Privacy Policy
Last updated: 1 October 2026
The short version
- No account. The app never asks for your name or email.
- The app is known to our server only by a random ID created on your phone.
- Photos you scan go through our server to our identification provider, Kindwise. Our server doesn't keep them.
- No ads, no tracking, no selling of data, no third-party analytics.
- Your garden, photos, notes and progress are stored on your phone and, if you use iCloud, in your private iCloud account, which we can't see.
- You can delete your data at any time in the app: Me → Delete my data.
1. Who we are
PlantWiz is published by Anas Alradhwan, an independent developer based in Kuwait and the seller shown on its App Store page (“we”, “us”). You can reach us with the contact form on our Support page. This policy covers the PlantWiz iPhone app and the server it talks to.
2. What we collect and why
An anonymous app ID
When you first open PlantWiz, the app creates a random ID on your phone. It isn't linked to your name, email, phone number or Apple Account. The app sends it with each request so our server can count your scans, apply your subscription and stop abuse. RevenueCat (see “Purchases”) uses the same ID. If iCloud Keychain is on, the ID is kept there too, so your other iPhones and iPads use the same ID and your subscription works on all of them; we can't read your iCloud Keychain.
Photos you scan
When you identify a plant or check its health (including the weekly check-in photo, which PlantWiz Pro health-checks), the photos you choose and the date are sent through our server, which runs on Cloudflare, to Kindwise s.r.o. (Czech Republic), the company behind plant.id and plant.health. Kindwise identifies the plant and checks its health. Our server passes the photo on and doesn't keep it. Kindwise receives the photo from our server, not from your phone, so it doesn't see your IP address. Look-alike photos shown on a result also load through our server, so Kindwise doesn't see your IP address then either, and nothing about you is sent to Kindwise to load them.
Plant facts and where a plant grows. To show a plant's type, its native climate and the globe of where it grows, the app asks our server with the plant's scientific name and the app's anonymous ID. Our server looks the name up in its own copy of Kew's plant list and keeps nothing about the request. The globe is drawn on your iPhone, so no map service is contacted. “Say the name” uses your iPhone's own voice, with nothing sent anywhere.
Under Kindwise's terms, Kindwise receives a licence to use the photos it is sent, for example to improve its models and to show them to other users as similar images. Kindwise blurs faces. Please don't photograph people, documents or anything private.
Your permission first. Before the first photo is sent, the app shows who receives it (Kindwise) and asks for your permission. If you choose “Not now”, nothing is sent, and you can still add plants by name and use the rest of the app. You can change your answer at any time in the Me tab, under “Photo checks with Kindwise”. While it's off, photos aren't sent, and identifications and health checks wait until you allow them again.
“Other matches” feedback
If you pick a different match under “Not quite? Other matches” on a result, the app sends the scan's reference and the name of the plant you picked through our server to Kindwise, marking the first answer as wrong, so identifications can improve. Kindwise may keep this feedback under its terms. Our server passes it on and doesn't keep it.
Support messages
If you write to us with the contact form on our Support page, we keep your email address, your message and anything else you add (such as your name or app version) so we can answer you. We keep a support message for 12 months, and we delete it sooner if you ask. Cloudflare adds the country your message came from. To limit spam, a scrambled (hashed) form of your network address is kept for one hour.
Purchases
Subscriptions are sold and billed by Apple. We never see your payment details. RevenueCat, Inc. (USA) receives purchase and receipt data from Apple and your anonymous app ID, so it can manage your subscription and tell our server whether you have PlantWiz Pro.
App integrity
PlantWiz uses Apple's App Attest to check that requests come from the genuine app. This uses a security key created on your device and contains no personal information.
