Privacy Policy

The short version

Solspot measures light. It never photographs anything, it has no accounts, and it needs no network connection to work. Your readings and saved spots stay in the app's own storage on your device. The one thing that can leave your phone is anonymous usage statistics, and you can switch that off in Settings.

Who is responsible

Solspot is published by Navid Gooran, an independent iOS developer, who is the data controller for the app. For any privacy question, or to exercise the rights described below, email click to reveal email.

The camera

Solspot uses the front camera as a light sensor, because iOS gives apps no dedicated ambient-light reading. In practice that means:

• The capture session runs at its lowest resolution, and the app reads only exposure metadata from each frame (brightness value, ISO, shutter speed, aperture)
• No image is decoded, saved, added to your photo library, or transmitted. Each frame is discarded as soon as its metadata has been read
• There is no viewfinder on purpose. The phone lies screen up while measuring, so a preview would be pointed at the ceiling
• The camera runs only while the Measure screen is open. It stops within seconds of leaving it, and immediately when the app goes to the background

iOS asks for camera permission before any of this, and Solspot explains those three claims on its own screen first. If you decline, the rest of the app still works and you just cannot take a reading.

What stays on your device

Readings, saved spots, their history and your settings live in the app's local database. They are not uploaded, not backed up to us, and not readable by us. They are included in your own iCloud or device backup if you make one, under Apple's terms rather than ours. Deleting the app deletes all of it.

Anonymous usage statistics

This is the part where Solspot differs from the other Applestan apps, so it is worth being exact about it. With statistics enabled, the app sends anonymous product events (which screens get opened, which filters get used, which light category a reading fell into) and automatically captured crash reports. These go to PostHog, on servers in the European Union, processed on our behalf under a data-processing agreement. They exist to show which parts of the app get used and what is breaking.

They are not linked to your identity, are not used for advertising, and are not passed to anyone for their own purposes. Solspot does not track you across other apps or websites, and there is no advertising SDK in it.

Solspot never sends:

• any image or camera frame
• what you typed into search
• a light reading tied to a place, or the names you give your spots
• your location. The app does not use location services in the measurement flow at all

This is on by default and you can turn it off. Go to Settings, then Privacy, then Share anonymous analytics. The switch stops the analytics SDK itself, including crash capture, rather than just muting the app's own events, and it takes effect right away instead of at the next launch. Legally this rests on our legitimate interest in maintaining and improving the app under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, and that switch is how you object to it.

Links to plant shops

A plant's page can link out to shops that sell that species. Those links open in a browser sheet, and from that point the shop's own privacy policy applies. We have no control over what they collect. Some links carry an affiliate tag, which can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you, and the app says so next to any link that does. Affiliate tags never change which plants get matched to your light.

Notifications and other permissions

Version 1.0 never asks for notification permission and posts no notifications. The camera is the only permission Solspot requests. There is no sign-in, no remote-notification capability, and no in-app purchase.

Children

Solspot is a general-audience utility. It is not directed at children, and it collects nothing that would identify a user of any age.

Your rights

Since the app keeps no personal data on our side and the statistics are not tied to you, there is usually no account or record for us to look up. You still have the right under the GDPR to ask for access, correction, deletion or restriction of processing, to object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent. Email the address above and we will answer within a month. You can also complain to a data protection authority, in particular in the country where you live or work.

To remove everything the app holds about your measurements, delete the app. To stop anything leaving the device from now on, switch off the statistics in Settings.

Plant safety data

Pet-toxicity verdicts come from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists, and each one is attributed in the app. Species those lists do not name are labelled unverified rather than assumed safe. Treat it as guidance, not veterinary advice.

Changes to this policy

If a future version of Solspot changes what it collects, this page and the App Store privacy disclosure get updated before that version ships, and the date below changes with it.