Account & Data Privacy Model
Separately from diary encryption (see the Encryption documentation), GrowScope's account model is designed to need as little personal data as possible in the first place — an account is a username, not an identity, and there's no password to compromise either.
How to do this in GrowScope
- Choose a username — no password, email address, phone number, or real name is requested or stored.
- The account is assigned a random, cryptographically generated account ID, unrelated to the username or any personal data.
- That's it — there is no separate identity-verification or profile-completion step.
Minimal-identifier signup
- Category
- Privacy & Security
- Purpose
- Create an account without collecting personally identifying contact information.
- Input
- Username only, no password
- Location
- Signup screen
- User action
- Choose a username
- Output
- An account with a random, non-derived account ID — no email, phone, or name is ever on file.
- Used by
- None
- Related
- End-to-End Diary Encryption
Anonymous Benchmarks
- Category
- Privacy & Security
- Purpose
- Let a user compare their plant against other growers without exposing account-linked data.
- Input
- None to enter — published automatically from the user's own AI photo analyses and archived cycles (see Plant Comparison documentation)
- Location
- Plant screen and the Completed-cycles archive
- User action
- Output
- Benchmark records store only a cycle length, a day number, a development score or yield figures, and a place type — never a name, user ID, photo, or analysis text; structurally disconnected from the account that produced them.
- Used by
- None
Notes
- GrowScope does not use Google Analytics, ad trackers, or third-party crash reporters. Private, first-party analytics are never sold or shared with third parties.
- IP addresses are held in memory only briefly, to rate-limit abuse, and are not written to the application database or logs.
- GrowScope never accesses device GPS. Outdoor/balcony weather features use a location the user types in themselves.
- Every uploaded photo is unconditionally re-encoded on the server, which strips EXIF metadata (the GPS coordinates the photo was taken at, device model, exact capture time) before the photo reaches storage — this happens automatically for every upload, not as a user choice.
- Paid-tier payment is cryptocurrency (USDT) only — no card number, billing address, or legal name is collected.
Frequently asked questions
Does GrowScope ask for my email or phone number?
No. Signup is a username only, no password — no email, phone, or real name is ever requested or stored.
Is my data sold or shared with advertisers?
No. GrowScope has no ad trackers or third-party analytics, and does not sell user data.
Can other growers see my plant data through Benchmarks?
No — Benchmark comparisons only ever publish depersonalized numbers (cycle length, day, a score or yield figure, place type), structurally disconnected from your account. See the Plant Comparison documentation for detail.