This Privacy Policy explains how Bizon, LLC ("Bizon," "we," "us") collects, uses, and shares information when you use the Bizon Ag Tools website and tools (the "Service"). By using the Service you agree to this policy.
Using Bizon without an account
Many of our calculators work without signing up, and you can use them without telling us who you are. When you use the Service signed out:
- We do not ask for or collect your name, email address, or any other account information.
- What you type into a calculator is processed in your browser. We do not send it to us or store it on our servers, which is also why it cannot be saved: close the tab and it is gone.
- One exception is a Plant Problem Diagnosis Key rating you choose to send (see "Match ratings" below).
- Another exception is a result link you choose to share. Its inputs are in the link itself, so when the link is opened or previewed in a chat app, our server reads them to draw the preview card. We do not save them to our database, though the finished preview image may be cached by our CDN.
- We store a small set of preferences in your browser's local storage (your theme, the persona filter, grid or list view, and hidden tools) so the site behaves consistently on your next visit. This stays on your device and is not an account.
- Our host and CDN process the technical data any website receives in order to serve a page (for example your IP address and browser type).
- We count page views with our own cookieless analytics: when a page loads, your browser tells our server which page it was and, when you leave, roughly how long you stayed. To count how many people visit each day, your browser also remembers the date of its last visit and tells our server when it's the first visit of a new day. When you click a link to another website, your browser tells our server that site's name (for example, extension.org) and which of our pages the link was on, but not the full address or anything about you. We store only daily totals per page. To leave out our own visits, our server checks whether a page view comes from one of our own internet connections, then drops the address. We do not store your IP address or any identifier, we do not profile you or follow you across sites, and we skip counting entirely if your browser sends a Do Not Track signal. If you're signed in, we also record which pages you view under your account, as described below.
- To keep bots from abusing the site, pages use Google reCAPTCHA (through Firebase App Check), which checks your browser and device signals in the background. Google's Privacy Policy and Terms apply to it.
The sections below about accounts, profiles, saved work, sensors, billing, and teams apply only once you create an account.
Match ratings
The Plant Problem Diagnosis Key matches a description of a plant problem in your browser, and nothing typed there is sent to us unless you rate the matches. When you pick a star rating, we receive and store:
- the description you typed, as written;
- the crop picked or named in it;
- the problems the key suggested, in order, with their match scores; and
- the number of stars you gave and when.
We do not store your name, email address, account, IP address or any device identifier with a rating, signed in or not. Rating the same description again replaces your earlier stars. Ratings are read only by us, to find descriptions the key matched poorly and improve it. Because a rating is not linked to you, please do not type personal details into the description, and note that we cannot find or delete a particular rating on request.
Information we collect
If you create an account:
- Account information: your email address and password (passwords are handled by our authentication provider; we never see or store them in readable form). If you sign in with Google, we receive the name, email address, and profile photo your Google account shares, and no password.
- Profile details: optional nickname, profile photo, organization, units, timezone, and location (a ZIP code, postal code or town). Your location powers location-aware tools (for example, climate zone and frost dates).
- Tool data you create: the inputs, settings, saved reports, systems/sites, and journal/log entries you enter into the tools.
- Pheno Tracker: the plants, projects, crosses, lineage, scores, notes, and photos you add. Photos are resized in your browser before upload, which also removes embedded metadata such as GPS location.
- Device and sensor data: if you use Bizon sensors, the readings they send (such as temperature, humidity, leaf temperature, VPD, CO2, and soil moisture, with timestamps), a daily summary of each sensor's air temperature used to count degree days, whether each sensor is online, and device identifiers, all linked to your account.
- Payment information: if you subscribe, payments are processed by Stripe. We receive limited billing details (such as plan, status, and the last four digits of a card) but never your full card number.
- Communications: messages you send through our contact form, including the name and email address you give.
- Other people's email addresses you give us: teammates you invite and extra recipients you add to sensor alerts. We use them only to send those invitations and alerts.
- Page views: while you're signed in, the pages you view and when, linked to your account. We keep each one for 1 year. We skip it if your browser sends a Do Not Track signal, and you can turn it off on your Profile.
