Privacy Policy

This policy covers the iPhone app "Tree Years" and its website. It explains what happens to personal data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Last updated: 27 October 2026

In short

• Your trees and settings stay on your iPhone. I don't receive, see or store them.
• There's no account, no tracking, no advertising, no analytics, and no third-party code that collects data.
• The app asks for no permissions: no location, contacts, photos, camera, microphone or notifications.
• The app works offline. It goes online only to load the map of a tree's place, which comes from Apple Maps.
• Apple runs the App Store and TestFlight. Apple passes me crash reports only if you've agreed to share them with app developers.

1. Who is responsible

The controller under the GDPR is:

Harald Meyer
Karl-Heine-Str. 109
04229 Leipzig
Germany
Email: harald.meyer@gmail.com

I'm a private person publishing the app on my own. I'm not required to appoint a data protection officer.

2. What the app keeps on your iPhone

• Your trees: each tree's name (the one suggested or the one you type), its starting age, its simulated state (branches, leaves, roots, water, sugar, weather, season and health), its simulated place (Berlin, with its climate), and the date and time you last moved it forward with Progress.
• Your settings: how trees are drawn, whether the app icon follows that style, whether the days play after Progress, the sound of the tree, the VoiceOver descriptions, whether the tree or its soil is shown, and whether you've opened an explanation before.

These are stored in the app's own storage on your iPhone, which other apps can't read. The pictures of your trees are painted on the iPhone and kept only in its memory while the app runs. The sound of the tree is made on the iPhone as it plays; nothing is recorded.

The app doesn't send any of this to me or to anyone else, and I have no access to it. Storing it on your iPhone is strictly necessary to provide the game you asked for, so the app doesn't ask for consent (§ 25(2) no. 2 of the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act, TDDDG).

How long, and how to delete it: your data stays until you remove a tree in the app or delete the app. Deleting the app removes all of its data from the iPhone. Copies in backups remain until those backups are replaced or deleted (see section 4).

3. The map from Apple Maps

The screen about a tree's place shows a map. To draw it, Apple's map service (MapKit) loads map data from Apple's servers. Apple receives that request, with your IP address and the technical details needed to deliver the map. The map area is always the one around the tree's simulated place, never your own location; the app doesn't ask for your location and can't see it.

I receive nothing from this. Apple processes the request under its own responsibility, as described in Apple Maps & Privacy and the Apple Privacy Policy. Showing the map is based on my legitimate interest in showing where the simulated tree grows (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). If you'd rather not load the map, don't open the place screen; everything else in the app works without it.

4. Backups and iCloud

Like other apps' data, the app's data is part of your iPhone's backups: in iCloud Backup if you've turned it on, or in a backup on your computer. Apple keeps iCloud Backups under its own privacy policy; with Advanced Data Protection turned on, they're end-to-end encrypted (iCloud data security overview). I have no access to them. In your iCloud settings you can choose whether this app is included in iCloud Backup. If you restore your iPhone from a backup, your trees come back with it.

The app doesn't sync through iCloud: your trees aren't copied to your other devices.

5. Apple: App Store, crash reports and TestFlight

Apple is a separate controller for its own services and processes data under its own privacy policy. In the European Economic Area, the controller is Apple Distribution International Ltd. in Ireland. See the Apple Privacy Policy and App Store & Privacy.

• Downloads and updates. Apple processes your Apple Account and download details. I don't receive them. Apple gives me statistics that don't identify you, such as the number of downloads per country. Reviews you write on the App Store are public, and I can reply to them there.
• Crash reports and usage statistics. Only if you've turned on "Share With App Developers" (Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements), Apple sends me crash reports and usage statistics for the app. A crash report contains technical details such as the iPhone model, the iOS and app versions, and what the app was doing when it crashed. Apple provides them in a form that doesn't identify you (App Analytics & Privacy). I use them only to find and fix bugs, based on my legitimate interest in an app that works (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). I don't keep copies longer than it takes to fix the bug. You can turn the sharing off at any time in the same setting.
• TestFlight (beta testers only). If you test a beta version through TestFlight, Apple shares with me: the name and email address I invited you with (not if you joined through a public link), whether you accepted the invitation and installed the app, your device model, iOS version and language, the number of sessions and crashes, crash logs, and any feedback you send (your comment, screenshots, and technical details such as battery level, free storage, time zone and connection type). I use this only to run the test and improve the app, and I don't pass it on. This is based on your taking part in the test (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and on my legitimate interest in fixing bugs (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). I remove testers and their details when the test ends or when they ask; Apple keeps feedback for one year (TestFlight & Privacy).

6. When you email me

If you email me, I process your email address, your name if you give it, your message and anything you attach, to answer you. This is based on my legitimate interest in answering your request (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), or on your taking part in a beta test (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). I delete the emails when the matter is settled, at the latest after 12 months, unless the law requires me to keep them longer. Your emails to me are kept at Gmail, a service of Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland), which processes them under its own privacy policy. Google may process data in the USA; Google LLC is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, for which the European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision (Art. 45 GDPR). Using an email service for this is based on my legitimate interest in a reliable mailbox (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

7. This website

This website is hosted on GitHub Pages by GitHub (GitHub B.V., Prins Bernhardplein 200, 1097 JB Amsterdam, Netherlands, and GitHub, Inc., 88 Colin P. Kelly Jr. Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). When you open a page, your browser sends your IP address and the details of the request to GitHub, which logs visitors' IP addresses for security purposes. I can't see these logs. Hosting the website this way is based on my legitimate interest in a reliable and secure website (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). GitHub may process data in the USA; GitHub, Inc. is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, for which the European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision (Art. 45 GDPR). See the GitHub General Privacy Statement.

The website sets no cookies, uses no analytics, and loads no fonts, scripts or other content from other servers.

8. No tracking, no advertising, no third-party code

The app contains no advertising, analytics or crash-reporting code from other companies, and no other third-party code that collects data. It has no account and no social media buttons. It doesn't track you across apps or websites, doesn't use your advertising identifier, and doesn't sell or share your data with anyone. It uses only Apple's frameworks that are part of iOS.

9. Children

Tree Years is meant for everyone, children included. Since it collects no personal data from anyone, it collects none from children either.

10. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access the data I hold about you (Art. 15), to have it corrected (Art. 16) or deleted (Art. 17), to restrict its processing (Art. 18), to receive it in a portable format (Art. 20), and to object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21; sections 3, 5, 6 and 7 above). To use these rights, write to harald.meyer@gmail.com.

I hold no data about you unless you've emailed me or tested a beta. The data on your iPhone is already in your hands: you can remove trees, or the whole app, at any time. For data that Apple holds, use Apple's Data and Privacy page at privacy.apple.com or contact Apple.

You don't have to provide any personal data to use the app. There's no automated decision-making or profiling.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), in particular in the EU country where you live or work. The authority responsible for me is:

Sächsische Datenschutz- und Transparenzbeauftragte (the data protection authority of Saxony)
Maternistraße 17, 01067 Dresden, Germany
Email: post@sdtb.sachsen.de
Website: www.datenschutz.sachsen.de

11. Changes to this policy

I'll update this policy before the app or the website changes how they handle personal data, for example if the app adds iCloud sync, notifications, in-app purchases or online features. The date at the top shows when it last changed. Earlier versions are in the website's public repository: https://github.com/haraldmeyer/treeyears.app.

Last updated: 27 October 2026