Privacy policy

Last updated 27 September 2026. Cultivar is a grow journal run by an independent home grower, on a server we own and run ourselves. This page covers what we collect, why, who else handles it, and how to get it back or deleted. Questions go to [email protected].

The short version

• Your journal lives in our own database, on our own hardware. We don't sell it, rent it, or share it with advertisers.
• No ad trackers and no advertising cookies. We count usage ourselves (you can switch that off), and Cloudflare's cookie-free Web Analytics measures page speed and counts visits.
• When you ask the AI coach something, your question and the parts of your journal it needs go to the AI model that answers.
• You can download everything in one file, and have your account deleted by emailing us.
• Cultivar is for adults 21 and over.

What we collect

• Account: your email address, the handle you choose, your plan, and your password — stored only as a salted hash, so we can't read it. We may note your country; never your precise location.
• Your journal: spaces, plants, logs, notes, photos, strains, nutrient mixes, sensor readings, harvest results, the setup answers you give when you start, and your conversations with the coach.
• Connected devices: if you connect Govee, SwitchBot, AC Infinity, TP-Link Kasa or Home Assistant, we store the key or login you give us so our server can read your sensors and, if you set up automations, switch your plugs. For Kasa that is your TP-Link account email and password. They are used only to talk to that service, and they are never included in your data download.
• Usage events: which screens and buttons get used, the page you arrived from, and your country (as reported by Cloudflare), tied to a random session ID and, while you're signed in, your account ID. We don't store your IP address with them.
• Page speed and visit counts (Cloudflare Web Analytics): a small Cloudflare script measures how quickly each page loads and responds, and counts visits by page, referring site, browser, device type and country. Cloudflare says it uses no cookies or local storage and does not fingerprint visitors. It runs on every page and is separate from the Settings switch; blocking scripts from cloudflareinsights.com in your browser turns it off.
• Session recordings: while you're signed in, we record how pages are used — layout, text on screen, clicks and scrolling — to find bugs and confusing screens. Anything you type into a field is masked in your browser before it's sent. Visitors who aren't signed in are never recorded.
• Free photo check (no account): the text of the conversation, kept so we can check the quality of answers. The photo isn't kept, and your IP address is stored only as a one-way scrambled code.
• Email list: if you ask for the reference card or updates, your email address, the page you signed up from, and a scrambled code of your IP address.
• Link clicks: when you tap a gear or seed link, we note what was searched for and, if you're signed in, your account ID, so we know which links help.
• Feedback and suggestions you send us.
• Notifications: if you turn on daily tips, your browser gives us a delivery address run by its maker (Google, Mozilla, Apple or Microsoft). We keep it to send the tips and remove it when you turn them off.
• Request logs: our database keeps a short log of requests, including IP addresses, for security and troubleshooting. It clears itself after a few days.

Who else handles it

• Cloudflare carries all traffic to and from the site and protects it from attacks, so it sees your IP address and the pages you request as they pass through. Its Web Analytics (above) gives us page-speed and visit counts.
• AI model providers. When you use the coach or photo diagnosis, your message, any photo you attach, and the parts of your journal the answer needs go to the model that answers: Anthropic (Claude), a model reached through OpenRouter (which passes the request to that model's maker), or a model running on our own hardware. We don't send your email address. Providers handle these requests under their own API terms.
• Resend (built on Amazon SES) delivers our email: account verification, password resets, getting-started tips and the weekly recap.
• Device services you connect (Govee, SwitchBot, AC Infinity, TP-Link, Home Assistant) receive your key whenever we read or switch your devices.
• Amazon and seed banks only see you if you follow one of their links, and then under their own privacy policies.

That's the whole list. We don't sell your data, and we don't share it for advertising.

What's public

Everything is private by default. If you publish a grow, it gets a public page that anyone with the link — and search engines — can see, and its newest photo, stage and harvest weight can appear on the public page for that strain, linked back to your grow. Unpublish it and it disappears from both. We may also publish statistics combined across many grows (for example, the humidity growers typically run in flower); these never identify you or reveal a grow you haven't published.

How long we keep it

• Account and journal: until you delete them or ask us to delete your account.
• Session recordings: 14 days, except the rare one we hold on to while fixing a specific bug.
• Usage events: kept for long-term trends. They carry a random ID rather than your name or email, and once your account is deleted that ID no longer leads back to you.
• Backups: the database and the app's working files are backed up every night to hardware we control, and backups are kept for up to 14 days — so something you delete can survive in a backup for up to two weeks.

Your choices

• Download everything: Settings → Your data → Download my data gives you one file with your account, journal and coach conversations. Photos are included as links.
• Delete your account: email [email protected] from the address on your account. We delete the account and everything in it within 30 days, usually much sooner, and it rolls out of backups within 14 days after that.
• Correct something: edit it in the app, or email us.
• Usage analytics and recordings: switch them off in Settings → Usage analytics.
• Email: Settings → Weekly email recap → Off stops the recap and the getting-started tips. Account email you ask for, like a password reset, still arrives.
• Notifications: turn daily tips off in Settings, or block notifications in your browser.

Wherever you live, you can ask what we hold about you and ask us to correct or delete it; we'll answer within 30 days. We don't sell personal information or share it for targeted advertising.

Age

Cultivar is for adults 21 and over. We don't knowingly hold information about anyone younger, and we delete any account we find that belongs to someone under 21.

Security

Every connection to Cultivar is encrypted in transit, including the leg from Cloudflare to our server. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes, and backups stay on hardware we control. No system is perfect: if you spot a problem, tell us at [email protected].

Legal requests

We hand over data only when the law requires it, such as under a valid court order, and where the law allows we'll tell you first.

Changes

When this policy changes, the date at the top changes. If a change affects how your data is used, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.

Related: Terms of use · Disclosures

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