Terms of Service
Last updated 12 October 2026
These terms apply to the Med Herb Lens app and this website (together, "the App"), run by Trien Tran ("we", "us"). By using the App you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't use the App.
1. What the App is, and is not
The App suggests which plant species a photo may show and lets you browse a catalog of species, with names and classification. It is an educational and research tool.
The App gives no medical advice. Identifications can be wrong, and a plant can look like a poisonous one. Never eat, drink, apply or use a plant as a remedy because of what the App shows. Ask a qualified health professional and a botanist first.
Common names in the App come from GBIF and from users, and experts have not checked them: a name may be regional, rarely used or wrong. The scientific name is the one that identifies a species.
Models you train in the App, for herbs or anything else, are for learning and research. Don't rely on them alone for decisions that need an expert, such as a diagnosis, whether food is safe, or a biosecurity decision.
2. Who can use it
You must be at least 13 years old to use the App. If you are under 18 (or under the age of majority where you live), you need permission from a parent or guardian, who agrees to these terms on your behalf.
3. Your account
You can use most of the App without an account. To share photos or models, report what others shared, or suggest names, you sign in with Google or Apple. Keep your account secure; you are responsible for what is done with it. You can delete it in the App at any time (Profile → Delete account).
4. What you share
- Share only photos you took yourself, of plants, with the place where you took them. Don't share photos that show people who could be recognised, or anything private, sexual, violent, offensive or unlawful.
- You keep the rights to your photos. By sharing them you give us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, permanent licence to store, show, copy and adapt them in the App, to use them to improve the App and its identification model, and to publish them, with their places and without your name or email address, in datasets for non-profit research and education.
- Photos you share, and their places, are visible to everyone using the App.
- We may remove any contribution, at any time, for example if it is wrong, low quality or breaks these terms. We remove objectionable content and ban the accounts that shared it, and we report unlawful content to the authorities.
- Models you share from the Train tab are visible to everyone using the App, who may add them, use them and train them further. You share them under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0). Share only models you trained yourself, and don't give them, or their species, names that include people's names, contact details or anything offensive or misleading. Unless you untick it when sharing, a shared model is also published in the Med Herb Lens organisation on Hugging Face, where anyone can download it, credited to "a Med Herb Lens user". You can stop sharing a model at any time, which also removes it from Hugging Face; copies others already added or downloaded stay with them.
- If you see a photo or a model that shouldn't be there, report it in the App, or to tptrien@gmail.com. We act on reports within 24 hours.
- Common-name suggestions (a name and its language) are reviewed by the administrator, who decides whether to add them to the catalog. Suggest only names you know are used for that species, and no people's names, contact details or anything offensive. By suggesting a name you agree that it may be published in the catalog, without your name, under the catalog's licence (CC BY 4.0, below).
5. Things you must not do
- Upload content that isn't yours, isn't of plants, or is misleading, offensive or unlawful.
- Use bots or scripts to access the App, copy its data in bulk, or overload its services.
- Get around the App's security, or interfere with other people's use of it.
- Use the App for any unlawful purpose, or its online services (sign-in, sharing, storage) commercially without our written permission.
We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms, without notice.
6. Content from others
The species catalog is based on data from GBIF. Reference photos come from GBIF and iNaturalist contributors and remain theirs; each is shown with its creator and licence. Many are licensed for non-commercial use only. Respect those licences if you reuse them.
The App's source code is released under the Apache License 2.0, and its identification model, catalog compilation, documentation and design under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0): you may reuse and adapt them, for any purpose, under those licences, crediting us as described on the About page. Content from others, above, keeps its own terms.
7. Availability and changes
We provide the App free of charge, as it is and as available. We may change, pause or stop any part of it at any time, and we don't promise it will always work or be free of errors.
8. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any loss or harm arising from using the App or relying on its content, including the result of using or consuming any plant. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under consumer law, including the Australian Consumer Law, that can't be excluded.
9. Privacy
Our Privacy Policy explains what information we collect and how we use it.
10. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. We will change the date at the top and, for significant changes, tell you in the App. If you keep using the App after a change, you accept the new terms.
11. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of South Australia, Australia, and the courts of South Australia have jurisdiction over any dispute about them, unless the law where you live gives you the right to bring a dispute in your local courts. Nothing in these terms excludes rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law.