Palz
Privacy Policy
PRIVACY POLICY
Effective Date: August 11, 2026
Last Updated: October 23, 2026
KGN Productions ("Palz", "we", "our", or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use the Palz mobile application and related services.
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1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT
1.1 Information You Provide
• Account information: email address, password (hashed), date of birth, gender identity
• Profile information: display name, biography, pronouns, profile photo, interests, seeking preferences, and any Instagram or Spotify link you choose to add
• Meetup check-in: the safety contacts you add (a pal, or a name and email address) and the details of each check-in you start (who you're meeting, where, and when you'll check in)
• Onboarding questionnaire responses used to compute compatibility scores
• Messages and content you share with other users
• Communications you send to us (e.g., support requests)
1.2 Information Collected Automatically
• Precise GPS location, collected only while the app is OPEN — when you have made yourself discoverable, while a Meetup check-in you started is running, or when you choose to send your location in a chat. We do not collect your location in the background.
• Device information: device model, operating system, unique device identifiers
• Usage data: features accessed, interactions taken, session duration
• Log data: IP address, access times, app crashes
• Push notification tokens (Expo/FCM) for delivering notifications
1.3 Information from Third Parties
• If you choose to sign in via Google, Apple, or Facebook, we receive basic profile information (name, email, profile photo) from those providers in accordance with their privacy policies.
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2. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
We use the information we collect to:
• Create and maintain your account
• Operate the proximity detection engine and notify you when compatible users are nearby
• Compute compatibility scores based on your questionnaire responses and profile
• Facilitate connections, profile sharing, and direct messaging between users
• Deliver push notifications about proximity matches and interactions
• Enforce our Terms of Service, including blocking and safety features
• Analyze usage patterns and improve the Service
• Respond to your support requests and communications
• Comply with legal obligations
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents
We do NOT use your information for:
• Selling your personal data to third parties
• Displaying third-party advertisements within the app
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3. HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION
3.1 With Other Users. When you are discoverable, your proximity (not your exact location) and profile information is shared with nearby compatible users. Your exact GPS coordinates are never shared with other users — only approximate distance and compatibility score — unless you choose to send your location to someone in a chat (section 4.5). Instagram and Spotify links you add are shown only to your pals.
3.1A With Your Safety Contacts. If you start a Meetup check-in and do not check in in time, or you press "I need help", we send the safety contacts you chose (by notification or email) your name, who you said you were meeting, where, when you were due to check in, and your most recent location as a map link. This happens only because you started the check-in. When you add someone by email, we email them once to say you added them.
3.1B Shared Links to Posts. When you or anyone else shares a link to one of your posts outside Palz (for example on Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp), the post's photo, or a still frame of its video, and its caption are shown in that link's preview and on the page the link opens, to anyone who sees the link, whether or not they use Palz. Your name and profile photo are not included. Stories are previewed only while they are up (24 hours), or while you keep them in a highlight on your profile. Posts hidden by moderation and posts from paused or deactivated accounts are never previewed. Other apps may keep their own copy of a preview after you delete the post; deleting it in Palz removes it from our page.
3.2 Service Providers. We share information with trusted third-party vendors who assist us in operating the Service:
• Supabase (database hosting and file storage) — United States
• Firebase/Google (push notifications) — United States
• LiveKit (voice and video call infrastructure) — United States
• Resend (transactional email) — United States
• Railway (server hosting and Redis caching) — United States
• Google Cloud Vision (automated screening of uploaded images for nudity and graphic violence) — United States
• Sentry (crash and error diagnostics; configured not to send personal data) — United States
• Ticketmaster and OpenStreetMap (receive an approximate location in order to return nearby events and venues; they receive no account or profile data) — United States / Europe
• GIPHY (GIF and sticker search: our server sends it the words you search for, and your device loads the images from GIPHY, which sees your device's IP address; it receives no account or profile data) — United States
All service providers are bound by contractual obligations to protect your data and may not use it for their own purposes.
3.3 Legal Requirements. We may disclose your information if required to do so by law, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, the safety of our users, or the public.
