Your garden data stays on your devices

Effective October 8, 2026.

Dibble is local-first and private by design. Your gardens, plantings, journal, and photos live on your device and sync only through your own iCloud account. We do not run a server that stores your garden data, we do not require an account, we do not show ads, we do not track you across apps or websites, and we never sell or share your personal information. The short version: there is almost nothing for us to collect, because your data stays with you.

Dibble is provided by Handler Labs LLC ("Handler Labs," "we," "us"). Questions or requests: support@handlerlabs.app.

What Dibble stores, and where

Everything you create in Dibble (your gardens and where they are, beds and layouts, plantings, journal notes and photos, harvests, seed inventory, perennials, houseplants, and reminders) is stored on your device in the app's local database. If you are signed in to iCloud, this data also syncs through your own private iCloud account (Apple's CloudKit private database) so it is available on your other devices and backed up. It is keyed to your Apple ID and lives in your iCloud. Handler Labs has no access to it and operates no server that receives or stores it. If you are not signed in to iCloud, Dibble simply keeps everything on your device.

Plant identification, plant-disease diagnosis, and pest identification run entirely on your device using built-in models. Your photos are analyzed on your device and are never uploaded, and we never see them. Features like "what can I plant now" are computed on your device from bundled data; no query is sent to any server.

Location and weather

Your garden's location

Dibble plans from where your garden is. When you set up a garden you can enter a postal code, search for your town, or tap "Use my location". Dibble then stores the garden's place on your device: a place name, a latitude and longitude rounded to about 1 kilometer, an elevation, a country and, if you typed one, the postal code. The place sets your garden's climate, so Dibble can work out your planting dates. It stays on your device and in your own private iCloud account (CloudKit), like the rest of your garden. Handler Labs never receives it, and Dibble does not follow where you go: "Use my location" asks iOS for your location once, while the app is open, when you tap it, and Dibble keeps only the rounded result. Postal codes are looked up in a table inside the app, and the climate data is inside the app too, so neither makes a network request. You can change the place at any time in Settings, and you can turn Location off for Dibble in iOS Settings (you can still enter a postal code or search for your town).

Naming the place

When you use "Use my location", Dibble asks Apple's geocoder (part of iOS) for the name of the place, for example "Brooklyn, NY". The request carries the rounded point (two decimals, about 1 kilometer), never your exact reading, and Apple handles it under Apple's privacy policy. If the geocoder cannot be reached, Dibble keeps the rounded point without a name.

Searching for a town

If you search for a town or city, the text you type is sent to Apple Maps (MapKit) to suggest and find places. Apple handles it under Apple's privacy policy, and Dibble sends nothing else with it. Search is optional. If you cannot or do not want to use it, enter a postal code or use your location instead.

Weather

Dibble asks Apple Weather (WeatherKit) for a forecast, or recent weather, at your garden's place in three cases. If your garden has a place and notifications are on, Dibble asks Apple Weather for that place's forecast (rounded to about 1 km) to warn you before a frost. This free frost warning has no switch of its own: it follows your notification setting for Dibble, so if notifications are off, or you have not been asked yet, Dibble does not ask Apple Weather for anything. If you turn on live weather alerts (Premium), Dibble asks for the same forecast to warn you about frost, heat or heavy rain. If you turn on the adaptive calendar (Premium), Dibble also asks for recent weather at the place, to shift your dates when the season runs early or late. In every case the request carries the garden's rounded place and nothing that names you, and Apple handles it under Apple's privacy policy. Where Dibble credits Apple Weather it also loads Apple's logo and legal link, a request that carries no location. Without any of these, everything else in Dibble works from the garden's place alone.

Apple services, and no one else

The only companies involved are Apple services that make the app work: iCloud (Apple CloudKit) syncs and backs up your data in your own private iCloud; Apple Maps (MapKit) suggests and finds towns when you search for one, so it receives the text you type; Apple's geocoder (Core Location) receives the rounded point and returns the place name when you use "Use my location"; Apple Weather (WeatherKit) returns forecasts and recent weather for your garden's rounded place, for the free frost warning and, if you turn them on, for live weather alerts and the adaptive calendar; and the App Store (Apple) processes purchases. When you buy Premium, Apple handles the payment and tells Dibble only whether you have an active plan; we never receive your payment details or a stored payment identifier. Each of these is governed by Apple's privacy policy. We do not use analytics, advertising, or crash-reporting SDKs. We do not share your data with any other third party, and we never sell it.

Your privacy rights, wherever you live

Whatever country you are in, you can see, correct, export and delete your data. Everything Dibble knows about your garden is in the app, and you can change it there, including the garden's place. Settings can export your full garden as JSON or CSV at any time. You can delete a garden from Settings, or delete everything by removing the app; if you use iCloud, deleting in the app removes the data from your iCloud too. All of it is on your device and in your own iCloud, under your control. Handler Labs holds none of it and operates no server that stores it, so there is nothing for us to look up or hand over. Apple's services handle the requests described above under Apple's own privacy policy, and you can ask Apple about those. For a question or a request, email support@handlerlabs.app. The sections below add the notices some regions require.

Your privacy rights (United States)

We do not sell or share your personal information, and we do not use it for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) and comparable state laws. We do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you.

Depending on your state (for example California, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Virginia, Oregon, Montana, and other states with comprehensive privacy laws), you may have the right to know, access, correct, delete, or port your personal information, to opt out of its sale or sharing, to limit the use of sensitive personal information, and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. Because Dibble has no account and we operate no server that stores your data, we do not hold personal information about you to disclose, correct, or delete; your data is on your own device and in your own iCloud, under your control. You can export your full garden as JSON or CSV, and delete it, entirely within the app (see below). To ask a question or make a request, email support@handlerlabs.app; we do not use financial incentives and we will not discriminate against you for contacting us.

Canada, Australia & New Zealand

Handler Labs is accountable for handling personal information in line with the privacy laws of the markets Dibble serves, including Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Australia's Privacy Act 1988, and New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020. Because Dibble stores your data on your device and in your own iCloud and we operate no server that receives it, we collect essentially no personal information about you ourselves. You can access, correct, export, and delete your data directly in the app at any time. If you have a question, an access or correction request, or a privacy complaint, contact support@handlerlabs.app. You may also contact your local privacy regulator: the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca), the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au), or the New Zealand Office of the Privacy Commissioner (privacy.org.nz).

Keeping and deleting your data

Your data stays until you remove it. You can delete a garden, along with its plantings, journal, and reminders, from Settings, and you can delete everything by removing the app. If you use iCloud, deleting in the app removes the data from your iCloud too; you can also manage or delete Dibble's iCloud data in iOS Settings under your name, then iCloud. Because there is no account, there is nothing for us to delete on a server. You can export your full garden as JSON or CSV from Settings at any time.

Climate data and credits

Dibble works out frost dates and planting windows from a grid of typical monthly weather that is built into the app. The grid is made from CRU TS data (Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia), corrected with NOAA's GHCN-Daily station records (public domain), with elevation from GMTED2010 (US Geological Survey, public domain) and a NASA POWER fallback for open water and small islands. It all runs on your device, and the grid never asks for or sends anything.

CRU publishes its data under the Open Database License (ODbL), so we offer the grid file Dibble uses under the same license. You are welcome to download it, and the license text, here: climate-grid-v2.dbcg (license).

Children

Dibble is a general-audience gardening app. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes and contact

If we change this policy, we will update the effective date above and post the new version here; we will highlight material changes in the app. This policy is effective October 8, 2026. Questions? Email support@handlerlabs.app.