Privacy Policy
1. General Information
Protecting your personal data is important to us. Below, we inform you about the processing of personal data on this website.
2. Controller
Adrian-Arne Kolb
(PlantClue)
Schorndorfer Weg 38
71732 Tamm
Germany
Email: office@plantclue.de
3. Hosting
This website is hosted by an external service provider (web host).
The personal data collected on this website is stored on the host’s servers. This may include, in particular, IP addresses, metadata and communication data, as well as other data generated via a website.
We use the following host:
Hetzner Online GmbH
Industriestr. 25
91710 Gunzenhausen
Germany
The host is used for the purpose of providing our online services securely, quickly and efficiently (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
We have concluded a data processing agreement (DPA) with Hetzner.
4. Access Data
When you visit the website, information is collected automatically (e.g., browser type, operating system, time of access). This data is used for the technical provision of the website.
5. Contacting Us
If you contact us by email, the information you provide will be stored for the purpose of processing your inquiry.
6. Newsletter
If you sign up for our newsletter, we process your email address. Sign-up uses the double opt-in procedure: after submitting the form, you receive an email with a confirmation link. Only after you confirm do we add your address to the mailing list. As proof, we also store the time of sign-up and confirmation.
Sign-up runs through our self-hosted automation service (n8n) on a server of Hetzner Online GmbH. For management and sending, we use the Brevo service (Brevo GmbH, Köpenicker Str. 126, 10179 Berlin). A data processing agreement is in place with Brevo. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time via the unsubscribe link in every email. The lawfulness of the processing carried out up to that point remains unaffected.
Diagnosis result by email: After using the Plant Diagnosis Tool on this website, you can have your result sent to you by email. The same double opt-in procedure applies: you only receive the result email after you confirm, and by confirming you also subscribe to our newsletter. In addition to your email address, we store at Brevo the identifier of the diagnosis shown, the language, the source of the sign-up (Plant Diagnosis Tool) and whether the result email has already been sent. We use this information to send you the result and to tailor newsletter content to your plant problem. The result email and the newsletter may contain recommendations for suitable products with links to our comparison pages; these are marked as advertising. To prevent misuse, our automation service processes the IP address of your request in order to allow at most five requests per hour; it is deleted after one hour at the latest. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) and, for misuse prevention, our legitimate interest in secure operation (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). We store your data until you unsubscribe or withdraw your consent.
Free PDFs by email: On some pages, you can have free PDFs (for example the diagnosis checklist or the grow calendar) sent to you by email. The same double opt-in procedure applies: you only receive the email with the download link after you confirm, and by confirming you also subscribe to our newsletter. In addition to your email address, we store at Brevo which PDF you requested, the language, the source of the sign-up (free PDF) and whether the email with the download link has already been sent. The previous paragraph applies accordingly to misuse prevention via the IP address, the legal bases and the storage period. When the PDF is downloaded, we only count the total number of downloads, without any reference to you as a person.
7. Your Rights
You have the right at any time to access, rectification or erasure of your stored data.
8. SSL Encryption
For security reasons, this site uses SSL encryption.
9. Plant Diagnosis Tool and Anonymous Usage Statistics
On this website, as well as in the embeddable version of the Plant Diagnosis Tool on partner websites, we offer a Plant Diagnosis Tool that suggests possible causes of plant problems based on your answers. Your answers are evaluated in your browser.
After you complete the tool, we store anonymously, for statistical purposes, which questions were answered, which result was displayed and, if you provide this information, whether the result helped you. We do not store any IP address, name, email address, cookie or device identifier, or free text. We are unable to attribute the data to you as a person or to link multiple uses.
We use the statistics exclusively to improve the tool. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in improving our services (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), to the extent that the data relates to a person at all. The entries are deleted after 12 months or are only evaluated in aggregated form.
10. Database Service Provider (Supabase)
For the questions and results of the Plant Diagnosis Tool, we use a database service of Supabase Pte. Ltd., 65 Chulia Street #38-02/03, OCBC Centre, Singapore 049513. When you open the tool, your browser loads data directly from Supabase. For technical reasons, your IP address is transmitted to Supabase in the process, as no connection could be established otherwise. We do not store this IP address in our tool data.
Our database is operated in the EU (Ireland). A data processing agreement is in place with Supabase; it forms part of Supabase’s terms of service and includes the EU Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers to third countries. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (secure and efficient provision of our services).
11. Consent Management (Cookie Banner)
We use the Complianz plugin to obtain and store your consent to cookies and similar technologies. The plugin runs on our own server; no data is transmitted to the plugin provider. Your choices are stored in cookies in your browser (names beginning with “cmplz_”, storage period 365 days) so that we can document your decision and do not have to ask you again on every visit.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR in conjunction with Art. 7(1) GDPR (proof of consent). We set technically necessary cookies without consent on the basis of Section 25(2) TDDDG.
