Privacy Policy
Data controller
LE BIEN NEUF (a French simplified joint-stock company, RCS Paris 941 030 009), 12 avenue Philippe-Auguste, 75011 Paris, France, operating the Once Was You brand, is the data controller for the information described below. Contact: hello@oncewasyou.com.
What we collect
To create and deliver your child's book, we collect: your email address; the child's first name, date of birth, and city; the dedication text you write; and, through Stripe at checkout, your shipping address and phone number for delivery.
Illustrated stories line: we do not collect or store any photos. Every character is a ready-drawn illustration, never generated from a photo of your child.
Photo line (books illustrated from your photos): you send us 1 to 4 photos of the hero (and optionally of other people in the story), plus the memories and details you type in. These photos are used for one purpose only: drawing the illustrations of that book. They are never used to train any model, never reused for another customer, never published, and never sold. If the hero is a child, you confirm at upload that you are their parent or legal guardian and that you consent to this processing. If you send photos of other people, you confirm you have their permission.
What we don't do
We never sell your personal data. We never use your information for any purpose other than creating and delivering your book and providing customer support, except with your separate consent (for example, marketing emails, which you can unsubscribe from at any time).
How long we keep it
Order records are kept for as long as required by French accounting law. The finished book file is kept for 90 days after delivery so we can reprint it if needed, then deleted. If you start creating a book but do not complete your purchase, the preview data you entered (story text, title, and the details above) is automatically deleted 30 days later.
Photos (photo line): the photos you upload are deleted automatically no later than 30 days after your book is delivered, and 30 days after upload if you do not order. You can ask us to delete them sooner at any time. They are stored on our own server in Amsterdam, Netherlands (European Union), never on a third-party photo service.
Who we share it with
We share data with a small number of service providers who act on our behalf: Stripe (payment processing), our printing partner Gelato (printing and shipping), Railway (web hosting, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, European Union), and Amazon SES (sending you emails). We also use an IP address geolocation service to estimate an approximate region for the anonymous audience measurement described below.
Photo line only: to draw the illustrations, your photos and the story details are sent to our AI illustration provider (Google Gemini API) and the story text is written with the Anthropic API. Both are used under business terms that forbid training on customer data and keep it only for the time needed to process the request. The optional help assistant on our pages uses the Anthropic API in the same way.
Anonymous audience measurement (no cookie)
To understand how many people visit our site, our own server counts page views and visitors without using cookies and without identifying you: a unique visitor is a salted, encrypted fingerprint recalculated every day and discarded after 90 days. We also estimate an approximate region from your IP address for the same purpose. No IP address is ever stored: only aggregate counts by region are kept, which makes it impossible to trace them back to any individual. We measure scroll depth, time spent on each section, and button clicks the same way, as aggregate, anonymous counters, never as an individual visitor's path. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in measuring our audience (GDPR article 6.1.f).
Session recording
Independently of your cookie choice, we record page browsing (scrolling, clicks, gestures) on our own server to improve the site: no cookie or identifier is set, nothing links two visits together, anything you type is masked before it leaves your device, and the recording is deleted after 14 days. Turning off measurement with the link in our footer also turns this recording off, including immediately if one is already in progress. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in improving the service (GDPR article 6.1.f).
Cookies and marketing measurement
We use Google Analytics 4, the TikTok pixel, and the Meta (Facebook and Instagram) pixel to know how many people visit the site, where they come from, and which of our ads brought them here. These are on by default, and you can turn them off at any time with the link below. If you turn them off, the scripts are not loaded at all on your next page. Cookies strictly necessary for the site to work, such as tracking your own order, always remain active.
Sharing your browsing with Meta and TikTok for advertising measurement counts as "sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising" under California law. We never sell your personal information for money, and we never share your photos, your story, or your email address with these companies.
Your privacy choices
You can turn off analytics and advertising measurement on this device at any time. Your choice is stored in your browser and applies to every page of this site.
California residents may also ask us to confirm what personal information we hold, to correct it, or to delete it, and we will never treat you differently for exercising these rights. Write to hello@oncewasyou.com; we answer within 72 hours.
Your rights
You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data by writing to hello@oncewasyou.com; we respond within 72 hours. If you are a California resident, you have the right under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to know what personal information we hold about you and to request its deletion. We do not sell personal information for money. To turn off analytics and advertising measurement, see "Your privacy choices" above. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the email address above.