Privacy Policy

Only the German version of this policy is legally binding. This translation is provided for convenience.

1. Controller

The controller for the processing of your data within the meaning of Art. 4(7) GDPR is:

Alexej Kossmann
Keplerstraße 25
01237, Dresden
Germany

Email: support@growos.eu

2. Overview

GrowOS is an app for looking after houseplants. To use it you create an account; your plants, readings and photos are stored on a server operated by IONOS SE in Germany. Optionally you can add friends, share locations with others and hand plants over; what other users see of you in that case is set out under 3.8.

We use no analytics, tracking or crash-reporting services. There is no advertising and no profiling. The same goes for our emails: they contain no tracking pixel that would report an open.

3. What data we process

3.1 Account

3.2 Sign in with Google (optional)

If you sign in with Google, we receive your Google account ID (sub), your email address including its verification status, and your first and last name from Google. We store this to recognise your account. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract) — you choose this sign-in method yourself. The provider is:

Google Ireland Limited
Gordon House, Barrow Street
Dublin 4
Ireland

Google may transfer data to its parent company Google LLC in the United States. Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, for which the European Commission has found an adequate level of protection (Art. 45 GDPR). In addition, Google has entered into standard contractual clauses under Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR. What Google processes under its own responsibility is set out in Google’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

3.3 Plant data

Plant name, species, self-chosen location name (free text such as “living room” — not a geographic location), watering interval, moisture range, watering events, care tasks (such as fertilizing and repotting: when last done, interval, whether you are reminded) and sensor readings with timestamps.

3.4 Photos

Photos you add to a plant are stored in our object storage. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract) — the photo is part of the plant entry you create.

Metadata is stripped before upload. Camera photos carry technical extra information (EXIF data) — depending on your device settings, this includes the GPS coordinates of the place the photo was taken. The app removes this data on your device before the image is transmitted; the photo arrives on our server without EXIF data, and only that version is stored. So we learn neither where nor with which device a photo was taken.

One single value is read out beforehand: the capture date. It is attached to the plant entry as a plain date so that your photos appear in the right chronological order. Without this step every photo would be dated to the moment of upload.

Photos on other users’ plants. Photos you added to a plant that belongs to another user (as a sitter or housemate) are deleted by default when your account is deleted. If you delete your account in the app, the app first asks whether you want to delete or keep such photos. If you choose “Keep”, they remain with the plant, with no link to your account and without your name; a photo caption you entered remains as well. If you request deletion by email to support, they are always deleted.

Photos on plants you handed over. Hand-overs are permanent. Photos you uploaded as the owner of a plant belong to the plant from the hand-over on: they always remain when your account is deleted, regardless of your choice of “Delete” or “Keep” and also when you request deletion by email to support, with no link to your account and without your name. The new owner can delete them.

3.5 Push notifications

If you enable reminders, we store your device’s push token and platform. The legal basis is your consent under Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR; you can turn reminders off again at any time in the app settings.

If you use sharing and hand-overs, notifications about them are added (see 3.8).

Delivery runs through Firebase Cloud Messaging operated by:

Google Ireland Limited
Gordon House, Barrow Street
Dublin 4
Ireland

The token and message content are transmitted to Google in the process. The same applies to the transfer to the United States as under 3.2: Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (adequacy decision under Art. 45 GDPR), supplemented by standard contractual clauses under Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR. See Google’s privacy policy for details: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

3.6 Server logs

When our servers are accessed, the access logs record the IP address, the time and the resource requested. The IP address is truncated as it is written: the last block is replaced with a zero (for IPv6 we keep only the first two groups). The full address is not stored permanently, so the log only shows the network an access came from. To prevent abuse (sign-in, friend requests, invitation and hand-over links) the server holds the address only briefly in memory to count requests; for IPv6 this is only the /64 network. It is never written to logs there and is discarded after a few minutes without a request. Whoever opens an invitation link for a friend code (growos.eu/i/<code>) leaves the code in the path of the logged request; for the links for location invitations and plant hand-overs the secret sits in the part after the #, which is never sent to a server (see 3.8). The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (operating and securing the service). Retention: 7 days

3.7 Email

We only write to you when there is a reason to, and all four of our emails are ones you trigger yourself: the code to confirm your email address after registering, the code to reset your password, the confirmation after a successful password change and — if your account uses Sign in with Google — the note that there is no password to reset. We send no newsletter and no advertising.

If you don’t confirm your address after registering, we delete the still-unconfirmed account automatically after 7 days.

The data involved is your email address, your first name and the content of the message (for a confirmation or a reset, the six-digit code). Delivery goes through our own support@growos.eu mailbox at:

IONOS SE
Elgendorfer Straße 57
56410 Montabaur
Germany

IONOS operates the mailbox on our behalf (processing under Art. 28 GDPR); the servers are located in Germany. No transfer to a third country takes place.

We deliberately use no delivery service that would evaluate or alter the message.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the contract) — without these emails there would be no way to confirm your address or to get back into your own account — and, for the confirmation of a password change, additionally Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (security of your account).

No open tracking. Our emails contain no tracking pixel — no invisible image that loads when you open the message and reports that you read it. We do not learn whether or when you open an email from us. No click tracking takes place either; our emails contain no links.

How long the resulting data is kept is set out under Retention.

3.8 Friends and sharing

You only use these features if you start them yourself. A friendship on its own gives nobody access to your plants; access arises only when you share a location or hand a plant over. The legal basis for all data in this section is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract) — it is needed for the function you chose to work.

Who sees what

Other users see at most your display name — or, if you have not set one, your first name. We never show your last name or email address to other users. The name is seen by:

• Friends and people with an open request from you or to you, in the friends list and in the requests.
• Owners and members of a shared location: the owner sees each member’s name (“My shares”), the member sees the owner’s name (“Shared with me” and on the shared plants).
• The recipient of a hand-over, before accepting.
• Anyone who opens a valid invitation or hand-over link from you while signed in. In the preview they see your name, and for an invitation link the location name, role and period, for a hand-over link the plant’s name, species and cover photo.

Members of a location see the plants of that location including readings, photos, alerts and watering history, and for each photo the name of whoever uploaded it. Depending on their role they can water, acknowledge alerts, add photos and delete their own photos; housemates can in addition edit plants and create them in the location. Sensors, access tokens, locations and the sharing itself stay with the owner. We store which account recorded a watering; the app does not currently display this information.

Members also see the care tasks of the plants in that location and can mark them as done; housemates can in addition change the interval and the reminder. We do not store which account recorded a care task. Care task reminders go to the owner only.

Push notifications about the plants of a location go to the sitter instead of the owner while a sitter is active. Housemates receive them in addition as long as their switch is on (default: on; they turn it off per location in the app). In addition, a friend receives a push notification when you offer them a plant for hand-over or grant them access to a location directly; it names the plant or location and your name and is delivered through Firebase Cloud Messaging (see 3.5).

In a hand-over, the plant, photos, readings, watering history, care tasks and the connected sensor pass to the new owner. Photos you uploaded as the former owner show your name to the new owner; they belong to the plant from the hand-over on and remain there after your account is deleted, then without a name (see 3.4). Open alerts are closed. Sitters’ and housemates’ access to the plant ends because it leaves your location. The previous sensor token does not become invalid on hand-over: whoever knows it — including you as the former owner — can keep sending readings for the plant (not retrieving them) until the new owner revokes it.

Blocking: the blocked person is not notified and receives no explicit sign; an earlier request from them still appears open to them. Blocking ends all location access between you in both directions, and open hand-overs to friends between you are cancelled. Invitation and hand-over links cannot be redeemed between you in either direction — the blocked person cannot redeem a link of the blocking person, and the blocking person cannot redeem one of the blocked person — and look like invalid links. Removing a friend deletes the friendship and cancels open hand-overs to friends between you (push notifications about them that have not been delivered yet are withdrawn); existing location access stays until you end it.

Codes and links

• Friend code. Valid indefinitely and usable more than once until you generate a new one in the app; the old code then stops working. Whoever redeems it must be signed in. The link growos.eu/i/<code> contains the code in its path.
• Invitation link for a location (growos.eu/v#…). Single-use and bound to the first signed-in person who redeems it. Valid for 7 days by default (at most 30; for a sitter never longer than their period) and revocable at any time as long as it has not been redeemed.
• Hand-over (growos.eu/t#…). The link is single-use and valid for 24 hours and can be revoked until it is accepted; whoever redeems it first gets the plant — with no further confirmation from you. A hand-over to a friend also runs for 24 hours; the friend accepts or declines it.
• The secret of a link sits after the # and is never sent to a server, so it appears in no log. On our server we only store an irreversible hash of it; the app shows you the plain text once when it is created.
• The web pages growos.eu/i/…, /t and /v load no content from third-party servers, call no interface of ours, set no cookies and store nothing in the browser; they only pass the link on to the app.

How long this data is kept and what happens when you delete your account is set out under Retention.

4. Cookies

This website sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser — no local storage, no session storage, no tracking pixels. There is therefore no cookie banner and nothing to consent to. The same applies to the emails we send — see 3.7.

The site also loads no content from third-party servers: fonts and images are served from our own server, and there are no maps, videos, social media buttons or analytics tools embedded. Opening this page opens no connection to any third party.

The app stores no cookies either. It only keeps your sign-in token in the operating system’s encrypted keystore so that you do not have to sign in again on every launch; it is deleted when you sign out.

5. Recipients

• Hosting: IONOS SE, Elgendorfer Straße 57, 56410 Montabaur (Germany). The server is located in Germany; no transfer to a third country takes place. Processing is carried out under a data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR.
• Push delivery: Google Ireland Limited, Dublin (Ireland), see 3.5 — with onward transfer to Google LLC (USA) on the basis of the EU-US Data Privacy Framework
• Sign in with Google: Google Ireland Limited, Dublin (Ireland), see 3.2 — only if you use this sign-in method
• Email delivery: IONOS SE, Montabaur (Germany), see 3.7
• Other GrowOS users: depending on what you share, your display name or first name and the contents of the plants of a shared or handed-over location, see 3.8 — only people you added or invited yourself, or who redeem a link you created

We do not pass your data on beyond this.

6. Retention

We store account data and content for as long as your account exists. If you delete your account, the account, plants, readings, watering history, care tasks, photos and push tokens are deleted; for photos and watering entries on other users’ plants see 3.4 and below. Server logs (3.6) are kept for 7 days and then deleted automatically. Backups are kept for no longer than 35 days and are then deleted automatically and permanently. A deletion in the live system takes effect immediately; in backups it takes effect only after that delay.

For friends and sharing (3.8) in detail:

• Friendships. An accepted friendship remains until one of you ends it (it is then deleted), as does a withdrawn request. Declined requests and blocks stay stored until the block is lifted, the request is made again or one of the two accounts is deleted.
• Memberships, invitations and hand-overs are not deleted on revocation, expiry, decline or cancellation but keep their status or timestamp (for example “revoked at …”, “cancelled”); there is no automatic clean-up. If you delete a location, its memberships and invitation links end in this way. They are only removed when an account involved is deleted.
• If you delete your account, the following are removed: all your friendships, requests and blocks; all memberships you hold with others and all on your locations (members thereby lose their access); all invitation links you created and all hand-overs in which you are sender or recipient; friend code and display name. An invitation link you redeemed is detached from your account and revoked.
• What stays with others: watering entries you recorded on other users’ plants remain without a name (they only point to the anonymous remnant record). Photos you uploaded as a sitter or housemate to other users’ plants remain only if you choose “Keep” (3.4); photos you uploaded as the owner before a hand-over always remain with the plant. Conversely, photos that others uploaded to your plants are deleted along with your plants.

For email delivery (3.7) in detail:

• The reset code is never stored in plain text, only as an irreversible hash. It is valid for 15 minutes. The invalidated record — hash, timestamp and the link to your account — remains afterwards and is removed when your account is deleted.
• From the send job we delete the content immediately after delivery, so the code is only there for a matter of seconds. Recipient address, timestamp and delivery status are kept for traceability and are likewise removed when your account is deleted.
• Delivery logs at IONOS are subject to their retention period.

7. Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21 GDPR). To exercise them, contact support@growos.eu or write to the postal address given under 1.

You may also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority — the one where you live, or the authority at the controller’s place of business:

Die Sächsische Datenschutzbeauftragte
Devrientstraße 5
01067 Dresden
Germany

8. Deleting your account

How to delete your account and all associated data — in the app or without installing it — is described under Delete account.

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