Privacy Policy
Effective Date: August 27, 2026
1. Introduction
Golden Almanac ("Golden Almanac," "we," "us," or "our") operates the website mygoldenalmanac.com and the Golden Almanac application (together, the "Service"). Golden Almanac is operated by Golden Almanac LLC, a California limited liability company.
This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and what choices and rights you have. It applies to the website, the app, and any related communications from us.
If you do not agree with this Policy, please do not use the Service.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Information You Provide Directly
Account information. The Service works without a traditional sign-up. When you first use the app, we create an anonymous account identifier for you. You may optionally link an email address to your account so you can sign in on other devices and recover your garden if you lose your phone; linking and sign-in are done with a one-time code sent to your email. We do not use passwords, so there is no password for us to store.
Garden information. When you use the Service, you may provide information about your garden, including your selected California microclimate region, an optional ZIP code for neighborhood-level weather, the crops and varieties you are growing, planting and harvest dates, task and reminder entries, and written journal notes.
Photographs. If you use photo journaling features, we store the images you choose to upload. Photographs taken on mobile devices often contain embedded metadata, which can include GPS coordinates identifying where the photo was taken. The app re-encodes and resizes every photograph on your device before upload, which removes this embedded metadata before the image is stored. We do not retain or have access to location data from your photographs.
AI Botanist messages. If you use the AI Botanist feature, we collect the questions and messages you submit to it, along with any plant photo you choose to attach to a question. See Section 4 for important information about how this data is processed.
Communications. If you contact us for support, join a waitlist or beta program, or otherwise write to us, we collect the information you include in that message, including your email address.
Payment information. If you purchase a subscription in the iOS app, payment is processed by Apple through the App Store. Apple collects and processes your payment details directly under its own privacy policy. We never receive or store your payment card information. We receive limited transaction information from Apple — such as the product purchased, subscription status, and expiration date — tied to an anonymous transaction identifier so we can activate your subscription.
2.2 Information Collected Automatically
Usage and device information. Our hosting providers generate standard server logs when you use the Service, which include your IP address, the pages or endpoints requested, browser type and version, operating system, and device type. We do not use third-party analytics or advertising SDKs, and we do not use a third-party crash-reporting service.
Weather lookups. The app shows local weather using fixed, representative coordinates for your selected region — or, if you enter a ZIP code, coordinates for that ZIP. Your ZIP code stays on your device and is shared only with the weather and ZIP-lookup services listed in Section 5.1 to perform the lookup. We do not collect precise GPS location from your device. Your microclimate region is determined by your own selection, not by device tracking.
Approximate location. Like most online services, our providers may derive an approximate location (such as city or region) from your IP address in their server logs.
Error and diagnostic data. When the Service encounters an error, diagnostic information such as error messages and request details may appear in our server logs to help us fix problems.
Cookies and similar technologies. We use cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in and remember your preferences. See Section 7.
2.3 Information We Do Not Collect
We do not collect Social Security numbers, government identification numbers, biometric data, precise geolocation, or information about your race, ethnicity, religion, health, sexual orientation, or political affiliation. We do not purchase personal information from data brokers.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use personal information to:
- Create and maintain your account and authenticate you
- Provide the core features of the Service, including microclimate-specific planting calendars, garden tracking, tasks, and journaling
- Generate personalized planting recommendations based on your selected region and the crops you track
- Process subscription payments and manage billing
- Provide the AI Botanist feature
- Respond to your support requests and communicate with you about the Service
- Diagnose problems, monitor performance, and improve the Service
- Understand aggregate usage patterns to guide product decisions
- Detect, prevent, and address fraud, abuse, security issues, and violations of our Terms of Service
- Comply with legal obligations
Improving the Almanac. We study gardening data in aggregate — which crops get planted, when, in which regions, and how they fare in journals — to sharpen planting guidance and build better features. This analysis is de-identified: it is never connected to your email or any individual account, never used to profile you, and never sold.
Beta programs. If you participate in a beta or testing program, we may also use your feedback, error reports, and usage data to evaluate and improve pre-release features.
