Plant BuddhaPrivacy
Privacy policy
The short version.
- There are no accounts. We never ask for your name, email or password.
- Your plants, photos, notes and schedules stay on your phone.
- A photo or plant details leave your phone only when you use an AI feature (identify, check a leaf, care plan, ask a question), and only after you've agreed to that.
- No ads, no tracking, no analytics, and we don't sell or share your data.
What stays on your device
Everything you add to Plant Buddha, including plant names, rooms, notes, photos, watering and care history, health checks, and your settings, is stored on your phone. It is included in your phone's own backups (iCloud or computer) if you use them, which is controlled by Apple and you. The backup file you can create in Settings goes wherever you choose to save it.
Reminders are scheduled on your phone. We don't run a server that sends them.
What leaves your device, and when
AI features (only when you use them)
When you identify a plant, check a leaf, generate a care plan or ask a question, Plant Buddha sends the request to our server, which passes it to Anthropic's Claude AI to get an answer. What's sent:
- Identify and leaf checks: the photo you took, and for leaf checks a short description of the plant (its name, species, watering and room).
- Care plans: the species name you typed or chose.
- Questions: your question, the conversation so far, and details about that plant: its name, species, room, notes, schedule, recent care and health history, and, if you've turned weather on, the season, hemisphere and this week's weather where you are (not your coordinates or city). Photos and the "plant sitter" notes aren't included.
The first time, the app asks your permission and explains this. You can turn AI features off at any time in Settings, and nothing is sent while they're off. Our server does not keep your photos, questions or the answers. It records only technical counts, such as which feature was used and how many tokens it took, with no content, so we can run the service and keep costs in check. Anthropic processes the request under its own terms and privacy policy (anthropic.com/legal/privacy). Under Anthropic's commercial terms, content sent through its API isn't used to train its models.
Weather and your approximate location (optional)
If you choose "Use my location", Plant Buddha rounds your coordinates to about 10 km and keeps them on your phone. To adjust watering for the weather, those rounded coordinates are sent to the free weather service Open-Meteo, which also sees your IP address as any website does. You can skip this, choose a hemisphere instead (no coordinates are sent), or turn weather off in Settings. We never see or store your location on our server.
Subscriptions
If you subscribe to Plant Buddha Plus, Apple handles the purchase and your payment details. We never receive them. The app checks with Apple on your phone whether your subscription is active.
Keeping the service fair and secure
To make sure requests come from a genuine copy of Plant Buddha on a real Apple device, the app uses Apple's App Attest. This produces a random key that identifies your installation to our server, not you. Our server remembers that key and counts how many AI requests it has made each month, to enforce fair-use limits. This key is not linked to your name, Apple ID or anything else about you. Our server runs on Cloudflare, which, like any host, handles the network request itself (including your IP address) as described in Cloudflare's privacy policy.
Who else is involved
| Who | What for | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Writing the AI answers | The photos and details described above, only when you use an AI feature |
| Cloudflare | Hosting our server | The network request, passing through to Anthropic |
| Open-Meteo | Local weather | Rounded coordinates, only if you use your location |
| Apple | Purchases, notifications, App Attest, backups | As described in Apple's privacy policy |
We don't use advertising, analytics or tracking services, and the app contains no third-party tracking code.
This website
This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no advertising. Like any website, our host (Cloudflare) processes the network request itself. If you email us, we use your message only to reply.
Your choices
- Turn AI features off in Settings, and nothing is sent.
- Don't share your location, or turn weather off in Settings.
- Delete the app to remove everything it stored on your phone. Because we keep no account or personal data on our server, there is nothing else to delete.
- Photos are used only for the feature you tapped; permission to use the camera or photos can be changed in iOS Settings.
Children
Plant Buddha isn't directed at children under 13 and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes in a meaningful way, we'll update the date above, and if the change affects what the app sends, we'll ask for your permission again in the app.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Write to support@plant-buddha.com.