Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 5, 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.

Your privacy matters. We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

1. Information We Collect

Information You Provide

Account Information: When you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive your name, email address, and a unique identifier.
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, and other content you post in the App.
Ring (Group) Information: Ring names, descriptions, emoji, membership, and activity data when you create or join group walking communities.

Information Collected Automatically

Health Data: Step count and active minutes data accessed through Apple HealthKit with your explicit permission.
Usage Data: How you interact with the App, features used, and time spent.
Device Information: Device type, operating system version, and unique device identifiers.

2. How We Use Your Information

Data Type	Purpose
Account Info	Create and manage your account, authenticate you
Step Count & Active Minutes	Track progress, power leaderboards, enable competitions, generate STEPPED weekly reports, display on Live Activities and widgets
Profile Info	Display to friends, identify you in the App, show pinned badges and level/XP progress
Ring Data	Power group leaderboards, ring streaks, and member activity feeds
User Content	Share posts with friends, display in feeds
Push Notification Tokens	Deliver battle requests, friend requests, achievement alerts, and streak reminders
Usage Data	Improve the App, fix bugs, analyze trends

3. Live Activities & Widgets

Steppers offers Live Activities and Home Screen widgets that display your step data outside of the main App:

Live Activities: Display your step goal progress on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. This feature is opt-in and can be enabled/disabled in Settings.
Home Screen Widgets: Show your steps, goals, leaderboard position, and quest progress. Widgets only display data already collected by the App.
Battle Live Activity: During 1v1 battles, shows real-time progress for you and your opponent.

Live Activities and widgets use the same step data already authorized through HealthKit. No additional data collection occurs. All data displayed is processed locally on your device.

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, activity feeds) is stored in our database

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

5. 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.

6. Apple HealthKit Data

We access your step count data through Apple HealthKit solely to provide core App functionality. This data is:

Never sold to third parties
Never used for advertising purposes
Never shared outside of the App except as aggregated, anonymized statistics
Stored securely and encrypted

7. 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
Battle Record: Whether non-friends can see your win/loss record
Achievements: Whether non-friends can see your unlocked achievements

Friends can always see all profile information. These settings can be adjusted at any time from your Profile settings.

8. STEPPED Weekly Reports

STEPPED is a shareable weekly summary of your activity, similar to a recap card. It includes your total steps, daily average, best day, streak, battles won, and achievements earned for the week. When you share a STEPPED report, the generated image contains only the statistics visible on the card — no private health data, location, or personal identifiers beyond your displayed stats are included.

9. How We Share Your Information

We may share your information in the following circumstances:

With Other Users: Your profile, step counts, and posts are visible to your friends within the App.
Service Providers: We use Firebase (Google) for authentication and data storage, and RevenueCat for subscription management.
Legal Requirements: If required by law or to protect our rights and safety.

10. 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 audits and updates
Access controls limiting who can view your data

11. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal purposes.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Third-Party Services

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

Firebase (Google): Authentication and database - Privacy Policy
RevenueCat: Subscription management - Privacy Policy
Apple HealthKit: Health data - Privacy Policy

15. 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.

16. Contact Us

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

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