Privacy Policy for The Garden
The Garden is a private plant journal app. This Privacy Policy explains what information the app handles and how that information is used.
Summary
The Garden is local by default. Your plant journal content is stored on your device unless you choose to use features that require off-device processing, such as Ivy, subscriptions, or purchase restoration.
Information the App Handles
The app can store the following information on your device:
- plant names
- plant types and locations
- journal notes and milestones
- photos you choose to add to your journal
- appearance and layout preferences and an onboarding completion flag
How Information Is Used
This information is used only to provide the app’s core functionality, including:
- showing your plant list and timeline
- saving journal entries and photos
- remembering whether onboarding has been completed
Data Collection
Your plant journal is stored locally on your device by default. The Garden does not upload your full journal to a developer-operated account or cloud storage service.
Some information is transmitted off-device only when needed for specific features, such as checking subscription access, restoring purchases, or using Ivy.
Ivy AI Assistant
The Garden includes an optional AI assistant called Ivy. When you use Ivy, the app sends the information needed to answer your request to our AI service. This may include your prompt, the selected plant’s name and type, location label, recent journal notes and milestones, conversation context, your locale, and photos. Chat can automatically include the selected plant’s latest saved photo; starting a Checkup sends relevant journal context and a recent photo without a separate attachment step. Subscription and device access identifiers are sent to our proxy to verify access. Plant location labels are entered by you; the app does not request GPS location.
Ivy requests are used to generate plant-care responses. The Garden does not use Ivy requests for advertising or tracking.
Our AI proxy does not store your full plant journal, photos, prompts, assistant responses, or chat transcripts. It stores limited operational records needed to provide the feature, such as monthly usage counters, lifetime trial usage, timestamps, and hashed device binding records for subscription access and abuse prevention.
Requests pass through our Cloudflare-hosted proxy to OpenRouter and the model provider serving the request. These services process request content to generate replies. Their retention and data-use practices are governed by their own policies; this policy does not promise that external providers retain no data or never use it for model training.
Subscriptions and Purchases
If you subscribe to Ivy, purchase and entitlement information is handled by Apple and RevenueCat. The Garden uses RevenueCat to check subscription status, restore purchases, manage access to Ivy, and prevent misuse. Subscription checks may run when the app starts, even if you do not start an Ivy conversation. This involves an app customer identifier, purchase history, entitlement status, and technical app or device information. We do not receive your full payment card details.
Analytics and Tracking
The Garden does not use third-party advertising SDKs, does not track users across apps or websites, and does not use third-party analytics services.
Photos and Camera Access
If you choose to add a photo, the app may request permission to access your photo library or camera. These permissions are used only to let you pick or capture images for your plant journal.
Granting these permissions is optional. If you do not grant them, you can still use the app without photo features.
Storage
Journal content is stored locally on your device. If you delete the app or clear its data, your stored journal content may be removed.
Chat history and Checkup results are held in app memory during use. Device access credentials are stored in secure device storage and may survive reinstalling on iOS. Deleting a plant or uninstalling the app does not automatically delete purchase records, server usage records, or information already processed by service providers. Trial and access records have no automatic expiry in the current service.
Device backups may contain local app data depending on your system settings. Exporting a journal PDF shares its contents only with the destination you choose; copies you export are managed separately.
Children's Privacy
The Garden is not designed to knowingly collect personal information from children.
Third-Party Services
The Garden uses service providers to operate specific app features:
- Apple, for App Store purchases and platform services.
- RevenueCat, for subscription entitlement management.
- Cloudflare, for hosting the AI proxy used by Ivy.
- OpenRouter and its model providers, to generate Ivy chat and Checkup responses.
Providers may also process technical connection information, such as IP addresses and request metadata, under their own policies. The developer does not use these services to create advertising profiles or to independently track users across apps or websites.
Provider privacy information: Apple, RevenueCat, Cloudflare, and OpenRouter.
Your Choices
- You can choose whether to add notes or photos.
- You can choose whether to use Ivy.
- You can deny photo library or camera access in your device settings.
- You can delete plants and entries inside the app.
- You can remove the app from your device at any time.
Contact us below to ask about access, correction, or deletion of information handled by our service. Available rights depend on your location. We may need information to locate your operational records; we cannot retrieve a journal stored only on your device. Purchase and provider records are also subject to the relevant provider’s policies and applicable retention requirements.
Terms of Use
The Garden uses Apple’s Standard End User License Agreement (EULA).
Changes to This Policy
This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. If the app’s data practices change, the policy will be updated here with a new effective date.
Contact
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, contact:
development.colak@gmail.com