Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Panoptik, including the Panoptik iOS app, this website, and related services. Panoptik is operated by Trenton Ryu (“Panoptik,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).

By creating an account, joining an event as a member or on a guest pass, recording a clip, or otherwise using Panoptik, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use Panoptik.

Panoptik is free. There are no in-app purchases, no subscriptions, and no paid features.

There is zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive members on Panoptik.

Do not upload or share content that is sexually explicit, violent, hateful, harassing, discriminatory, or illegal, or that depicts someone without their consent. Do not use Panoptik to bully, threaten, impersonate, stalk, exploit, or endanger anyone.

Report anything that breaks these rules using Report on any clip or member. We review every report within 24 hours, remove offending content, and permanently remove the responsible account from Panoptik.

You can also block any member. Blocking hides that person from you and prevents further contact through the service.

Using Panoptik means you accept these rules. Breaking them can cost you your account permanently.

Panoptik is a private group video app. A member creates an event, sets its dates and capture settings, and shares a six-character join code. During the event, Panoptik sends capture prompts to one member at a time; that member has two minutes to record a short clip. Members can also record a limited number of clips of their own choosing each day, within the allowance the creator sets.

Clips go into the event vault and are unreadable to every member — including the person who recorded them — until the event ends. Once it ends, each member can develop the clips into a film on their own device.

Panoptik is built for small private groups. It has no public feed, no public profiles, no followers, no comments, no likes, and no in-app messaging. Events are joined only by code.

You must be at least 13 years old to use Panoptik. If you are under 18 you may use it only with permission from a parent or legal guardian.

You may not use Panoptik if applicable law prohibits it, or if we have previously suspended or terminated your account.

A Panoptik account requires a working email address, which is used for sign-in, verification, and password reset. You are responsible for keeping your password secure and for the activity on your account.

A guest pass lets you join a single event on a single device without a full account. Joining any further event requires converting the guest pass into an account. A guest pass is still an account under these Terms, and carries the same rules and the same deletion rights.

You choose a username and may add a profile photo, both of which are visible to other members of your events. Your email address is never shown to other members.

You can permanently delete your account, or your guest data, from Settings inside the app at any time. See section 11.

Any member may create an event. The creator sets the event details and capture settings, including its dates, clip length, the number of capture prompts, and the daily allowance of self-initiated clips.

Members join by entering the event's join code. Panoptik never reads your contacts. The creator can regenerate the join code, which immediately invalidates the old one, or revoke it entirely so that nobody new can join.

The creator may remove a member from their event. A removed member loses access and cannot rejoin that event with the join code.

You may leave an event at any time. Leaving removes your access and stops event notifications, but does not by itself delete clips you have already uploaded. To remove those, delete your account, which removes every clip you uploaded, or report the clip so a moderator can remove it.

The creator may end an event early, which begins the reveal, or delete the whole event, which deletes its clips and films for every member.

During an event Panoptik selects a member at random and sends a capture prompt. The selected member has two minutes to record. If they do not, the prompt is simply marked missed — there is no penalty and no second alert for that prompt.

Prompts are always optional. Never record while driving, operating machinery, or in any situation where recording would be unsafe or unlawful. You alone decide whether it is safe and appropriate to record, and you are responsible for that decision.

Panoptik does not guarantee that every notification will be delivered, received, or opened. Network conditions, device settings, permissions, Focus modes, and operating-system behaviour all affect delivery.

Clips are hidden from every member, including the member who recorded them, until the event ends or the creator ends it early. This is enforced by server-side database and storage rules, not by the app alone.

After the reveal, the members of that event can view its clips and develop them into a film on their own device. Members can save a finished film to their own Photos library.

Panoptik is not responsible for how another member reacts to, interprets, screen-records, describes, or shares content after viewing it, and cannot control copies saved outside Panoptik.

“User Content” means the clips, audio, profile photos, event covers, usernames, event information, and other content you submit through Panoptik. You keep ownership of your User Content, subject to the licence below.

By uploading a clip to an event you give the other members of that event permission to view it after the reveal, and you grant Panoptik a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, transmit, transcode, compress, generate thumbnails from, review for safety, display, and make available your User Content solely in order to operate, secure, support, and enforce the service.

That licence exists only to run Panoptik. It ends when the content is deleted, subject to the ordinary backup cycle described in the Privacy Policy.

Panoptik will never use your clips for marketing, advertising, or public promotion without asking you separately, and will never use them to train AI or machine-learning models.

