Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to InstantPalette, a free color palette generator ("we," "our," or "us"). We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you have a positive experience on our website instantpalette.com (the "Site").

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website and use our color palette generation tool. Please read this privacy policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this privacy policy, please do not access the site.

We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. We will alert you about any changes by updating the "Last updated" date of this Privacy Policy. You are encouraged to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed of updates.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide

Our website operates entirely in your browser and does not require you to create an account or provide personal information. The Site has no sign-up, login, or contact forms. We only receive information you choose to send us:

• Email: If you email us, we receive your email address and the content of your message.
• Feedback: Any feedback, comments, or suggestions you voluntarily provide about our service.

2.2 Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our Site, certain information about your device and your visit is received automatically by our hosting provider and by Google's advertising services (see Third-Party Services below). InstantPalette itself does not currently run analytics or tracking scripts.

• Log Data: IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages viewed, time spent on pages, and access times.
• Device Information: Device type, screen resolution, and device identifiers.
• Cookies and Tracking Technologies: Google uses cookies and similar technologies to show and measure ads and to remember your consent choices (see Cookies section below).

2.3 Local Storage Data

The palette generator uses your browser's Local Storage to remember your work between visits. It uses these keys:

• Palette History (paletteHistory): The last 10 color palettes you generated, with the harmony mode, number of colors, and time of each (stored locally in your browser only).
• Saved Palettes (savedPalettes): Color palettes you manually save using the "Save" button, with the same details (stored locally in your browser only).
• User Preferences (ip:prefs): Your theme (system, light, or dark), the color code format you chose (HEX, RGB, HSL, or OKLCH), whether single-key keyboard shortcuts are on, and how many times a first-visit tip has been shown.
• Current Palette (ip:current): The hex codes of the palette you last worked on, the tool that wrote them, and the time. This is how the color tools hand a palette to each other, so opening the contrast checker or the shade generator starts from the colors you already have.

The color theory guide reads your most recent history palette to show it as a color strip. This also happens only in your browser.

Important: This data is stored only on your device and is never transmitted to our servers. You can delete individual palettes in the generator's Library, or clear all of it at any time by clearing your browser's local storage or using the browser's "Clear Browsing Data" feature.

2.4 Palette Links and Exports

• Palette Links: The generator keeps the current palette in the page address (for example instantpalette.com/?c=1d547c-d36c22-89b9dc) so you can bookmark or share it. The address contains only colors and palette settings, never personal information. Anyone you send a link to can see that palette, and, like any page address, it is sent to our hosting provider and may be visible to Google's advertising services when the page loads.
• Exports and Backups: CSS, PDF, and JSON files are created in your browser and saved to your device; they are not uploaded to us. Importing a backup file reads it in your browser only. The first time you export a PDF, your browser downloads the jsPDF library from a content delivery network (see section 5.3).

2.5 Images You Open in the Color Picker

A file you drop, choose or paste into the image color picker is decoded by your own browser and drawn onto an HTML canvas element on the page. No upload request is made, the file is never sent to us or to any third party, and nothing about the image is written to your browser’s Local Storage. Close the tab and the image is gone. Only the colors you choose to carry into another tool travel with you, and they travel in the page address as hex codes.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect or receive to:

• Provide and improve our services: To operate, maintain, and improve the InstantPalette color palette generator and color theory guide.
• Analyze usage: To understand, in aggregate, how the Site is used (for example, page view counts from our hosting provider and advertising reports from Google).
• Monitor performance: To detect and troubleshoot technical issues.
• Respond to you: To reply when you email us.
• Comply with legal obligations: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes.
• Display advertisements: To show ads through Google AdSense (see Advertising section below).

4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

4.1 What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. They help websites remember your preferences and improve your experience. Local Storage (section 2.3) is a similar browser feature, but the Site's Local Storage data never leaves your device.

4.2 Cookies We Use

InstantPalette's own code does not set any cookies. The cookies on this Site are set by Google:

• Advertising Cookies: Used by Google AdSense and its partners to show ads, limit how often you see the same ad, measure ad performance, and prevent fraud, and, where you allow it, to show personalized ads (see Advertising section below).
• Consent Cookies: Used by Google's consent message to remember the choices you made in it.

4.3 Managing Cookies

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to:

• View and delete cookies
• Block third-party cookies
• Block cookies from specific sites
• Block all cookies
• Delete all cookies when closing the browser

Note: The palette generator works without cookies. If you block cookies, ads may be less relevant and Google's consent message may appear again. Blocking all site data also blocks Local Storage, so your history, saved palettes, and preferences will not be kept.

4.4 Privacy & Cookie Settings

Depending on where you are (for example, in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland), Google may show a consent message when you first visit the Site. It lets you consent to, or manage, the use of cookies and personal data for advertising.

You can review or change your choices at any time with the Privacy & cookie settings link at the bottom of every page, which reopens Google's consent message where it is available to you. If an ad or content blocker stops Google's message from loading, the link shows a short notice instead; you can still manage cookies in your browser settings (section 4.3) and your Google ad settings (section 5.1).

