Privacy Policy

Overview

AI Urban Gardening Planner ("we," "our," or "the Service") is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring transparency about how we handle your data. This comprehensive privacy policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, how we protect it, and your rights regarding your personal data.

We have designed our service with privacy in mind from the ground up. The majority of your data remains stored locally on your device, giving you full control over your garden plans and personal information. We believe you should be able to use our gardening tools without sacrificing your privacy.

Information We Collect

We collect only the minimum information necessary to provide our garden planning services. Here is a detailed breakdown of the data we may collect:

Information You Provide Directly

• Location data: ZIP code, city name, or general geographic region you provide for climate-specific gardening recommendations. This information is used to determine your USDA hardiness zone and local growing conditions. We do not store precise GPS coordinates or track your exact location.
• Garden preferences: Information about your growing space including type (balcony, windowsill, rooftop), dimensions, sunlight exposure, and plant preferences. This data is stored locally in your browser.
• Uploaded images: Photos you choose to upload for plant identification or pest diagnosis. These images are processed by our AI system and are not permanently stored on our servers after processing is complete.
• Contact information: If you contact us via email, we retain your email address and message content to respond to your inquiry and improve our service.

Information Collected Automatically

• Usage analytics: Anonymous, aggregated statistics about how visitors use our website, including pages visited, time spent, and general traffic patterns. This data cannot be used to identify individual users.
• Device information: Basic technical data such as browser type, operating system, and screen resolution to ensure our service works correctly across different devices.
• Error logs: Technical error information that helps us identify and fix bugs in our application.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Generate personalized garden plans tailored to your climate zone, space constraints, and plant preferences
• Provide accurate plant identification and pest/disease diagnosis from uploaded photographs
• Deliver location-specific watering schedules and care reminders based on local weather data
• Improve our AI recommendation algorithms and overall user experience
• Analyze aggregate usage patterns to enhance our service features
• Respond to your questions, feedback, and support requests
• Send optional notifications about watering schedules (only if you explicitly enable this feature)
• Ensure the security and proper functioning of our website

Data Storage and Security

Your garden plans, preferences, and generated content are stored locally in your browser using localStorage and IndexedDB. This privacy-first approach means:

• Your data stays on your device and is not automatically transmitted to our servers
• You have complete control over your data and can delete it at any time
• Your garden plans are available offline after initial generation
• No account creation is required to use our core features

For data that does pass through our servers (such as AI processing requests), we implement industry-standard security measures including:

• HTTPS encryption for all data transmission
• Secure API connections to third-party services
• Regular security audits and updates
• Minimal data retention policies

Third-Party Services

We use carefully selected third-party services to provide our features. Each service has its own privacy policy governing their data practices:

• Google Analytics: Provides anonymous, aggregated website usage statistics. Google Analytics uses cookies to track visitor behavior. You can opt out using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on or by adjusting your browser cookie settings.
• Google Gemini AI: Powers our AI garden planning, plant identification, and pest diagnosis features. Data sent for AI processing is used only for generating responses and is subject to Google's AI privacy policies.
• Weather APIs: Provide local weather data for personalized watering recommendations and care schedules. Only your general location (city or ZIP code) is shared with these services.
• Vercel: Our hosting provider, which may collect standard server logs including IP addresses for security and performance monitoring purposes.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience on our website. Here is how we use different types of cookies:

• Essential cookies: Required for basic site functionality, such as remembering your preferences within a session. These cannot be disabled without breaking core features.
• Analytics cookies: Help us understand how visitors use our site so we can improve it. These are optional and you can decline them through your browser settings.
• Local storage: Used to store your garden plans and preferences on your device. This is not transmitted to our servers and remains under your control.

You can control cookie preferences through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies, though this may affect site functionality.

Data Retention

We follow a minimal data retention policy:

• Locally stored data (garden plans, preferences) remains on your device until you delete it
• Analytics data is retained in aggregate form for up to 26 months
• Contact form submissions and email correspondence are retained for up to 2 years
• Server logs are automatically deleted after 30 days
• Uploaded images for AI processing are not stored beyond the processing session

Your Rights and Choices

You have several rights regarding your personal data. Depending on your location, these may include:

• Right to access: Request information about what data we have about you
• Right to deletion: Request deletion of your personal data from our systems
• Right to rectification: Request correction of inaccurate personal data
• Right to data portability: Request a copy of your data in a portable format
• Right to object: Object to certain types of data processing
• Right to withdraw consent: Withdraw consent for optional data processing at any time

To exercise these rights or delete your locally stored data:

• Clear your browser's local storage and cookies for this website
• Use your browser's privacy/incognito mode to prevent data storage
• Install browser extensions to block analytics tracking
• Contact us directly for any data held on our servers

International Data Transfers

Our service is hosted in the United States and our third-party service providers may process data in various locations worldwide. If you access our service from outside the United States, your data may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States or other countries. We ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for any international data transfers in compliance with applicable data protection laws.

Children's Privacy

Our service is not directed at children under the age of 13 (or 16 in the European Economic Area). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately, and we will take steps to delete such information from our systems.

Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers include a "Do Not Track" (DNT) feature that signals to websites that you do not want your online activity tracked. Our website respects DNT signals where technically feasible. When we detect a DNT signal, we limit analytics data collection to essential functionality metrics only.

California Privacy Rights

California residents have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

• Right to know what personal information is collected and how it is used
• Right to delete personal information held by businesses
• Right to opt-out of the sale of personal information (we do not sell personal information)
• Right to non-discrimination for exercising CCPA rights

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy regularly. Continued use of our service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this privacy policy or our data practices, please contact us:

• Email: hello@aiurbanplanner.net
• Contact page: aiurbanplanner.net/contact

We aim to respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 30 days.