01 Introduction
MZ Farm ("MZ Farm," "we," "us," or "our") is an offline-first farming assistant application developed and published by Castel Code Ltd, a software company based in Lusaka, Zambia. MZ Farm provides crop planting calendars, weather forecasts, market price references, and a pest & disease guide for smallholder farmers. This Privacy Policy describes how we handle information collected through the MZ Farm app.
By installing or using MZ Farm, you agree to the practices described in this Policy.
02 Information We Collect
MZ Farm is built to work primarily offline and collects very little information compared to a typical app:
- Approximate location or city selection — used only to fetch a relevant weather forecast; you may also simply select a city (e.g. Lusaka) instead of sharing device location;
- App usage data — general, non-identifying information such as which screens are opened, used only to understand which features are useful;
- Device & technical data — device model, operating system version, and app version, collected automatically for troubleshooting;
- Support communications — if you contact us via WhatsApp or email, we receive whatever information you choose to share in that conversation.
MZ Farm does not currently require account creation, and does not collect your name, national ID, or payment information as part of using the core app.
03 How We Use Your Information
- Provide accurate, location-relevant weather forecasts;
- Maintain and improve the crop calendar, market price, and pest guide content;
- Diagnose and fix technical issues based on device/app version data;
- Respond to support requests sent via WhatsApp or email.
We do not sell your personal information to third parties, and MZ Farm does not currently display third-party advertising.
04 Offline Storage & Local Data
Crop calendar entries, the pest & disease guide, and market price reference data are stored directly on your device in a local database. This data is not transmitted to Castel Code's servers and remains on your device unless you uninstall the app or clear its storage.
05 Weather Data & Location
To show a forecast, MZ Farm sends your selected city (or approximate location, if you choose to share it) to a third-party weather data provider, OpenWeatherMap. Please refer to OpenWeatherMap's own privacy policy for how they handle this request. MZ Farm does not store a history of your locations on our servers.
07 App Permissions
| Permission | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Internet access | Fetching live weather forecasts from OpenWeatherMap |
| Network state | Detecting connectivity so the app can gracefully fall back to offline content |
| Location (optional) | Providing a more accurate weather forecast for your area, if granted |
08 Data Storage & Security
We take reasonable technical measures to protect information handled by MZ Farm, including encrypted network connections (HTTPS) for weather requests. However, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
09 Data Retention
Local content (crop calendar, pest guide, market prices) remains on your device until you uninstall MZ Farm or clear app data. We do not retain a server-side record of your weather queries beyond what is necessary to process the request in real time.
10 Your Rights
Since MZ Farm does not require an account, you can exercise full control over your data simply by clearing the app's storage or uninstalling it from your device. If you have contacted us via WhatsApp or email, you may request that we delete that correspondence by reaching out using the details in Section 14.
11 Children's Privacy
MZ Farm is a general-audience utility app not specifically directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
12 International Data Transfers
Weather forecast requests are processed by OpenWeatherMap, which may operate servers outside Zambia. Where this occurs, we rely on the security practices of that established third-party provider.
13 Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as MZ Farm's features evolve — for example, if future versions add accounts, cloud sync, or live market price feeds. Updates will be posted on this page with a revised "Last updated" date.
14 Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how MZ Farm handles your information, please reach out:
- Email: castelcode.tech@gmail.com
- WhatsApp: +260 760 951 176
- Website: castelcode.tech
- Location: Lusaka, Zambia