Privacy Policy
Effective date: 2 September 2026
Privacy promise. We monitor crops, diseases, pests and environmental conditions - not the movements or behaviour of farmers. Field locations are used to provide the Service, are not sold, are not disclosed to advertisers and are not used to build behavioural advertising profiles.
1. Who we are and when this policy applies
Global Crop Radar (the "Service") is operated by Syswin Solutions S.R.L., registered in Romania under trade register no. J40/12898/2012, CUI 30870108, with registered office at Str. Biharia 26, 3rd floor, Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania. Syswin Solutions is the controller for the processing described in this policy, except where another organisation is identified as a separate controller.
This policy applies to natural persons who visit the public pages, create or use an account, contact support, use LoveToGrow, enable notifications or connect WhatsApp. Agricultural information relating only to a legal entity may fall outside GDPR, but we protect it as confidential agricultural operational data under the same security and non-sale commitments.
If an employer, cooperative, distributor or other organisation gives you access, that organisation may also be a controller for account or operational data it determines. Its own notice should explain that processing. Syswin remains responsible for the processing it determines for platform operation, security, billing and legal compliance.
Data Protection Officer assessment
We have assessed whether Article 37 GDPR requires a Data Protection Officer. Our core activities monitor agricultural locations, crops and environmental conditions rather than regularly and systematically monitoring the behaviour or movements of individuals on a large scale. We are not a public authority and do not carry out large-scale processing of special-category or criminal-conviction data as a core activity. On the processing currently performed, mandatory designation of a DPO is not presently required. We document and periodically reassess this conclusion as the Service, user base and processing change. If a DPO becomes required, we will publish the contact details here.
2. What we collect, why, the legal basis and retention
We collect only what is reasonably necessary for the stated purposes. Where more than one legal basis appears, each basis applies only to the activity described, not as a blanket justification.
| DATA | PURPOSE | LEGAL BASIS | RETENTION |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account and profile: name, email, password hash, country, timezone, language, organisation and role where provided; confirmation that you meet the age requirement. | Create, secure and operate the account; localise timing and pricing. | Contract, Art. 6(1)(b). | Account lifetime; deleted or anonymised after closure, subject to the exceptions below. |
| Monitoring and agricultural operational data: field or virtual-station coordinates, crops, varieties, disease/pest models, alerts, treatments and notes you enter. | Provide maps, environmental data, incubation-risk calculations, history and agronomic decision support. | Contract, Art. 6(1)(b). | Account lifetime; deleted or anonymised after closure, subject to backup and legal-retention rules. |
| Current device location, if requested by you: a one-time location used to place a virtual station. | Help you position a station. We do not create or retain a history of your movements. | Consent / device permission, Art. 6(1)(a). | Processed transiently; the virtual station you choose is then retained as monitoring data. |
| LoveToGrow content: questions, answers, attachments and voice messages or transcripts where enabled. | Provide the agronomic assistant, maintain conversation context, troubleshoot and improve service quality. | Contract, Art. 6(1)(b); legitimate interest, Art. 6(1)(f), for limited troubleshooting and security. | Account lifetime unless you delete a conversation earlier; troubleshooting copies only for the documented support period. |
| Contact and support messages: message content and contact address. | Respond to enquiries and support requests. | Legitimate interest, Art. 6(1)(f). | Normally 90 days after closure of the request; longer where needed for an unresolved dispute or legal claim. |
| Security and technical data: IP address, browser/device data, sign-ins, failed sign-ins, lockouts, password resets, session and event logs. | Protect accounts and the platform; investigate abuse, fraud and incidents. | Legitimate interest, Art. 6(1)(f); legal obligation where incident evidence must be kept. | Account lifetime and up to 3 years after closure; longer only for an active investigation or legal claim. |
| Consent and preference records: text/version shown, action, time, IP and browser identifier; withdrawal recorded as a new event. | Demonstrate choices and comply with accountability duties. | Legal obligation, Art. 6(1)(c) and Art. 7(1); legitimate interest in defending claims. | Account lifetime plus 3 years after closure, or longer where required for a legal claim. |
| Plan, billing and transaction records: plan, status, invoice details and payment references. Card details go directly to Stripe. | Deliver paid features; prevent fraud; keep tax and accounting records. | Contract, Art. 6(1)(b); legal obligation, Art. 6(1)(c). | For the period required by applicable Romanian tax and accounting law. |
| WhatsApp connection, if enabled: phone number, connection identifiers and assistant conversation carried through WhatsApp. | Provide the optional WhatsApp channel. | Consent, Art. 6(1)(a). | While connected; removed from our active systems after unlinking, subject to Meta's separate retention and limited security records. |
| Push-notification token, if enabled: per-device delivery token and notification preferences. | Deliver requested alerts. | Consent, Art. 6(1)(a). | While enabled; removed when disabled, invalidated or the device unsubscribes. |
| Cookieless analytics: page viewed, referrer and privacy-minimised technical data. | Understand service use and improve reliability and content. | Legitimate interest, Art. 6(1)(f). | Raw analytics records, with anonymised IP addresses, are deleted automatically after twelve months. Aggregated statistics contain no personal data and are retained. |
Required and optional data
Account details, age confirmation and the monitoring data needed for the chosen service are contractual requirements. Without them, we cannot create or operate the account. Current-location access, WhatsApp and push notifications are optional. Refusing or withdrawing an optional permission disables only that feature.