You can change your choices or withdraw your consent at any time: to do so, use the “Cookie Settings” link on this website. You can find an overview of the cookies used in our Cookie Policy.
12. Google Analytics 4
With your consent (category “Statistics”), we use Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. The service is only loaded after you give your consent. We use it to measure which pages are viewed and how visitors use the website, for example whether the Plant Diagnosis Tool is started or completed, whether a photo is uploaded or whether a PDF file is downloaded.
Google Analytics 4 uses cookies and similar technologies. According to Google, IP addresses are not logged or stored in Google Analytics 4. Data may be transferred to Google servers in third countries, in particular to the USA. Google LLC is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, so an adequacy decision of the European Commission exists for the transfer. Event data is retained by Google for 2 months. User-level data (such as data linked to cookies or user IDs) is deleted 14 months after your last activity on our website.
The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, Section 25(1) TDDDG). You can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future via the “Cookie Settings” link.
13. Pinterest Tag
With your consent (category “Marketing”), we use the Pinterest Tag of Pinterest Europe Ltd., Waterloo Exchange, 3rd Floor, Waterloo Road, Dublin 4, Ireland. It is only loaded after you give your consent. The tag allows Pinterest to record visits to our website in order to measure the success of our Pinterest presence and to build target audiences for advertising. In the process, cookies may be set and data such as your IP address, device information and the pages viewed may be transmitted to Pinterest. A transfer to Pinterest, Inc. in the USA is possible.
The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, Section 25(1) TDDDG). You can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future via the “Cookie Settings” link.
14. Ahrefs Web Analytics
To measure our reach, we also use Ahrefs Web Analytics from Ahrefs Pte. Ltd., 16 Raffles Quay, #33-03 Hong Leong Building, Singapore 048581. When a page is opened, the analytics script is loaded from analytics.ahrefs.com; for technical reasons, your IP address is transmitted to Ahrefs in the process. According to the provider, the service works without cookies and without storing or reading information on your device, and it does not create personal user profiles. We only receive aggregated statistics, for example on page views and where visitors come from.
The legal basis is our legitimate interest in a data-minimizing analysis of our reach and in improving our services (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). You can object to the processing at any time, for example by email to the address given above.
15. Fonts
The fonts used on this website (Inter and Poppins) are served from our own server. No connection to Google servers is established when the page is opened.
16. Photo Upload in the Plant Diagnosis Tool (Voluntary)
After receiving the result of the Plant Diagnosis Tool, you can voluntarily upload a photo of your plant. In doing so, we process the photo, your information on the part of the plant shown, the answers from the tool and the suggested result. No email address is requested. Please only upload photos in which no people can be identified.
The transfer runs through our self-hosted automation service (n8n) on a server of Hetzner Online GmbH. The photo is stored in a non-public storage area at Supabase and cannot be accessed without login credentials. We store the information about the photo in our database at Supabase (see Section 10). We personally review every photo. We use the photos to develop and improve our image diagnosis tool and, where necessary, for our knowledge base, for example as a sample image.
By uploading, you grant us the unlimited-in-time, worldwide and transferable right to store, edit and use the photo for these purposes. In doing so, you confirm that you took the photo yourself or are authorized to use it.
The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you give by checking a box before submitting. We store the photo and the associated information indefinitely until you withdraw your consent or request erasure. You can withdraw your consent at any time by email to the address given above. The lawfulness of the processing carried out up to that point remains unaffected.
17. Question Form
If you ask us a question via the form on the “Questions & Answers” page, we process your name, your email address, the selected category, the text of your question and the time of submission. The submission runs through our self-hosted automation service (n8n) on a server of Hetzner Online GmbH; from there, your inquiry is forwarded as an email to our mailbox at Zoho Mail (Zoho Corporation B.V., Beneluxlaan 4B, 3527 HT Utrecht, Netherlands; processing in data centers in the EU). For the technical sending of this email, we use an SMTP account with Google (Gmail), through which the message is relayed. We use the information exclusively to answer your question. The form contains a hidden field to protect against spam bots that does not collect any of your data. In addition, the automation service limits the number of requests per IP address and hour and briefly retains the IP address for this purpose; entries older than one hour are deleted with the next request. The IP address is not included in the email sent to us.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (processing your inquiry), alternatively our legitimate interest in answering inquiries (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). We delete your information as soon as the question has been answered and no statutory retention obligations prevent this, but no later than after 12 months.
