Last updated 27 July 2026
Plants in Pocket is made by Fintlock. This policy explains what the app sends, what it stores, and what it deletes. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
| Data | Destination | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Prepared scan photos, downscaled and re-encoded without EXIF or GPS data | Our Cloudflare Worker, then the OpenAI API | Plant identification, visible health check, and care guidance |
| A random installation ID stored in the iOS Keychain | Our Cloudflare Worker | Enforcing the free monthly scan allowance and linking a Premium subscription |
| Scientific and common plant names | Our Cloudflare Worker, then the OpenAI API when not already cached | Generating a reference profile for the plant |
| Follow-up question text, and up to six recent question and answer turns | Our Cloudflare Worker, then the OpenAI API | Answering your plant care question and keeping the conversation coherent |
| Scan context: plant name, confidence, health status, observations, likely causes, next step, and care summary | Our Cloudflare Worker, then the OpenAI API | Grounding the answer in the scan you are asking about |
| Your network IP address | Visible to Cloudflare at the request edge | Delivering the request and preventing abuse |
We do not store your raw IP address. For abuse control our server stores only a salted, truncated one-way hash of it, tied to the calendar day.
Photos are never uploaded in the background, on a schedule, or without your action. A photo leaves the device only when you take or choose one for a scan.
The prepared scan photo stays in memory for the duration of the request and is not written to disk. If you tap Save, the app creates a small local thumbnail for that saved plant. The original scan photo is not saved.
Saved plants, care schedules, health history, follow-up conversations, progress, settings, and cached profile text are stored locally on your device. Deleting a plant deletes its record and thumbnail. The Erase action on the About screen removes all saved plants, thumbnails, cached profiles, and garden progress. Deleting the app removes its local data, though the installation ID in the Keychain may remain so that the free allowance cannot be reset by reinstalling.
Our Cloudflare Worker does not persist or log images, questions, prompts, follow-up history, scan context, or generated answers. Logs contain only the route, the response status, and aggregate token usage. Allowance counters and salted IP hashes expire after 48 hours.
Generated plant profiles are cached as text for 90 days. That cache holds the generated reference text, not photos and not your follow-up conversation.
All scan, profile, and follow-up requests are sent with storage of application state disabled. OpenAI states that API inputs and outputs are not used to train its models by default unless the API customer opts in, which we have not done. Separate abuse-monitoring retention may still apply under OpenAI's current data controls and legal obligations. See OpenAI's API data controls documentation for their current terms.
Premium is an auto-renewing monthly subscription sold through Apple. Apple handles the entire purchase. We never see and never receive your payment details, card number, or Apple Account credentials. What we receive is a signed confirmation from Apple that a subscription is active, which we attach to your anonymous installation ID so the app knows to lift the scan limit. Premium involves no additional personal information, and buying it does not create an account.
You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings.
Plants in Pocket is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. The app has no account, no profile, no messaging between users, and no advertising.
Because the app has no account, we hold no profile of you to look up, export, or delete on request. If you have a privacy question or request regardless, write to us at the address below and we will answer.
All requests use HTTPS. The app uses ephemeral network sessions with no cookies and no on-disk cache. Released builds of the app contain no AI provider key and reach the AI provider only through our server.
We use Cloudflare for our server and its edge network, and OpenAI for the AI analysis. Both act as processors for the data described above. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
If we change how the app handles your information, we will update this page and the date at the top. Meaningful changes will also be described in the app's release notes.
Questions about this policy or about privacy in Plants in Pocket: contact@fintlock.com.