Terrarium is a plant-care app for iPhone and iPad. It is built so that your garden stays yours: there is no account, no sign-in, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking, and the developer does not run a server that receives your plants, photos or care history. This policy explains exactly what information the Terrarium app handles, where it is kept, and how the one optional online feature, local weather, works.
- The developer does not collect, receive or store any personal information.
- No accounts, sign-in, advertising, analytics, crash-reporting SDKs or tracking of any kind.
- Your plants, photos, notes and care history are stored only on your device.
- Plant identification, health checks and soil checks run entirely on your device.
- Local weather is optional and off by default. When you turn it on, your approximate location (rounded to about 1 km) is sent to Apple's weather service to get a forecast. It is never sent to the developer or any other company.
- Nothing is sold, shared for advertising, or used to build a profile of you.
1. Who this policy covers
This policy covers the Terrarium app for iPhone and iPad, including its widgets and its Siri and Shortcuts actions, as well as this web page. Terrarium is made by Chandresh Javia. When this policy says "we" or "the developer," it means Chandresh Javia.
It does not cover Apple's own handling of information through the App Store, iOS, Siri, iCloud backups or other Apple services, which is governed by the Apple Privacy Policy.
2. Information the developer does not collect
Terrarium does not send the developer, and the developer never receives, any of the following: your name, email address, phone number, postal address, Apple Account information, contacts, precise or approximate location, photos, plant data, notes, care history, device identifiers, advertising identifier (IDFA), IP address, usage or interaction data, diagnostic data, or payment information.
The app has no user accounts, sign-in, public profiles, messaging, social features, contact forms, subscriptions or in-app purchases. It does not access your contacts, microphone, calendar, health data or full photo library.
3. Information stored on your device
To work, Terrarium stores the following on your iPhone or iPad. It stays on your device and is not uploaded to the developer.
Your garden
- Plants: the nickname you give each plant, its species (matched from a plant database built into the app, or a name you type), the kind of spot it lives in ("Outdoor", "Indoor, bright" or "Indoor, low light" — a category you choose, not a GPS location), pot size or diameter, pot material, whether the pot drains, your notes, and the date the plant was added.
- Care schedules and history: watering, feeding, repotting and rotating schedules; each time you log a care task (from the app, a widget or Siri); and short explanations of automatic schedule changes shown under the bell on the Today screen.
- Plant photos: photos you take or choose for a plant, saved as compressed JPEG images inside the app's private storage, along with the results of the on-device health and soil checks for those photos.
This information is kept in the app's own storage area, which iOS shares only with Terrarium's own widget so the widget can show what's due. No other app can read it.
Settings and weather cache
Terrarium also stores your preferences (appearance, units, hemisphere, quiet hours, whether local weather and the tutorial are on or completed). If you turn on local weather, it also keeps the most recent forecast (temperature, humidity and rain chance), the rounded coordinates that forecast was for, and a short humidity history from the last few days. These are used on your device to adjust watering advice and to work out whether you are in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere for seasonal care.
Device backups
Like most apps, Terrarium's on-device data may be included in backups of your device that you make with iCloud Backup or with a computer. Those backups are created and controlled by you and Apple; the developer cannot access them. Terrarium does not currently sync your data to iCloud.
4. Device permissions and features
Terrarium only asks for a permission when you use the feature that needs it. You can change any of these at any time in the iOS Settings app under Terrarium.
| Permission / feature | What it's used for | Where the data goes |
|---|---|---|
| Camera | Taking photos of a plant, a leaf or the soil so the app can identify the species and check the plant's health and soil moisture. | Photos stay on your device. All identification and analysis is done by machine-learning models built into the app that run on your device. |
| Photo picker | Choosing an existing photo for a plant. | Uses Apple's system photo picker, which gives the app only the photos you pick. Terrarium does not request access to, and cannot browse, the rest of your library. |
| Add to Photos | "Save to Photos", which copies a plant's photos into a "Terrarium" album in your library. | Add-only permission: the app can add photos but cannot read your library. Saved photos stay in your library under your control. |
| Location (optional) | Only if you turn on "Local weather". Used to get the local forecast for watering advice and rain warnings, and to tell which hemisphere you are in. | Approximate location only ("While Using the App", about 1 km accuracy). Rounded coordinates are sent to Apple's weather service (see Section 5). Never sent to the developer. Location is not used in the background. |
| Notifications | Reminders when plant care is due, and rain warnings for outdoor plants. | Scheduled locally on your device by iOS. There is no notification server and no device token is collected. Reminders show plant names, which may appear on your Lock Screen depending on your iOS notification settings. |
| Widgets | Showing what's due and letting you check off tasks from the Home Screen or Lock Screen. | Reads and updates the same on-device data as the app. |
| Siri & Shortcuts | Actions such as "I watered [plant] in Terrarium" and "What needs water in Terrarium". | Your plant names are made available to iOS so Siri can recognise them. Speech is handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy; Terrarium only receives which plant was chosen. |
| Spotlight search | Finding a plant by name from iOS search. | Plant names and species are added to your device's on-device Spotlight index only. |
| Backup export & import | "Export Garden" creates a file of your plants, notes, schedules and care history (no photos). "Import Garden Backup" restores one. | Created only when you tap Export, and sent only where you choose through the iOS share sheet. Import reads only the single file you pick. |
5. Local weather (Apple Weather)
Local weather is optional and turned off by default. When you turn it on and allow location access:
- Your device's approximate location is rounded to two decimal places (roughly 1 km) before it is used.
