Privacy Policy

Succulent Identifier · Updated August 21, 2026

Succulent Identifier collects as little as it can. This page says exactly what it collects, why, and where that data goes — in plain words, with no exceptions hiding in the footnotes.

What the app stores on your device

Everything Succulent Identifier saves stays on your device: your saved succulents — the name, care notes, and a downscaled copy of the photo you took, kept in the app's own folder and excluded from iCloud backup — plus a cached copy of the catalog, how many scans you've used this month, your appearance setting, and a random secret for each map pin you created so you can delete it later. It is not sent anywhere. It leaves your device only inside your own iCloud or iTunes device backup, which is Apple's mechanism and covered by Apple's privacy policy, not this one. Deleting the app deletes it.

What the app collects

Anonymous usage analytics

Succulent Identifier records which screens and features get used, so I can tell what's worth improving. Each install generates a random identifier the first time the app launches. That identifier is not your name, your email, your Apple Account, or your device's advertising identifier — it is a random value that means nothing outside this app, and it is discarded when you delete the app.

• the name of the event and any non-personal detail attached to it (for example, which tab was opened)
• the app version and build
• the operating system version and device model (for example, iPhone16,2)
• your device's language setting
• when the app was first installed

There is no advertising identifier, no cross-app or cross-website tracking, and nothing that identifies you personally. That is why the app never shows the "Allow tracking?" prompt — there is nothing to track.

Feedback you choose to send

If you send feedback from inside the app, I receive the message you wrote and, if you chose to include one, the email address you typed so I can reply. The email field is optional and blank by default. Nothing is submitted unless you tap send.

Where it goes

Analytics events and feedback are stored in a database I run on Convex, hosted in the United States. Nobody else has access to it. It is not sold, rented, shared with data brokers, or used for advertising.

Location

Succulent Identifier asks for your coarse — your coordinate is randomly shifted by up to about 120 metres before it leaves the device location to place a succulent sighting on the shared map, only when you fill in the Add Sighting form. The coordinates are sent to the services listed below in order to fetch data for where you are. They are not stored with any identifier and are not used to build a profile of you. You can refuse or revoke this at any time in iOS Settings; the app keeps working without it.

What the app does not collect

Succulent Identifier does not collect:

• an account — there is nothing to sign up for and nothing to sign in to
• health or fitness data
• a push notification token
• an advertising identifier (IDFA) — there is no advertising and no ad network in the app
• anything about what you do in other apps or on the web

I do not sell your data, rent it, share it with data brokers, or use it for advertising. There is no ad network, no attribution SDK, and no analytics SDK belonging to anyone else in the app.

Services the app talks to

To do its job, Succulent Identifier makes requests to these services:

• Convex — the identification service, the species catalog, and the shared sightings map. What's sent: the photo you're identifying, and — only when you add a sighting — the plant name, an optional note, and a deliberately blurred version of your coordinates.
• OpenAI — the actual identification of the plant in your photo. What's sent: your photo is forwarded to OpenAI's GPT-4o vision model by the developer's server; nothing identifying you is attached to it.
• Wikimedia Commons — reference photos of the identified species. What's sent: the species name that was identified — never your photo.
• Apple — the subscription. What's sent: handled entirely by Apple; the developer never sees your payment details or your Apple Account.

As with any request to any website, these services can see your device's IP address when the app asks them for data. That is how the internet works and I have no way to prevent it. The app sends them no identifier of its own, and nothing that says who you are.

Purchases

Purchases are processed entirely by Apple. Your payment details never reach me — I receive Apple's aggregate sales reports, which do not identify individual buyers. Apple's handling of the transaction is covered by Apple's privacy policy.

Children

Succulent Identifier is not directed at children under 13, and it does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, of any age.

Deleting your data

Deleting the app removes everything stored on your device. To have anonymous analytics events or feedback removed from the database as well, email me at natetedesco@icloud.com and I'll delete them.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the date at the top of the page changes with it, and anything material will be called out in the app's release notes. The current version always lives at this URL.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about anything Succulent Identifier does with data — email natetedesco@icloud.com. Succulent Identifier is made and published by Nate Tedesco, an individual developer.