Privacy Policy | Palia Pal

The short version

Palia Pal works without an account. Your progress is saved on your own phone or computer.
We don't show ads, we don't sell or rent anyone's data, and we don't use tracking cookies.
If you sign in, we keep your email and a copy of your progress so it can sync between devices.
What you post for others to see (a trade listing, a garden plan, a cooking party) shows the in-game name you give it, never your email.
You can delete it all: Settings → Account → Delete account in the app, and /forget-me in Discord.

On your phone

Everything you tick, plan and set (collections, villagers, the garden planner, crafters, the shopping list, your settings) is stored in your browser or the app on your device. It doesn't leave your device unless you sign in, share something or turn on notifications. Pictures and game data are cached on your device so the app works offline.

The app also makes a random ID for your device. It isn't tied to your name, email or anything else about you. It's used so that things you post (a trade listing, a pile report) can be changed or taken down from the same device, and so one device can only report or vote once. On our server it's stored scrambled (hashed).

If you sign in

Accounts are optional. You sign in with a 6-digit code sent to your email; there's no password. With an account we keep:

Your email address, to send sign-in codes. We don't send newsletters or marketing.
A copy of your progress (the same thing that's on your phone), so it syncs between your devices.
Your profile: the in-game name and platform you enter, if you enter them. Other players can see these where you use them (trades, cooking parties, Hotpot, Discord /profile if you link Discord).
Hotpot: the online games you play and your wins, for "Your record" and the leaderboard (which shows the table name you chose, not your email). Only games with two or more people count there. For each online game you finish we also keep your points and what the game would have paid for them (gold, coins, envelopes), and which stickers you send at tables, which only we can see (as totals). If you turn on "your turn" notifications, the table keeps your phone's notification address until the game is cleared away, to tell you when it's your turn.
A linked Discord account, if you link one: which Discord user it is and their Discord name.
Live reader data, only after you approve connecting the Windows reader: your character identifier, gold, renown, focus, skill levels and XP, carried items and quality, player coordinates, loaded NPCs, creatures and gathering objects, relationship points, loaded quest and accomplishment progress, recipes, crafting history, fishing preview, game build and capture details. We retain the latest full capture and latest fishing preview, encrypted, until overwritten or you revoke the key or delete your account. This live data is private to your account and is not added to anonymous progress totals. Reader credentials permit uploads only. Device records retain only their hashes, encrypted. The delivery credential is encrypted temporarily until the reader confirms receipt or you disconnect it; minimal completion markers prevent replay and expire in daily cleanup. Connections expire after 30 days without renewal and can be revoked from Your character → Disconnect PC. Active readers renew their connection automatically. Windows encrypts the saved credential for your Windows user. Temporary connection requests expire after ten minutes; their encrypted delivery record is removed when the reader confirms it saved the connection, or when you disconnect it from your account. The reader does not upload game credentials or chat.

We look at progress only as anonymous totals (for example, how many players have a given plushie), and only for groups of players, never one person's save.

Things you share

These are public by design, tied to your device's random ID (or your account), and show only what you choose to put on them:

Trade market listings and offers: your in-game name and the items on your list. Listings go after 7 days; offers after 7 days without a change.
Community garden plans: the plan, its name and the in-game name you give it, until you take it down.
Parties you host (cooking, hunts, Spiritfest runs…): what it is, the time, place, note, any Discord link and your in-game name and platform, shown to everyone (and posted to Discord channels that follow Palia Pal parties). When you sign up for one (signed in), the host and the others signed up see your in-game name, platform and role, and the quick messages and stickers you send there; everyone else sees only how many are going. A World ID the host adds is shown only to people signed up. The host also sees when each person signed up, the waiting list, who left, and their own attendance ticks (came / no-show), which only they see. If you're a Palia Pal Supporter, we keep that you are one (with your in-game name) and the pictures you add (a logo, an overlay background, a party banner), shown to everyone who sees your overlay, your parties or your host page, until you take them off, your supporter status ends (then they're hidden) or you delete your account (then they're deleted). Reports of a picture are kept per device, as a hash. A host can ban an account from all their parties, including by typing an in-game name (every account with that name): we keep that ban (the account and its in-game name) until they lift it or either account is deleted. Your party record is kept as counts under a stand-in for your account (never the account id): parties you hosted that someone came to, "Thanks for hosting" taps, and the hosts' came / no-show ticks for you. Anyone can see a host's record; a host sees the record of the people who sign up. Deleting your account deletes your record (thank-yous you gave stay as anonymous counts on the host's). Following a host keeps a stand-in for that host (never their account id) with your notification address; blocking a host stays on your phone. "Add my parties to my calendar" makes a private calendar link that lists the parties you're in; anyone you give the link to can see that list. The host can take you off a party. Leaving takes your sign-up and messages off; parties are deleted a week after they end (finished ones are listed for that week). Older cooking parties count "I'm coming" per device.
Rummage pile reports ("Where was it?"): which spot, for which region, on which day. No free text. Kept 3 days.
Reports of a listing, plan or party: which device reported it, so it counts once.
"Something missing? Let us know!" and feedback: the list, item name and note you type, for us to fix our data, kept with your device's scrambled ID and, if you were signed in, your account, so My feedback can show you our reply on any device you sign in on. Deleting your account takes it off the account (the text stays, by device only).
Showcase posts you make (signed in): the title, the note, the tag, the pictures you add and, for a repost, the maker's name and the link you give, shown to everyone with your in-game name and platform. A stand-in for your account (never the account id) ties them to you. A sticker reaction keeps a scrambled form of this phone's random ID with the sticker, so a phone counts once; reports are kept per device, as a hash. You can take a post down any time; posts go after about four months with their reactions and pictures, and deleting your account deletes them at once.
Home tours you list (signed in): the name, the about text, tags, a goal for the week, the reaction counts and the event countdown you copy from your Tour Board, and pictures you add, with your in-game name and platform, shown to everyone this week (the counts and countdowns of every listing are also added up into this week's reactions and end time). A stand-in for your account (never the account id) ties them to you. When you mark a home as toured, we keep a scrambled form of this phone's random ID with the reaction you picked, so a phone counts once; if you're signed in, a stand-in for your account too, which only that home's owner sees (as your home's name and your in-game name, when your own home is listed that week), so they can tour you back. Reports are kept per device, as a hash. You can take your home off the list any time; homes, tours and reports go about two weeks after their week ends, with any picture no listed home uses, and deleting your account deletes them at once.
Error reports: when sending a sign-in code, signing in or saving to your account fails on our side, the app tells us what failed and the error our account service gave (with any email address cut out), plus a scrambled form of this phone's random ID so one phone counts once. No account, name or email. Kept 14 days.
Taps on Palia Party and Palia Trading links: counted once per device per party or listing per day, so we can tell their maker how many people we send. Kept 90 days.
Taps on Twitch channels in Social → Streams: which channel, counted once per device per channel per day, so we can see which streamers people go to watch. Kept 90 days.
Taps on Join for a Discord server in Social → Servers: which server, counted once per device per server per day, so we can see which servers people go to. Kept 90 days.

Anonymous totals

When you're not signed in, the app sends a summary of your ticks at most once a day (for example, which fish you've caught, which plushies you own, which crops are in your garden plans), so our totals count everyone and not just accounts. It carries no name, notes, email or device ID. Every phone, signed in or not, also counts what gets done in the app each day, as plain numbers with no items, names or IDs (for example "3 fish ticked, 1 search, 1 picture shared"). It sends today's counts every few minutes while the app is open, we keep one file per phone per day, and each night the day's files are added into one total for everyone and deleted; only those daily totals stay (up to about 13 months). The same counts go to Vercel Web Analytics as events, which are anonymous too. You can turn both off in Settings → Anonymous totals, which also deletes what was sent (and this phone's counts not yet added up). We also count page views with Vercel Web Analytics, which is anonymous and uses no cookies.

Pictures you make

When you make a picture to share in the app (a trade request, a shelf, your progress, a garden plan, a sticker board, a Hotpot result, the Twitch Drops rewards, your bulletin board…), the app sends us a copy, scaled down. We keep it for 30 days with a code for the phone it came from (not your name, email or account), check it for abuse, and look at what people make so we can improve the pictures. A copy shows whatever is on the picture, which can include your in-game name and lists. We don't publish or sell them. Settings → Copies of pictures you make → Don't send stops it and deletes your phone's copies.

