Privacy notes

What we collect

• Orders: when you buy from our shop, Shopify collects your name, address, email and payment details to process the order. We see the order details but never your card number. Shopify's own privacy policy applies to checkout.
• Emails: our contact, custom-part and free-keychain forms send your message to us through our website host (Vercel) and email service (Resend); see Data & AI. We receive whatever you choose to send us, and we use it only to reply and to send your stuff.
• Robot helpers: questions you type into the Reachy chat and toy ideas you give the Imaginator (our AI toy maker) are sent to Thinking Humans, a separate company that Joseph's dad also runs, whose computers do the actual chat and toy-design work (with Anthropic as a backup for chat if those computers are busy). Please do not type personal details into the robots; they do not need them. The one exception is the Imaginator's name-tag tab, where a first name is the whole point; see below.
• Talking to the Imaginator: the microphone button uses your browser's own speech recognition (in Chrome and Edge that is Google's speech service; in Safari, Apple's). Your voice goes to that service under its rules, not to us; only the words it returns reach the Lab. Typing works exactly the same if you would rather not use the microphone.
• Hosting logs and analytics: our host (Vercel) keeps standard technical logs (like IP addresses) to run and protect the site, and runs its privacy-friendly analytics so we can see which pages get read: no ads, no ad trackers. We also use Google Analytics to see which pages get read and how visitors find us. It sets cookies and sends Google your IP address, device and browser details and the pages you visit. We have switched off Google signals, ad personalization and Google’s optional data sharing, so it is not used for ads. You can block it with Google’s opt-out add-on or your browser’s tracker blocking. The Lab's own toy computer keeps a fairness log of Imaginator taps (viewed, loved, printed) with a daily-changing code in place of your address, kept 30 days.
• "Text me back" form: the form on our help page takes your mobile number and your note and sends you one text from (512) 399-2625 through Quo, our phone service. What happens after that is under Texts and calls below.
• Referrals: if a friend writes your name or email in their order notes for the Lab Friends deal on our give back page, Shopify keeps it with that order and we use it only to send you your own code. Ask and we delete it.
• My Lab: the one account on the site, opened by a grown-up; see My Lab accounts below.

How our AI works with your data

Training policy: The Lab never trains on visitor or child interactions. Any future model learns only from the Lab's own photographs and prints.

• What gets processed: text you type into the Reachy chat, the toy idea and color choices you make in the Imaginator, and the name you type into the name-tag tab. The Lab keeps this to run the Imaginator and to let Joseph review and print your toy: not to train a model on it. Nothing else on the site is sent to an AI system.
• Who processes it: Thinking Humans, a separate company Joseph's dad also runs, processes it first on its own computers; Anthropic (Claude) is the backup for chat and custom-part quotes, under their commercial API terms. Under those terms, API inputs and outputs are not used to train Anthropic's models. Our serverless functions may keep short-lived technical logs for debugging and abuse prevention; we do not build profiles of visitors.
• The Lab computers: we also operate our own AI hardware for developing the Lab's toy-design pipeline. Any future training happens only on the Lab's own photographs and prints, not on visitor conversations or toy ideas. If that ever changes, this policy will change first.
• Name tags: the name-tag tab needs a name so it can build the letters. Use a first name or a nickname only, never a full name, and never anyone else's. The Lab stores the name with the model it built so Joseph can print the right one, and deletes it with the rest of the job on the schedule below. Names are never published on the site, never put on the printed-toys shelf, and never used for marketing. Ask us and we will delete one straight away.
• How long the Lab keeps a toy: a preview you did not ask to print is deleted after 7 days. A print request (the toy, your color choices and the grown-up's email) is kept 30 days so Joseph can print it. A toy that was printed, or that a parent agreed to put on the printed-toys shelf, is kept for as long as it is shown or sold, so its passport and shelf card keep working. Every version of a toy's colors and size that a grown-up approved is kept with it, so what was approved can always be compared with what was printed. Our nightly backups follow the same schedule with a delay of up to 30 days.
• Photos: the Imaginator's "From a photo" mode turns a picture of a toy, drawing, pet or thing into a design. The Lab's own computers check every photo first and refuse anything that shows a person. A photo of a child, even the child's own photo, counts as personal information under the law whether or not we keep it, which is why we check for people and always delete, rather than relying on either rule alone. Accepted or refused, the photo is held only in memory, never written to a disk, and is gone the instant your design is drawn or your photo is turned away. We keep only the fact that a photo was used, never the picture itself.
• Print requests: if you ask the Lab to print your toy, you can optionally give a grown-up's email address so Joseph can reply about printing and pickup. It is used only for that conversation, is never shared or used for marketing, and you can ask us to delete it any time.
• AI mistakes: robot answers and quotes are estimates and can be wrong. A grown-up approves the exact revision before anything prints, and every real quote and order before anything is charged.

What we do not do

• No ads and no ad trackers. We count visits with Vercel's analytics and Google Analytics, with Google's advertising features switched off. We do not sell or rent anyone's information.
• We do not send marketing emails or texts you did not ask for.

Kids and privacy (COPPA)

This site is built for families to use together, and it is run for shopping by grown-ups. We collect as little as possible on purpose: the one account here, My Lab, is a grown-up's password-free email-code sign-in, never a child's; no ads and no ad trackers; forms marked for grown-ups. The one place a first name is the point, the Imaginator’s name-tag tab, asks kids to get a grown-up before typing, uses the name only to shape the letters, never publishes it, and deletes it on schedule. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13. Kids: if a form asks for a name, email, phone number or address, a grown-up sends it. Parents: if you believe a child sent us personal information, email joseph@texastoylab.com and we will delete it straight away.

My Lab accounts

Grown-ups can open a My Lab account to track a child's progress on Learn with Joseph and collect Lab Points. Signing in uses a one-time code sent to the grown-up's email; there is no password. We store the email, an optional first name for the child, lesson progress, points and badges on the grown-up's customer record in Shopify. Nothing is shared with anyone else, and emailing joseph@texastoylab.com deletes the account and everything on it.

Texts and calls

Our number is (512) 399-2625 on Quo, our phone service. If you text or call it we keep the conversation (your number, what was said, when) so a grown-up can reply and so we can see what we promised.

Here is exactly what happens. A text gets an automatic acknowledgement at once. A missed call gets an automatic text asking you to text us.

Routine replies (shipping times, market dates, order questions) are drafted by the Lab's software from the facts on this site, checked by a second model, and sent after a five-minute window in which a grown-up can pull them; at most three automatic replies go to any number in a day. Anything unusual, and every voicemail, waits for a grown-up.

Replies come from the same number. We text you only because you texted or called first, plus one reminder before each market if you texted MARKET. Reply STOP to any text and we stop for good; START restarts. We never sell or share these numbers, and we never use texts to train anything.

How approvals work here: Anything new, and anything with money in it, gets its own yes from a grown-up. A short list of routine things (social posts from the approved queue, routine inbox replies, market reminders, routine texts) goes out under standing rules after a pull window: fifteen minutes, five for texts.

Your choices

Email joseph@texastoylab.com any time to ask what we have about you or to have it deleted (except records the law makes us keep, like sales records).

Who we are

The full register: every outside service that processes data for us, the complete AI stack behind our robots, and our training statement live on one public page: Data & AI at the Lab. We keep it current and date every change.

Texas Toy Lab is a business registered in the State of Texas, State Entity ID 806761598. Mailing address: 5900 Balcones Drive #26249, Austin, TX 78731, US.