Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

The information we collect depends on which features you use.

Account and profile information

We may collect:

• Name and email address
• Authentication account identifier
• Profile information and preferences
• ZIP code, time zone, and reminder preferences
• Subscription and access status

Yard Eaters uses passwordless sign-in. Our authentication provider maintains the session information needed to keep you signed in.

Garden and household information

We may collect:

• Garden address, ZIP code, and location coordinates
• Property outline, map center, and estimated dimensions
• Grow-space labels, dimensions, positions, sunlight, and water information
• Household size, meal preferences, crop preferences, and planting goals
• Plants, tasks, schedules, harvests, meal records, notes, issues, and nicknames
• Rain confirmations and nearby-weather evidence
• Photos and their available metadata

This information can reveal the location and layout of a private residence. We treat it as private account information.

Personal Setup information

If you purchase or request Personal Setup, we may collect:

• Name, email, address, and time zone
• Gardening experience and garden conditions
• Household, meal, and plant preferences
• Weekly time available for gardening
• Scheduling availability
• Goals and free-text responses
• Optional constraints, including mobility or accessibility needs

You choose whether to provide optional information. We use it to prepare and deliver the requested service, not to infer unrelated characteristics or target advertising.

Billing information

Stripe processes payment-card, payment-method, checkout, and transaction information for Yard Eaters. Stripe also processes certain information for its own fraud prevention, security, legal compliance, and service-improvement purposes.

When you open or enter information in Stripe Checkout, Stripe may receive contact and billing details, payment-method information, transaction details, device and IP information, and fraud-prevention signals, even if you do not complete the purchase. Stripe handles that information under its Privacy Policy and Privacy Center.

Yard Eaters may receive and store:

• Stripe customer, checkout, and subscription identifiers
• Selected plan and billing frequency
• Trial, renewal, cancellation, and access dates
• Payment and subscription status
• Billing name and address
• Receipt, invoice, retry, and checkout status

Yard Eaters does not store your complete card number or card security code.

Communications and applications

We may collect information you provide through:

• Contact and support forms
• Privacy requests
• Newsletter signups
• Founding Gardeners or beta applications
• Surveys and interviews
• Feedback reports
• Email and other direct communications

A beta application may include name, email, city, state, ZIP code, growing experience, grow-space types, approximate garden size, free-text answers, application status, and internal review notes.

Feedback and testing information

When you open the Planner feedback tool, it may create a screenshot locally for your review. The screenshot is uploaded only if you submit the report with the screenshot included.

Submitted feedback may contain:

• Your comments and optional screenshot
• Current page and app version
• Browser, operating system, viewport, language, and touch capability
• Recent redacted application errors
• Failed endpoint, status, and timing information
• A request or report identifier

For complimentary testers and authorized staff, we may collect limited engagement information such as pages visited, session identifiers, device basics, app version, and active time. Pointer, keyboard, scroll, and touch activity may be used to determine whether a session is active, but we do not record the content of keystrokes through this feature.

Information collected automatically

Our hosting, security, authentication, and application systems may automatically receive:

• IP address
• Browser and device type
• Operating system and language
• Request time and referring page
• Pages requested
• Error, security, and performance information
• Cookie or local-storage identifiers
• Approximate location derived from IP address

2. How we obtain information

We obtain information:

• Directly from you
• From your browser or device when you grant permission
• From your use of the services covered by this Policy
• From service providers involved in authentication, billing, maps, weather, email, analytics, hosting, and security
• From public government data services used for address, climate, and weather matching

3. How we use information

We use personal information to:

• Create, authenticate, secure, and recover accounts
• Provide and synchronize the Planner
• Match gardening guidance to location and climate
• Center maps and create user-directed property estimates
• Generate schedules, tasks, plant guidance, and meal planning
• Provide nearby weather and rain context
• Process subscriptions and control Planner access
• Prepare Personal Setup services
• Respond to support, feedback, privacy, and beta requests
• Send requested newsletters and service communications
• Measure consensual website usage
• Detect abuse, fraud, errors, and security incidents
• Improve the Services
• Enforce our Terms and comply with law

Where applicable law requires a legal basis, we rely on performance of a contract, your consent, our legitimate interests in operating and securing the Services, and compliance with legal obligations.

4. Google Maps, Places, and location information

The Services use Google Maps Platform and Google Places for address suggestions, place selection, and satellite maps.

When you type an address or use a map, Google may receive information including search terms, IP address, map activity, and latitude and longitude coordinates. Google may use and retain this information to provide and improve its products and services under the Google Privacy Policy.

Your use of Google Maps features is also governed by the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service.

When you select a suggested address:

• Google may return the selected address, a Google place identifier, and exact coordinates.
• Yard Eaters uses Google's coordinates transiently to center the property map.
• Yard Eaters does not save those Google Places coordinates as the durable account coordinate.
• We may retain the Google place identifier.
• We send the selected address to the U.S. Census Geocoder for normalization and normally save the resulting Census-derived coordinates.
• We may save the selected address so the Planner can provide property, climate, and weather features.

If you choose device location, your browser or device asks for permission. Yard Eaters may then save the device coordinates and reported accuracy. You may decline or later revoke that permission through browser or device settings.

If you use the outlining tool, the Planner may store the geographic polygon points you choose while viewing the map. Yard Eaters does not grant you rights in Google Maps imagery or other third-party map content, and your use of that content remains subject to the provider's terms.

You can remove only your saved weather location through Planner Settings. To request deletion of your saved address, property outline, account, or other personal information, use our privacy request form.

We may send an address, ZIP code, coordinates, or a small surrounding area to public data services such as the U.S. Census Geocoder, USDA mapping services, NOAA, the National Weather Service, NOAA radar services, and Zippopotam.us. These services help determine hardiness zone, climate normals, forecast, alerts, nearby stations, rainfall evidence, and ZIP-centered weather.

