Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how HomeSown LLC ("HomeSown," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and protects information when you use the HomeSown application and website at HomeSownApp.com (together, the "Service").

By using the Service, you agree to this Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

---

1. Our approach to your data

We collect only what we need to run HomeSown and to help you grow. We rely on a small set of third-party providers to operate the Service (listed in §6), and we direct them to use your information only to provide their services to us. This Policy describes what we collect, why, who helps us process it, and the choices and rights you have. If our data practices change in the future, we will update this Policy and follow the notice process in §11.

---

2. Who we are and the scope of this Policy

HomeSown is a gardening companion app: a plant library, a personal garden tracker and archive, a plot/bed planner, weather- and climate-aware reminders, and premium AI features (a gardening assistant chat, recipe generation from your harvests, and an AI photo-identification camera).

This Policy covers the HomeSown web app, the marketing website, and the HomeSown iOS and Android apps. Launch is United States–only. When we expand to other countries, we will update this Policy with the region-specific disclosures and consent mechanisms those jurisdictions require.

This Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us (see §13) and we will delete it.

---

3. Information we collect

We collect only what we need to run the Service. We do not ask for your real name, phone number, or precise GPS location.

3a. Information you provide

• Account information — your email address and a password (passwords are stored only as a salted hash by our authentication provider; we never see your plaintext password). An optional display name if you choose to set one.
• Location, as a postal code — you provide your ZIP code so we can determine your climate zone and local frost/weather data. We derive an approximate latitude/longitude from the ZIP on our servers to look up weather; we do not collect your precise device GPS location.
• Your garden content — the plants you add, beds and plot layouts you create, harvest logs, notes, status updates, notification preferences, and items you archive.
• AI feature inputs — the questions and messages you send to the AI assistant; the ingredients or garden selections you use to generate recipes; and the photos and any accompanying notes you submit to the AI Camera. (See §4 for how AI inputs are handled, and §3d for what is and isn't stored.)
• Support communications — if you email us (e.g. Support@HomeSownApp.com), we receive your message and email address.

3b. Information collected automatically (product analytics)

We use PostHog as our sole product-analytics tool to understand how the Service is used and to improve it — not for advertising and not to track you across other apps or sites.

• Usage and device data — pages/screens viewed, taps and clicks (autocapture), feature usage, approximate session timing, and basic device/browser information.
• Coarse location for analytics — a region-level location (derived from IP geolocation, and/or your ZIP/climate zone as account attributes) so we can understand where our users are and where the Service is growing. We do not use this for ad targeting.
• Error and performance data — crash/exception reports and basic performance metrics to fix bugs.
• What we deliberately do NOT collect: session replay is turned off. We do not record your screen or keystrokes.

Analytics events are associated with your HomeSown user ID, not your email. (We may attach coarse attributes such as climate zone or subscription tier to that ID for the breakdowns above.)

3c. Payment information

When you purchase a premium subscription, your payment is handled by a third-party processor (Stripe on the web; Apple or Google for in-app purchases). We never receive or store your full payment-card number. We retain only limited billing and subscription metadata needed to manage your subscription — see §5.

3d. What we do NOT store

• AI Camera photos are analyze-and-discard. A photo you submit is sent to the AI model provider to generate your answer and is not saved to our servers or database afterward. Before upload, photos are downscaled on your device (which also typically strips embedded EXIF metadata such as camera location).
• We do not store your plaintext password, precise GPS coordinates, or biometric data.

---

4. How we use your information

We use the information above to:

• Provide the Service — authenticate you, store and display your garden, beds, archive, and preferences.
• Deliver climate- and weather-aware features — frost alerts, watering and planting reminders, the planting calendar, and the daily digest email (if enabled), using weather data looked up from your approximate coordinates.
• Power the AI features you choose to use — send your chat messages, recipe inputs, or AI Camera photos to our AI provider to generate a response (see §6). Your gardening assistant chat history is stored under your account so you can revisit it; you can clear it. We keep an internal usage ledger (token counts and an estimated cost per request) to enforce fair-use limits and understand per-user cost — this contains no message content.
• Communicate with you — service and account emails, the optional daily digest, and responses to your support requests.
• Maintain, secure, and improve the Service — analytics, debugging, abuse/fraud prevention, and enforcing our Terms.
• Comply with law — when we have a legal obligation or valid legal process.

We do not use your personal information to build advertising profiles or to make legally significant decisions about you automatically.

---

5. Payments and subscriptions

HomeSown offers an optional premium subscription. We use third-party payment processors and never receive or store your full payment-card number.

