Privacy Policy

1 Summary

Meadow is a location-based app. It uses your device's precise location to show seeds near you and to let you plant and collect them. It uses location in the background only if you grant "Always" permission and turn on auto-collect or auto-plant.

We do not sell personal information and we do not show advertising. The app contains no third-party analytics, advertising or tracking software. It records how its own features are used, on our own server, and you can turn that off. Our website uses Vercel Web Analytics.

This summary is for convenience only. The sections below are the policy.

2 Who we are

Meadow (the iPhone app, the website at plantasong.com and the related services) is operated by Denis Nadarevic, an individual based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada ("Meadow", "we", "us"). We are responsible for the personal information described in this policy.

Meadow is currently a public beta distributed through Apple's TestFlight. You can contact us about this policy or your information at support@plantasong.com.

3 Information we collect

Account information

When you create an account we collect your email address and a password, which we store only in hashed form. If you use Sign in with Apple, we receive an identifier from Apple and, if you choose to share them, your name and email address (which may be an Apple relay address). While you type your email address during sign-up, the app checks with our server whether an account already exists for it. We send emails to verify your address and to reset your password.

Profile

Your handle, display name, and anything you add to your profile: a bio, a profile photo and banner, a website, a location you type in, a favourite song, and your marker style. We also record when you joined. A starting handle may be suggested from your email address; you can change it.

Content and activity

The seeds you plant (the song, the place, the name of the area, the time, and any note), the seeds you reveal and collect, posts, comments, likes, reposts and follows, photos and videos you upload, and your progress in quests, levels and marker skins.

Music

When you search for a song, your search text and your App Store country are sent to Apple, either directly from the app or through our server, to return results and 30-second previews. If you allow access to Apple Music, the app can read the song currently playing in the Music app (only if you turn this on), show your recently played songs, and add songs to a playlist in your library. This happens on your device. A song you are listening to is sent to us only if it is planted as a seed.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, we store your device's push token so we can send notifications about likes, comments, follows and similar activity. We also keep a record of the notifications we create for you.

Safety and moderation

The people you block or mute, and reports you submit, including the reason and any details you add. When a report is made, we keep a copy of the reported content so it can be reviewed even if it is later deleted. If an account is banned, we keep a one-way keyed hash of its email address and Apple identifier to prevent the same identity from registering again.

Usage data

Unless you turn it off in Settings, the app records which of its features are used: the name of the event from a fixed list, a few short values (for example which screen, or whether an action succeeded), a random identifier for the app session, the app version, the iOS major version, the time, and your account identifier when you are signed in. Usage records are designed not to contain your location or anything you type. They are sent only to our server.

Invitations and sign-up source

If you answer the optional question about how you heard about Meadow, we store your answer. If you use or share an invite code, we store your code and which account invited which.

Technical information

When you sign in, we record the IP address and device user agent associated with your session. Our sign-in service keeps a request log with the time, the address requested, the result and part of the user agent, without IP addresses. Our servers use IP addresses temporarily, in memory, to limit repeated sign-in and sign-up attempts.

Information that stays on your device

Some information is stored only on your iPhone and is not sent to us, including the Home area you set for auto-plant, your walking log and distance counter, your settings, and your sign-in token, which is kept in the iOS Keychain.

What we do not collect

The app does not access your contacts or camera, does not read your photo library (it can save an image to it if you ask, and you choose which photos to upload), does not use the advertising identifier, and does not include third-party analytics or advertising software. Meadow+ is not available during the beta. If it is offered in future, payment will be handled by Apple, and we will receive confirmation of your subscription status, not your payment details.

4 Location

When the app uses location

With "While Using the App" permission, Meadow uses your precise location while the app is open. With "Always" permission, it can also use your location in the background, but only for two optional features you turn on: auto-collect, which collects seeds you walk near, and auto-plant, which plants the song you are listening to as you walk. You can change or withdraw location permission at any time in iOS Settings. Meadow cannot show seeds or let you plant without location.

What is sent to our server

Your coordinates are sent to our server when the app looks for seeds near you, reveals or collects a seed, plants a seed, publishes a post, or looks up the nearest seed or areas with seeds. We use them to answer that request and to check that you are where you say you are.

What we store

The exact location of each seed you plant and each post you publish, with the name of its area.
The most recent position your app sent, with its time. This is one record per account that is replaced each time, and we use it to detect location spoofing and automated scraping.
The seeds you revealed and collected, and when.
The distance you walk each day, as a number, for quests.

We do not store a continuous record of your movements on our server.

Place names and address search

To name the area of a seed or post, and when you search for an address to set your Home, the app uses Apple's location services, which receive the coordinates or search text.

5 Our website

Our website, plantasong.com, is hosted by Vercel and uses Vercel Web Analytics to measure page visits. Some pages load map tiles or media from third-party providers, which receive your IP address and standard browser information when they deliver that content. The website has no sign-in and no forms, and our own code does not set cookies or store information in your browser.