- Degree-day alerts: for each alert you set on the Degree Day & Chill Hour Calculator, the model, start date, target, the place name you entered, and that place's coordinates rounded to about 1 km. Finished alerts are deleted about four months after they finish, and you can delete any alert at any time.
- Reminders and frost alerts: which ones you turned on, and what they need to work: your lawn plan for lawn reminders, your watering plan, town name and approximate coordinates (rounded to about 1 km) for watering reminders, the crops and frost dates in your garden plan for sowing reminders, and for frost alerts your frost dates, town name and the same approximate coordinates. Soil retest reminders read the sample names and dates of your saved soil tests, and which steps you marked applied. We also keep which ones we sent, so nothing goes out twice.
- Plant Health Key check-ins: when you ask for them after a diagnosis, the problem, the crop you picked and the day you set them, until the last one is sent or you remove them.
- Garden plan history: which crops each bed held in each of the last four seasons, kept with your garden plan for crop rotation warnings.
- Lawn season record: the days you mark each lawn feeding made and how much fertilizer you have on hand, kept with your lawn plan for three seasons, and a copy of your soil test plan so the lawn page can show what is still to apply.
- Log photos: a photo you add to a log entry or a garden bed, resized in your browser before it is stored, and the spot name you give it. Only your account can open it. Deleting the entry deletes the photo, and deleting your account deletes all of them. The Year Record PDF is made in your browser and isn't stored.
- News emails: whether you chose to get an occasional email when we add a tool. It is off unless you tick the box.
- Notification settings: if you turn on push notifications, we store a push subscription for your browser or device so we can deliver alerts. You can turn this off at any time.
- Technical data: basic device/browser information, the anonymous page counts described above, and locally stored preferences (see "Cookies and local storage").
How we use information
- To provide, operate, and improve the Service and its tools.
- To create and secure your account and sync your saved work across devices.
- To process subscriptions and manage billing.
- To respond to your messages and send important account notices.
- To send the alerts you enable (by email or push notification) when a reading drifts out of the range you set or a sensor stops reporting.
- To send the degree-day and chill-hour alerts, lawn, watering, sowing and soil retest reminders, frost alerts and Plant Health Key check-ins you turn on, and, only if you opt in, an occasional email when we add a tool. Every alert email has a link to stop them.
- To show the plants, photos, and notes you choose to include when you share a Pheno Tracker link.
- To understand which pages are used, from the anonymous daily page counts and link clicks and, for signed-in users, the pages each account views, so we can improve the site. We do not use it for ads or share it.
- To improve how the Plant Problem Diagnosis Key matches descriptions, from the match ratings you choose to send.
- To protect the Service from bots, fraud, and abuse.
- To generate location-based recommendations (for example, frost dates for your location).
Service providers we share with
We do not sell your personal information. We share data only with vendors that help us run the Service, under their own terms and privacy policies:
- Google Firebase (authentication, database, file storage, hosting, and functions) stores your account, tool, sensor, and photo data. Firebase App Check uses Google reCAPTCHA to screen out bots.
- Google Sign-In signs you in if you choose "Continue with Google."
- Cloudflare provides content delivery and security.
- Stripe processes subscription payments.
- Resend sends our emails: sensor alerts, degree-day alerts, lawn, watering, sowing and soil retest reminders, frost alerts, Plant Health Key check-ins, news emails you opted into, team invitations and roster notices, and account notices to you and the people you name, plus contact-form messages and new-account notifications to our own inbox.
- Your browser's or device's push service (such as Apple, Google, or Mozilla) delivers push notifications if you enable them.
- iNaturalist receives approximate coordinates (rounded to about 10 km) when the Native Plant Finder tool looks up natives for a location outside the US.
- NOAA's Regional Climate Centers (the ACIS weather data service) receive approximate coordinates (rounded to about 1 km) when the Degree Day & Chill Hour Calculator loads this season's weather, and the past ten years' for the average year, for a US location. Your browser sends the request directly; no account details go with it. For degree-day alerts you set, our server sends the same rounded coordinates once a day, and for watering reminders once a week, to get last week's rain, also with no account details.
