privacy policy

Hello! In our mission to help you care for your plant babies, we at FYTA GmbH ("FYTA") collect and store certain data about you, the plant parent.

Here you will find the privacy policy for our applications, devices, website, products and services ("Services"). It tells you all about the data we collect, how we use it, what rights and controls you have over your information, and what we do to keep it all safe. If you choose to use any of our Services, then you agree to the collection and use of information in relation to this policy. The Personal Information that we collect is used for providing and improving the Services. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described here.

If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy, please contact us at hello@fyta.de.

Part 1: What information do we collect?

• Information you disclose to us:

1. 1. Account information
      To create an account with us, we need you to provide certain personally identifiable information, including your name, email address, a secure password, and date of birth. You may also choose to provide a profile picture, country information, community username and a personal biography (if possible/applicable).
      
      
   2. Payment information
      While we do not currently accept in-app purchases, you may be directed to our Shopify store (https://fyta.de/) to complete other purchases associated with our app. When you do this, you will provide to Shopify payment information, including your name, credit or debit card number, card expiration date, CVV code, and billing address. FYTA does not store this payment information. We store your shipping address to fulfil your order. Note that the third-party payment processors we use may retain this in accordance with their own privacy policy or terms and conditions. Please refer to the Shopify privacy policy here: https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy
      
      
   3. Marketing preferences
      You may be asked to disclose to us your preferences for receiving marketing communication from us.
      
      
   4. Additional information
      In order to improve your experience or enable certain features in the app, you may choose to furnish us with further information about your location or plant, such as photographs, watering or fertilizing logs, sunlight hours, or general feedback. You may also choose to send us descriptive information in the case of an app crash or bug.
      
      You may also invite friends who have not yet joined by providing their email addresses, accessing social networking accounts, or using the contact list on your mobile device. We do not store your contact list and delete it after it is used for adding contacts as friends.
      
      If you are ever contacted, or if you ever contact us, regarding feedback or otherwise, we collect the information you submit in that instance, such as your name, contact information provided and message.

• Information we receive from third parties
  

  1. We provide the option to register with us using existing social media accounts administered by third parties, like Facebook and Google. If you choose to register in this way, we will receive certain profile information about you from that third party entity and will likely include your name, email address, and other information you have chosen to make public on that account.
     
     
  2. If you interact with any of our social media pages or accounts, we may receive data about you from those social media platforms such as your profile name, language, associated email address and any content posted or interaction details.
     
     
  3. We will use this information only for the purposes of account registration or otherwise as made clear to you in the Services. We do not control and are not responsible for other uses of your data by any third-party social media providers.
     
     
  4. We may partner with third parties for purposes including marketing or promotional services. These parties may provide us with data related to you and how you interact with our Services, advertisements, or communications.

• Information automatically collected when using our services

1. 1. Usage & device data
      We collect certain network, usage and activity data generated when you use, access, or interact with any FTYA Services. This includes things like when you download the app, register for or log into your FYTA account, view pages or content in the app, or pair your Beam or Hub with your account.
      
      We also receive data about how you access the Services, including device IP addresses, FYTA app version, device operating system, referring web page identification, browser version, pages viewed, location (if permission has been granted) and cookie information. We may collect further device information in order to access to certain features from your mobile device or computer, such as Bluetooth or Wifi connectivity.
      

      
      

   2. Plant data
      If you choose to purchase The FYTA Beam, this device takes certain specified measurements from your plant at regular time intervals. These are related to you by account information only and should not be able to be used to identify you personally. When your device syncs with our applications or software, data recorded on your device is transferred from your device to our servers.
      
      In addition, you can choose to provide us with data related to your plants such as photographs, visual health indicators, and sunlight and water exposure. This data is stored on our servers.
      

      
      

   3. Geolocation data
      Some of our services make use of geolocation data submitted to us by your mobile device. We collect this only if you grant us access to it. We may also derive your approximate location by your Internet Protocol ("IP") address.

      
      
   4. Log data
      In case of an error in the app, we collect data and information (through third party products) about your phone called Log Data. This Log Data may include information such as your device IP address, device name, operating system version, the configuration of the app when utilizing our Service, and the time and date of your use of the Service.

Part 2: How do we use the information we collect?

