Privacy Policy

In short. Verdejar does not sell data, does not show advertising and does not use tracking cookies. The website uses no cookies and counts visits only anonymously and in aggregate. The app can be used without an account: it stores your plants, waterings, journal and photos to provide the service, and only sends data to third parties when a feature you chose to use needs it (the weather, signing in with Google or Apple, reminders or in-app purchases). You can delete your account and all your data at any time, from within the app.

1. Scope and data controller

This Policy applies to the personal data processed through the website verdejarapp.com (the “Website”) and the Verdejar application, available at app.verdejarapp.com, on the App Store (iPhone) and in any versions released on other app stores (the “App”). Together, the Website and the App are the “Digital Channels”. Whoever uses them is the “User”.

The Digital Channels are intended for people aged 13 or over. Below that age, use of the App must be authorised and supervised by the holders of parental responsibility (Article 16 of Portuguese Law no. 58/2019 of 8 August).

2. Applicable law

Processing is carried out under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the “General Data Protection Regulation” or “GDPR”), Portuguese Law no. 58/2019 of 8 August, which implements it in Portugal, and Portuguese Law no. 41/2004 of 18 August, as amended, regarding the storage of information on the User’s device.

3. What personal data is processed

On the Website. The Website was built not to collect personal data: it has no forms, asks for no registration and uses no cookies.

• Anonymous visit statistics. Cloudflare Web Analytics counts visits, pages viewed and countries of origin. It uses no cookies, stores nothing on the device and does not follow the User across sites; Verdejar only sees totals and cannot identify visitors.
• Technical connection data. As with any website, requesting a page sends the hosting provider (Cloudflare) the IP address and browser type, which it may log to deliver and protect the site.
• Browser preferences. Two notes with no personal data (section 11): whether the opening animation has been seen, and the chosen language.
• “Get to know your plant”. The preview answers entirely in the browser: the plant, room and light chosen are not sent to any server.

In the App, depending on the features used:

• Account data. A random internal identifier, created when the User starts using the App (it can be used without a Google or Apple account); the display name (chosen, or assigned automatically, such as “Gardener”) and the profile colour, if chosen; language, time zone and hemisphere; reminder preferences (time of the daily reminder and quiet hours); and the friend code, if the friends feature is used.
• Signing in with Google or Apple (only if the User links the account). The identifier the provider assigns, the email address (with Apple, this may be a private relay address, if the User chooses to hide theirs), whether it is verified, and the name (Apple only shares it on the first sign-in, and only if the User wishes), with the dates of linking and of last access. With Apple, a code is also kept that allows Verdejar to ask Apple to revoke the link when the account is deleted (section 16). Passwords are never received.
• Plants and usage. The plants registered (species, nickname, room, light, environment, pot, substrate, heating, date acquired and status, including the reason for archiving), waterings and their notes (amount, soil state, notes), care tasks, the journal (notes, measurements and milestones), diagnoses (symptoms entered and suggested causes), experience points, level, streak, achievements and decorative pots earned or bought.
• Activity log. What the User does in the App (“watered”, “fertilised”, “closed the day”), with the date, from which the history and achievements are calculated. It is used for nothing else.
• Photos. The images added to the journal, with file type, size, date and a file fingerprint (SHA-256) that prevents duplicates. Metadata is removed before the photo is stored (section 7).
• In-app purchases (only if the User buys something). The pots bought, with the App Store product and transaction identifiers and the date. Payment details (card, billing address) never reach Verdejar: payment is made to Apple (section 9).
• Approximate location (only if the User provides it). A coordinate rounded to two decimal places, an area of about one kilometre: it gives the neighbourhood, not the address.
• Session and device. A hashed version of the session code — kept in a cookie in the browser, or in the iPhone Keychain in the iPhone app; the dates of creation, last use, expiry and, where applicable, sign-out; and what the browser or the App says about itself (name, version and operating system).
• Reminders (only if the User turns them on). The subscription address assigned by the browser and its encryption keys or, in the iPhone app, the device identifier assigned by Apple’s notification service; the device’s time zone, and the reminders scheduled or sent (type, title, text, date and status).
• Friends (only for accounts linked to Google or Apple). The friendships and the date they began.
• Technical operating data. The server’s log of each request (date and time, method, path, result and a request identifier) — without the IP address (except as set out below) and without the parameters of the address. The IP address is used only in memory, for a moment, to limit the number of requests. The only exception: if an address goes over the hourly limit of new accounts, the warning left in the log includes that address, so it can be seen whether the requests all come from the same place; that warning follows the same period as the other logs (section 13).