• Web payments — Stripe. When you subscribe on HomeSownApp.com, your payment is processed by Stripe, Inc., which collects and processes your card details under its own privacy policy. From Stripe we receive and store only limited subscription metadata needed to manage your access: a Stripe customer ID, a subscription ID, your status (e.g. trialing, active, past due, canceled), your plan (monthly or annual) and price, your current-period-end date, and whether you have cancelled at period end. We do not receive or store your card number, security code, or bank details. (Stripe may display the card brand and last four digits during checkout; that display is handled by Stripe, not stored by us.)
• In-app purchases — Apple and Google. When you subscribe inside the iOS or Android app, the purchase is processed by Apple or Google through their in-app-purchase systems under their own privacy policies. We receive a purchase/entitlement confirmation through RevenueCat, Inc. (our subscription-entitlement provider) — not your payment-card details. Your App Store or Google Play account may use a different email than your HomeSown account; we link premium access to your HomeSown user ID, not to your store-account email.
• What we store. One subscription record per user, tied to your user ID, containing the metadata listed above. Premium status is derived from that record (we do not store a standalone "is premium" flag), and we do not store card numbers, bank details, or full billing addresses.
• Your choices. You can cancel anytime — on the web through the Stripe billing portal, or in your App Store / Google Play subscription settings for in-app purchases. See the Terms of Service for plan, price, trial, auto-renewal, and refund details.

---

6. Service providers (sub-processors)

We share information only with vetted providers who process it on our behalf to run the Service, under contractual confidentiality and data-protection terms. They may not use your data for their own purposes. Current providers:

We may also disclose information if required by law or valid legal process, to protect rights, safety, and security (ours, our users', or the public's), or in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or asset transfer (in which case we will continue to handle your information under a policy at least as protective, or give you notice as described in §11).

Content you submit to an AI feature is sent to our model provider (Anthropic) through the Vercel AI Gateway solely to generate your response. Under the provider's API terms, this content is not used to train the provider's models and is retained only transiently for operational and safety purposes — it is not added to a long-term profile of you.

---

7. How long we keep your information

• Account and garden data — kept while your account is active.
• AI chat history — kept under your account until you clear it or delete your account.
• AI Camera photos — not retained (analyze-and-discard; see §3d).
• Analytics data — retained per PostHog's retention settings for as long as useful for the purposes in §3b.
• After deletion — when you delete your account, we delete your personal data from our systems; some records may persist in encrypted backups for up to 30 days, or longer where retention is legally required, after which they are purged.

---

8. Your choices and rights

• Access / update — view and edit your account info and garden data in the app.
• Delete your account — the app includes a self-serve account-deletion flow (Account → Delete account) that removes your data, satisfying deletion rights under laws such as the GDPR and CCPA/CPRA.
• Email preferences — turn the daily digest and notification types on/off in Account settings.
• Location — providing a ZIP is optional, but climate/weather features won't work without it.
• Analytics — visitors in the UK, EU, and EEA are asked to opt in before any analytics run, via our consent banner, and can withdraw consent at any time. For other visitors, product analytics (PostHog) help us operate and improve the Service; session replay is off and we do not use analytics data for third-party advertising. You can remove the analytics associated with your account by deleting your account.

U.S. state privacy rights (e.g. California CCPA/CPRA, and similar laws): you have the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it (this Policy), to access, delete, and correct it, and to not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. You may exercise these rights by contacting us (§13) or using the in-app tools, and we will verify the request against your account.

---

9. Security

We protect your data with industry-standard measures: encryption in transit (HTTPS), hashed passwords, and row-level security so each user can only access their own records. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will notify affected users and authorities of a breach as required by law.

---

10. International users

The Service is currently offered to users in the United States, and data is processed in the United States. If you access it from elsewhere, you do so on your own initiative. Region-specific terms and consent mechanisms (e.g. a cookie-consent banner and GDPR disclosures for UK/EU users) will be added when we expand internationally.

---

11. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy as the Service evolves. For minor changes we will update the "Last updated" date. For a material change in how we collect, use, or share your personal information, we will provide prominent advance notice (in the app or by email) before it takes effect, and we will obtain your consent where the law requires it. We will not make a materially different use of information we have already collected from you without a lawful basis or, where required, your consent.

---

12. Third-party links

The Service may link to third-party sites (e.g. extension resources, a future Partners page, or image-attribution sources). Their privacy practices are their own; this Policy does not cover them.

---

13. Contact us

Questions or requests about this Policy or your data:

Email: Support@HomeSownApp.com Entity: HomeSown LLC (Alabama) — 3809 Farrington Wood Circle, Vestavia, AL 35243