01
Your journal is not an advertising product.
Sow does not sell your data or use your journal to build advertising profiles.
Privacy
The short version first.
We wrote this so you can actually read it.
Plain language
Your garden is yours.
Most apps bury their privacy policies in pages of legalese so nobody reads them. That always felt wrong to us.
You deserve to know exactly how your data is used, in plain language, before you trust us with your garden.
02
No targeted advertising. Ever.
We will never use your journal to show you ads, build ad profiles, or sell your interests to anyone.
03
We cannot browse your garden.
Your journal lives on your iPhone or iPad (and in your private iCloud account when you are signed in). Sow does not run a server that stores your walks, entries, or photos.
04
Voice walks use OpenAI for transcription and organization.
When you record a Garden Walk, the audio is sent to OpenAI's API for transcription. The resulting text is then sent to OpenAI for organization into a garden memory. Sow does not store your walks, entries, or photos on a Sow-controlled server.
05
What OpenAI retains (we quote their policy).
OpenAI states that API data is not used to train models unless you opt in. For audio transcription (`/v1/audio/transcriptions`), their data controls documentation lists no abuse-monitoring retention and no application-state retention. The transcript text is then sent for parsing; that step uses their chat API, which may retain content for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring unless Zero Data Retention is enabled on the API account.
06
Audio on your device is yours to keep or delete.
Walk recordings stay on your device (or in your iCloud container). You choose how long to keep them: default three days, or longer, or forever. Transcripts and entries remain in your journal even after audio is removed.
07
Photos and location are optional.
Camera, photo library, and location access are only used when you choose: for plant photos, replacing default illustrations, and attaching local weather to a walk.
08
No streaks, no surveillance product analytics.
We do not monitor what you write to decide what features to build next. Your missing plant illustration is not a data point in our funnel. It is a garden you are tending.
09
One journal across your devices.
Sow works on iPhone and iPad. A Mac version is currently in development.
10
You can wipe everything.
Settings includes a full reset. Your journal, recordings, and preferences can be deleted from your device whenever you want.
11
Privacy choices on this website.
sow.garden saves your analytics preference in localStorage. Google Analytics loads only if you accept analytics. Change your mind anytime via Cookie settings in the footer.
OpenAI API data controls
“As of March 1, 2023, data sent to the OpenAI API is not used to train or improve OpenAI models (unless you explicitly opt in to share data with us).”Read the source
The formal version
The full privacy policy.
For the App Store, your lawyer, or a rainy afternoon.