Sowcial Privacy Policy

Version 1.0 · Last updated September 9, 2026

Sowcial is a community app for local gardeners. You plan what to grow, keep recipes, and offer surplus seeds, seedlings, produce, cuttings, and skills to nearby growers to barter or give away. No money changes hands through Sowcial. This policy explains what we collect and why, in plain terms.

Sowcial is operated by Derek Vance, a sole proprietor based in Ohio, USA. Questions or requests: privacy@getsowcial.com.

1. Information we collect and why

• Email address(required) — it's your account identity. We email you a one-time link to sign in, and notifications when someone responds to one of your listings.
• Display name— shown to other growers on your listings, your published recipes, and your trade offers. Defaults to your email until you change it, so set a name you're comfortable showing.
• ZIP code (optional) — used only to estimate distance between you and a listing. See section 2. The app works without it.
• Listings, trade offers, and the notes you write — the content you post so other growers can see what you have and arrange a swap. Listings and their descriptions are public; the notes attached to a specific trade offer are visible only to you and the other party.
• Recipes you publish — title, instructions, and ingredients. Public, and shown with your display name.
• Your grow plan and shopping schedule— which recipes you plan to cook and how often, what you'll grow versus buy, and your preferred shopping days. Private to you.
• Recipe-import photos and links— if you start a recipe from a photo of a recipe card or a web link, the image or page text is sent to Cloudflare's AI service to pull out the text. We do not store the photo; we keep a small log entry recording that an import happened, for rate-limiting.
• Contact-form submissions — your name, email, phone number, and message. These are emailed to our support inbox and are not stored in the app database.
• Reports and blocks — if you report a listing or block another grower, we record that to keep the community safe.
• Sign-in and session data — hashed (not readable) copies of your session and login tokens, and the time you last signed in.
• Technical data handled by our host — your IP address, browser and device information, and security signals are processed by Cloudflare to deliver the site, cache pages, and block abuse (including the anti-spam check on the contact form). We do not run analytics, advertising, or third-party tracking scripts.

2. Location data

Location is the most sensitive thing Sowcial handles, so here is exactly how it works:

• Precision: coarse. It is a 5-digit US ZIP code that you type in yourself. We do not use GPS, we do not ask your browser for your location, and we never collect a street address.
• How it's stored: as the ZIP code you entered, in our database.
• What other growers see:a rounded distance on your listings, like “about 6 miles away.” Other growers never see your ZIP code, and your ZIP code never leaves our server — it is used only to do the distance math.
• How to turn it off: clear the ZIP field on your account page. Distance matching stops immediately and your saved ZIP is removed.

Providing a ZIP code is entirely optional. Without one, you simply won't see listings sorted by distance.

3. What's public and what's private

Visible to other growers: your display name, your listings and their descriptions and photos, any recipes you publish, and the approximate distance to you (only if you set a ZIP code).

Private: your email address, your ZIP code, your phone number, your grow plan and shopping schedule, and the reports or blocks you create. The message on a specific trade offer is visible only to you and the grower on the other side of that offer.

Your calendar feed:if you subscribe to your grow plan's calendar, the feed URL contains a secret token. Anyone you give that URL to can see that plan (but not your name, email, or address). You can regenerate the token at any time to revoke old links.

4. Service providers

We share data with a small number of providers, only as needed to run the service. We do not sell your data to anyone.

• Cloudflare, Inc. — hosting, database, file storage, image delivery, bot protection, admin-area access control, and the AI service that reads text from recipe photos and pages. Cloudflare processes your IP address and request data. Cloudflare's privacy policy.
• Resend — sends our email (sign-in links and trade notifications) and relays contact-form messages to us. Resend's privacy policy.
• Google— only if you click “Add to Google Calendar” on a plan event. That opens Google with the event details prefilled. We do not send anything to Google on our own.

Fonts and other assets are served from our own infrastructure, not a third party.

5. We do not sell your data

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with data brokers or advertisers. There is no targeted advertising on Sowcial.

6. How long we keep it

• Account and profile data is kept while your account is open.
• When you delete your account, your personal data is removed within 30 days. Recipes you published stay on Sowcial with your name removed, because other growers may be relying on them.
• Sign-in links expire after 15 minutes; sessions expire after 30 days.
• Contact-form emails remain in our support inbox under ordinary email retention.

7. Your rights

You can, from your account page:

• Access and exportyour data — the “Download my data” button gives you a full copy as a JSON file.
• Correct your display name and ZIP code directly.
• Deleteyour account and personal data with the “Delete account” button.

You can also email privacy@getsowcial.com with any privacy request. We respond within 30 days, at no charge. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under your state's privacy law; we honor those requests the same way.

8. Children

Sowcial is for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to use it. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we will delete it. If you believe a minor has given us their information, email privacy@getsowcial.com.

9. Security and breach notification

We use reasonable safeguards: encrypted connections, hashed sign-in tokens, access controls on the admin area, and a vetted hosting provider. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and any regulator as required by Ohio and other applicable law, without unreasonable delay.

10. Cookies

Sowcialuses one essential cookie to keep you signed in. We also use your browser's local storage to remember small interface preferences. We do not use analytics cookies, advertising cookies, or third-party cookies, so there is no cookie banner to accept or reject.

11. Where your data is processed

Your data is processed in the United States.

12. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the version and date above. For material changes, we will ask you to review and accept the new version the next time you sign in.

13. Contact

Derek Vance (operator of Sowcial)
Ohio, USA
privacy@getsowcial.com · support@getsowcial.com