We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not use your garden data, journal entries, photographs, or AI Botanist messages to build advertising profiles.
4. Artificial Intelligence Features
The AI Botanist feature is powered by a third-party artificial intelligence service operated by Anthropic, PBC.
What is transmitted. When you submit a question to the AI Botanist, the text of your question is transmitted to Anthropic's API for processing, along with limited contextual information — your selected microclimate region, the current month, and the crops in your garden — so the response is relevant to your conditions. If you choose to attach a plant photo to a question, that photo is also transmitted so the AI can assess it.
What is not transmitted. We do not transmit your email address, name, payment information, or your journal photo library to the AI provider. The only photos sent are the ones you individually attach to a Botanist question.
Server-side safeguards. Botanist requests pass through our own server, which holds the AI credentials (they are never present in the app), restricts the feature to gardening topics, and enforces limits on conversation length and size.
How that data is handled. We access the AI service under commercial terms which provide that inputs and outputs submitted through the API are not used to train the provider's models. The provider may retain data for a limited period for security, abuse detection, and legal compliance purposes. For details, see Anthropic's privacy policy at https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy.
Please do not enter sensitive personal information into the AI Botanist. Enter only gardening-related questions.
AI responses are informational only. AI-generated horticultural guidance may be incomplete or inaccurate and should not be relied upon as professional agricultural, horticultural, safety, or health advice. Do not rely on the AI Botanist to determine whether any plant, fungus, or other material is safe to eat or handle.
5. How We Share Information
We share personal information only in the circumstances described below.
5.1 Service Providers
We use third-party service providers to operate the Service. Each has access only to the information needed to perform its function, and each is contractually obligated to protect it.
| Provider | Purpose | Data Involved |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database hosting, authentication, file storage | Account identifier, email address (if linked), garden data, journal entries, photographs |
| Vercel | Application hosting and our server-side API layer | Standard request logs, including IP address |
| Anthropic | AI Botanist responses | Botanist message text, gardening context, and photos you attach to questions |
| Apple (App Store) | Subscription purchases, billing, and refunds | Payment details are handled entirely by Apple; we receive subscription status, product, and expiration |
| Resend | Transactional email delivery (sign-in codes) | Email address, contents of the emails we send you |
| Cloudflare (Turnstile) | Bot and abuse protection at sign-in | Browser and device signals used for the CAPTCHA check |
| Open-Meteo | Local weather forecasts | Coordinates of your selected region, or of your ZIP code if you enter one |
| Zippopotam.us | ZIP-code-to-coordinates lookup | ZIP code you enter |
| phzmapi.org | USDA hardiness zone lookup | ZIP code you enter |
| Google Fonts (Google LLC) | Font delivery for the app and website | IP address, browser information |
| GoDaddy | Marketing website hosting and domain registration | Website usage information, form submissions |
| Google Workspace (Google LLC) | Business email correspondence | Email address, contents of messages you send us |
We do not currently use any third-party analytics or error-monitoring provider. If we add one, we will update this table before it goes into use.
5.2 Legal and Safety
We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, subpoena, court order, or other legal process; to enforce our Terms of Service; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Golden Almanac, our users, or the public.
5.3 Business Transfers
If Golden Almanac is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you before your information becomes subject to a materially different privacy policy.
5.4 Aggregated and De-Identified Information
We may create and share aggregated or de-identified information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you — for example, statistics about which crops are most commonly grown in a given microclimate. We will not attempt to re-identify such information.
5.5 With Your Direction
We share information with others when you direct us to, such as when you export your data or choose to share content.
6. Data Retention and Deletion
We retain personal information for as long as your account is active and for as long as needed to provide the Service.
If you cancel a paid subscription, your account remains active on the free tier and your data is retained.
If you delete your account, we begin deletion of your personal information and complete it within 30 days, except as described below. During this period, you may contact us to restore your account.
We retain certain information longer where required:
- Transaction and billing records, which we and our payment processor must retain for tax, accounting, and financial compliance purposes
- Information we are legally required to retain, or that is needed to resolve disputes, enforce agreements, or address fraud and security issues
- De-identified and aggregated information, which is retained indefinitely
Backup copies may persist for a limited period after deletion from active systems and are overwritten in the ordinary course of our backup cycle.