Notifications

If you turn on notifications, we keep your browser's push address and the list of what to notify you about and when (crafters finishing, resets, world events, Maji Market, Hotpot tables opening, parties you're in). For a party you host or signed up for, the party also keeps that push address and which party notifications you want (changes, announcements, chat, sign-ups), so they reach you; nobody else sees it, and it goes when you leave or the party is deleted. If you ask to hear about new parties (for example cooking or a certain dish), we keep that push address with what you follow, not tied to an account; it goes when you unfollow everything, turn notifications off, or after 90 days without the app renewing it. They're delivered through your browser's push service (Apple, Google or Mozilla). Turning notifications off deletes both.

Discord

The Palia Pal bot keeps only what its features need, tied to your Discord user ID:

Giveaways: that you entered, whether you won, for winner's-choice giveaways the plushies or pods you pick, and the in-game name and platform a winner adds so the prize can be sent. Deleted 30 days after a giveaway ends (once every prize is sent).
/lfg and /party: who posted a group and who joined, so everyone can be pinged when it starts. Deleted a week after it starts.
/parties: works through your linked Palia Pal account, so it's the same party record as in the app (see Things you share). For a party hosted in a channel we also keep which channel and message its card is, and people signed up who linked Discord are pinged there for announcements and at the start.
/report: rummage pile reports, like the app's, kept 3 days.
Linked accounts and Linked Roles: which Palia Pal account is yours, and (for Linked Roles) Discord's sign-in tokens, encrypted, so your roles stay up to date. /profile shows only your in-game name, platform and collection totals, never your email or save.
Server features (/setup, /community list, /managed): the channel, what to post, the server's listing (name, invite, description, member count) and who set it up. These belong to the server.

The bot doesn't read your messages. The one exception is a channel in our own server that follows Palia's official announcements, for the app's news page: we read the announcements posted there, nothing else.

Type /forget-me to delete all of this. Messages already posted in a channel are Discord's; the server's managers can delete them.

Services we use

We don't sell or share personal information for advertising. These companies process data for us to run Palia Pal:

Vercel: hosting, storage and anonymous analytics.
Supabase: accounts, synced progress, Hotpot and parties.
Discord: the bot and its features, and payments for the Server tier.
Google Fonts: your browser loads the app's fonts from Google, which sees your IP address.
Push services (Apple, Google, Mozilla): delivering notifications you turned on.

Game information comes from the Palia wiki and other public sources, fetched by our server, not your device. Public listings from Palia Trading are fetched by our server and matched on your device against what you've ticked; nothing about you is sent to Palia Trading unless you open a link to it. Links to other sites (the wiki, Palia Party, Palia Trading, Discord servers) follow those sites' own privacy policies.

Deleting your data

Your account: Settings → Account → Delete account. This deletes your account, synced progress, profile, Hotpot record and game rewards, Discord link, the parties you host and your sign-ups and messages on other people's parties. Discord channels you set up keep posting for their server, without your name on them.
Discord: /forget-me.
Live reader: Your character → Disconnect PC disables its uploads and deletes the latest stored capture and fishing preview. Deleting your account also revokes the key and deletes that capture. Imported snapshot files are part of your ordinary saved progress and can remain on your device.
Your phone: clearing the app's or site's data removes everything stored on your device. Listings and plans you posted can be taken down in the app first.
Anonymous totals: Settings → Anonymous totals → off.
Copies of pictures you make: Settings → Copies of pictures you make → Don't send (this phone's copies are deleted).
Anything else: email hello@paliapal.com and we'll do it by hand.

Children

Palia Pal isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you're under 13, please don't make an account or use the Discord features. If you think a child has given us personal information, email hello@paliapal.com and we'll delete it.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, and we won't treat you differently for asking. Most of it you can do yourself (above). For anything else, email hello@paliapal.com. California residents: we don't sell or share personal information, as those words are used in the CCPA.

We protect what we keep: connections are encrypted, Discord webhook links and sign-in tokens are stored encrypted, device IDs are stored hashed, and each person can only reach their own account's data.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top and, for big changes, say so in the app's What's new.

Radish Softworks · hello@paliapal.com