The page at plantasong.com/beta counts visits and taps on its TestFlight button. Each count includes the campaign tags in the link you followed (such as utm_source) and an invite code if the link had one, and is sent to our server. The count does not include an identifier for you or your IP address, and its time is recorded only to the hour. The page sends nothing if your browser has Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control turned on.

Links to TestFlight, the App Store, Discord or other sites take you to services operated by others, under their own privacy policies.

6 How we use information

We use personal information to:

create and run your account and sign you in;
provide the app's features, including the map, planting, revealing and collecting, your garden, the feed, comments, follows, quests and notifications;
send account emails such as verification and password reset;
keep Meadow safe: detect location spoofing, scraping and abuse, apply rate limits, handle reports, and enforce our Terms;
understand which features are used and improve the app, using usage data and sign-up and campaign counts;
operate, maintain, back up and secure our systems; and
comply with the law and respond to lawful requests.

We do not sell personal information, use it for targeted advertising, or share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

7 Legal bases

Where the law requires a legal basis (for example the UK or EU General Data Protection Regulation), we rely on:

performance of a contract, to provide your account and the app's features;
consent, for location (through iOS permissions), background location, Apple Music access and notifications, which you can withdraw at any time in iOS Settings;
legitimate interests, in keeping Meadow secure, preventing abuse, moderating content, understanding how the app is used, and keeping backups; you can object to this processing; and
legal obligation, where the law requires it.

In Canada, we rely on your consent, which may be express or implied depending on the sensitivity of the information and the context.

8 What other people can see

Visible to other Meadow users

Your profile (handle, display name, bio, photos, website, the location you typed, favourite song, marker style, level and badge, and join date), your follows, and the posts, comments and likes you publish, with the name of their area. Anything you publish in Meadow may be seen by any Meadow user.

Seeds

When another user is within about 500 metres of a seed you planted, their app receives the seed's exact location and your profile, and shows the seed as a mystery. The song and your note are sent only when they come within about 50 metres, reveal it, or collect it. People who collect a seed keep it, including its location and note. A seed planted at your home can show where you live.

Not shown to other users

Your email address, your password, your live position, your collections and walking distance, your usage data, your sign-up answer, the people you block or mute, and your reports.

10 International transfers

Our server is located in Canada. Our service providers may process information in other countries, including the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those where you live and where information may be accessible to local authorities. Where the law requires it, we rely on the transfer safeguards those providers make available, such as standard contractual clauses.

11 Retention and deletion

While your account exists

We keep your account, profile and content for as long as your account exists. Seeds disappear from the map when they expire (after 5 days on a free account, or 30 days with Meadow+, which every beta account has), but the seed record stays in our database, and in the gardens of people who collected it, until you delete the seed or your account.

Usage records are deleted automatically after 180 days.
Campaign counts from the /beta page contain no personal identifiers and are kept for up to about a year.
Server logs are limited in size and are overwritten as new entries are written.
Backups of the database and uploaded files are kept for about 14 days.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app under Settings, Account. This deletes your account, profile, sessions, push tokens, posts, comments, likes, reposts, follows, notifications, blocks and mutes, reports you filed, usage records, quest progress, sign-up answer and invite records, the photos and videos you uploaded, and the seeds you planted that no one collected. If you used Sign in with Apple, we ask Apple to revoke Meadow's access.

Seeds that other people collected remain in their gardens in a de-identified form: they are no longer linked to your account, your note is removed, the location is reduced to about one kilometre, and the planter is shown as "deleted-account-" followed by a random tag.

What may remain

Copies in backups, until those backups are replaced (about 14 days).
Reports other people made about your account or content, with the copy of the reported content, kept as moderation records.
If your account was banned, the keyed hash of your email address and Apple identifier.
Information we must keep to comply with the law or to establish or defend legal claims.
Information held by Apple and other providers under their own policies.

12 Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to receive a copy in a portable form, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to withdraw consent. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that has already happened, and may mean some features stop working.

You can do much of this yourself: edit your profile in the app, turn off usage data under Settings, change location, Apple Music and notification permissions in iOS Settings, and delete your account under Settings, Account. For any other request, email support@plantasong.com. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request, and we will respond within the time the applicable law requires.

If you have a concern, please contact us first. You also have the right to complain to a privacy regulator, such as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or the data protection authority where you live.

13 Security

We use reasonable safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. These include hashed passwords, encrypted connections between the app and our server, a server that is reached only through Cloudflare's network, database rules that limit what each account can read and change, rate limits, and storage of your sign-in token in the iOS Keychain.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information. If a breach of security affects your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities where the law requires us to.

14 Children

Meadow is not directed to children, and you must be at least 13 years old to use it, or older if the law where you live requires. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, contact us and we will take steps to delete it.

15 Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Meadow changes. We will post the new version on this page and change the date at the top. If we make a material change, we will take reasonable steps to let you know, for example in the app or by email.

16 Contact

For questions about this policy or to make a request, email support@plantasong.com. To report another user or content, use the report option in the app.