3.4 Business Transfers. If KGN Productions is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email and/or prominent notice in the app before your data is transferred to a different privacy policy.
3.5 With Your Consent. We may share your information for any other purpose with your explicit consent.
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4. LOCATION DATA
4.1 How We Use Location. We use your precise, real-time GPS location exclusively to:
(a) detect when compatible users are physically near you;
(b) calculate distances shown on match notifications; and
(c) enforce proximity-gated features; and
(d) if you start a Meetup check-in, tell the safety contacts you chose where you were last, should you miss your check-in or ask for help; and
(e) if you send your location in a chat, show that one spot to the person you sent it to.
4.2 Location Storage. Your most recent location is stored in our database and updated continuously while the app is active. We do not store your full location history beyond what is necessary to operate the Service.
4.3 Background Location. The app does NOT request "Always On" (background) location, and the Android permission for it is not included in the app. Proximity detection runs only while Palz is open. If we add background detection later, we will ask for that permission separately, explain it before asking, and update this policy first.
4.4 Location Sharing with Users. Apart from the Meetup check-in alerts you set up yourself (section 3.1A) and a location you choose to send in a chat (section 4.5), we never share your exact GPS coordinates with other users. We only share: (a) whether you are within another user's configured proximity radius; and (b) a deliberately coarsened distance. Distances between people are reported in wide bands (for example "within 500m" or "within 1km") rather than exactly, so repeated readings cannot be combined to work out where you live.
4.5 Sending Your Location in a Chat. You can send a pal your current location from a chat. Before anything is sent, the app shows you the address it found and asks you to confirm. It is a single pin, sent as a message: it does not update if you move, and nothing runs in the background. To show a street address, your phone's built-in address lookup (Google's, on Android) turns the coordinates into an address. The location is kept like any other message — until you or your pal delete it, a disappearing-messages timer removes it, or your account is deleted.
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5. DATA RETENTION
• Account data is retained for as long as your account is active.
• Upon account deletion, your personal data (profile, messages, posts, location) is deleted within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.
• Meetup check-ins, including the location attached to them, are deleted 30 days after they are started. Safety contacts are kept until you remove them.
• Stories are automatically deleted after 24 hours.
• Disappearing messages: when a chat has disappearing messages turned on (24 hours, 7 days or 90 days), messages sent after that are deleted from our servers, with their photos and videos, shortly after their time runs out. A message that someone reported is kept, as a copy attached to the report, so it can still be reviewed.
• Aggregated, anonymized analytics data may be retained indefinitely.
• Certain data may be retained in backup systems for up to 90 days after deletion.
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6. YOUR RIGHTS
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:
• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Deletion: Request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
• Portability: Request a machine-readable export of your data.
• Restriction: Request that we limit the processing of your data.
• Objection: Object to certain processing activities, including profiling.
• Withdraw Consent: Withdraw your consent at any time where processing is based on consent.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at legal@palzapp.com. We will respond within 30 days.
California Residents (CCPA/CPRA): You have the right to know, delete, and opt-out of sale of personal information. We do not sell personal information.
EEA/UK Residents (GDPR/UK GDPR): Our lawful basis for processing is performance of a contract (account operation), legitimate interests (safety, fraud prevention, service improvement), and your consent (location access, marketing).
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7. SECURITY
We implement industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including:
• TLS encryption for all data in transit
• Bcrypt hashing for passwords (never stored in plain text)
• Row-level security on our database
• Access controls limiting employee access to personal data
However, no system is completely secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information and encourage you to use a strong, unique password.
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8. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
The Service is not directed to individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have collected data from a person under 18, we will delete that information immediately. If you believe we have collected data from a minor, please contact us at legal@palzapp.com.
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9. THIRD-PARTY LINKS AND SERVICES
The Service may contain links to third-party websites or integrate with third-party services (e.g., social login providers). This Privacy Policy does not apply to those third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services you access.
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10. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting the new policy in the app and updating the "Effective Date." Your continued use of the Service after any change constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.
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11. CONTACT US
If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact:
KGN Productions
Email: legal@palzapp.com
For EEA/UK residents, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.