Privacy Policy

Last updated November 1, 2026

Who we are

Panel Pals is run by CER LLC, in the United States, which is responsible for your information (the “controller”, in GDPR terms). Contact us at support@panelpals.com. Panel Pals isn’t aimed at people in the EU or UK, but if you use it from there, the rights described below apply to you.

What we collect

• Account details: your name, username, email address and password. Passwords are stored scrambled (hashed), so nobody, including us, can read them. We also record who invited you. If you sign in with Google, Google tells us your name, email address and an ID for your Google account (never your Google password), and you may not have a Panel Pals password at all.
• Your date of birth, to check you’re old enough to join and to hide files marked NSFW (18+) from anyone under 18. It’s never shown to other members.
• What you put on Panel Pals: files, folders, links, notes, desktop backgrounds, wall posts, comments, likes, messages, your profile photo and About details, and who your pals are.
• Technical information: your IP address (used briefly to stop people guessing passwords or flooding the site), a sign-in cookie, and basic server logs (such as errors and when pages were requested).
• Settings kept in your browser, such as your preferred view or equalizer settings. These stay on your device and aren’t sent to us.
• Photo locations are removed. Photos and videos usually record where they were taken. Panel Pals removes that location on your device before uploading, so we don’t receive it.

Cookies and tracking

Panel Pals uses one cookie, to keep you signed in. It’s strictly necessary for the site to work, so it doesn’t need a separate consent. We don’t use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, we don’t follow you across other websites, and we don’t buy information about you from anyone.

How we use it

• To run Panel Pals: show your desktop, wall and profile, deliver messages, make previews, and let pals save copies of what you share.
• To keep it safe: prevent abuse, review reports, enforce our Terms, and keep the site secure.
• To contact you about your account, for example password reset emails and important changes to these policies.
• To fix problems and improve the Service.

If you’re in the European Economic Area or the UK, our legal bases are: providing the Service you signed up for (contract), keeping it safe and working well (our legitimate interests), meeting legal obligations, and your consent where we ask for it. We don’t make automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

Who can see your information

• The people you choose. You choose who can access each folder (everyone, all your pals, selected pals, or only you) and whether it’s visible to people who can’t open it (they see only its name, with a lock). Each About detail has its own setting. Your name, username and profile photo can be seen by other members so they can find you.
• Pals can keep copies. When pals can see a file, they can save a copy, download it or attach it to posts and messages. Copies stay with them even if you delete the original.
• Panel Pals staff, only when needed: to review reported content, investigate abuse, provide support you’ve asked for, or keep the Service working.
• Companies that run parts of the Service for us: Google Cloud and Firebase (hosting, database and file storage, in the United States) and Namecheap Private Email (to send account emails such as password resets). They may only use your information to provide their service to us.
• Google, if you sign in with Google. You sign in on Google’s own page, and Google’s privacy policy applies to that. Google learns that you signed in to Panel Pals; we learn only the details above.
• KLIPY, for GIFs. When you search for a GIF, your browser sends your search words and an anonymous ID (not your name or email) straight to KLIPY, and GIFs are shown from KLIPY’s servers, which can see your device’s IP address. KLIPY’s own privacy policy applies to that.
• Websites you link to. When you add a link, Panel Pals fetches that page once to make a preview, and pages or players shown in the viewer (such as YouTube) load from those sites.
• When the law requires it, or to protect someone’s safety, for example reporting child sexual abuse material to the authorities.
• If Panel Pals is ever sold or merged, your information would pass to the new owner under this policy.

We never sell your personal information, and we don’t share it for advertising. Panel Pals’ servers are in the United States, where your information is stored. If you use it from elsewhere (including the EEA or UK), your information is transferred to the US; our providers protect such transfers with the safeguards the law requires, such as standard contractual clauses.

How long we keep it

• Your content stays until you delete it or close your account. Deleted files are removed from storage once no one else’s copy still uses them.
• When you close your account we delete your account and content within 30 days, apart from copies pals have saved, which are theirs.
• Backups and logs expire on their own, usually within 30 days. We may keep information longer if the law requires it or for an open investigation.

Your choices and rights

• You can change your profile, privacy settings and content at any time, and download your files.
• You can ask us for a copy of your information (including in a portable format), to correct it, to delete it, or to limit or object to how we use it, by emailing support@panelpals.com from the address on your account. We’ll reply within 30 days. We won’t treat you differently for using these rights.
• EEA and UK: you have the rights above under the GDPR, and can complain to your local data protection authority. California: you have the right to know, correct and delete your information, and we don’t sell or share it. Other US states give similar rights; ask and we’ll honour them.

Children

Panel Pals isn’t for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, tell us and we’ll delete it.

Security

Connections to Panel Pals are encrypted, files are only reachable through short-lived links given to people allowed to see them, and passwords are hashed. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a password you don’t use anywhere else.

Changes to this policy

If we make important changes we’ll tell you on Panel Pals, and ask you to accept them, before they apply to you.

Contact us

Questions about this page, or anything on Panel Pals: support@panelpals.com.

Panel Pals is operated by CER LLC.