Overview
HydroGardenAdvisor is a growing coach for hydroponic leafy greens, herbs, and fruiting crops. We help you plan a setup, check in on your plants mid-grow, and diagnose finished results. This policy explains what data we collect when you use the app, how we use it, and the rights you have over it.
You can use HydroGardenAdvisor's free tier without creating an account — unlimited setup plans and harvest logs, saved on your device. Creating an account lets your grow history and Pro entitlement follow you to a new phone; a Pro subscription unlocks unlimited photo diagnoses beyond the free monthly allowance.
We collect the minimum data needed to make the app work. We do not sell your data to advertisers or data brokers. We do not track you across other apps and websites. HydroGardenAdvisor contains no advertising and no ad networks.
Data We Collect
Account data
Signing in is optional. If you create an account, we collect your email address — used to send the one-time sign-in code that authenticates you.
We assign each account an internal user ID (a randomly-generated identifier) that links you to your saved grow history and subscription state.
We do not collect your name, phone number, address, date of birth, or other personal identifiers unless you choose to enter them in your grow notes.
Usage data
While you use the app we collect basic usage events — setup plans you create, checks and harvests you log, and which app screens you interact with. This helps us understand which features are useful and where the app falls short.
We also collect crash reports and basic device diagnostics (device model, OS version, app version) to fix bugs and improve reliability.
We use your IP address as a rate-limit identifier on server requests as an abuse backstop. The IP is not used to profile you or linked to advertising.
Photos and diagnoses
The Check feature accepts photos of your plants. When you submit one, it is sent to our processing partner (Anthropic) to generate the diagnosis you see in the app. If you're signed in, we store the diagnosis result — and the photo, if the grow it belongs to is saved to your account — so you can review it later.
We do not use your photos to train AI models, share them with other users, or use them in marketing without your explicit permission.
Setup plans are free and unmetered — planning a grow does not send any photo anywhere.
Subscription data
If you subscribe to Pro, we store your subscription tier (free or pro) and entitlement expiry. The underlying payment is handled by Apple or Google — we never see your credit card or financial information.
How We Use Your Data
We use the data we collect to:
- Provide the HydroGardenAdvisor service — setup plans, photo diagnoses, and harvest carry-forward guidance based on what you submit.
- Save and recall your grow history when you sign in.
- Send you authentication emails (sign-in codes) and respond to your support requests.
- Enforce fair-use limits that guard against abuse and runaway requests.
- Diagnose crashes and improve the app's reliability and quality.
We do not use your data to make decisions about you outside the app, to build advertising profiles, or to sell to data brokers.
Third-Party Services
Anthropic (photo diagnosis)
The Check feature uses Anthropic's Claude API to generate the diagnosis you see. When you submit a photo, your grow details and the photo are sent to Anthropic for processing.
Anthropic processes this data on our behalf under their API data policy and does not use it to train their AI models. See Anthropic's Privacy Policy.
RevenueCat (subscriptions)
If you subscribe to Pro, RevenueCat manages your subscription state across the App Store and Google Play on our behalf. They receive your internal HydroGardenAdvisor user ID and your subscription information (start date, expiry, renewal status). They do not receive your email, photos, or grow data. See RevenueCat's Privacy Policy.
Cloudflare (infrastructure)
HydroGardenAdvisor's backend runs on Cloudflare's infrastructure — Workers (serverless functions), D1 (database), and KV (cache). Cloudflare stores the data we collect on our behalf in encrypted form. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.
Resend (email)
We use Resend to deliver authentication emails (sign-in codes). Resend receives your email address and the code content only for delivery. They do not use this for their own marketing. See Resend's Privacy Policy.
No advertising partners. HydroGardenAdvisor does not integrate any ad network or advertising SDK, on any tier. There is no App Tracking Transparency prompt because there is no tracking.
Claude connector
If you connect HydroGardenAdvisor to Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, you are granting Claude permission to use your HydroGardenAdvisor account on your behalf — the same grow history you have in the app. This is the reverse of the Anthropic relationship described above. There, we send your data to Anthropic to process on our behalf. Here, Claude is calling into our servers using your authorization, the same way the app does.