18. Amazon Associates Program
We participate in the affiliate program of Amazon EU S.à r.l., 38 avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg. Links to products on amazon.de are marked as advertising or affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. If you click on such a link, you will be redirected to Amazon; our affiliate ID is part of the link address. Cookies for which Amazon is responsible may be set on Amazon’s pages (see Amazon’s privacy notice). We ourselves do not receive any personal data about your purchase, only aggregated commission reports.
On our English-language pages, we also participate in the Amazon Associates Program of Amazon.com Services LLC, 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109-5210, USA. Links on these pages lead to amazon.com and are marked as advertising or affiliate links; our US Store ID is part of the link address. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. When you follow such a link, you leave our website; Amazon.com is responsible for any processing of your data on its pages, which may take place in the USA (see the Amazon.com Privacy Notice). We do not receive any personal data about your purchase, only aggregated commission reports.
Partnership with F.O.G. (Future of Grow): On some pages, we recommend products from F.O.G. – Future of Grow (Sciola Import, Ch. du Châtelard 5, 1860 Aigle, Switzerland) as a labeled partnership. If you order from F.O.G. using our discount code, we receive a commission; we do not need any personal information about you for this. Cookies for which F.O.G. is responsible may be set on F.O.G.’s pages (see F.O.G.’s privacy policy).
Counting clicks on partner links: Links to Amazon and to our partner F.O.G. first go through a redirect address of our own on our website (plantclue.com/go/…), from which you are immediately forwarded to the respective provider. In the process, we store only the time of the click, the partner and the product clicked, the subpage of our website on which the link was located (for visits from outside, only the note “extern”), and the target domain. We do not store your IP address, information about your browser or device, cookies or other identifiers; the browser identifier (user agent) is only evaluated at the moment of the click so that automated requests (bots) are not counted. This information cannot be linked to you as a person.
The purpose is to reconcile the commission statements from Amazon and F.O.G. with our own aggregated click counts and to see which recommendations are used. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in correct billing and in improving our services (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). The entries are automatically deleted after 25 months. Independently of this, the server access data described in Section 4 applies to requests to the redirect address.
19. ProvenExpert Reviews
In the footer of our website, with your consent (category “Marketing”), we embed a rating seal from ProvenExpert, a service of Expert Systems AG, Quedlinburger Strasse 1, 10589 Berlin, Germany. It is only loaded after you give your consent; before that, you only see a simple link. When it loads, data such as your IP address, device and browser information and the page viewed are transmitted to ProvenExpert, and cookies or similar technologies may be used. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, Section 25(1) TDDDG). You can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future via the “Cookie Settings” link.
After the Plant Diagnosis Tool, we also ask you for a review on ProvenExpert via a simple link. No data is transmitted to ProvenExpert unless you click the link. Submitting a review on the ProvenExpert website is subject to their privacy policy.
20. Purchase of the Personal Grow Plan (Payment via Paddle)
We sell the Personal Grow Plan through the reseller Paddle (Merchant of Record): Paddle.com Market Limited, 30 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7AU, United Kingdom; for buyers in the US Paddle.com Inc., in Canada Paddle.com (Canada) Ltd. Paddle concludes the purchase contract with you, processes payment, issues the invoice and handles taxes. Paddle collects the data required for this (including email address, country and postal code, payment details) in the checkout as an independent controller; Paddle’s privacy policy applies. For the United Kingdom, an adequacy decision of the European Commission is in place.
On the purchase page we load the Paddle.js library from Paddle’s servers. Your IP address is transmitted to Paddle; Paddle uses technically necessary storage in the checkout, including for fraud prevention. This processing is required for the purchase you request (Section 25(2) No. 2 TDDDG, Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
What we receive: After your purchase, Paddle sends us the order (Paddle transaction and customer ID, product, amount, tax, currency, coupon used, language, time) and the email address for delivery. We store this data with our database service provider Supabase (see Section 10). We use the details you enter in the setup form (e.g. start date, plant type, growing medium, nutrients, tent, light, pot size) only to calculate and deliver your plan. Using the customer ID, Paddle can show you notices about failed payments (Paddle Retain).
The legal basis is the performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). We keep order data as long as needed for delivery, corrections and refunds, and beyond that where commercial and tax retention obligations apply (up to 10 years). We delete setup details no later than 12 months after delivering your plan unless you ask us to keep them for another plan.
21. Withdrawal, Objection and Right to Lodge a Complaint
You can withdraw any consent you have given at any time with effect for the future. Insofar as we process data on the basis of legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), you can object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation. In addition, you have the right to restriction of processing and to data portability.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. The authority responsible for us is the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of Baden-Württemberg (Landesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit Baden-Württemberg), Lautenschlagerstraße 20, 70173 Stuttgart.
