PLANT LIGHT METER

Privacy Policy

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1. About this policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Light Meter for Plants: PPFD ("Plant Light Meter", the name on your home screen) handles information when you use it. Plant Light Meter is an Android app that estimates how much light a spot gets for plants: lux or foot-candles, PPFD and DLI. It also has a library of common houseplants and lets you save spots with their measurements. It works offline, needs no account, and does not ask for your name, email address, contacts, photos, microphone or location. It uses the camera only for the optional camera estimate described below.

2. Your measurements stay on your device

Plant Light Meter does all of its measuring and calculating on your device. The developer has no server that could receive your readings, spots or notes.

  • Light sensor. While the meter is on screen and the app is open, the app reads your phone's ambient light sensor. Android needs no permission for this. The readings are shown and, when you choose Save to spot, saved on your device. They are never sent anywhere.
  • Camera estimate. If your phone has no light sensor, or if you choose the camera estimate on the meter, the app uses the camera to estimate the light. It looks at the brightness of the live camera image and at the camera's exposure settings (exposure time, sensitivity and aperture), in memory, and turns them into a lux estimate. It takes no photos or videos, keeps no camera images, and sends nothing anywhere. Only the resulting number is shown, and saved if you choose to.
  • Spots and measurements. For each spot you save, the app keeps its name, the optional room, the light source and the day length. For each saved measurement it keeps the light reading (with and without your calibration), whether it came from the sensor or the camera, the light source, the estimated PPFD, the time and an optional note.
  • How many spots are shown. Without Premium you can keep up to 5 spots. If more spots are stored (for example after a refund of Premium), the extra ones stay stored on your device, hidden, and show again with Premium. Hidden spots are never deleted automatically.
  • Calibration. If you calibrate the meter (Premium), the app keeps the correction factor and the optional offset for the light sensor and for the camera estimate on your device.
  • Plant library. The plant information is part of the app. Your searches run on your device.
  • Units. The app picks lux or foot-candles from your device's region setting (foot-candles in the United States, Liberia and Myanmar). It does not use your location.
  • Settings. Your default light source, day length, unit, smoothing, keep-screen-on and measurement choices, theme and language, together with app state such as your onboarding answers, review and ad timing, a grow-light unlock from a rewarded ad and your active Premium plan, are stored on your device.
  • Backup. If Android backup is turned on, your spots, measurements, calibration and settings can be part of your own device backup, which Google stores for your Google account under its own policies. The developer has no access to it.

3. Advertising (Google AdMob)

If you don't have Premium, Plant Light Meter shows ads from Google AdMob in three places:

  • a banner at the bottom of the plant library and of your saved spots, while those lists show content;
  • sometimes a full-screen ad at a natural break: after you save a measurement and close the confirmation. Never when the app starts, never in your first session, and at most one every three minutes;
  • an optional rewarded ad that you can choose to watch to use grow-light mode for up to one hour.

Banner ads never appear on the live meter. A full-screen ad can appear only after you save a measurement and close the confirmation, never while you are taking a reading. To deliver, measure and protect ads, Google and its ad partners may process your device's Android advertising ID, your IP address and the approximate location derived from it, device and app information, and ad interaction and diagnostic data.

Before ads load, Plant Light Meter uses Google's User Messaging Platform to ask for your consent, or to offer the choices privacy laws require, where those laws apply (for example in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland). You can change your choices at any time under Settings → Ad privacy choices (shown when it applies to you), and you can reset or delete your advertising ID in Android's settings. On Android versions that offer them, the ads SDK may also use Android's own ad privacy features, which you control in your device's ad privacy settings. With Premium you see no ads: the app shows no consent form and doesn't start the ads SDK.

How Google uses information from apps that use its services · Google Privacy Policy

4. Purchases (Google Play)

Premium is sold through Google Play as a one-time purchase. Google Play handles the payment: Plant Light Meter never receives your card or other payment details. To unlock Premium, the app asks Google Play on your device which Plant Light Meter purchases your Google account owns, and it stores only whether Premium is active. Google Play gives the developer order records (such as an order number, the product, the price, the date and the country) for accounting, tax, refunds and support. Google describes how it handles your purchase in the Google Privacy Policy and the Google Play Terms of Service.

5. Ratings and reviews

After you have saved a few measurements, Plant Light Meter may show Google Play's in-app review card, at most once every 30 days and never over an ad. Your rating and review go to Google Play under your Google account; Plant Light Meter does not receive them and does not know whether you left one.

6. Analytics, crash reports and support emails

Plant Light Meter does not include analytics or crash-reporting SDKs, and the developer does not track how you use the app. If this changes in a future version, this policy will be updated before that version is released. When you choose Settings → Send feedback, your email app opens a draft that includes the app version, Android version, device model and app language so we can help you; you can edit or delete these lines before sending. We use your email only to answer you.

7. Permissions

Plant Light Meter asks for one permission while you use it, and only if you use the camera estimate:

  • Camera (CAMERA): requested when you start the camera estimate, after a screen that explains why. It is used only to estimate the light as described in section 2. If you decline, the light sensor meter, the plant library and your spots keep working; you can allow it later in Android's app settings.

