What PILF knows about you, and the terms you buy on
Short version: when you buy a plant, your name and email, for the receipt and in case something goes wrong. When you scan a tag or take a quiz, counts that don’t identify you. And your email, when you choose to give it.
When you buy a plant
Payment is handled by Stripe. Stripe collects your email address and payment details to process the charge and send your receipt. PILF sees your name, your email address, the plant, the place it came from, and the amount. PILF never sees your card number.
Your email is used to send the receipt, to answer you if you write in, and to sort out a problem with a purchase.
When you visit pilf.me
The site uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts visits without cookies and without identifying you. There are no advertising trackers. A place’s page can show Google’s map, and Google may set its own cookies when the map loads (see Google’s privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy). The site’s own cookies remember which tag you scanned, for an hour, and keep a partner, PILF’s team, or a friends-page member signed in, and mark a visit from a friend’s test link.
Scanning a plant’s tag, opening a place’s page, or tapping “Take me home” adds one to a count for that place and plant. Only the count is kept: no name, email, IP address, cookie or device goes with it, so nothing in it can point back to you.
When you take a quiz
Every quiz counts results. When you finish one, its result (a Pothotype code, a plant, a kind of plant parent) is added to a running total, so a quiz can tell you how rare yours is. Only the result is counted: no name, email, IP address, cookie or device goes with it, so nothing in the count can point back to you.
The fun quizzes keep nothing else; your answers never leave your browser. Our plant-matching quiz (“Find my perfect PILF”) also keeps your answers, its top three plants and how long it took, with nothing that identifies you, to make its matches better.
When you tap “Get notified”
On a plant that isn’t at a place yet, “Get notified” keeps your email address, the plant and, if you give one, your neighborhood, so PILF can email you when it’s at a place. The same goes for the sign-up on Places to PILF.
When you search
A question you type, or a search that finds nothing, is kept so PILF can see what people look for: the words, the page, and a code made fresh each day from your connection, used to stop floods. No name, email or cookie goes with it. Some questions are answered by AI from PILF’s plant records; the question goes to Anthropic, which makes the answer, and nothing else about you does.
On the friends page
Signing up for PILF’s emails keeps your email address and first name to send them. Every email has a one-tap way off the list. Suggesting a place keeps what you type and, if you offer an introduction, your email or phone.
When you write to PILF
Messages are kept so the conversation can be picked up later.
Questions
Anything about what PILF holds: write through the contact page.
Terms of sale
You buy from PILF LLC, not from the business where the plant is displayed. Prices are in US dollars, before tax; Chicago sales tax is added at checkout. You pay before you take the plant, and you collect it where it’s displayed — nothing is shipped.
All sales are final. Questions? Write to us →
Care information on pilf.me and on tags is general guidance for indoor houseplants. Pet and child safety notes follow the ASPCA and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Poison Control Center; if a person or pet has eaten part of a plant and seems unwell, call Poison Control or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center.
Who this is
PILF LLC, Chicago, IL. This page was last updated October 26, 2026.