Do not upload anything you do not have the right to share.

You are responsible for the clips you record and for recording only when you have the legal right to do so.

You are responsible for obtaining any consent the law requires from people who appear in or can be heard in your clips. Some jurisdictions, including California, require all parties to consent before certain private conversations are recorded. Knowing and following the recording and consent law that applies to you is your responsibility.

You may not record people in private settings without permission, secretly record people where consent is required, or record content that violates another person's privacy, publicity, confidentiality, or intellectual-property rights.

In addition to the Community Rules in section 1, you may not use Panoptik to create, record, or share content that is illegal, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, or invasive of privacy.

Strictly prohibited: sexual exploitation, abuse, or sexualised content involving minors; non-consensual intimate imagery or audio, including realistic computer-generated or AI-generated depictions; nudity or intimate content recorded or shared without valid consent; and content promoting violence, self-harm, terrorism, or serious harm to anyone.

You may not target people based on protected characteristics; dox, stalk, threaten, or impersonate anyone; infringe copyright, trademark, publicity, or privacy rights; distribute malware, spam, or scams; bypass app limits, security, or access controls; or interfere with Panoptik's systems, infrastructure, or other members.

You may not scrape, reverse engineer, attack, or overload Panoptik or its systems.

You can permanently delete your account from Settings inside the app at any time, without contacting support. Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone. There is no recovery window and no deactivated state.

Deleting your account removes your profile, your event memberships, your device tokens, your optional analytics data, and every clip you uploaded — including clips in events created by other people. Because a film is assembled from the clips in an event, another member's film may change after you delete your account.

If you created an event that still has other members, you choose a successor to take ownership before deletion completes. Events with no other members are deleted outright.

A guest pass can be deleted through Delete Guest Data, which removes the guest identity, its membership, its local Panoptik data, and any linked analytics. Clips a guest already contributed to a shared event remain in that event without attribution, so the group’s film is not broken. To have those clips removed as well, contact support.

If you cannot sign in, email support@panoptikapp.com from the address on the account and we will verify and complete the request for you.

Panoptik has no public feed and no discovery. While an event is running, no clip in it is visible to anyone at all, including the event creator. After the reveal, a clip is visible only to the members of that event.

You can report any clip or member from inside the app, choosing a reason and adding detail. Reports alert an on-call moderator immediately. We act on every report of objectionable content within 24 hours: we review it, remove offending content, and remove the responsible account from Panoptik.

Moderators work under narrowly scoped roles and can open reported media only through a short-lived access link. Every review, removal, ejection, suspension, and reinstatement is recorded in an audit trail with the reason for the decision.

Depending on what a report shows, Panoptik may remove or restrict content, remove a member from an event and block their rejoining, suspend or permanently terminate an account, block an IP address, preserve information for legal or safety reasons, or report serious illegal activity to law enforcement.

You can also block any member yourself, at any time, without filing a report.

If your account is suspended you will be told, inside the app, that it has been suspended and why.

You may appeal by responding through the app or by emailing support@panoptikapp.com. An appeal is reviewed by someone other than the moderator who made the original decision, and only a Panoptik administrator can reinstate an account.

We will tell you the outcome of your appeal. Suspensions for sexual content involving minors, for non-consensual intimate imagery, or for credible threats of violence are permanent and are not reinstated.

Panoptik prohibits non-consensual intimate visual depictions (“NCII”), including authentic images, video, or audio and realistic computer-generated or AI-generated depictions of an identifiable person shared without consent. You may not record, upload, share, or threaten to share NCII.

Anyone — whether or not they use Panoptik — may request removal by emailing support@panoptikapp.com with “NCII Removal Request” in the subject line. A valid request includes a physical or electronic signature, identification of the depiction and information sufficient to locate it, a brief good-faith statement that it is non-consensual, and your contact information.

On a valid request we will remove the reported depiction as soon as possible and in any case within 48 hours, make reasonable efforts to find and remove known identical copies, assign the request a reference number, and tell you whether the content was removed and why.

We may remove or restrict content in good faith on the basis of such a request even if it is later determined to be lawful, and are not liable for a good-faith removal. Accounts involved in NCII violations are permanently terminated and violations may be reported to law enforcement.

Use Panoptik only with content you have the right to record and share. Do not submit content that infringes copyright, trademark, privacy, or publicity rights, including unauthorised recordings of copyrighted music, performances, broadcasts, or films where the use is not permitted by law.

