Privacy Policy

SunPetal for iPhone · Last updated 25 September 2026

SunPetal does not collect your data. There is no account, no server and no analytics. The app contains no networking code at all.

That is the whole policy. The rest of this page explains what the app does hold, so that “no data collected” can be checked rather than taken on trust.

What stays on your phone

Your location. SunPetal asks for your location while you are using it. The sun's position in the sky depends on where on Earth you are and what date it is — without a location there is nothing to compute. The fix is saved inside each scan so that the scan can be re-queried for any date later. It is not transmitted anywhere.

What the camera sees. During a sweep, each frame is analysed on the device to decide which parts of the picture are open sky and which are buildings, fences or foliage. The frames are processed in memory and discarded. SunPetal never writes a photograph to disk.

Your scans. Each saved spot is a small file — a map of how open the sky is in every direction — together with the name you gave it and the plot of land you put it in. These live in SunPetal's own storage on your phone. Deleting the app deletes them.

A map of your garden's shape, for walks. When you scan several spots in one walk, SunPetal keeps the map Apple's ARKit builds of the scene: the positions of points and flat surfaces the camera tracked, and the visual landmarks ARKit uses to recognise the place again. It is not a photograph. It lets a later visit recognise the garden and add spots to the same walk. It stays on your phone, and is deleted once none of that walk's spots remain.

A handful of settings. The growing-season window for each plot of land; the coordinates of the last few scans, so the app can notice when you are re-scanning somewhere you have already been; whether lengths are shown in metres or feet; and a few display choices.

What leaves your phone

Nothing, unless you send it.

SunPetal has a share button. It shares a picture of the result — the screen you are looking at, as a PNG — and nothing else. iOS hands that image to whichever app you choose, and what happens to it then is between you and that app. Nothing is shared automatically, and nothing is shared in the background.

The picture carries the spot's name and the date it was scanned, so that a sun figure sent to somebody still says what it is about in two years' time. It does not carry your coordinates.

Children

SunPetal is rated 4+ and is suitable for all ages. It does not knowingly collect information from anyone, of any age, because it does not collect information.

Tracking

SunPetal does not track you across apps or websites, does not use the Advertising Identifier, contains no advertising, and contains no third-party software development kits.

Changes to this policy

If a future version of SunPetal ever sends anything anywhere, this page will say so before that version ships, and the App Store privacy label will change to match.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email hubert.fu@gmail.com.