7. Cookies and Tracking
We use the following categories of cookies and similar technologies:
Strictly necessary. Required for the Service to function, including keeping you signed in and maintaining your session. These cannot be disabled.
We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not currently use third-party analytics cookies.
You can control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will prevent parts of the Service from working.
Global Privacy Control. We recognize the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal. If your browser transmits a GPC signal, we treat it as a request to opt out of any sale or sharing of personal information. As stated above, we do not sell or share personal information.
8. Your Privacy Rights
8.1 Rights Available to All Users
Regardless of where you live, you may:
- Access the personal information we hold about you
- Correct inaccurate information through your account settings or by contacting us
- Export your garden and harvest data using the export features in the app
- Delete your account and associated personal information using "Delete account & data" in the app's settings, or by contacting us
- Opt out of marketing email by using the unsubscribe link in any such message. We will still send necessary transactional messages about your account.
To exercise these rights, use the in-app settings where available, or contact us at privacy@mygoldenalmanac.com.
8.2 California Residents
The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CCPA/CPRA"), provides California residents with specific rights. We honor the following rights for our California users:
- Right to know what categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected, the sources, the purposes, and the categories of third parties to whom it was disclosed
- Right to delete personal information we have collected from you, subject to legal exceptions
- Right to correct inaccurate personal information
- Right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of, but the right is available should our practices ever change.
- Right to limit the use of sensitive personal information. We do not collect sensitive personal information as defined by the CCPA.
- Right to non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights. We will not deny you service, charge you a different price, or provide a different quality of service because you exercised a privacy right.
Categories of personal information collected in the past 12 months, using CCPA category labels:
- Identifiers — email address (if linked), anonymous account identifier, IP address
- Commercial information — subscription and purchase history
- Internet or network activity — server logs and diagnostic data
- Geolocation data — approximate region derived from IP address; self-selected microclimate region; ZIP code, if you choose to enter one
- Visual information — photographs you upload
- Other information you provide — garden records, journal entries, AI Botanist messages
Each category is collected for the business purposes described in Section 3 and disclosed only to the service providers listed in Section 5.1.
How to submit a request. Email privacy@mygoldenalmanac.com with the subject line "California Privacy Request." We will verify your identity by confirming control of the email address associated with your account, and may ask for additional information if we cannot verify you that way. We will respond within 45 days, and may extend that period by an additional 45 days with notice to you.
Authorized agents. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We will require written proof of authorization and may require you to verify your identity directly.
8.3 Other Jurisdictions
The Service is intended for users in the United States, and specifically for gardeners in California. If you access the Service from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in your country.
9. Children's Privacy
The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not create an account or submit any personal information.
If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete it promptly. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, contact us at privacy@mygoldenalmanac.com.
Users between 13 and 18 should review this Policy with a parent or guardian before using the Service.
10. Security
We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information, including encryption of data in transit using TLS, encryption of data at rest, row-level access controls that restrict each account to its own data, server-side storage of all API credentials (never in the app itself), CAPTCHA-based abuse protection at sign-in, and delegation of payment card handling to a PCI-compliant processor.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, and you are responsible for maintaining control of the email account you link for sign-in.
If we become aware of a security incident affecting your personal information, we will notify you as required by applicable law.
11. Third-Party Links
The Service may contain links to third-party websites, including nurseries, seed suppliers, extension programs, and other resources. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. Review their privacy policies before providing information.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date above. If we make material changes, we will provide additional notice, such as an in-app notification or an email to the address associated with your account. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.
13. Contact Us
Questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information:
Privacy inquiries and requests: privacy@mygoldenalmanac.com
General support: support@mygoldenalmanac.com
Mail:
Golden Almanac LLC
9740 Campo Road, Suite 1012
Spring Valley, CA 91977
We aim to respond to general inquiries within 5 business days. Formal privacy requests are handled according to the timelines in Section 8.2.
Last updated: August 27, 2026.
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