- Terrarium asks Apple's weather service (WeatherKit, the service behind the Apple Weather app) for current conditions and a two-day forecast for those rounded coordinates. The request contains no name, account, plant data or device identifier.
- This happens when you open the app, at most about once every three hours. It never happens in the background.
- The developer does not receive, see or store these requests or their results, and no other company is involved.
Apple states that WeatherKit uses location only to provide weather forecasts, does not associate it with information that identifies you, and does not use it for any other purpose. Apple's handling of the request is covered by the Apple Privacy Policy.
You can stop this at any time by turning off Local weather in Terrarium's Settings, or by turning off location access for Terrarium in the iOS Settings app. Weather data is provided by Apple Weather; the "Data sources" link next to the weather in the app lists Apple's weather data providers.
6. No analytics, advertising or tracking
Terrarium contains no third-party software development kits (SDKs) of any kind — no analytics, advertising, crash reporting, attribution or social-media SDKs. It does not use the advertising identifier, does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and therefore never asks for App Tracking Transparency permission.
The developer does not sell personal information, does not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, does not show targeted advertising and does not use automated decision-making or profiling that affects you.
Apple-provided statistics. If you have chosen in iOS to share analytics with app developers, Apple may provide the developer with aggregated statistics and anonymous crash reports through App Store Connect. These are collected by Apple under Apple's privacy policy and do not identify you to the developer.
7. How long information is kept, and how to delete it
The developer keeps no personal information, so there is nothing for the developer to retain or delete. Information on your device stays until you remove it:
- Delete a plant (press and hold it in Garden) to remove it along with its photos, schedules and care history.
- Clear the notices under the bell on the Today screen.
- Turn off Local weather to stop weather requests.
- Delete the app to remove all of Terrarium's data from your device, including its widget data.
Photos you saved to your photo library, backup files you exported, and device backups you made are stored outside the app and remain under your control until you delete them.
8. Security
Terrarium keeps your data inside the app's private storage, protected by iOS app sandboxing and the device's built-in data protection (encryption tied to your passcode). The only network request the app makes is the optional weather request to Apple, which is encrypted. Because the developer runs no server holding user data, there is no developer database that could be breached. No method of storage is perfectly secure, so please also protect your device with a passcode.
9. Children's privacy
Terrarium is a general-audience app and is not directed at children, but it is designed to be safe for everyone. It does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your country). It never asks for a name, email address, photo of a person, voice recording or any other personal detail, and nothing a child enters is sent to the developer. These practices are intended to comply with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and, where applicable, the UK Age Appropriate Design Code and child-privacy protections in the EU and elsewhere. If you believe the developer has somehow received a child's personal information, contact us and it will be deleted promptly.
10. Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live, laws such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA), other U.S. state privacy laws (including those of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon and others), Canada's PIPEDA, Australia's Privacy Act 1988 and Brazil's LGPD may give you rights to know about, access, correct, delete or obtain a copy of your personal information, to restrict or object to its use, to withdraw consent, and to opt out of its sale, sharing, targeted advertising or profiling.
Because the developer does not collect or hold personal information about you, there is ordinarily no record for the developer to access, correct, delete or provide. All of your Terrarium data is on your own device, where you can view, change, export or delete it at any time. You will never be treated differently for exercising a privacy right.
EU and UK users
The developer does not process your personal data. The optional weather request is sent to Apple's weather service only after you turn on Local weather and grant location permission; that choice is your consent (GDPR Article 6(1)(a)), and you can withdraw it at any time by turning the feature off. Apple handles that request under its own privacy policy. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
California users
In the preceding 12 months, the developer has not collected, sold or shared (as those terms are defined in the CCPA/CPRA) any category of personal information, including sensitive personal information. Because no personal information is sold or shared, the app does not need a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link. The developer does not disclose personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes (California "Shine the Light", Civil Code § 1798.83).
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
As required by the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA): Terrarium does not track users over time or across third-party websites or apps, so there is nothing for "Do Not Track" or Global Privacy Control signals to switch off. Such signals are honoured automatically because no tracking takes place.
11. This website
This web page does not use cookies, analytics, advertising, tracking pixels or forms, and does not ask you for any information. As with any website, the hosting provider that delivers it may automatically process basic technical data such as your IP address and browser details in order to deliver and secure the page. This is handled by the hosting provider and is not used by the developer to identify or track you.
12. Changes to this policy
This policy will be updated if Terrarium's features, the services it uses or the law change. The updated version will be posted at this same address with a new "last updated" date. If a future version of Terrarium would begin collecting personal information, this policy, the App Store privacy details and any required consent in the app will be updated before that collection begins.
13. Contact
For privacy questions or requests, email terrarium.support@gmail.com. Because the developer does not hold your Terrarium data, please include only the details needed to explain your question and do not send photos or other sensitive information.
References
Apple Privacy Policy · Apple Weather data sources · U.S. FTC — Children's Privacy (COPPA) · California Attorney General — CCPA · European Commission — Data Protection · UK Information Commissioner's Office