or incapacity; and
6. Grievance redressal: raise a grievance in the manner set out below.

The aforesaid rights may be exercised by addressing a written request to Us at hello@storyfirst.club from the email address concerned. We shall respond within thirty (30) days of receipt of such request. In respect of Your general use of the Website (as distinct from the Hook Library sign-up), there is ordinarily no Personal Data for Us to access, correct, or erase, as none is collected or retained by Us unless You have provided Your email address.

Third Parties

The following third parties may process data in connection with Your use of the Website:

1. Your browser’s speech-recognition vendor (Google or Apple), as described above;
2. Kit (ConvertKit), whose embedded script and cookies load automatically on the homepage and all results screens, and which receives Your email address and IP address where You submit the Hook Library form; and
3. Google Fonts, which serves the typefaces used to render the Website.

We do not engage any analytics provider, advertising network, or data broker, and no AI API is used on the Website. No data relating to Your practice sessions is sold, shared, or used to build a profile of You.

For Visitors in the European Union / United Kingdom

Where the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) or the UK GDPR applies to You, the lawful basis for Our processing of Your email address is Your consent. You additionally have the right to rectification, restriction of processing, data portability, and to object to processing, in addition to the rights set out above, together with the right to lodge a complaint with Your local supervisory authority. These rights may be exercised using the contact details set out in this Privacy Policy. Your email address is stored by Our processor, Kit (ConvertKit), on servers located outside the EU/UK, and is transferred on the basis of Your consent and Kit’s own transfer safeguards.

Children

The Website do not knowingly collect Personal Data from such children under the age of eighteen (18) years. Where We are notified, at hello@storyfirst.club, that a child has provided Us with an email address, We shall delete the same without delay.

Cessation of Processing

We reserve the right to cease sending You communications, or to delete Your email address from Our records, at any time, including where You have withdrawn Your consent or where We reasonably believe such action is necessary to comply with applicable law.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update or modify this Privacy Policy at any time. Any revised version shall apply from the date it is posted on the Website, as indicated by the “Last Updated” date set out above.

Where any change materially affects the manner in which Your email address is processed, We shall notify You of such change by email.

Incorporation of Terms of Use

The provisions of Our Terms of Use relating to limitation of liability, indemnity, force majeure, severability, entire agreement, waiver, assignment, notices, and governing law, jurisdiction and dispute resolution (the “Incorporated Provisions”) are hereby incorporated into this Privacy Policy by reference, as though set out in full herein, and shall apply mutatis mutandis to any claim, dispute, or other matter arising out of or in connection with this Privacy Policy, including in respect of the processing of Your Personal Data.

Where any Incorporated Provision is amended, modified, or replaced in the Terms of Use, the Incorporated Provision as so amended, modified, or replaced shall apply to this Privacy Policy with effect from the date such change takes effect under the Terms of Use.

In the event of any conflict or inconsistency between an Incorporated Provision and any other provision of this Privacy Policy concerning the collection, processing, or protection of Your Personal Data, the other provisions of this Privacy Policy shall prevail to the extent of such conflict.

The Incorporated Provisions shall survive the termination or expiry of Your use of the Website and shall continue to bind You and StoryFirst Academy notwithstanding such termination or expiry.

Grievance Redressal

Email: hello@storyfirst.club
Response time: within thirty (30) days of receipt of the grievance.

A grievance shall be accompanied by a clear and concise statement of its nature, the remedy sought, and the complainant’s contact details. Where a grievance is not resolved to Your satisfaction, You may escalate the matter to the Data Protection Board of India under the DPDP Act.

Cohort Accounts & the 21-Day Challenge

The Yap Training Tool itself does not require an account. However, if You join a StoryFirst cohort (such as the 21-day reel challenge), You will create an account, and this section applies to You in addition to the rest of this Policy.

What We collect: Your name, email address, sign-up and last sign-in dates, the cohort You belong to, the Instagram reel/post links You voluntarily submit, and Your completion progress within the challenge. If You sign in with Google or Apple, that provider shares Your name and email address with Us at Your request, and their own privacy policies apply to that step.

Why: to create and secure Your account, enrol You in the correct cohort, show You Your daily tasks and progress, and let the programme administrator (Visha Khandelwal) view members' progress and submitted links to run the challenge.

Where it is stored: in Our managed cloud database, protected by row-level access controls. Members can only ever see their own data. We do not sell Your Personal Data, and Your submitted reel links are never displayed publicly by Us — the videos themselves live on Your own Instagram account under Instagram's terms.

Retention & deletion: We retain account and challenge data while the programme runs. You may request deletion of Your account and associated data at any time by emailing hello@storyfirst.club, and We will erase it within a reasonable period, subject to any legal retention requirement. All rights described in this Policy (access, correction, erasure, grievance) apply equally to cohort account data under the DPDP Act, 2023.

Disclaimer

The information contained on the Website is compiled for the general convenience of Users. While utmost care has been exercised in developing the Website, We do not warrant the completeness or accuracy of such information and disclaim all liability, loss, and damage arising out of its use, save to the extent such liability cannot be excluded under applicable law.

Contact

StoryFirst Academy, India.
Email: hello@storyfirst.club

This Privacy Policy is to be read together with Our Terms of Use.