When you approve the connection we receive an access credential from Claude and use it to confirm each request is really yours. We do not receive your conversation history, and Claude receives only what a specific action returns — your grow history, a setup plan, a photo diagnosis. Anything you type in that conversation reaches us only if Claude passes it into a HydroGardenAdvisor action.
Photos sent through the connector cannot travel inside Claude’s request, so they are uploaded directly to us through a single-use link. We hold an uploaded photo for at most 15 minutes and delete it the moment it has been analyzed, or when the link expires unused. It is never shared with the assistant platform.
Grows you plan through the connector are saved to your HydroGardenAdvisor history, exactly as they are when you plan a setup in the app.
You can disconnect HydroGardenAdvisor at any time from Claude’s own settings. Disconnecting stops Claude from making any further requests on your behalf. The access credential it holds expires automatically within an hour, and the longer-lived credential that renews it expires after 90 days without use. To end access immediately and everywhere, delete your HydroGardenAdvisor account — see Account and data deletion below.
Data Retention
We retain account data for as long as your account is active. If you stop using the app, we retain your account data for up to 24 months from your last sign-in, then we anonymize or delete it on a rolling basis.
Crash reports and aggregated usage events are retained for up to 90 days, then deleted.
Grow history and diagnosis photos tied to an account are retained as part of your saved history until you delete them individually or close your account. Grow history kept only on-device (never signed in) lives in your phone's own storage until you delete the app or the entry.
Rate-limit records tied to IP addresses are retained for up to 35 days for abuse prevention, then expired automatically.
Photos uploaded through the Claude connector are held for at most 15 minutes and are deleted as soon as they have been analyzed, or when their upload link expires unused.
Your Rights
Access and portability
You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. Send your request to privacy@hydrogardenadvisor.app from the email address tied to your HydroGardenAdvisor account. We respond within 30 days.
Account and data deletion
You can delete your HydroGardenAdvisor account and all associated data at any time, directly in the app: open Settings, under Account choose Delete account, and confirm. Deletion is immediate.
You can also request deletion by email:
- Send an email to privacy@hydrogardenadvisor.app from the email address tied to your HydroGardenAdvisor account.
- Use the subject line "Account deletion request."
- We confirm receipt within 3 business days and complete deletion within 30 days.
What gets deleted: your account record (email address, internal user ID), all saved grow history and diagnoses, any photos tied to that history, your subscription state, and all active session tokens.
What we retain after deletion: aggregated, anonymous usage statistics with no personal identifiers; billing records required by tax law (handled by Apple or Google, not by us directly) for up to 7 years; abuse-related logs (such as rate-limit records tied to IP addresses) for up to 90 days for fraud prevention.
Deleting your account does not cancel a Pro subscription — cancel that in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings (see our Terms for steps).
Regional Rights
California residents (CCPA)
If you reside in California, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, including the right to know what categories of personal information we collect, the right to delete your personal information, the right to correct inaccurate personal information, and the right to opt out of any sale or sharing of personal information.
HydroGardenAdvisor does not sell your personal information and does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. To exercise CCPA rights, contact privacy@hydrogardenadvisor.app.
EEA/UK residents (GDPR)
If you reside in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have rights under the GDPR including access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, and objection to processing.
Our lawful bases for processing your data are: (a) performance of the HydroGardenAdvisor service contract (necessary for the features you request), and (b) our legitimate interests in app reliability and abuse prevention.
To exercise GDPR rights, contact privacy@hydrogardenadvisor.app. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
Children's Privacy
HydroGardenAdvisor is intended for adults 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information to HydroGardenAdvisor, contact privacy@hydrogardenadvisor.app and we will delete it promptly.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy as the app evolves. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and (where required by law) notify you through the app or by email. Continued use of HydroGardenAdvisor after an update means you accept the revised policy.
Contact
Questions about this privacy policy? Get in touch: