Why Privacy Matters for Growers

Growing indoors is legal in many places, but that does not mean you want everyone who picks up your phone to see your grow diary, harvest data, and daily photos. Whether you are concerned about roommates, coworkers, or anyone who might borrow your phone, GrowVPD Pro provides multiple layers of privacy protection.

PIN Lock & Biometric Authentication

The most fundamental security feature is locking the app behind a PIN or biometric authentication (fingerprint or face recognition). The lock is part of the free app.

Setting Up PIN Lock

  1. Open Settings in GrowVPD Pro
  2. Tap Security & Privacy
  3. Turn on App lock (PIN) (on iPhone: PIN Lock)
  4. Enter a 4–6 digit PIN (4 digits on iPhone) and confirm it
  5. The app will now require this PIN every time it is opened or brought back from the background

Biometric Authentication

If your phone supports fingerprint or face recognition, you can enable biometric unlock in addition to the PIN. This is faster and more convenient while maintaining the same level of security.

  1. In Settings > Security & Privacy, turn on Fingerprint (on iPhone: Face ID / Touch ID) — it appears once the PIN lock is on
  2. The app will use your phone's built-in biometric system
  3. If biometric fails (wet fingers, face mask), it falls back to the PIN

Lock on Background

GrowVPD Pro automatically locks when you switch to another app or the phone screen turns off. When you return to the app, you must authenticate again. This prevents someone from accessing the app if you leave your phone unlocked and unattended.

Tip: With Auto-Lock Timeout at Immediately (the default), the lock activates as soon as the app goes to the background — on Android after a grace period of five seconds, so a quick trip to the camera app does not lock you out. You can also let it wait 30 seconds, 1, 5 or 15 minutes. On Android, the Panic Button locks the app instantly with a triple press of Back.

Photo Privacy

Photos you take in GrowVPD Pro, and copies of the ones you add from your gallery, are kept in the app's own private storage, so they do not show up in your phone's gallery app or Google Photos. The Photo Privacy feature (Pro) makes sure nothing leaves that storage by accident.

How It Works

  • Grow photos are stored in the app's private internal directory
  • These files are excluded from the system's media scanner, so they do not appear in the gallery, Google Photos, or any other media app
  • The photos are only visible within GrowVPD Pro itself — in diary entries, timelapse, and export features
  • With Photo Privacy on, the Android app refuses to save a photo or clip to the phone gallery (for example from the hub camera view); on iPhone it keeps photos out of PDF exports

Enabling Photo Privacy

  1. Go to Settings > Security & Privacy
  2. Turn on Photo privacy (on iPhone: Keep photos out of exports)
  3. Nothing needs to move — your photos are already in the app's private storage
Backup notice: The app's photos are not backed up by Google Photos, and Android's automatic cloud backup does not include GrowVPD Pro's diary or photos. To protect against data loss, create a backup in Settings > Data > Backup & Restore (Pro), or export specific grows as PDF/JSON.

Stealth Mode & Disguised Icon

For maximum discretion, two Pro switches keep the app from giving itself away: Stealth Mode and, on Android, the Disguised Icon.

What Changes

  • Stealth Mode hides the app's preview in the recent-apps switcher (on Android it also blocks screenshots of the app; on iPhone it also hides what notifications say)
  • Disguised Icon (Android) changes the home-screen icon to a calculator and the app name to “VPD Calc Pro”
  • The app still functions identically — only the external appearance changes
  • When opened, the normal GrowVPD Pro interface appears (behind the PIN lock, of course)

Enabling Stealth Mode

  1. Go to Settings > Security & Privacy
  2. Enable Stealth Mode
  3. On Android, enable Disguised Icon as well if you want the calculator icon
  4. The icon change may take a few seconds as Android updates the launcher
Tip: Combine the features for maximum privacy: PIN lock (prevents unauthorized access) + Photo Privacy (keeps photos out of the gallery and exports) + Stealth Mode and Disguised Icon (hide the app itself). Together, they leave very little visible trace of grow activity on your phone.

Data Security

GrowVPD Pro stores your data locally on your device. There are no user accounts, no advertising or analytics SDKs, and nothing tracking your diary entries. Your diary, photos and sensor readings stay on your phone unless you export them or turn on a feature that needs to send them — sync with your own paired devices (end-to-end encrypted), cloud monitoring, or a smart-device connection. The privacy policy lists exactly what each of those sends.

  • Database: Stored locally in the app's private storage (Room database)
  • Photos: Stored locally in the app's private storage on the device
  • Smart device credentials: For Mars Hydro, Spider Farmer, Bluelab and similar platforms, sent by the app straight to the manufacturer’s service over encrypted connections. For Smart Life / Tuya, AC Infinity and VIVOSUN, they go through GrowVPD’s own connection service, which keeps them encrypted while the platform is connected and deletes them when you disconnect it
  • Crash reports: On Android, a crash sends a report with the error, device model and app version — no diary content, photos or sensor readings. You can turn it off under Settings > Security & Privacy
  • No account required: GrowVPD Pro does not require you to create an account or sign in

Security Checklist

  • PIN or biometric lock enabled
  • Photo Privacy enabled (nothing saved to the gallery by accident)
  • Stealth Mode enabled (no preview in the app switcher), plus the Disguised Icon on Android
  • Regular backups (Settings > Data > Backup & Restore), since Android's cloud backup does not include the app's data
  • Phone-level security (screen lock, encryption) as a first line of defense