3. Field coordinates and privacy by design
Exact field and virtual-station coordinates can be personal data when linked to an identifiable natural person. Even where they are corporate data rather than personal data, they may reveal commercially sensitive operations. We therefore treat them as protected agricultural operational data.
- We use field coordinates only to provide maps, environmental inputs, risk calculations, alerts and the functions you request.
- We do not sell them, disclose them to advertisers, publish them or show them to other users unless you deliberately share access through a team feature.
- We do not store continuous device-location history. If you choose 'use my location', the device location is used transiently to place the station you select.
- Identity, agricultural operational data, AI conversations and security logs are separated through role-based access and pseudonymous identifiers wherever practical.
- External providers receive only the minimum data technically necessary, and we apply the contractual and transfer safeguards required by applicable law.
4. Automated risk indicators and LoveToGrow
The Service continuously applies agronomic models to environmental data for selected locations to calculate disease and pest indicators. These indicators support decisions about crops and fields. They do not set your price, refuse service, determine credit or insurance, decide eligibility for a subsidy or produce a legal or similarly significant effect about you. You remain responsible for agronomic and treatment decisions. On this basis, we do not currently carry out decision-making covered by Article 22 GDPR.
LoveToGrow is processed on infrastructure controlled by Syswin. The language model and voice transcription are hosted there and the content is not sent to an external AI-model provider. If this architecture changes, we will update this policy and the relevant notice before the new processing begins.
Do not submit health, biometric, political, religious or other special-category personal data through the assistant. The Service is designed for agronomic information, not personal or medical information.
5. Service communications, WhatsApp and marketing
We send service communications needed to operate the account: verification, password resets, security notices, invoices, requested alerts and material service or privacy changes. These are not marketing messages.
WhatsApp is an optional convenience channel. If you connect it, Meta/WhatsApp receives the phone number, identifiers and message content needed to carry the conversation under its own terms and privacy notice. The web/app LoveToGrow channel remains the more private first-party route. You can unlink WhatsApp at any time.
We do not currently send marketing email from this system. If marketing email is introduced, it will use a separate consent/preference process where required, include a functioning unsubscribe in each message and be reflected in this policy before launch.
6. Sponsorship and contextual advertising
The Service may display sponsorship or contextual advertising selected from the content being viewed, language, broad country/region or season. We do not use exact field coordinates, treatment logs, individual risk levels, assistant conversations or cross-site behaviour to target advertisements. We do not give advertisers customer lists or identifiable farm data. Advertisers receive only campaign-level or aggregated reporting designed not to identify individual users or fields.
We do not use third-party advertising cookies, tracking pixels or behavioural advertising profiles. If that model ever changes, we will obtain any required consent and update this policy before the change takes effect.
7. Cookies and analytics
| TECHNOLOGY | PURPOSE | STATUS |
|---|---|---|
| Session cookie | Keep you signed in during the visit | Strictly necessary |
| CSRF token | Protect forms from cross-site request forgery | Strictly necessary |
| Remember-me cookie, if selected | Keep you signed in between visits | Necessary for the feature you request |
| Trusted-device cookie, set after you pass a sign-in code | Skips the sign-in code on that browser for 30 days | Strictly necessary, security |
We use a self-hosted Matomo instance in cookieless mode to understand page use and improve the Service. It is configured to minimise identifiers and does not place advertising or analytics cookies. Raw analytics records, with anonymised IP addresses, are deleted automatically after twelve months. Aggregated statistics contain no personal data and are retained.
