Last updated: 24 August 2026 · Effective: 24 August 2026
PocketPetal is a game about finding and collecting real plants. To make it work we handle some of your data. This policy explains exactly what we collect, why, who else sees it, and how to get rid of it.
PocketPetal is operated by Starling Petals LLC ("we", "us"). For anything in this policy, contact us at .
| Purpose | Data used | Legal basis (UK/EU) |
|---|---|---|
| Identifying plants in your photos | Photograph, coordinates | Performance of a contract |
| Running your account, collection, streaks and badges | Account details, capture history | Performance of a contract |
| Friends, referrals and the shared feed | Username, avatar, shared captures | Performance of a contract |
| Screening shared images for inappropriate content | Photograph | Legitimate interests (keeping the feed safe) |
| Fixing crashes and improving the app | Usage and diagnostic data | Legitimate interests |
| Service emails (welcome, subscription, friend requests) | Email address | Performance of a contract |
| Push notifications | Push token | Consent |
| Improving our plant recognition model | Photograph, identification label | Consent — see section 4 |
We do not sell your personal data. We do not share it for advertising. We use the following providers to operate the service, and each receives only what it needs:
| Provider | What it receives | Purpose | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Firebase | Account details, photographs, capture data, diagnostics | Hosting, database, storage, authentication, push, crash reporting | United States |
| Pl@ntNet | Photograph | Primary plant identification | France |
| Plant.id (Kindwise) | Photograph, coordinates | Fallback plant identification | Czech Republic |
| Hetzner Online GmbH | Photograph | Our own fallback identification model | Germany |
| Google Cloud Vision | Photograph | Screening images shared to the feed | United States |
| OpenAI | Plant names only — never your photographs | Generating plant descriptions and care tips | United States |
| Resend | Email address | Sending service emails | United States |
| Amplitude | Usage data, pseudonymous identifier | Product analytics | United States |
| RevenueCat | Pseudonymous user ID, subscription status | Managing subscriptions | United States |
We may also disclose data where legally required, or to protect the rights and safety of our users.
Several providers are outside the UK/EEA, principally in the United States. Where that happens we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, and on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum for transfers from the United Kingdom.
We are building our own plant identification model. Your photographs and the species label attached to them are valuable training data — particularly when you correct a wrong identification.
This only happens with your consent, which you can give or withdraw at any time in Settings → Privacy. Withdrawing consent stops any future use of your photos for training. Images already incorporated into a trained model cannot be individually extracted from it, but we will exclude your data from all subsequent training.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access your data, correct it, delete it, receive a portable copy, object to or restrict processing, and withdraw consent. You also have the right to complain to your data protection authority — in the UK, the ICO.
We do not discriminate against you for exercising these rights. To make a request, email . We respond within one month.
You can delete your account from inside the app at any time: Settings → Delete Account. No email required, no waiting.
This permanently erases your profile, every capture and photograph, your collection, badges, quests, streak and friend connections, along with any of your images held in our training dataset. It cannot be undone.
PocketPetal is not intended for children under 13. If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you must be at least 16, or the minimum age for consent to data processing in your country if that is lower. We do not knowingly collect data from children below these ages. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact and we will delete it.
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and access is restricted to those who need it. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information and will notify you and the relevant authority of a qualifying breach as the law requires.
We will post any changes on this page and update the date above. For significant changes we will notify you in the app or by email before they take effect.