Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Palmetto Rain (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the Palmetto Rain web application at palmettorain.com. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. By using Palmetto Rain, you agree to the practices described here.

Questions? Email us at will@palmettorain.com.

2. Information We Collect

We collect only what is needed to provide the service:

• Account information: your email address and, optionally, your name.
• Location data: your ZIP code, used exclusively to retrieve local rainfall readings from NOAA.
• Yard profile: yard size, sun exposure, watering method, and watering frequency preference.
• Plant selections: the plants you add to your yard from our library.
• Watering logs: sessions you manually log, including date, duration, and estimated inches applied.
• Yard check-ins: optional monthly health ratings you submit via email links.

We do not collect precise GPS location, payment information, or any sensitive personal data.

3. How We Use Your Information

• Generating personalized daily and weekly watering recommendations.
• Fetching local rainfall data from NOAA for your ZIP code.
• Sending email notifications (daily reminders, weekly summaries, monthly recaps) if you have enabled them.
• Calculating water savings estimates and yard health scores.
• Improving our plant library using AI enrichment (see Section 5).
• Responding to support inquiries.

We never use your data for advertising, profiling unrelated to the service, or any purpose beyond making Palmetto Rain work well for you.

4. We Never Sell Your Data

We do not sell, rent, lease, or trade your personal information to any third party, ever. Your data exists solely to power your experience with Palmetto Rain.

5. Third-Party Services

Palmetto Rain relies on the following infrastructure and data providers. Each handles data only as necessary to perform their specific role:

• NOAA National Weather Service — provides free, public rainfall and forecast data based on your ZIP code. No personal data is sent to NOAA.
• Resend — our transactional email provider. Your email address is shared with Resend solely to deliver notifications you have opted into.
• Vercel— hosts the Palmetto Rain application. Your data passes through Vercel’s infrastructure to serve web requests.
• Neon — our cloud PostgreSQL database provider. Your account data, yard profile, and watering logs are stored in a Neon database.
• Anthropic— we use Anthropic’s Claude AI API to enrich our plant library with horticultural data. Only plant names are submitted to Anthropic; no user personal data is included in these requests.

6. Data Retention and Account Deletion

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. You may request deletion of your account and all associated data at any time by emailing will@palmettorain.com with the subject line “Delete my account.” We will permanently erase your account, yard profile, watering logs, and plant selections within 30 days.

Aggregated, anonymized usage statistics (e.g., total users by region) that cannot be linked back to you may be retained.

7. Cookies and Local Storage

Palmetto Rain uses a single session cookie to keep you signed in. We do not use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or third-party analytics scripts. No cross-site tracking occurs.

8. Security

Passwords are hashed with bcrypt before storage and are never stored in plain text. All data is transmitted over HTTPS. Access to the database is restricted to application-layer credentials. While no system is perfectly secure, we take reasonable technical measures to protect your information.

9. Children’s Privacy

Palmetto Rain is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it promptly.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. For material changes, we will notify you by email. Continued use of Palmetto Rain after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact

For any privacy-related questions or requests, contact us at will@palmettorain.com.