8. Who receives data
A recipient is not automatically a processor. Its role depends on the contract and the specific activity. The table below explains the principal data flows. Where a provider acts as an independent controller, its own privacy notice also applies.
| RECIPIENT | DATA | PURPOSE | ROLE | LOCATION / SAFEGUARD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS SES (EU Frankfurt) | Email address and transactional message | Email delivery | Processor | EU; protected by contractual and technical safeguards |
| Stripe | Billing identifiers, transaction and plan data; card data directly | Payments and fraud prevention | Processor and/or independent controller depending on activity | US/other locations; applicable adequacy or contractual safeguards |
| Cloudflare | Traffic, IP and security metadata | Network delivery, DDoS and security | Processor for configured services; may have limited independent purposes | Global; applicable adequacy or contractual safeguards |
| Google Maps | Map requests and, depending on the feature used, coordinates and technical identifiers | Map display and station placement | Google may process some data as an independent controller | Potential US transfer; data minimisation and applicable transfer safeguards |
| Meta / WhatsApp Business (optional) | Phone number, identifiers and messages carried through WhatsApp | Optional WhatsApp channel | Meta may act as a processor and/or independent controller | Potential US transfer; applicable adequacy or contractual safeguards |
| Weather/environmental-data provider | Only the coordinates and parameters technically required; no name, email or account identifier | Environmental data for risk models | Service provider / recipient | Server-to-server requests with data minimisation and applicable transfer safeguards |
| Matomo (self-hosted) | Privacy-minimised usage statistics | First-party analytics | No third-party recipient where fully self-hosted | Our controlled infrastructure |
We may also disclose data when required by law, to protect rights and security, or in a corporate transaction. In a transaction, confidentiality and purpose limitation will apply and users will be notified where the law requires.
9. International transfers
Transfers to the United States are made only to recipients certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, namely Stripe, Cloudflare, Google and Meta, in reliance on the European Commission's adequacy decision and to the extent their certification covers the data concerned. Beyond those recipients, no personal data leaves the EEA: environmental-data requests contain only the coordinates and parameters described below, without any identifier of the user, and transactional email is processed within the European Union. Any future transfer outside the EEA will be made only under an appropriate safeguard within the meaning of Chapter V GDPR, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, and this policy will be updated before such transfer takes place.
Data minimisation. Environmental-data requests are sent server-to-server and contain only the coordinates and parameters needed to return the requested weather or environmental information. They do not include the user's name, email address or account identifier. Data minimisation operates alongside the applicable international-transfer safeguards.
You may ask through the contact channel for information about the safeguard used for a particular transfer or for a copy of the relevant clauses, with confidential commercial terms removed.
10. Security
We use technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risks, including strong one-way password hashing, encrypted network connections, optional two-factor authentication, invalidation of other sessions after a password change, role-restricted administrative access, security logging and separation of payment-card handling from our systems. Access to field data is limited to authorised roles and logged where appropriate.
No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs, we assess risk and notify the competent supervisory authority without undue delay and, where feasible, within 72 hours when Article 33 requires it. We notify affected people without undue delay when Article 34 requires direct communication because the breach is likely to result in a high risk.
11. Deletion and backups
Account deletion is available in Settings. It cancels the subscription, stops future charges and schedules active account and monitoring data for deletion or irreversible anonymisation, except for records that must be retained for accounting, security, dispute or legal-compliance purposes. WhatsApp and push permissions can be withdrawn separately.
Deleted data may remain temporarily in protected backups during the applicable recovery cycle. Backup copies are isolated from ordinary use, are not restored except for disaster recovery and are overwritten or deleted according to our backup-retention schedule.
12. Your rights
Subject to the legal conditions and exceptions, you may request access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability, or object to processing based on legitimate interests. You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting processing already carried out lawfully. You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority.
Use the privacy contact channel identified in section 15. We may verify that you control the account or ask for information needed to locate the data. Requests are normally answered within one month; where the GDPR permits an extension of up to two further months, we will explain this within the first month. Exercising rights is normally free.
Security, accounting and legal-claim records may not be erased while a valid legal exception applies. We will explain any refusal or limitation and the right to complain.
13. Children
The Service is intended for adults working in agriculture. You must be at least 18 to register. If we learn that a child created an account contrary to this rule, we will close it and delete the data unless retention is legally required.
14. Global availability and local rights
Because Syswin Solutions is established in Romania, GDPR governs the processing carried out in the context of that establishment. Users in other countries may have additional privacy rights. Where required, we will provide a regional supplement or mechanism without lowering the protections described here.
15. Changes, complaints and contact
We publish material changes with a new effective date and provide an email or in-app notice when required, particularly before a new purpose or consent-based activity begins.
Privacy contact: use the contact form available on the Global Crop Radar website. Select the privacy or data-protection subject where available.
You may complain to Autoritatea Națională de Supraveghere a Prelucrării Datelor cu Caracter Personal (ANSPDCP), 28-30 G-ral Gheorghe Magheru Blvd., District 1, 010336 Bucharest, Romania, [email protected], www.dataprotection.ro, or to the supervisory authority in your EU/EEA country where applicable.
Security researchers may use the disclosure channel published at /.well-known/security.txt.