This Privacy Policy explains how Ceres AI ("the App," "we," "our") collects, uses, and protects information when you use the app and its connected hardware system. Ceres AI is a smart irrigation app that can optionally connect to physical sensor hardware (soil moisture, temperature, and humidity sensors, and a water valve) that you set up yourself.
We use Firebase Authentication to create your account. Depending on how you sign in, this may include an email address, or an anonymous account identifier if you sign in anonymously. We do not collect your name, phone number, or physical address unless you choose to provide one.
If you connect physical hardware, we collect and store:
This data is used solely to operate your irrigation system and to display it back to you in the app and dashboard. It is not shared with or sold to third parties.
We collect a city name and approximate coordinates (latitude/longitude) that you provide or select, used only to fetch weather forecast data relevant to your growing location. We do not access your device's precise GPS location in the background.
If you use the Digital Doctor feature to diagnose plant health, photos you take or select are sent to Google's Gemini API for analysis. These images are processed to generate a diagnosis and are subject to Google's own data handling practices for that API. We do not permanently store your Digital Doctor photos on our servers beyond what's needed to complete the request, unless you choose to save a diagnosis to your history within the app.
To make answers specific to your garden rather than generic, both Digital Doctor and Ask AI also send a summary of your own app data alongside your photo or question. That summary can include: your city and growing setup, current weather, the plants in My Garden (nickname, crop type, planting date and watering history), and — if you use Ceres hardware — your beds' soil moisture, temperature, humidity, battery level and watering thresholds, plus your controller's status and recent watering activity.
The AI features require a signed-in account and are limited to a fixed number of requests per day per account.
We collect basic, aggregated usage statistics to understand how the app is used, such as active user counts, general watering statistics, and approximate city-level usage. These statistics are not used to individually track or identify you outside of your own account view.
Ceres AI displays banner and occasional full-screen (interstitial) ads through Google AdMob. Google and its advertising partners may collect information such as your device's advertising identifier, IP address (from which approximate location is derived), device and app information, and interaction with ads, in order to serve and measure advertising. This may involve cookies or similar technologies.
How Google uses this data is described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
Ads are never shown while your irrigation valve is actively running, and are not shown on the Digital Doctor screens.
Your controls: you can reset or delete your advertising ID, or opt out of ad personalisation, at any time in Android: Settings → Google → All services → Ads. Opting out means you will still see ads, but they will be non-personalised.
If you are in a region where consent is legally required (including the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland), Ceres AI shows you a consent form provided by Google's User Messaging Platform the first time you open the app, before any ad is requested. Your choice determines whether you are shown personalised or non-personalised ads. You can change your choice later by clearing the app's storage, or by contacting us at the address in section 10.
If you do not consent, no personalised advertising data is collected, and the app remains fully usable.
With your permission, the app sends local notifications on your device (for example, a sensor going offline, low battery, frost warnings, and a notice while watering is in progress). These are generated on your own device from your own data. Notification history is stored in your farm record so it is visible across your devices. You can revoke notification permission at any time in your device settings.
Ceres AI relies on the following third-party services, each governed by its own privacy policy:
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Google Firebase (Authentication & Realtime Database) | Account sign-in and data storage |
| Google Gemini API | Plant image analysis (Digital Doctor) and grounded crop answers (Ask AI), including the garden and sensor summary described in section 1.4 |
| Open-Meteo | Weather forecast data |
| ThingsBoard Cloud | Optional secondary monitoring dashboard |
| Google AdMob | Displaying ads within the app |
| Google User Messaging Platform (UMP) | Collecting and recording your advertising consent choice |
| Google Sign-In | Optional linking of a Google account to your existing data |
Your account, farm, garden and diagnosis data is stored in Google Firebase Realtime Database, hosted in Google's Asia–Southeast region.
We do not sell your personal information. Data is shared only with the third-party services listed above, to the extent necessary for those services to function (for example, sending an image to Gemini to get a diagnosis, or sharing an advertising identifier with AdMob to serve an ad). We do not share your farm data, sensor readings, or account details with other users, except that basic aggregated, non-identifying statistics may be shown in a general usage dashboard.
We retain your account and hardware data for as long as your account is active. Notification history older than 30 days is deleted automatically.
You may request deletion of your account and associated data at any time. Full instructions, including how to delete only part of your data, are on our Account & Data Deletion page. Some aggregated, anonymised statistics may be retained after deletion since they are not tied back to your identity.
Ceres AI is not directed at children. It is intended for gardeners and growers, and its target audience is adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and the app is not designed or marketed for a child audience. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
We use industry-standard practices, including Firebase's built-in security rules, to restrict access to your account's data to your own account only. No method of electronic storage or transmission is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. Continued use of the app after changes means you accept the revised policy.
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact us at: nemadenehal21@gmail.com