Privacy Policy — My Garden

Last updated: 16.10.2026

1. Scope and contact

This policy covers the current free Android app My Garden / Mein Garten / Мой сад, package org.mygarden.foundation. The provider is Rustam Gizatullin, operating the Cura et Ratio project, Obere Waiblinger Straße 150b, 70374 Stuttgart, Deutschland. Privacy and support contact: help@curaetratio.com.

The app is a local plant journal. It does not require an app account and the current version contains no advertising, in-app purchases or integrated analytics. It does not automatically send your garden records to us or operate a developer-run cloud sync service.

2. Information stored on your device

The app stores the information you enter about plants, varieties, places, care, tasks, harvests, observations and notes, together with local identifiers and change information needed to maintain the journal. A place is entered by you; the app does not request GPS location. Your text can contain personal information if you choose to include it. We do not receive these local records merely because you use the app.

Records are used on your device to display your garden, history, calendar, reminders and summaries. There is no integrated advertising profiling or automatic upload of analytics or crash reports to us.

3. Backups, selected providers and system transfers

Export and import are actions you initiate through Android’s system document picker. New backup files contain your garden records, including technical and historical information, encrypted with a password you choose (MGARDENC format). The password is not sent to us. Without it you may be unable to restore the backup. The app can also import supported older, unencrypted JSON backups; those older files remain readable to anyone who obtains them.

You choose where the file is stored. Choosing a cloud document provider may cause that provider to store or transfer the file under its own terms. This is not a developer-operated cloud backup. We do not automatically receive a copy.

The release configuration disables Android cloud Auto Backup for the app. Android and manufacturer-specific device migration can behave differently; we do not guarantee that all operating-system transfer mechanisms are disabled. Manage those settings with your device provider.

Keep a separate safe copy. Do not remove your only working installation to migrate to another build before a backup has been successfully restored and checked elsewhere.

4. Local reminders

Reminder notifications are optional and managed through Android permissions/settings. Refusing permission does not block the journal or calendar. A notification may show task information on the lock screen depending on your device settings. The reminders are not sent through a developer-run messaging server.

5. Retention, archive and deletion

Garden records remain in local app storage until you change them or remove app data. Archiving a planting preserves its history. Deleting a plant or an individual entry removes it from normal garden, calendar and summary views, but underlying records, identifiers and deletion markers may be retained locally to preserve consistency and change history. Previously exported backups can contain earlier versions of deleted data, and restoring an older backup can reintroduce them. A delete action does not guarantee immediate physical erasure of every copy.

To remove all locally stored app data, use Android’s app-storage controls or uninstall the app, taking care to avoid unintended loss. Exported files and independent system/provider copies must be managed separately. We cannot remotely read, restore or erase a garden stored only on your device.

6. Voluntary support and closed testing

If you contact us, we process your email address, message and any information or attachments you choose to send in order to answer your request. Please prefer a short description, app version and a redacted screenshot over sending a complete garden backup.

For access to a closed Google Play test, we may use the Google-account email address you provide to maintain the test-access list and communicate about the test. That address is provided to Google for test access. This does not create an account inside My Garden. Participation is voluntary; without an eligible Google account, access through that closed Play track may not be possible.

For support necessary to perform a contract or requested pre-contractual steps, the legal basis is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR where applicable. General questions, feedback and test organisation are handled under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR based on our legitimate interests in answering requests, organising the voluntary test and improving the app. A separate consent, if obtained for an additional purpose, can be withdrawn prospectively.

Messages sent to help@curaetratio.com are forwarded by Cloudflare Email Routing to a Google Gmail mailbox. Cloudflare and Google process the email address and message information needed for delivery. Processing and transfers outside the EEA may occur. For details, see the Cloudflare privacy notice and Google privacy policy.

We keep support correspondence only while needed to answer the request, handle relevant follow-up or satisfy applicable legal record-keeping duties, then delete it during mailbox management. Technical copies held by email providers are subject to their respective rules.

We keep email addresses in our own tester lists while the relevant test and necessary follow-up are ongoing; afterwards we remove them unless a further need or legal duty applies. Google Play processes its own test-access information under its separate terms.

The website also provides an optional contact form. Details about its transmission and anti-spam protection are in the website privacy notice.

7. Website and Google Play

Opening a website link involves your browser and the website’s hosting provider. The website privacy notice describes website access. Google Play and Android may process installation, store, account or device information independently under their own policies. The statement that your garden is local does not mean that those services process no data.

8. Your rights

Where we process your personal data and the legal conditions apply, you have rights of access, correction, erasure, restriction and portability. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests for reasons relating to your particular situation and withdraw any consent you have given for the future. You may complain to a data protection supervisory authority, including in the country of your residence or workplace. Contact us using the address above. We do not use the described data for automated decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects.

9. Changes

We update this policy to reflect actual changes. Future paid features, licences or additional data flows are not presented as already implemented. Their introduction requires an updated assessment and, where needed, an updated policy and notices.