Fern
Fern privacy policy
Fern is a houseplant care app. It is designed so that your data stays on your phone.
What stays on your device
Your plants, care log, photos, rooms, and settings are stored only on your phone, in the app's own container. They are included in your normal iCloud or computer backup of the device, which is governed by Apple's privacy policy. Fern has no user accounts and no server that stores your plant data. You can export everything as JSON or CSV at any time from Settings, and deleting the app deletes the data.
Photo identification
When you choose to identify a plant from a photo, and only then, the photo is sent to Fern's identification service (a Cloudflare Worker operated by the developer) and forwarded to the identification provider, Kindwise (Plant.id), which returns candidate species. Fern's service does not store the photo. It keeps a short numeric fingerprint of the image for 30 days so that re-sending the same photo does not count against your allowance. Kindwise's handling of submitted images is described in Kindwise's privacy policy. The app shows this information before the first photo is sent, and you can always pick a species manually instead.
Device verification and usage limits
To keep the identification service from being abused, the app uses Apple's App Attest to prove that requests come from a genuine copy of Fern on an Apple device. The service stores an anonymous key identifier created by your device, a usage counter, and, if you subscribe, the expiry date of your subscription. None of this identifies you personally, and it is not linked to an Apple ID, email address, or name.
Subscriptions
Fern Plus is sold through Apple's App Store. Apple processes the payment; Fern never sees your payment details. The app sends the signed transaction receipt to Fern's service so it can unlock the subscriber allowance.
Notifications
Reminders are scheduled locally on your phone. No notification content leaves your device.
Analytics
Fern records a handful of anonymous counters about feature use (for example, how many reminders were tapped). No plant names, photos, notes, or identifiers are included. You can turn this off in Settings → Privacy.
Children
Fern is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes, the date above will change with it. Questions: support@cmdv.dev.