Verdejar does not ask for special categories of data (Article 9 GDPR). Please do not write sensitive personal information in free-text fields (notes, nicknames, journal) that is not needed to care for plants.

4. Purposes and legal bases

Data is processed only for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes. It is never sold, nor used for advertising or to build commercial profiles.

Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before. The User may object to processing based on legitimate interest (section 15).

5. Location and weather

Providing a location is optional. If the User wishes, the App asks the browser or device for location permission, and the coordinate is stored with two decimal places — the server always rounds it, wherever it comes from. Without a location, the App calculates watering without local weather.

To find the day’s temperature, humidity, rainfall and evapotranspiration — and, if reminders are on, the frost or heat forecast for the next day — Verdejar’s server sends the Open-Meteo service (open-meteo.com) only that rounded coordinate. The request leaves from the server, not from the device: Open-Meteo does not receive the User’s IP address, name, identifier or any other data. Answers are kept for about three hours to avoid repeating requests.

The location can be changed or deleted at any time in the App’s Profile, and the permission withdrawn in the browser or device settings.

6. Account and signing in with Google or Apple

The App can be used without an account: the data is linked to a random identifier and a session in the browser or on the iPhone, with no name, email or other identifying data. To find the plants on another device, or to use the friends feature, the User can link the account to Google or, in the iPhone app, to Apple (“Sign in with Apple”).

Google confirms the User’s identity and sends Verdejar only the identifier it assigns, the email, whether it is verified, and the name (the “openid”, “email” and “profile” scopes). The email lets the User see which account they are in; the link is made by the identifier, never by the email. Signing in is also subject to Google’s terms and privacy policy.

With Apple, Apple confirms the User’s identity and sends Verdejar the identifier it assigns and the email — the real one or, if the User chooses to hide it, a private Apple relay address. The name is only shared on the first sign-in, and only if the User wishes. When the Verdejar account is deleted, Verdejar asks Apple to revoke the authorisation, and the App no longer appears under “Apps Using Apple ID”. Signing in is also subject to Apple’s terms and privacy policy.

If the User signs in with a Google or Apple account already linked to another Verdejar account, the App switches to that account. If the account they were in has data, it first asks whether to merge them; nothing is merged without that confirmation.

7. Photos

Journal photos are used only for the User to follow their plants. Before uploading, the App reduces each photo; on receiving it, the server removes the embedded metadata — GPS location, date, device model, EXIF and XMP data and the extra images some phones attach to the file — and only then stores it. Only the orientation is kept, so the image appears upright. In the iPhone app, the camera and the device’s photos are only used when the User chooses to take or pick a photo, and with the system’s permission. A file whose structure cannot be read and cleaned is rejected.

Photos are stored on Verdejar’s server and only the User can see them, within their own session: they are not public, have no address reachable by third parties and are not shown to friends. Deleting a plant or the account deletes its photos. The User must have the right to upload the images and ensure they do not infringe the rights of others.

8. Friends

The friends feature is optional and only available for accounts linked to Google or Apple. A friendship only begins when a User accepts another’s invitation or friend code. If the User shares the invitation through WhatsApp, Instagram or another app, they are the one sending it: Verdejar opens that app with the message and the link (which carries only the friend code) and sends it nothing.

Friends see only the display name, the profile colour, the level (with the rank that comes with it and how close it is to the next one), the number of plants (never which ones), the number of waterings, the decorative pots obtained and the date the friendship began. They do not see the plants, photos, journal, location or when the User waters. Either side can end the friendship; ending it applies to both sides and the other person is not notified.

9. In-app purchases

Decorative pots can be bought in the iPhone app. They are optional and change neither the watering calculation nor any plant-care feature. Payment is made to Apple, through the App Store, under Apple’s terms and privacy policy: Verdejar does not receive the buyer’s name, email, card details or billing address.

To show the prices and confirm what was bought, the App and the server use RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc., USA), a processor for Verdejar. The App only contacts it when the User opens the pot shop or a pot on sale, buys or restores purchases: nothing is sent to it for anyone who never does. RevenueCat receives the random internal identifier of the Verdejar account — never the name or email —, the purchase history Apple confirms to it, and the technical device and connection data it needs to work (for example, the App and system versions, the store country and the IP address). Verdejar’s server asks it which products the account has bought and keeps only the pot, the product and transaction identifiers and the date.

Refunds are requested from Apple. A pot bought stays in the account after a refund; Verdejar uses purchases for no other purpose.