Location
PlantWiz asks for your location only when you tap “Use my location”, for example to set frost dates in the garden planner or to check local weather for plants on a balcony or in a garden. It's used on your iPhone: the garden planner finds the nearest weather station and saves only that station, and weather-smart care asks Apple's weather service (WeatherKit) for the forecast near you and Apple's geocoding service for the place's name. If you type a city instead, Apple's geocoding service turns it into a place; a US ZIP code is looked up on your iPhone. Your location is never sent to PlantWiz's servers, to Kindwise or to RevenueCat.
Statistics from Apple
If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone's settings, Apple may give us anonymous, combined statistics about app usage and crashes.
3. What stays on your phone and in your iCloud
Your garden, the photos you save, notes, reminders and progress (streaks, XP and badges) are stored on your phone, and so are the places you set for frost dates and weather (the garden planner's nearest weather station, and your weather spot rounded to about 1 km). If you're signed in to iCloud, your garden with its photos and notes, your past snaps and your progress are also kept in your private iCloud account, which we can't see. The Me tab shows whether this is on, under “iCloud backup”.
4. What our server keeps, and for how long
Our server never stores your photos, the contents of the app's requests or IP addresses. Cloudflare processes IP addresses briefly to protect the service and to apply rate limits.
| Data | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymous app ID | Connects the records below | As long as those records exist |
| Subscription status (Pro or not, plan, trial, expiry date) | Unlock PlantWiz Pro | While relevant, and up to 180 days after it ends |
| Scan counts | The free scan and fair-use limits | Hourly and daily counts: about 2 days. Total count: until you delete your data |
| Scan reference (Kindwise's ID for a scan) | Send “Other matches” feedback | 180 days |
| App Attest key and counter | Check that requests come from the genuine app | Until unused for 180 days |
| One-time security codes | Set up App Attest | Valid 5 minutes, deleted within a day |
| Support messages (email address, message, what you add, country) | Answer you | 12 months, or sooner if you ask |
| Hashed network address | Limit contact-form spam | 1 hour |
5. What we don't do
- No advertising and no advertising SDKs.
- No tracking across other companies' apps or websites.
- No selling or sharing of personal information.
- No third-party analytics.
6. Legal bases
Where laws such as the EU or UK GDPR apply, we process data to provide the service you ask for (identifications, health checks and your subscription), for our legitimate interests in keeping the service secure and free of abuse and in improving identifications through your feedback, and to meet legal obligations.
7. Where data is processed
Our service providers process data in the United States (Cloudflare, RevenueCat) and the European Union (Kindwise), and Cloudflare's network operates worldwide. Where required, these transfers are covered by appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
The same protection from our providers. We share data only with the providers named in this policy (Cloudflare, Kindwise, RevenueCat and Apple), only for the purposes described here, and each of them is bound to protect it at least as well as this policy does. The one exception is the licence Kindwise receives under its own terms to the photos it is sent (see section 2), which is why we ask for your permission before any photo is sent.
8. Your choices and rights
- Delete my data. In the app, go to Me → Delete my data. This erases the records our server keeps for your app ID and the data on your phone and in your iCloud, and the app starts again with a new anonymous ID. If your phone is offline at the time, the app sends the request to our server again automatically the next time it's online. Photos already sent to Kindwise are handled under Kindwise's terms.
- Subscriptions. Deleting your data doesn't cancel a subscription. To manage or cancel it, open Settings on your iPhone, tap your name, then Subscriptions. Apple and RevenueCat keep purchase records under their own policies.
- Your rights. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or port your data, to object to or restrict its use, and to complain to your data protection authority. Because we don't know who you are, “Delete my data” is the quickest route. For anything else, use the contact form on our Support page.
9. Children
PlantWiz is for people 18 and over only. It isn't directed to children or teenagers, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
10. Security
All connections are encrypted (HTTPS). Secret keys for our providers stay on our server and are never in the app, and App Attest lets our server check that requests come from the genuine app.
11. Changes
If this policy changes, we will post the new version here with a new date. For important changes, we will also let you know in an app update.
12. Contact
Write to us with the contact form on our Support page. We reply by email.