Year Round GardenPrivacy Policy
Last updated: 22 October 2026
Short version: there's no account. Your garden, journal and photos stay on your phone, where we can't see them. We use Microsoft Clarity to see how the app is used, with all text and photos blanked out, and you can switch it off. We don't show ads, and we don't sell or share your information.
A few features use the internet, and they only ever send a rough location (to within about 7 miles), never your exact spot. The optional weather alerts keep a little information on our server while they're turned on. Turning them off deletes it.
1. Who we are
Year Round Garden (shown on your home screen as “YR Garden”) is made by CitruSync, the small Florida outfit behind all of our apps. “We” and “us” in this policy mean CitruSync. Questions: support@citrusync.com.
2. What stays on your phone
Everything you put into the app is stored in the app's private storage on your phone:
- each garden's location: the weather station the app picked, the ZIP code or place name you gave it, and a position rounded to about half a mile;
- your beds and pots, plantings, tasks, notes, harvests and photos;
- your seed box, watch list and settings (language, reminders, frost safety).
We have no copy of any of it and no way to see it. Deleting the app deletes it. Your phone's own backup (for example iCloud Backup) may include it, under your settings with Apple or Google.
3. Your location
Planting dates depend on where you garden, so the app needs to know roughly where that is. You choose how:
- “Find my yard” asks your phone for its location once, while the app is open. The app uses it to find your nearest weather station and saves it rounded to about half a mile. It never tracks your location in the background.
- A ZIP code is looked up on your phone from a Census list built into the app. Nothing is sent anywhere.
- A street address is turned into a map position by your phone's built-in map service (Apple on iPhone, Google on Android), under their privacy policies.
You can say no to location access and use a ZIP code instead.
4. Features that use the internet
Rain in the last week
The rain card on Home asks NOAA's Applied Climate Information System (data.rcc-acis.org) for the week's reports from rain gauges in an area about 40 miles across, centred on your garden's position rounded to about 7 miles. NOAA doesn't receive your exact location. Like any website, it sees the request's internet address.
The week's forecast
The "Best day to plant this week" card on Home asks the National Weather Service (api.weather.gov) for the 7-day forecast at your garden's position rounded to about 7 miles. It's asked at most once a day. Like any website, the Weather Service sees the request's internet address.
Plant photos
Photos of plants are loaded from Unsplash (images.unsplash.com), and each one credits its photographer. Unsplash sees which photo was requested and from which internet address.
Weather alerts (optional, off until you turn them on)
If you turn on Weather alerts in My garden → Settings, our alerts service checks the National Weather Service for your gardens every 30 minutes and sends you frost, heat, heavy rain, wind and storm warnings. To do that it keeps:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your phone's push notification address (a random code issued by Expo, not your phone number) | To deliver the alert |
| Each garden's position, rounded to about 7 miles, and the garden's name | To find the alerts for that area, and to say which garden an alert is for |
| Your language, time zone, quiet hours and the kinds of alert you want | To write the alert in your language and not wake you |
| Which alerts were already sent (kept 14 days) | So you don't get the same alert twice |
This is stored with Cloudflare, which runs our alerts service. The National Weather Service is only asked about the rounded positions. Alerts are delivered through Expo's push service and Apple's (or Google's) notification service.
Turning weather alerts off deletes all of the above from our service straight away. If the app is deleted, the next alert that can't be delivered makes our service delete the phone's information too.
Usage statistics (Microsoft Clarity)
Starting with app version 1.0.1, to learn which screens people use and where they get stuck, the app uses Microsoft Clarity. It records how the app is used: which screens are opened, taps and scrolling, and a replay of each visit. Clarity is set to its strictest masking, so all text and images are blanked out in those replays, and anything you type is never captured. Your garden names, notes and photos don't leave your phone.
Along with that, Clarity receives your device model, operating system, app version, a random ID for this install, and the request's internet address, which Microsoft uses to estimate your country and region. Microsoft processes it for us under the Microsoft Privacy Statement and keeps it for a limited time. We use it only to improve the app, never for advertising.
You can switch this off in Settings → About → Share usage statistics. It stops straight away and stays off.
Reminders
Garden reminders are scheduled on your phone by your phone. No server is involved.
Sharing, exports and backups
When you share a garden summary (as text or as a picture), export a spreadsheet or make a backup, the app makes the file on your phone and hands it to your phone's share sheet. It goes only where you send it.
5. What we don't do
- No accounts, sign-ins or email addresses.
- No advertising, and no analytics other than the usage statistics described above.
- No selling, renting or sharing of your information, and no tracking you across other apps or websites.
6. Payments
The optional subscription is bought through the App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google handles the payment, and we never see your name, email or card details.
To know whether this phone has a subscription, the app asks the App Store or Google Play directly, on your phone. They answer with what your Apple ID or Google account has bought in this app; we don't receive it and there's no account with us to link it to. Restoring a subscription on a new phone works the same way.
7. Children
The app isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone. Because there are no accounts and your garden stays on your phone, the only information we could hold is what's described under Weather alerts, and only if they're turned on.
8. Your choices
- Use the app without location access by typing a ZIP code.
- Turn weather alerts on or off at any time in My garden → Settings; off deletes what our service keeps.
- Switch off usage statistics in Settings → About.
- Delete plantings, journal entries, photos or whole gardens in the app, or delete the app to remove everything.
- Export your garden and journal as spreadsheets, or make a full backup, whenever you like.
Wherever you live, you can ask us what we hold about you or ask us to delete it. For weather alerts, turning them off does both. Write to support@citrusync.com for anything else.
Our website
This website (yearroundgarden.com) also uses Microsoft Clarity to see which pages are read and how they're used. It sets cookies in your browser and records clicks, scrolling and page visits, with sensitive text hidden. You can block it with your browser's cookie or tracker settings; the website works the same without it.
9. Security
Your garden is protected by your phone's own security. Everything the app sends travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS), and our alerts service keeps only what's listed above.
10. Changes
If we change this policy, the new version will be posted here with a new date at the top. If a change affects what leaves your phone, the app will tell you before it happens.
11. Contact
Questions or requests: support@citrusync.com. It reaches the person who makes Year Round Garden.