Effective July 4, 2026
Story Distiller has no sign-up, no login, and asks for no name, email, or payment details. There is no user database because there are no users to store.
When you distill a book, the title you typed travels over HTTPS to our server, which forwards it to Anthropic (the maker of Claude) to generate the summary. If you press Listen and AI narration is enabled, the summary text is sent to OpenAI to synthesize audio. These providers process the text to produce a response, subject to their own privacy policies.
When you distill a movie, the title travels to Anthropic (to generate the pitch) and to OMDb, a third-party movie database, to confirm the title and pull basic facts. If you've unlocked the paid Where to Watch feature and use it, the title is also sent to the Streaming Availability API (Movie of the Night) to look up real streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.
Generated summaries and movie pitches are kept briefly in server memory (up to 24 hours) so that repeat requests for the same title are instant. This cache is never written to disk or a database, is not linked to you in any way, and evaporates automatically.
The "Recent" list on the home page is stored in your browser's local storage — on your device only. It never leaves your browser and we cannot see it. Clear it anytime through your browser's site-data settings.
If you volunteer your email address to get the weekly picks digest, it is stored (only that — no name, no account, nothing else) so we can send you that email. It is used for no other purpose, is never sold or shared beyond the provider used to deliver the email (Resend), and every email includes a one-click unsubscribe link that removes it immediately. Not signing up means we never see or store your email at all.
The site uses Vercel Web Analytics, a privacy-friendly, cookie-free analytics service that reports anonymous, aggregated page-view counts (e.g., how many people visited today, from which country). It does not use cookies, does not fingerprint you, and does not track you across other sites.
Our hosting platform (Vercel) keeps standard, short-lived operational logs used only for debugging and abuse prevention. These may transiently include query text and IP addresses, are never linked to an identity, and expire automatically per the platform's retention policy.
The only parties that process any data are: Anthropic (summary and movie pitch generation), OpenAI (optional narration), OMDb (movie title lookup and facts), the Streaming Availability API (only if you've unlocked and use Where to Watch), Resend (only if you sign up for the weekly picks email), and Vercel (hosting and anonymous analytics). We sell nothing to anyone — there is nothing to sell.
If this policy changes, the effective date above will be updated. Questions? Use the Feedback page.