Solspot
The short version
Solspot measures light. While it is measuring it photographs nothing, it has no accounts, and it needs no network connection to work. Your readings and saved spots stay in the app's own storage on your device. One screen, "See it in your room", does use the camera as a viewfinder, and there the only picture that exists is one you choose to take, saved to your own Photos. The one thing that can leave your phone is anonymous usage statistics, and you can switch that off in Settings.
Who is responsible
Solspot is published by Bald Software Development Studio UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Tal 44, 80331 Munich, Germany, which is the data controller for the app. The company register and management details are on our imprint. For any privacy question, or to exercise the rights described below, email [email protected].
The camera
Solspot uses the front camera as a light sensor while measuring, because iOS gives apps no dedicated ambient-light reading. In the measurement flow that means:
- The capture session runs at its lowest resolution, and the app reads only exposure metadata from each frame (brightness value, ISO, shutter speed, aperture)
- No image is decoded, saved, added to your photo library, or transmitted while measuring. Each frame is discarded as soon as its metadata has been read
- There is no viewfinder in the measurement flow, on purpose. The phone lies screen up while measuring, so a preview would be pointed at the ceiling
- The camera runs only while the Measure screen is open. It stops within seconds of leaving it, and immediately when the app goes to the background
iOS asks for camera permission before any of this, and Solspot explains those three claims on its own screen first. If you decline, the rest of the app still works and you just cannot take a reading.
"See it in your room" works differently, and only for the ten species that have a 3D model. There the rear camera is a viewfinder, so the plant appears on your floor at the size it really reaches. Nothing is recorded while you look at it. If you press the shutter, that picture is saved to your own Photos and stays on your device until you choose to share it, which is why the app asks for permission to add to your photo library. It is never uploaded to us or to anyone else. On a device too old to run AR, the screen says so instead.
What stays on your device
Readings, saved spots, their history and your settings live in the app's local database. They are not uploaded, not backed up to us, and not readable by us. They are included in your own iCloud or device backup if you make one, under Apple's terms rather than ours. Deleting the app deletes all of it.
Anonymous usage statistics
This is the one thing that can leave your phone, so it is worth being exact about it. With statistics enabled, the app sends anonymous product events (which screens get opened, which filters get used, which light category a reading fell into) and automatically captured crash reports. These go to PostHog, on servers in the European Union. They exist to show which parts of the app get used and what is breaking.
They are not linked to your identity, are not used for advertising, and are not passed to anyone for their own purposes. Solspot does not track you across other apps or websites, and there is no advertising SDK in it.
Solspot never sends:
- any image or camera frame
- what you typed into search
- a light reading tied to a place, or the names you give your spots
- your location. The app does not use location services in the measurement flow at all
This is on by default and you can turn it off. Go to Settings, then Privacy, then Share anonymous analytics. The switch stops the analytics SDK itself, including crash capture, rather than just muting the app's own events, and it takes effect right away instead of at the next launch. Legally this rests on our legitimate interest in maintaining and improving the app under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, and that switch is how you object to it.
Links to plant shops
A plant's page can link out to shops that sell that species. Those links open in a browser sheet, and from that point the shop's own privacy policy applies. We have no control over what they collect. A link only carries an affiliate tag when the app says so beside it, and such a tag would earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate tags never change which plants get matched to your light.
Notifications and other permissions
Solspot never asks for notification permission and posts no notifications. It requests two permissions: the camera, and permission to add to your photo library. The second is asked for only when you first save a picture from "See it in your room", and it is add-only, so the app cannot read the photos you already have. There is no sign-in, no remote-notification capability, and no in-app purchase.
Children
Solspot is a general-audience utility. It is not directed at children, and it collects nothing that would identify a user of any age.
Your rights
Since the app keeps no personal data on our side and the statistics are not tied to you, there is usually no account or record for us to look up. You still have the right under the GDPR to ask for access, correction, deletion or restriction of processing, to object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent. Email the address above and we will answer within a month. You can also complain to a data protection authority, in particular in the country where you live or work.
To remove everything the app holds about your measurements, delete the app. To stop anything leaving the device from now on, switch off the statistics in Settings.
Plant safety data
Pet-toxicity verdicts come from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists, and each one is attributed in the app. Species those lists do not name are labelled unverified rather than assumed safe. Treat it as guidance, not veterinary advice.
Changes to this policy
If a future version of Solspot changes what it collects, this page and the App Store privacy disclosure get updated before that version ships, and the date below changes with it.
Summary: no photograph is taken while measuring, the only picture that can exist is one you take yourself and it stays in your own Photos, your readings never leave the device, and the only outbound data is anonymous usage statistics that you can switch off in Settings.
Last updated: 17 September 2026