Having accurate information about you permits us to provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized experience. We will never sell your data or use it except in the following ways:

• To provide and maintain our Services
  We use the information described in Part 1 to provide the Services as described in our Terms of Service agreement, including creating and managing your account and any orders you place with us, visualising and assessing plant health, giving plant care recommendations, providing relevant content in-app or through email, and allowing your input through customer support or other information.
  
  We also use your information to communicate with you regarding Service notifications and updates, and to provide support and respond to you when you contact us. 
  
  
• To develop, improve and personalize the Services
  We analyse information and data collected to improve the performance and functionality of our Services, for instance by checking on certain user-app interactions collected over a specific period. We also use this to develop new features and services which are requested or observed from user data.
  
  If you own a FYTA Beam, we use the data collected from your plant to make predictions and inferences about its health to show you more relevant content. For example, if we can see that your plant is underwatered, we will recommend watering methods to make sure your plant's health does not suffer too much.
  
  We use your precise location information (if permitted) to collect data from any FYTA Beams you own and to improve plant health recommendations based on, for example, daylight information for your specific location.  
  
  
• For marketing purposes
  We may use your information about your past app interactions or buying history to inform you of new products or services we think you might like. You can control these notifications by changing your notification preferences in your account settings.
  
  
• To promote safety and security
  We may use the information we obtain to authenticate users, respond to legal requests, prevent fraudulent or criminal activity, or enforce our own terms and policies. We do this to comply with a law or legal request, to defend any legal claims, and overall to ensure the safety and security of our users and the Services and any third parties concerned.

Part 3: What tracking technologies do we use?

• Cookies
  Cookies are files with a small amount of data that are commonly used as anonymous unique identifiers. These are sent to and stored on your device's internal memory when you access our Services on that device. These cookies process and communicate certain specific information about you, such as your browser, location data, or IP address.
  
  The FYTA Website uses cookies to make our website more efficient, user-friendly, and secure, for example by allowing us to display the website in different languages or to offer a shopping cart function. When you close your browser, session cookies are deleted. The FYTA Website may also use third party cookies for the purpose of advertising, analysing, or improving the features of the Website.
  
  The FYTA app does not use cookies explicitly, but it may use third party code and libraries that use cookies to collect information and improve their services.
  
  You have the option to accept or refuse these cookies and to know when a cookie is being sent to your device. If you choose to refuse our cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Services.
  
  
• Web beacons and tracking pixels
  We may make use of web beacons and tracking pixels on the app and website to help improve your experience. Your personal information is not collected through these technologies, but information about your interaction with our app or website is communicated to us through these technologies.
  
  
• Third-party analytics services
  We partner with selected third-party vendors to allow tracking technologies and remarketing services on our app and website. They make use of first- and third-party cookies to track and analyse your use of the FYTA app and website, such as how you come to the website, and how you navigate from screen to screen. By accessing and using the FYTA app and website, we take it that you consent to collection and use of such tracking technologies. We do not transfer any personal information to these third party vendors.
  We encourage you to review their privacy policies and contact them directly regarding any questions. Please see below a list of links to the privacy policies of our current third-party vendors:
  1. Amplitude Analytics: https://amplitude.com/privacy
  2. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update/printable
  3. Google: https://policies.google.com/privacy
  4. Google Analytics for Firebase: https://firebase.google.com/policies/analytics
  5. Google Firebase Crashlytics: https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy/
  6. Mailchimp: https://www.intuit.com/privacy/statement/
  7. Segment: https://segment.com/legal/privacy/

Part 4: How is information shared?

• By your explicit agreement or consent
  In order to execute some or any part of the Services, we may make ask for your agreement to share your information with others, for example, when you give a third-party access to your account.
  
  
• For external processing or reporting
  We transfer information directly to third party vendors and service providers for, among other things, collation, analytics, marketing, and sales and customer support functions. We do this strictly in line with this Privacy Policy and applicable legal standards, including the GDPR.
  
  We may share non-personal information that is aggregated and de-identified to third parties for the purposes of reporting or analytics. This information will not reasonably be able to be used to identify any individuals.By reason of legal obligation
  We may be required to transfer or preserve information about you in compliance with a law, regulation, or governmental request. We will inform you of any such requests unless we are legally prohibited from doing so.