Panoptik responds to notices of alleged copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Send a written notice to support@panoptikapp.com with “DMCA Notice” in the subject line.

A notice must include your physical or electronic signature; identification of the copyrighted work; identification of the allegedly infringing material and information sufficient to locate it; your contact information; a good-faith statement that the use is not authorised by the owner, its agent, or the law; and a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner.

After a valid notice we may remove or disable access to the material and notify the member who posted it. That member may submit a counter-notification containing the elements required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(g). We may restore the material after a valid counter-notification unless the claimant tells us they have filed a court action. Panoptik terminates repeat infringers.

Panoptik uses push notifications for capture prompts and reveal or event-end notices. Capture prompts are sent as Time Sensitive notifications because they expire in two minutes. Notifications are optional; disabling them means you may miss prompts.

Panoptik requests camera and microphone access so you can record clips, and add-only photo library access so you can save a finished film. Add-only access does not let Panoptik read your existing photos. Event clips can never be uploaded from your camera roll.

Clips, films, and generated thumbnails are deleted 14 days after an event ends, unless they must be retained longer for a legal, safety, or enforcement reason.

An event creator may delete an event sooner, which deletes its clips and films for every member. Deleted information is removed from live systems immediately; backup copies may persist briefly until overwritten in the ordinary backup cycle.

A film a member has saved to their own Photos library is under that member's control and outside Panoptik's reach.

These Terms are between you and Panoptik only, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for Panoptik, its content, maintenance, or support.

Panoptik is solely responsible for the app and its content, and for any claim relating to it, including product liability, regulatory compliance, consumer protection, and intellectual-property claims.

Panoptik is free and offers no in-app purchases. If the app fails to conform to an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any. Apple has no other warranty obligation.

You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated as a terrorism-supporting country, and that you are not listed on any U.S. Government prohibited or restricted-party list.

Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them. Questions, complaints, and claims about the app should be directed to Panoptik.

Your use of Panoptik is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which explains what is collected, who receives it, how long it is kept, and how to withdraw consent or delete your data.

Panoptik is under active development. We may change, suspend, limit, or discontinue parts of the service.

We do not guarantee that Panoptik will always be available, uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or compatible with every device, network, or operating-system version.

We are not responsible for lost clips, failed uploads, missed prompts, undelivered notifications, delayed reveals, corrupt exports, deleted events, or third-party service failures.

You may stop using Panoptik at any time, and may delete your account from Settings.

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your account or access if we believe you have broken these Terms or the Community Rules, created a legal or safety risk, abused the service, infringed someone's rights, attempted to bypass security, or used Panoptik unlawfully.

Termination means the loss of access to your account, events, clips, and films.

Panoptik is provided “as is” and “as available.”

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Panoptik disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, availability, security, accuracy, and reliability.

Panoptik does not control what members record, say, or do. You are responsible for your own conduct and User Content.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Panoptik and its operator are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, data, goodwill, clips, films, or other intangible losses.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Panoptik's total liability for any claim relating to the service will not exceed US$50.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so some of these may not apply to you.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Panoptik and its operator from claims, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising from your use of Panoptik, your User Content, your breach of these Terms, your violation of another person's rights, your violation of recording, privacy, consent, or intellectual-property law, or your conduct in an event.

We may update these Terms as the app changes. If a change is material we will notify members in the app, by email, or by another reasonable means, and the app will ask you to accept the updated Terms before you continue.

Updated Terms take effect when posted unless a later effective date is stated.

These Terms are governed by the law of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.

Any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms or Panoptik will be handled exclusively in the state or federal courts located in California, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there, unless applicable law requires a different forum.

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Panoptik about the service, and supersede any prior agreement on that subject.

Severability. If a provision is unenforceable it will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary, and the rest remains in force.

No waiver. Failing to enforce a right or provision is not a waiver of it.

Assignment. You may not assign these Terms or your account. Panoptik may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganisation, sale of assets, or operation of law.

Survival. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination — including the User Content licence and sections 8, 14, 15, and 22 through 27 — survive it.

Force majeure. Panoptik is not liable for delay or failure caused by events outside its reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, government action, or internet, utility, or third-party service failures.

Electronic communications. You consent to receive communications electronically, and agree that electronic agreements, notices, and disclosures satisfy any legal requirement that they be in writing.

For support, legal, privacy, account, or safety questions, contact support@panoptikapp.com.

Trenton Ryu, operator of Panoptik. Reports of objectionable content are acted on within 24 hours.