5. Third-Party Services

5.1 Google AdSense

We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on our Site. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this Site or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this Site and/or other sites on the Internet. Google AdSense uses cookies and similar technologies to:

• Show personalized ads based on your browsing history, where you have allowed it
• Show contextually relevant ads based on the content you're viewing
• Measure ad performance and effectiveness
• Prevent fraud and improve ad security

Data Collected by Google: Google may collect information such as your IP address, browser type, device information, and browsing behavior across websites that use Google services.

Your Choices: Where Google's consent message is shown to you, your choices in it control how Google may use cookies and personal data for ads on this Site. You can change them at any time with Privacy & cookie settings (section 4.4).

Opting Out: You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting:

• Google Ads Settings
• Digital Advertising Alliance Opt-Out Page
• European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EU only)

How Google Uses Data: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services

Google's Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

5.2 Hosting

The Site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages. To deliver pages and protect the Site from abuse, Cloudflare processes technical request data such as your IP address, browser type, and the pages requested, under its own privacy policy. We do not currently use Google Analytics or any other analytics service.

5.3 Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

We use Content Delivery Networks to improve Site performance. When they deliver files, these services receive your IP address and browser details, and they may collect usage data according to their own privacy policies:

• Google Fonts: The typefaces used on every page are loaded from fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com (Google Privacy Policy).
• cdnjs: The jsPDF library is loaded from cdnjs.cloudflare.com only when you export a PDF (Cloudflare Privacy Policy).

6. Data Storage and Security

6.1 Where We Store Data

Since our application stores data locally in your browser using Local Storage:

• Palette data (history and saved palettes) and your preferences are stored only on your device
• We do not have access to this data
• This data is not transmitted to our servers
• You control this data and can delete it at any time

6.2 Security Measures

We implement security measures to protect your information:

• HTTPS Encryption: All connections to our Site are encrypted using SSL/TLS
• Secure Hosting: Our Site is hosted on reputable platforms with industry-standard security
• No Account System: We don't store passwords or sensitive personal information
• Minimal Data Collection: We only collect data necessary for Site functionality

Note: No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties. We may share information in the following situations:

• With Service Providers: We may share information with third-party service providers who perform services on our behalf (e.g., Google AdSense, our hosting provider, and content delivery networks).
• Legal Requirements: We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or government regulation.
• Business Transfers: If our Site is acquired or merged with another company, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction.
• With Your Consent: We may share information with your explicit consent.

8. Your Privacy Rights

8.1 General Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Deletion: Request deletion of your personal information (subject to legal obligations).
• Objection: Object to processing of your personal information for certain purposes.
• Data Portability: Request your data in a portable format.
• Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent for processing where we rely on consent.

8.2 California Privacy Rights (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

• Right to know what personal information is collected
• Right to know if personal information is sold or disclosed
• Right to opt-out of the sale of personal information
• Right to delete personal information
• Right to non-discrimination for exercising CCPA rights

Note: We do not sell personal information.

8.3 European Privacy Rights (GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

• Right to access your personal data
• Right to rectification of inaccurate data
• Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten")
• Right to restrict processing
• Right to data portability
• Right to object to processing
• Right to withdraw consent
• Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

8.4 Exercising Your Rights

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days of receiving your request.

Because your palettes and preferences stay in your browser, we cannot see, export, or delete them for you. You can export or delete them yourself in the generator's Library, or remove them with your browser settings. To withdraw consent for advertising cookies, use Privacy & cookie settings (section 4.4).

9. Children's Privacy

Our Site is not intended for children under the age of 13 (or 16 in the EEA). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or 16 in the EEA).

If you believe we have collected information from a child under the applicable age, please contact us immediately at [email protected] and we will take steps to delete such information.

10. International Data Transfers

Your information may be transferred to and maintained on servers located outside your country, where data protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction.

If you are located in the EEA and your data is transferred to countries outside the EEA, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your information in accordance with GDPR requirements.

11. Data Retention

We retain information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required by law.

• Local Storage Data: Stored in your browser until you delete it. Palette history keeps only your last 10 palettes; older ones are removed automatically.
• Advertising and Consent Cookies: Kept for the periods Google sets. You can delete them at any time in your browser.
• Server Logs: Technical request logs are kept by our hosting provider for security and troubleshooting purposes, under its own retention policy.

12. Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers have a "Do Not Track" (DNT) feature that signals to websites that you do not want your online activity tracked. Our Site does not currently respond to DNT signals because there is no industry standard for how to interpret them.

13. Links to Other Websites

Our Site may contain links to third-party websites or services that are not operated by us. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of every site you visit.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. We will notify you of any material changes by:

• Updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this policy
• Posting a prominent notice on our Site
• Sending an email notification (if we have your email address)

Your continued use of the Site after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

15. Contact Us

16. Consent

By using our Site, you consent to our Privacy Policy and agree to its terms. Where the law requires your consent for advertising cookies, it is requested through Google's consent message, and you can change your choice at any time with Privacy & cookie settings (section 4.4).