- The National Weather Service receives approximate coordinates (rounded to about 1 km) once a day during frost season, when you have frost alerts on, so our server can read tonight's forecast low. No account details go with it.
Apart from those lookups, the location you enter for the lawn, garden and planting tools is looked up in place and climate data we host ourselves, so it is not sent to a third party. That data is built from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0), from NOAA's 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals (public domain), and from ERA5 temperature records, which contain modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information, distributed by NSF NCAR.
We may also disclose information if required by law or to protect our rights, users, or the public.
Team and organizational accounts
If you join an organization's team plan:
- The team owner can see your email address in their team roster, so they can manage who is on the team.
- Everyone with a seat on the team can see who else is on it: each seated member's email address, and their nickname and profile photo if they have them (an uploaded photo, or your Google account picture if you sign in with Google). You can clear your nickname or remove an uploaded photo from your Profile at any time.
- Work you create while using a team seat (such as fertilizers and recipes) is associated with that team. If you are removed from the team, that team work is transferred to the team owner's account and removed from yours, as described in our Terms. Your own separate data, including anything created outside a team seat, stays with you.
- The team owner is emailed when you accept an invitation or lose a seat.
- If the owner shares a Pheno Tracker project with the team, everyone on the team can see and add to it, including the photos in it.
- We show you these terms and ask you to agree when you accept a team invitation.
Links you share
A Pheno Tracker share link lets anyone who has the link see the plants it covers, plus the photos, notes, and history you chose to include, without signing in. It does not show your email address. You can turn a link off at any time, and links stop working if your plan no longer includes sharing or your account is deleted. Only share links with people you trust to see that information.
Cookies and local storage
We use an authentication session to keep you signed in (only if you have an account), and browser local storage for preferences and caches (theme, persona filter, grid or list view, hidden tools, a welcome notice, cached climate lookups, and, for the site owner only, a setting that stops their own visits from being counted). Local storage also holds the date of your last visit, which we use only to count daily visitors as described above. It is not an identifier and is skipped if your browser sends Do Not Track. reCAPTCHA may also set its own storage to tell people from bots. Signed-out visitors get the preference storage but not the session. All of it stays on your device, and you can clear it at any time through your browser's settings for this site. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
Data retention and deletion
We keep your information while your account is active. You can delete your account at any time from your Profile. That permanently deletes everything tied to it: your profile, saved tool data and logs, Pheno Tracker plants and photos, share links, and your sensors' logged history (the sensors themselves are unlinked so they can be set up again). If you own a team, the team and its seats end too. Some records (for example, billing records held by Stripe) may be retained as required by law, and deleted data may take a short time to clear from our providers' systems and backups.
If your account stays over its plan's photo limit for a year, we may delete the full-size copies of your oldest photos above the limit, after emailing you at least two weeks before, as described in our Terms. Page views linked to your account are deleted after 1 year, or with your account. Anonymous daily page counts and match ratings are kept until we delete them. Match ratings are not tied to an account, so deleting your account does not remove them.
Security
We rely on reputable providers and reasonable safeguards to protect your data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Children's privacy
The Service is not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.
Your rights
California residents (CCPA/CPRA): you have the right to know what personal information we collect, to request deletion, and to not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We do not sell or "share" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
EU/UK residents (GDPR/UK GDPR): our lawful bases are performance of our contract with you (providing the Service to account holders), your consent (where applicable), and our legitimate interests (operating and securing the Service, including serving pages to signed-out visitors, remembering the display preferences they choose, and seeing which pages account holders use so we can improve the tools). You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or port your data, and to object to certain processing. You may also lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.
To exercise these rights: you can export your data yourself at any time (any plan) and delete your account from your Profile, or reach us through the contact form for anything else.
If you use the Service without an account, there is nothing for us to show you or delete, because we hold no personal information about you. The preferences described above live in your browser, so clearing this site's data in your browser settings removes them.
International users
We operate in the United States, and our providers may process data in the U.S. and elsewhere. By using the Service you understand your information may be transferred to and processed in the United States.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by the "Last updated" date above, and continued use of the Service means you accept the updated policy.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Reach us through our contact form.