Plant Vault keeps your garden on your phone. There is no Plant Vault account and no Plant Vault server, so in ordinary use nothing you write reaches us.
Last updated 18 September 2026.
Plant Vault is made by Pikeworks, a sole trader in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. For anything about this policy, write to [email protected]. Pikeworks is the data controller for the small amount of processing described below.
Your gardens, plants, wishlist, kit, diary, photos, reminders, remembered facts and chat history are stored in Plant Vault's own database on the device. We cannot see them. They are included in Android's own backup to your Google account if you have that turned on, which is between you and Google.
| What | Goes to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The rows of your garden records | Google Sheets and Google Drive, in your own account | Only if you link a sheet. Plant Vault asks for the narrow "drive.file" permission, so it can only see the file it created or that you picked. Unlink at any time in Settings. |
| Your question, your photos, and a summary of your own plants | Google (Gemini, through Firebase AI Logic) | Only when you use Plant Vault AI. Google processes it to produce the answer. See Google's terms below. |
| Rounded coordinates for your garden | MET Norway (api.met.no) | To fetch the forecast. No name, no account, no device identifier. |
| A postcode or town you type | postcodes.io | Only when you add or change a garden's place, to turn it into a rough position. |
| An AI answer you report, with its question and your note | Pikeworks, through a Google Form | Only when you tap "This was wrong", so the answer can be looked at. |
| Your subscription state | Google Play | To check whether Plant Vault AI is paid for. Payment is handled entirely by Google; we never see a card. |
Plant Vault has no advertising, no analytics and no tracking. Nothing is sold or shared with anyone else.
The AI is Google's Gemini, reached through Firebase AI Logic. When you ask something, the app sends your message, any photos you attach and a summary of your garden records so it can answer about your own plants: plant names, varieties, locations, care dates and notes, your kit and wishlist, open reminders, facts you asked it to remember, each garden's name and area (never its postcode) and the forecast. Google processes it under the Firebase terms and the Gemini API terms. Firebase App Check is used so that only the real app can make those requests. We do not keep a copy of your conversations: they stay on the phone and you can delete them.
If an answer is wrong or unsuitable, "This was wrong" under it sends that one question, that one answer, anything you type about it and the app version to Pikeworks, through a Google Form whose replies are kept in a Google Sheet only Pikeworks can open. Nothing else from your garden goes with it, and nothing identifies you unless you type it. Reports are read to put the app right and deleted within a year.
Do not put anything private into a question that you would not want processed by Google. Plant Vault AI is for adults: you must be 18 or over to use it.
Photos you add stay in Plant Vault's own storage on the phone. The camera and gallery are used only when you choose a photo. A photo leaves the phone only if you attach it to an AI question, or if you have linked a sheet and the photo is part of a record you asked to be copied there.
Care notes, reminders and frost warnings are worked out on the phone and shown by the phone. Nothing is sent from a server, because there is no server.
Because your records live on your device, you are in control of them: Settings has an export of everything as CSV and JSON, and "Delete everything", which clears the app. A sheet you linked is yours, in your Drive, and you delete it there. You also have the usual UK GDPR rights over any personal data we hold, which in practice is only what you send us in an email. Write to [email protected] and we will answer within a month. You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Plant Vault is not aimed at children and is not designed for them. Plant Vault AI requires you to be 18 or over.
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and anything material is called out in the app.