Its Android manifest also declares these, which Android grants at install:

  • Internet and network state: for ads, the consent form and Google Play purchases.
  • Advertising ID and Android's ad services (AD_ID, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_AD_ID, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_ATTRIBUTION, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_TOPICS): added by the Google Mobile Ads SDK.
  • Google Play billing (BILLING): for purchases.
  • Keep awake and foreground service (WAKE_LOCK, FOREGROUND_SERVICE): added by Android's job scheduling library, which the ads SDK uses. Plant Light Meter has no background features of its own and shows no notifications. Keeping the screen on while you measure is a display setting, not a background feature.
  • An internal permission (DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION) that only Plant Light Meter can hold. Android's support library uses it to protect the app's own messages.

The app has no storage, photo, microphone, location, contacts, body sensor or notification permission. The ambient light sensor needs no permission.

8. Children

Plant Light Meter is a general-audience tool and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information through an ad, contact us and we will help you ask Google to delete it.

9. Retention, security and deletion

Spots, measurements, calibration and settings stay on your device until you delete them in the app, clear the app's storage or uninstall Plant Light Meter. Deleting a spot also deletes all of its measurements. Advertising data is kept by Google under its own policies, and purchase records by Google Play. Depending on the law that applies to you, you may ask for access to or deletion of personal information processed on our behalf by writing to the contact below; we reply within 30 days and forward the request to the relevant provider. No storage or transmission method is completely secure, but Plant Light Meter does not store personal information on its own servers, and the Google services it uses send data over encrypted connections.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when Plant Light Meter's features or data practices change. The updated policy will show a new date on this page.

11. Contact

For privacy questions or requests, contact the Plant Light Meter developer at [email protected].

Terms of Use

By downloading or using Plant Light Meter you agree to these terms. The developer grants you a personal, non-transferable licence to use the app on devices you own or control, subject to the Google Play Terms of Service. Do not copy, modify, reverse-engineer or redistribute the app except as allowed by law.

Premium. Premium unlocks the daily log and charts, grow-light mode, calibration, unlimited spots and no ads. It is a one-time purchase (lifetime), at the price Google Play shows before you pay. Refunds follow Google Play's refund policies. Premium belongs to the Google account that bought it: use Settings → Restore purchases on another device. Watching a rewarded ad unlocks grow-light mode for up to one hour, or until the app is closed, whichever comes first.

Readings are estimates. Lux and foot-candle values come from your phone's light sensor or, with the camera estimate, from the camera's exposure. Phone sensors differ by maker and model, many stop at a maximum value, and the camera estimate is less accurate than a sensor. PPFD is estimated from lux with an approximate factor per light source, and DLI from that PPFD and the day length you set. Calibrate with a reference meter when you need exact values. Plant light needs, care notes and grow-light advice are general guidance; plants also depend on water, temperature, soil and care. Plant Light Meter is not a calibrated measuring instrument and not professional horticultural, veterinary or medical advice.

Plant Light Meter is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. To the extent permitted by law, the developer is not liable for indirect or consequential damages, harm to plants or crops, lost data, or interruptions caused by your device, operating system, store or ad provider. We may update the app or these terms; continued use after an update means you accept the updated terms. These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Indonesia, without limiting consumer rights you have in your country.

Support

Need help? Email [email protected]. Settings → Send feedback fills in your app version, Android version and device model for you; the version is also shown at the bottom of Settings.

How to hold the phone. The light sensor usually sits next to the front camera, at the top of the screen. Hold the phone flat where the leaves are, screen up, and keep your hand and head from shading it. The help button on the meter shows the positioning guide again.

The reading differs from another meter. Phone sensors vary, so readings are estimates. If you have a reference light meter, use Calibration (Premium): measure the same spot with both and enter the reference value. The light sensor and the camera estimate are calibrated separately, and Reset restores the defaults.

"Sensor at its limit". Many phone sensors stop at a maximum value, often between 10,000 and 40,000 lux. When the reading stays at the same high value, the real light may be brighter. A very steady, bright grow light can show the same note.

No light sensor, or the camera estimate. Phones and tablets without a light sensor use the camera estimate: point the back camera at where the light comes from, with a sheet of white paper in front of it. Devices without a back camera use the front camera. If you declined the camera permission, allow it in Android's settings (Apps → Plant Light Meter → Permissions → Camera).

Lux, foot-candles, PPFD and DLI. Choose lux or foot-candles in Settings → Main unit. PPFD depends on the kind of light, so pick the right light source on the meter. DLI uses the day length (12 hours for daylight and 16 hours for grow lights unless you change it, in Settings or per spot).

Spots. Without Premium you can keep 5 spots; the first 5 in your list are shown. Extra spots are never deleted: they are hidden and show again with Premium.

Premium and restore. Premium is linked to your Google account. On a new phone, sign in with the same Google account and use Settings → Restore purchases.

Delete your data. Delete a measurement or a spot in the app (deleting a spot deletes its measurements), or clear the app's storage or uninstall Plant Light Meter to delete everything it keeps on your device. For advertising data, use Settings → Ad privacy choices or your device's advertising ID settings, or email us with the subject "Delete my Plant Light Meter data".