Privacy, in plain words

Effective 26 August 2026 · Applies to the Plainleaf iOS app and this website

The short version: Plainleaf has no accounts, no analytics, no ads and no trackers. We run no database of users. Your garden lives on your phone and in your own iCloud. Two pieces of data ever leave your device: the photo you scan, which goes to a specialist plant-identification service, and — only if you ask for frost warnings — an approximate location, which goes to Apple's weather service.

Scan photos

When you scan a plant, the photo is sent over an encrypted connection through our relay to Kindwise (plant.id), a specialist plant-identification service, which returns the identification and health assessment. Our relay passes the photo through; it does not save your photos, and we operate no storage of them. Kindwise's handling of submitted images is described in its own privacy policy on its website.

A small thumbnail of your photo is kept on your device (and in your private iCloud, below) so your garden and scan history have pictures. Deleting a plant deletes its photos.

Your garden

Plants, care schedules, photos and scan history are stored on your device and synced through your own iCloud account using Apple's CloudKit, in your private database. We cannot read it — that is a property of how CloudKit private databases work, not a promise you have to take on trust.

What we don't do

• No accounts and no sign-up — there is nothing to register and no password to leak.
• No analytics or usage tracking of any kind, first- or third-party.
• No advertising and no data sales. We have nothing to sell.
• No third-party SDKs beyond Apple's own frameworks.

Location and weather

If you mark a plant as living outside, Plainleaf asks permission to check tonight's forecast where you are, so it can warn you when the temperature is heading below what that plant tolerates. Two things about how that works:

• We ask iOS for an approximate location, not your precise one — a forecast is accurate at that scale, so there is no reason to know more.
• That location goes to Apple's WeatherKit and nowhere else. It never reaches our servers, and we keep no record of where you are.

If you never mark a plant as outdoor, the app never asks. Declining the permission simply means no frost warnings; everything else works as before.

Notifications

Care reminders are scheduled locally on your device. They do not pass through our servers.

Purchases

Subscriptions and the lifetime purchase are processed entirely by Apple. We never see your payment details.

Deleting your data

• Remove any plant from inside the app — its photos and care history go with it, on every device signed in to your iCloud.
• Delete the app and remove its iCloud data under iOS Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Account Storage.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version appears here with a new effective date. We won't quietly weaken it.

Contact

Questions about privacy: support@plainleaf.app.