Effective date: July 1, 2026
We keep this short because the service is simple: you send a card, someone receives it. Here is what we collect and why.
1. What we collect
From you (the buyer):
- Your name, email and password when you make an account.
- Your message, your video, and the card you chose.
- Your mailing address if you buy a card for yourself or a kit.
- Payment is handled by Stripe; we receive a confirmation and the last four digits of the card, never the full number.
- The family members and dates you choose to add for reminders (names, relationship, dates, and an email if you add one).
About the person you send a card to (the recipient):
- Their name, and either their mailing address or their email, only to deliver the card.
- Whether the card was opened or the video watched, so we can show you it arrived.
- If they send a video back: their name, email and video.
From everyone who visits:
- Standard technical information: browser type, pages visited, and approximate region from your IP address. We use it to keep the site working and to spot abuse. We don't run advertising trackers.
If you use Penpals to exchange letters, we also collect your profile (username, photo, intro video, interests, languages, country), your matching preferences, your letters and their translations, and — only if you turn on letters by post — your mailing address. Photos are checked against public web images (Google) and for duplicates; videos are checked by automated services for content and to confirm the face matches your photo. We keep only the results, not face data. If you have questions about the third-party services we use to verify accounts, contact us — that information is available on request.
2. How we use it
- To make and deliver your card, and to play your video for the person you sent it to.
- To email you about your order: confirmations, "your card was emailed", a bounce, a reply.
- To remind you about the occasions you've added, if you've added any.
- To review videos for the rules in the Terms, automatically and by a person when needed.
- To answer you when you write to support.
We don't sell your information. We don't use your videos to train anything, advertise to you, or show them to anyone but the person you sent the card to (and our staff, when a video needs review or you ask for help).
3. Who we share it with
Only the companies that help us run the service, and only what they need:
- Stripe — payment, and identity checks for the Verified badge (we keep only the result).
- Our printing partner — the recipient's name and address, the card front, and your message, to print and post the card.
- Our address-checking partner — the recipient's address, to check it's deliverable.
- Amazon Web Services — storing and converting videos, and sending email.
- Google — checking profile photos against public web images.
- Our verification and translation partners — checking videos and translating letters; details on request.
- Law enforcement, if the law requires it.
4. Email
- When you send an email card, the recipient's email shows your name as the sender and replies go to your email address, so they can write back to you.
- Anyone can stop receiving cards from Penpals with the "Stop these" link in any card email. We keep a list of those addresses so we don't email them again.
- Order emails and reminders come from Penpals. Reminder emails have a stop link.
5. How long we keep things
- Videos: two years from sending, then deleted — unless you buy Keeper. See the Terms, section 6.
- Orders and messages: for as long as you have an account, and 7 years for the payment record itself (not the video), as required for our books.
- Recipient addresses and emails: kept with the order record; we don't use them for anything else.
- Family list: until you remove the person or close your account.
- Reply videos from people without an account: same two years as any video.
6. Children
Penpals accounts are for adults. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. Videos often include children recorded by their parents or grandparents; the adult who records and sends is responsible for having the right to do so. If you think a child's video was sent without permission, email support@penpals.com and we'll remove it.
7. Your choices
- See, fix or delete your information: email support@penpals.com. We'll confirm who you are and act within 30 days.
- Delete your account: same address, or Account → "Delete my account". Your account, your family list, and your videos — including ones already delivered — are deleted. Cards already printed or emailed can't be recalled, but the video inside them will stop playing. Letters you've sent stay with the people you sent them to. For 90 days after deletion we keep a sealed, encrypted copy of your letters, your profile text and any reports, opened only to answer a legal request, then destroyed.
- Recipients: if someone sent you a card and you want your name and address removed, email us.
- Residents of California and other states with privacy laws have the right to know what we hold, to delete it, and not to be discriminated against for asking. We don't sell personal information, so there's nothing to opt out of.
8. Security
Videos and data are stored encrypted with Amazon Web Services in the United States. Video links are signed and expire. Staff access is limited to what's needed to run the service and review videos.
9. Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll email account holders before it takes effect.
10. Contact
Penpals Media LLC · Rigby, Idaho · support@penpals.com