Part 5: Your rights and options with respect to your data

• Access and control
  We provide options for access to and control and use of your personal data in your account settings in the app and website. These may vary depending on the jurisdiction within which you reside.
  
  When you log into the app or website and access your Account Settings, you will be able to access your plant statistics, own submissions and inputs to the app or website, and request various downloads about your personal data. You can contact us at any time to access these or request copies of any of your data. You can also edit personal visibility, notification settings and data options in the Account Settings.
  
  You may also at any point revoke access of previously connected third party applications either in your Account Settings or by contacting us directly at hello@fyta.de. This may result in diminished functionality of the Services which rely on such third-party applications.
  
  If you use any item of FYTA Hardware, you can use the app to unpair it at any time from your device or account.
  
  
• Editing and deleting
  In your account settings in the app or website, you can change and delete your personal information, including deleting your account, at any time.
  
  Upon your request to terminate your account, we will delete your account and information from our active databases. However, it may take up to 90 days for all your information to be deleted permanently. In addition, we may be required to preserve some of your information to comply with legal requirements or regulations or enforce our Terms of Service. If you have any questions about this process, please contact us at hello@fyta.de.
  
  
• Security of your information
  We use a combination of administrative, technical, and physical security measures to ensure that your personal information is properly protected. While we have taken reasonable steps to do this, we ask you to be aware that no security measures are completely secure. We therefore cannot completely guarantee the security of your personal information. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please contact us at hello@fyta.de.
  
  
• Children's privacy
  Our Services can be accessed by people under the age of 16 only with parental consent. In addition, our Services are not addressed at any persons under the age of 13. If we learn or reasonably surmise that we have collected the personal information of any child under the age of 13 without explicit parental consent, we will take immediate steps to delete such information. If you believe your child has submitted such information to us, please contact us directly at hello@fyta.de so that we can remove it.
  
  
• Data retention
  While you use our Services, we retain your Account Information such as name, email address and password for as long as you elect to use the Services and have not requested account deletion, subject to Part 5 section 2) on “Editing and Deleting” above.
  
  Certain data is deleted after accessing and using it with your express permission for a limited time. For example, a Services feature may only need the piece of data for a short time. Other data we retain only for as long as it is needed to pursue a legitimate business interest or to comply with a legal obligation.

Part 6: Third party links

The FYTA Services may contain links to external websites run by third parties, including advertisements or external commercial services. These websites are not operated by FYTA and so we cannot assume any responsibility for their content, operations, terms of service or privacy policy. If you navigate to any of these sites, once you have left the FYTA app or website any information you provide to these websites is not covered by this privacy policy. We therefore strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with the privacy policies of any third-party websites you may interact with.
 

Part 7: Changes
We may make changes to this policy from time to time. We will inform you of this by email updates or app notifications, depending on your preference selection. This is especially important if we change something that needs your consent for us to continue our Services under the terms that we agreed to in our Terms of Service, or if we are required to do so by law.

Part 8: GDPR-specific provisions

If you live in the EU, EEA, Switzerland or the UK, please take note of these special provisions. FYTA GmbH, a company registered in Germany, is the data controller associated with all the data and provisions outlined above and provides the Services if you live in the EU, EEA, UK, or Switzerland.

• Legal bases for processing personal data
  We rely on the following legitimate bases for processing of personal data:

1. 1. For the purposes of fulfilling a contract, such as of our Terms of Service, or to ensure the Beam you have purchased collects and displays the information you have purchased it to do.
   2. When you have given your consent to the data collection and processing, which we will alert you to and ask for, and which you can withdraw at any time.
   3. Some data or data processing is technically necessary for our app or website to work, such as cookies.
   4. Some data, such as cookies or user-app interaction events, carry a legitimate business interest for us, in that we can use this data to develop, improve and personalize the Services agreed upon in the contract, or to pursue marketing new features or products that may be of interest to consumers.

• Your data protection rights
  You have the right to data portability, access, correction, deletion, and the right to object to processing of your personal data, among others. You can find all information related to your data protection rights on the "My rights" page of the Data protection section of the European Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/rights-citizens/my-rights_en/
  
  
• How to exercise your legal rights
  Please read over the section "Your rights and options with respect to your data" to understand what your rights are and how to exercise your data rights. Please contact us at hello@fyta.de if you have any questions. You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority under the provisions of the GDPR.