Privacy Policy

Data stored locally on your device

Garden Me stores your garden data (plants, garden devils, tasks) locally on your device using AsyncStorage. This data does not leave your device except as described below.

Weather alerts and push notifications

To send weather-based garden alerts when the app is not open, Garden Me may transmit the following to our servers (hosted on Vercel with Upstash Redis):

• — Your Expo push notification token
• — Your approximate location (latitude/longitude)
• — A summary of your plants and garden devils (names and types only)
• — Your language preference and last app-open timestamp
• — Whether you chose to be addressed as he, she or neither

This data is used solely to check local weather conditions and send relevant garden alerts. It is automatically deleted after 90 days of inactivity. The alerts themselves are delivered by Expo's push service, which hands them to Apple on iOS and to Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android; those services carry the notification and the device token, and nothing about your garden.

AI plant identification

When you ask for an identification, a piece of advice or an answer, the photograph or question passes through Garden Me's server to Anthropic, who provide the AI. We do not store the content, and it is not used to train models.

Our server counts how many actions your device has used, so that your allowance works. For that it keeps a random device ID, and your IP address briefly to prevent abuse. If you use an invitation code, we record that this telephone was invited by that one — two random identifiers, no names, and nothing about who either of you are. Neither is tied to a name, an email or an account — you never sign up.

Sharing a garden

Making a link for a neighbour uploads a copy of that garden to our server — plant names, what wants doing, the notes for whoever is watering, and a small photograph of each plant so the helper can tell one from another. It is the one time a garden leaves the device, and it is the only way a link could open in a browser without an app or an account.

Those photographs are thumbnails, 160 pixels wide, made from the picture you chose as that plant's cover. A helper's page never receives a full-size one.

Sharing with someone in your household works differently, because it is the same garden rather than a snapshot of it. The garden itself is held on our server so both telephones can reach it, and since August 2026 the photographs travel with it — otherwise one of you photographs a new plant and the other is left looking at an empty frame. They stay only for as long as you share, and are deleted the moment either of you stops. If you do not share your garden with anybody, not a single photograph leaves your telephone.

The copy expires ninety days after it was last updated, and can be deleted sooner on request. Anyone holding the link can read it, so treat it as you would any unlisted web page.

Location

Location data is used for finding nearby garden centres and for weather alerts. We do not build location history or track movement.

Purchases

Purchases are handled by the App Store on iOS and by Google Play on Android. RevenueCat checks the receipt on our behalf and tells our server what you are entitled to. We never see your card details, and neither store tells us who you are.

Contact

Questions? Write to magnus@bjelkerud.no