SowSage app privacy policy

The short version

SowSage is an offline-first garden app. Your garden, plants, tasks, journal entries, and photos all live in a local database on your device. We do not operate user accounts, we do not sync your garden to a server, and we do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with anyone. The app has no advertising and no third-party analytics or tracking.

What the app stores on your device

Everything you create in SowSage — beds and locations, the plants you add, generated and completed tasks, your completed-task history, and your journal entries — is kept in a local SQLite database on your phone. Photos you capture or attach are stored in the app’s own storage on the device and referenced by your journal.

This data stays on your device. It is removed when you uninstall the app or clear its storage. It may be included in the device-level backups you have configured yourself (for example Google’s Android backup), which are governed by your device and Google account settings, not by SowSage.

Permissions the app requests, and why

Location (approximate and precise)

Requested only when you use weather features. SowSage uses your device location to fetch a local forecast so it can skip a watering reminder after rain and warn you before a frost. Your coordinates are sent to our weather provider (Open-Meteo) to retrieve that forecast for the moment of the request. SowSage does not store a history of your location, does not track you in the background, and does not use location for advertising. If you decline this permission, the rest of the app works normally and the weather strip shows a “Location off” note.

Camera

Requested only when you choose to take a photo for a journal entry. The photo is saved into the app’s storage on your device. SowSage never uploads your photos.

Photos / media

Requested only when you choose to attach an existing photo to a journal entry. SowSage reads only the photo you explicitly select; it does not scan or upload your photo library.

SowSage does not request microphone access and does not record audio.

Data shared with third parties

SowSage does not share your personal data with third parties for their own purposes. The only outbound network request the app makes is to its weather provider:

Open-Meteo (weather)

When weather features are enabled, the app sends your latitude and longitude to Open-Meteo to retrieve the forecast. No name, email, device identifier, or account information is sent, because the app has none to send. Open-Meteo processes this request under its own privacy terms.

SowSage contains no advertising SDKs, no analytics or crash- reporting SDKs, and no social or marketing trackers.

Data collection summary (Google Play Data safety)

For clarity and to match the Google Play Data safety section:

• Data collected: none is collected by us — the app has no servers and no account system.
• Data shared: approximate/precise location is sent to the weather provider to fulfill a forecast request you initiate, and is not retained by us. We do not consider this “collection” because SowSage never stores or transmits it to our own systems.
• On-device data: your garden data and photos are stored only on your device.
• Encryption: the request to the weather provider is sent over HTTPS.
• Deletion: uninstalling the app or clearing its storage permanently removes all of your SowSage data from the device.
• Children: SowSage is a general-audience gardening app and is not directed to children under 13.

How to delete your data

Because all SowSage data lives on your device, you control it directly. You can delete individual plantings and journal entries inside the app, or remove everything at once by uninstalling SowSage or clearing its storage in your device’s app settings. There is no server-side copy for us to delete.

Changes

If a future version of SowSage changes how it handles data — for example, if optional cloud backup or sync is added — we will update this page, update the “Last updated” date above, and describe the change before it takes effect. Any such feature would be opt-in.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? Email hello@sowsage.com.