5. Camera, motion, and photo information

If you use Sun Scan, the browser may request camera, motion, orientation, and precise-location permission.

Yard Eaters does not intentionally upload or retain Sun Scan video, raw motion readings, or temporary scan coordinates. The selected sun-hours result may be saved in your garden plan.

If you choose to add a plant photo, it becomes part of your saved garden record. We usually resize or recompress photos, but we cannot guarantee that all original metadata will be removed. Review photos before uploading and avoid including people, documents, or other sensitive information.

6. Cookies, local storage, and analytics

The Services use necessary browser storage for:

• Authentication sessions
• Saved preferences
• Weather caching
• Security and rate limiting
• Service-worker and offline asset caching
• Remembering cookie choices
• Core Planner functions

The Yard Eaters website asks for consent before loading optional Google Analytics. If you accept, Google may receive device, browser, page, referral, IP, and usage information for site measurement. You may decline analytics or reset your choice through Cookie Settings.

Some functional third-party resources may operate independently of analytics consent:

• Cloudflare Turnstile helps protect forms from abuse and may receive IP, device, and security signals.
• Google Fonts may receive request and device information when fonts load.
• YouTube's privacy-enhanced embeds may receive IP, device, and viewing information when an embedded page or video loads or is played.

We do not currently serve behaviorally targeted advertisements through the Services.

7. How we disclose information

We disclose personal information only as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy.

Provider categories include:

• Supabase for authentication, databases, and private file storage
• Stripe for checkout, billing, subscriptions, receipts, security, compliance, and fraud prevention
• Google for Maps, Places, Analytics, Fonts, and YouTube
• Resend for authentication, support, and newsletter email
• Cloudflare for form security and portions of hosting infrastructure
• Vercel, OpenAI Sites, and related infrastructure providers for hosting and delivery
• U.S. Census, USDA, NOAA, National Weather Service, and related public data services
• Professional advisers and contractors supporting the business

We may also disclose information:

• To comply with law, legal process, or valid government requests
• To protect users, Yard Eaters, or the public
• To investigate fraud, abuse, or security incidents
• In connection with a merger, financing, reorganization, or sale of the business
• At your direction or with your consent

We may use and disclose aggregated or deidentified information that cannot reasonably identify you.

We do not publish your garden plans, address, photos, Personal Setup responses, contact messages, or beta application for other users.

8. Sale, sharing, and advertising

Yard Eaters does not sell personal information.

Yard Eaters does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising and does not currently use personal information to serve targeted advertisements.

Because we do not sell or share personal information for targeted advertising, there is no sale or advertising-sharing opt-out required for those activities. You may separately decline optional analytics.

We may disclose information to processors and service providers that perform work for us. That operational disclosure is not a sale.

9. Email communications

We may send transactional messages about:

• Sign-in and account security
• Subscription, trial, payment, or receipt activity
• Service changes
• Support and privacy requests

If you request newsletters or marketing email, you may unsubscribe through the link in the message. Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop necessary account, security, or billing messages.

We may retain a limited suppression record so an unsubscribed address is not accidentally resubscribed.

10. Retention

We keep personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described here.

Retention depends on the type of information:

• Account and Planner data may be kept while your account is active and for a reasonable period afterward.
• Personal Setup information may be kept while the service is being prepared, delivered, supported, or disputed.
• Feedback, screenshots, beta applications, reviewer notes, and testing information may be kept while they remain useful for support, evaluation, security, or product improvement.
• Contact messages may be retained while the request is handled and for reasonable support or legal records.
• Newsletter information may be retained until you unsubscribe, followed by a limited suppression record.
• Billing and transaction records may be retained for tax, accounting, fraud prevention, chargeback, and legal purposes.
• Short-lived rate-limit and security information may be held temporarily to prevent abuse.
• Backup copies may remain until they are overwritten through normal backup cycles.

When information is no longer needed, we may delete or deidentify it. We may retain information where required by law or reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, disputes, or enforcing agreements.

11. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect information.

These include account-level access controls, private database rules, restricted billing records, private feedback storage, and limited staff access.

No online service can guarantee absolute security. Protect your email account and contact us if you suspect unauthorized access.

12. Your choices and rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to:

• Know whether we process your personal information
• Access or obtain a copy of it
• Correct inaccurate information
• Delete information
• Withdraw consent
• Opt out of marketing
• Obtain portable information where applicable
• Appeal a denied privacy request
• Use an authorized agent
• Receive equal service without unlawful discrimination

You may change certain information in the Planner, remove a saved weather location, revoke browser permissions, decline analytics, or unsubscribe from marketing.

To request access, correction, export, deletion of an address, property outline, account, or other personal information, consent withdrawal, or another privacy right, use the form below. We may verify your identity before responding. We will process requests as required by applicable law.

Deleting a browser shortcut or signing out does not itself delete your account or cancel a subscription.

13. Children's privacy

The Services are intended for adults and are not directed to children under 13. Users must be at least 18 years old to create an account or purchase services.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child provided information, use our privacy request form so we can investigate and delete it where required.

14. International use

Yard Eaters is based in the United States. If you access the Services from another country, information may be processed in the United States and other countries where our providers operate.

Those locations may have different privacy laws from your home country. Where required, we will use appropriate safeguards for international transfers.

15. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy when the Services, providers, laws, or practices change.

We will post the revised Policy with a new effective date. For material changes, we will provide reasonable notice through the Services or through account communications when appropriate.

16. Contact us

Yard Eaters LLC is based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Use our privacy request form for questions about this Policy or your personal information.