Privacy Policy

Last updated 2026-09-22

Seedscout keeps what it collects to a minimum: it is a fully offline app for everything you type. It shows ads, and it keeps your saved seeds and settings on your device. Nothing here requires an account, and we never see your name, email, or location.

This document is a plain-language draft prepared for legal review. It describes the current version of Seedscout, which shows ads and runs entirely on your device.

The short version

• No accounts and no sign-in.
• Seedscout is free and shows ads. There is no in-app purchase.
• The ads are non-personalized. Seedscout does not read or share your device's advertising ID. Google’s ad software still collects some data on its own account whenever an ad loads: your IP address (which it can use to estimate your general area), how you interact with the app, and technical diagnostics.
• Nothing you type ever leaves your device. Search parsing and seed matching both happen entirely on-device.
• The camera is used only to scan a pairing QR code, and nothing it sees is saved or sent anywhere. On Android, the scanning library itself, Google's ML Kit, separately reports device and performance data to Google whenever it runs. On iPhone and iPad the scanning is done by Apple's own Vision framework, built into the operating system, which sends nothing to Google or to us.
• Your saved seeds and settings stay on your device.

Ads

Seedscout shows ads through Google AdMob, and it asks for non-personalized ads only. That means Seedscout does not read your device's advertising identifier and does not pass one to Google, so the ads you see are not chosen from a profile of your activity in other apps or on other sites. Seedscout does not track you across apps or websites, and it never shows an ad-tracking permission prompt, because it has nothing to ask for.

Serving an ad still means data goes to Google. Google's own publisher documentation says the Mobile Ads SDK automatically collects and shares your IP address (which it may use to estimate the general location of your device), your interactions with the app such as app launches, taps, and video views, and diagnostic information such as app launch time, hang rate, and energy usage. Google's disclosure for iPhone and iPad additionally lists the ads you have seen, crash logs, and a device identifier that Google's own software generates or reads for advertising and analytics. That identifier is not the system advertising identifier, which Seedscout neither reads nor passes on, and which iOS withholds anyway because Seedscout never asks for tracking permission. Google uses these for advertising, analytics, and fraud prevention. Choosing non-personalized ads does not switch that off; what it switches off is the advertising identifier, which Seedscout does not read or send. We do not choose which ads appear; Google does. Seedscout's Google Play target audience is 13+, and Seedscout is not part of Google's Families program, so ads run under Google's standard advertising rules rather than its child-directed rules. Google's own privacy policy, at policies.google.com/privacy, describes how Google handles ad requests. In the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, Seedscout asks for your consent through Google's consent form before requesting any ad, and you can change that choice at any time from Settings under Privacy options.

Search queries

When you type a plain-English search, such as "village near a ruined portal," Seedscout turns that text into structured search filters entirely on your device. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. There is no installation ID, no account, and no server that ever sees your query.

Matching your search against the bundled seed index, the step that actually finds candidate seeds, also happens entirely on your device and never touches the network.

Camera

Seedscout asks for camera access for one purpose: scanning the pairing QR code that the Seedscout Nav companion shows on your own screen, so the app knows which machine to connect to. Your phone reads the code and keeps only the short text it spells out. No photo or video is taken, saved, or sent anywhere, and the camera is only ever on while you are on the pairing screen. If you decline camera access, everything else in Seedscout still works; only QR pairing is unavailable.

Which software reads the QR code depends on your device. On Android, Seedscout uses Google's ML Kit barcode-scanning library, bundled inside the app. Independently of what Seedscout's own code does with the code it reads, ML Kit is Google's own software, and Google's published disclosure for it states that the library sends Google information such as device model, app version, and performance metrics (scan latency, error codes) whenever it starts up. That only happens if you open the pairing screen; the library is never initialized otherwise. Google states this data is encrypted in transit and is not passed on to other third parties. See developers.google.com/ml-kit/android-data-disclosure for Google's own description of what it sends. On iPhone and iPad, none of that applies: the scanning is done by Apple's Vision framework, which is part of iOS itself, so no scanning library inside Seedscout reports anything to anyone.

What is stored on your device

These things live only in on-device storage, so the app can work and remember your choices:

• The search index that Seedscout searches to find seeds.
• Your saved seeds, the ones you have chosen to keep.
• Your theme and default edition choices.
• A small rating counter that helps decide when to ask, at most, whether you would like to rate the app.

This information stays on your device. We do not receive it. Removing the app removes it.

Removing ads

Seedscout is free to download and use, and every feature works without paying. Seedscout has no in-app purchase, so there is no way to remove ads.

What we do not collect

Seedscout has no user accounts, so we never collect your name, email address, or password. We do not ask for or transmit your precise location. We do not read or share your device's advertising identifier, and we do not track you across other apps or websites. We do not keep or send anything the camera sees. Nothing you type is ever sent off your device. Beyond the AdMob ad SDK, and on Android the Google ML Kit barcode scanner, both described above, Seedscout includes no other analytics or tracking SDKs, and none of Seedscout's own code makes a network call of any kind.

Children's privacy

Seedscout is a general-audience app. Its Google Play target audience is 13+, and it is not part of Google's Designed for Families program, so it does not show child-directed ads. Seedscout does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children, and it never asks for a name, email address, or account.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update the page and the date above. If we start collecting or sending a new category of data beyond what is described here, we will update this policy first and describe exactly what changes before that version ships.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email support@seedscout.app.

NOT AN OFFICIAL MINECRAFT PRODUCT. NOT APPROVED BY OR ASSOCIATED WITH MOJANG OR MICROSOFT.

← Back to Seedscout