10. Recipients and processors

Data is processed by Verdejar and only shared with third parties to the extent strictly necessary. Providers processing data on Verdejar’s behalf do so under Article 28 GDPR and only on its instructions.

11. Cookies and storage on the device

The Digital Channels use no advertising, analytics or social media cookies, and load no third-party fonts, images or scripts — except the Cloudflare Web Analytics script on the Website. They use only what is strictly necessary for what the User asks for, which requires no consent (Article 5(2) of Portuguese Law no. 41/2004).

12. International transfers

App data is kept on servers in the European Union. Some providers in section 10 (Cloudflare, Google, Apple, RevenueCat and, depending on the browser, the push services) may process technical data outside the European Economic Area, namely in the United States.

Such transfers rely on the European Commission’s adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, for certified entities, or on standard contractual clauses approved by the Commission (Article 46 GDPR). More information about these safeguards can be requested through the contact in section 1.

13. Retention

Data is kept only as long as its purposes require, without prejudice to periods imposed by law or needed to defend rights.

14. Security

Verdejar applies technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk, including:

• always-encrypted connections (HTTPS, with HSTS);
• a session cookie with the Secure and HttpOnly attributes and the __Host- prefix and, in the iPhone app, the session code in the system Keychain; the server stores only a hashed version of the session code;
• each User can only access their own plants, journal and photos; photos are checked, stripped of metadata and served with protections that prevent content from running;
• origin checks on requests that change data, request limiting and content security policies (CSP) on the Website and the App;
• a server with no internal ports exposed, secrets kept out of the code, and daily backups.

No system is completely secure. The User should also keep their device and browser up to date and not share access to the account. A flaw or vulnerability should be reported to contact@verdejarapp.com (see also /.well-known/security.txt), not exploited. In the event of a personal data breach, Verdejar will act under Articles 33 and 34 GDPR.

15. Your rights

Under the GDPR, the User has the right to:

• access the data concerning them;
• rectify inaccurate data (most of it can be corrected in the App itself);
• erasure (section 16);
• restrict processing;
• portability of the data they provided, in a structured, machine-readable format;
• object to processing based on legitimate interest;
• withdraw consent (location and reminders) at any time, without affecting earlier processing.

To exercise them, simply write to contact@verdejarapp.com. The answer comes without undue delay and, as a rule, within one month, extendable by two more when complexity justifies it (Article 12 GDPR). If there are reasonable doubts about the requester’s identity, only the information strictly needed to confirm it may be requested — for example, that the request comes from the email linked to the account, or the friend code.

The right to erasure is not absolute: it may be limited where keeping the data is necessary to comply with a legal obligation or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims (Article 17 GDPR).

16. Deleting the account

The account can be deleted at any time, without contacting anyone, in Profile → Delete the account, in the App. It is immediate and final, and takes the plants, waterings, tasks, journal, diagnoses, photos (including the files on the server), achievements, activity log, sessions, reminder subscriptions, friendships, the record of pots bought and the link to the Google or Apple account. With Apple, Verdejar also asks Apple to revoke the authorisation given to the App. From backups, the data disappears within the period in section 13.

Anyone who cannot get into the App can request deletion at contact@verdejarapp.com. Deleting the Verdejar account does not delete the Google account or the Apple ID, nor does it entitle the User to a refund of purchases (refunds are requested from Apple); Verdejar’s access can also be removed in the Google account or Apple ID settings. Anyone who wants the purchase history kept at RevenueCat deleted too can ask at the same address.

17. Automated decisions

The App automatically calculates each plant’s watering interval and care, and awards levels, streaks and achievements based on the recorded activity. This is personalisation of the service, with no legal or similarly significant effects: there are no solely automated decisions within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR, and no profiling for advertising or marketing.

18. Social media

The Website links to Verdejar’s social media pages. These links load no content from those networks and send them no data until they are followed. Once followed, the User is subject to those platforms’ terms and privacy policies.

19. Complaints to the supervisory authority

The User may lodge a complaint with the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (CNPD), the Portuguese data protection authority — Av. D. Carlos I, n.º 134, 1.º, 1200-651 Lisboa, www.cnpd.pt — if they consider that the processing of their data breaches the law, without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy. Users in another EU country may also complain to their local authority.

20. Changes

This Policy may change to reflect legal, technical or feature changes. The current version is always on this page and, in the App, under Profile → Privacy, with the date of the last update. A significant change to the purposes, legal bases or rights is published on this page before it takes effect, with the date it takes effect, and announced in the App where it allows; where the law requires it, new consent is requested. The Portuguese version is the reference version.