Privacy policy

The Herbarium (“the app”) is an educational field guide to medicinal herbs and fungi. It is not medical advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment. This page describes what the iOS app and the website collect, and why.

Camera and photographs

The Field lens uses the camera, or a photo you pick from your library, so the app can try to name a plant or fungus. That is the only reason we ask for Camera and Photos permission on iPhone. We do not access the camera in the background. We do not take a picture unless you tap Photograph or Choose photo.

When you ask the lens to identify a plant, a compressed copy of that image is sent to our identification service (a vision model) to produce a name, a safety note, and lookalikes. We do not use your photos to train public models, we do not sell them, and we do not attach them to an advertising profile. Lens photographs are not stored in your account. If you save an identification to Notes, we store the name and safety text — not the picture.

You can revoke camera and photo-library access in iOS Settings → The Herbarium. The catalog, harvest notes, and seed calendar still work without the camera.

What stays on the device

• The first-launch medical and camera acknowledgements
• Bed drafts and frost dates, until you sign in and sync them
• Harvest reminder preferences and scheduled local notifications
• The push-notification device token (so the OS can deliver alerts)
• In-app navigation history used by the Back control

Local harvest reminders are scheduled on the device. They fire even if you are offline. They do not require an account.

What is sent to a server

• A compressed photograph, when you ask the Field lens to identify it
• Optional field-assistant questions you type, plus the plant you are reading
• Sign-in (Google or X) and, if you use Notes, the homestead data below, tied to your account

Identification and the field assistant run on a server so they can use a vision/language model. Do not include other people’s faces, medical records, or anything you would not want processed for that purpose.

Accounts and Notes sync

Sign-in is optional. The catalog, the lens, harvest notes, the bed planner, and the seed calendar work without an account. Notes is the signed-in homestead:

• Plants you save from a plate, and identifications you save from the lens
• A compressed photo log of each bed (up to forty photographs)
• Frost dates, USDA zone, and bed drafts, so they follow you across devices
• Field notes and quiz scores

Bed photographs you add to the field log are stored with your account so you can see them on another device. They are not used for identification unless you separately send them through the lens.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, the app schedules harvest reminders (for example, a Monday morning note of plants in season, or a reminder when a plant you follow comes into season). Remote push may be used for the same harvest follow-up. Tokens are used only to deliver those alerts. You can turn reminders off in Harvest, and notifications off in iOS Settings.

Children

The catalog is a general-audience reference. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Not medical advice

Traditional use is a historical note, not a promise that a plant will treat a disease. Doses in the remedies section are folklore amounts for adults, with safety warnings — not a prescription. Restricted and poison-garden plates have no grow or dose protocols. A camera identification is education, not a forage permit.

Contact

Questions about this policy: open About in the app, or write from the App Store listing. You can also delete the app to remove on-device preferences and the push token. Canonical URL: https://cosmic-blend-fern-stone.grok.me/privacy.