Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 4, 2026

At Steppers, we take your privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our mobile application and related services (including thesteppers.app).

1. Information We Collect

Information You Provide

• Account Information: When you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive your name, email address (if shared), and a unique identifier. Guest/anonymous accounts may also create limited identifiers.
• Profile Information: Username, display name, profile photo, bio, avatar emoji, pinned achievement badges, and level/XP progress you choose to display.
• User Content: Photos, comments, chat messages, voice messages, food logs, nutrition label scans, workout entries, weight logs, medication reminders you enter, passport check-ins, and other content you post in the App.
• Ring (Group) Information: Ring names, descriptions, emoji, membership, chat, and activity data when you create or join group walking communities.
• Support Communications: Messages you send us (for example by email).

Information Collected Automatically

• Health & Fitness Data: With your permission via Apple HealthKit and device motion APIs: step count, active energy/minutes, workouts, distance, weight, and related activity history used by App features.
• Camera: Used only when you choose to scan nutrition labels; images are processed to extract nutrition text you elect to save.
• Microphone: Used only when you record voice messages in chat.
• Location: With your permission, used for Passport place discovery (parks, beaches, lakes, and similar points of interest). You can control location access in iOS Settings and in-app Passport controls.
• Usage Data: How you interact with the App, features used, crash diagnostics, and performance signals.
• Device Information: Device type, operating system version, app version, and push notification tokens.
• Purchase / Subscription Metadata: Processed by Apple and RevenueCat to manage Steppers+ and tips (we do not receive your full payment card number).

2. How We Use Your Information

3. Live Activities & Widgets

Steppers offers Live Activities and Home Screen / Apple Watch widgets that can display activity data outside the main App:

• Live Activities: May show step goals, workouts, battles, or passport progress on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island when you enable them.
• Widgets: May show steps, goals, leaderboard position, friends, quests, foods, weight, or related progress. Widgets display data already collected by the App.

These surfaces use data you already authorized. No additional third-party tracking is introduced solely by enabling widgets or Live Activities.

4. Rings (Group Walking)

Rings are group walking communities within Steppers. When you create or join a Ring:

• Your daily step count is visible to other Ring members
• Your display name and profile photo are shown in the Ring member list
• Ring leaders and co-leaders can manage membership and view Ring activity
• Ring data (group streaks, leaderboards, chats, activity feeds) is stored in our database

You can leave a Ring at any time, which removes your membership from that group.

5. Chat & Voice Messages

If you use chat, message content (text and optional voice recordings) is delivered to the intended recipients and stored as needed to operate messaging. Do not send sensitive information you would not want shared with the other party. We may process reports of abusive messages and take action as described in our Terms.

6. Camera, Microphone & Location

• Camera: Optional nutrition-label scanning. You control when the camera is used.
• Microphone: Optional voice messages in chat only.
• Location: Optional Passport place discovery and related features. You can revoke location permission in iOS Settings at any time.

7. Motivators (AI-Simulated Users)

Steppers includes "Motivators" — AI-simulated walking companions that appear on your leaderboard alongside real friends. Motivators are not real users and do not collect any personal data. Their step counts are generated algorithmically to provide motivation and competition. You can enable or disable individual Motivators in the app settings.

8. Apple HealthKit Data

We access HealthKit data solely to provide App functionality you request. HealthKit data is:

• Never sold to third parties
• Never used for advertising or marketing to other companies
• Never shared outside of the App except as aggregated, anonymized statistics or as you explicitly share (for example STEPPED cards)
• Stored securely and encrypted in transit and at rest where we store it

You can revoke Health access at any time in iOS Settings → Health → Data Access & Devices.

9. Profile Privacy Controls

Steppers gives you control over what non-friends can see on your profile. You can toggle visibility for:

• Step Count: Whether non-friends can see your daily steps
• Streak: Whether non-friends can see your current streak
• Achievements: Whether non-friends can see your unlocked achievements

Friends can see profile information you share with them. These settings can be adjusted at any time from your Profile settings.

10. STEPPED Weekly Reports & Share Cards

STEPPED and similar share cards (such as Cal Reports) are shareable summaries of activity or nutrition. They include the statistics shown on the card. When you share a card outside the App, you choose the destination; we do not automatically post your cards to third-party social networks.

11. How We Share Your Information

We may share your information in the following circumstances:

• With Other Users: Your profile, step counts, Ring activity, and messages are visible to the friends, Ring members, or chat partners you interact with, according to feature design and your privacy settings.
• Service Providers: We use Firebase (Google) for authentication, database, storage, and push infrastructure; RevenueCat for subscription and purchase management; and Apple for Sign in with Apple, HealthKit, App Store purchases, and related platform services.
• Legal Requirements: If required by law or to protect our rights and safety.

12. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your data, including:

• Encryption of data in transit and at rest
• Secure authentication through Apple and Google
• Regular security updates
• Access controls limiting who can view your data

13. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal purposes or where residual backups expire on a delayed schedule.

14. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to:

• Access your personal data
• Correct inaccurate data
• Delete your data
• Export your data
• Opt out of certain data processing

To exercise these rights, contact us at thesteppersapp@gmail.com. You can also use in-app account deletion and data export features where available.

15. Children's Privacy

Steppers is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe we have collected such data, please contact us immediately.

16. Third-Party Services

Our App uses the following third-party services that have their own privacy policies:

• Firebase (Google): Authentication, database, storage, messaging - Privacy Policy
• RevenueCat: Subscription and purchase management - Privacy Policy
• Apple: Sign in with Apple, HealthKit, App Store, push notifications - Privacy Policy

17. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new policy in the App and updating the "Last updated" date.

18. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

Email: thesteppersapp@gmail.com
Website: thesteppers.app