Privacy policy
The short version: StemAlbum has no accounts and no cloud. Your plants and photos stay on your iPhone. A photo leaves the app only when you ask for an analysis, with its location data removed, and it is not kept.
Who we are
StemAlbum ("the app", "we") is an iPhone photo journal for houseplants, made by an independent developer. Questions about privacy go to support@stemalbum.app.
What the app stores, and where
Your plants, their photos, the names and notes you give them, and your settings are stored inside the app on your iPhone. Photos are copied into the app's private storage. There is no cloud sync and no account, and we cannot see any of it.
Camera and photos
The app asks for the camera or your photo library only when you add a photo. It does not read your library in the background, and it does not use the capture date or location stored in a photo.
Plant analysis (optional)
Plant identification and photo comparison are optional and happen only when you ask for them. You can turn suggestions off in Settings. During testing, analysis is available to invited testers. When you ask:
- the photo you chose (one, or two for a comparison) is re-encoded on your iPhone, which removes its location and other metadata;
- it is sent over an encrypted connection to our analysis service, which runs on Cloudflare, and on to OpenAI, which analyses it and returns suggestions;
- we ask OpenAI not to store the request. OpenAI may keep API requests for up to 30 days to detect abuse, under its own policies, and does not use them to train its models;
- the request carries a random identifier created when you first open the app. It has no name, account or device information attached, and exists so a single install can't use up the shared analysis budget.
Our analysis service never stores photos, prompts or results. For each analysis it keeps the random identifier, the time, the kind of analysis, and the amount of processing used and what it cost, for up to one year, to keep the service within its budget. Request logging is turned off.
Plant catalogue search
The built-in catalogue works offline. If you search online, only your search text is sent to GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, which returns matching plant names.
What we do not do
- No accounts, sign-up or email address.
- No analytics, advertising, tracking or advertising identifiers, and no crash reporting.
- No selling or sharing of data.
Deleting your data
Deleting a plant deletes its photos. Deleting the app removes your whole journal. There is no copy anywhere else. To have the records our analysis service keeps for your install removed, write to us with the tester ID shown in Settings.
Children
StemAlbum is not directed at children under 13 and collects no personal information from anyone.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version is published on this page with a new effective date.
Contact
Email support@stemalbum.app.