Stepling

Information Stepling accesses

With your explicit permission, Stepling reads step-count data from Apple Health. This includes today’s steps and historical daily totals used to calculate growth, momentum, and daily adventures. Stepling does not write data to Apple Health or request other health-data types.

Morning weather updates and rainy-day reminders are optional and disabled by default. If you enable either feature, Stepling requests Location and Notification permission. Your location is used to request a local forecast from Apple Weather and, if you choose, to schedule a rainy-day reminder when you leave home.

How information is used

Step counts are processed on your device to show daily progress, journey progress, growth stages, momentum, adventures, and memories. Health information is not transmitted to Samuel Che or any third party.

When an optional weather feature is enabled, a location is sent to Apple Weather solely to retrieve the relevant forecast. Samuel Che does not receive that location.

iCloud friend sharing

Friends is optional and requires iCloud. If you invite or accept a friend, Stepling stores a randomly generated profile identifier, your companion’s chosen name, and its current appearance in your private iCloud CloudKit database. Only people you explicitly invite to that private share can view the shared companion profile. Shared profiles never contain steps, Apple Health data, goals, XP, momentum, location, or weather data.

To make friend codes work, Stepling temporarily stores the random single-use code, its one-time CloudKit invitation URL, and creation and expiry times in the app’s public CloudKit database. This lookup record contains no companion profile, Apple Health data, activity, location, or contact details. Public CloudKit records can be read by Stepling users and are visible to Samuel Che in Apple’s developer portal.

CloudKit adds its standard app-specific creator record reference so only the creator can change or delete the lookup. This reference does not reveal the creator’s Apple ID, email address, or phone number.

Information stored on your device

Stepling stores app preferences locally, including your companion’s name, daily goal, onboarding status, memories, unlocks, weather preferences, and any home location you choose to save. Local recovery backups are also kept on your iPhone to protect these preferences during app updates. Friend-sharing connection references and blocked profile identifiers are stored separately on your iPhone.

Sharing, selling, and tracking

Samuel Che does not collect, sell, or rent personal information. Stepling contains no third-party advertising or analytics SDKs and does not track you across apps or websites. The app shares a companion name and appearance only when you explicitly create or redeem a friend code or accept an iCloud invitation.

Your choices and retention

You can change Apple Health permission at any time in the Health app or iPhone Settings, disable weather features in Stepling, change Location or Notification access, and remove or block a friend from the Friends screen.

A friend code can be redeemed once and stops working after seven days. Stepling deletes its temporary lookup record when the code is accepted or cancelled, or when the owner next opens and refreshes the app after it expires.

Deleting Stepling removes its locally stored preferences and recovery backups, including any saved home location, but does not itself delete records from your iCloud account. You can revoke a friend share before deleting the app or manage Stepling’s iCloud data through Apple’s iCloud settings. Your Apple Health data remains under Apple’s control and is never deleted or changed by Stepling.

Children’s privacy

Stepling does not knowingly collect personal information from children. It has no developer-operated account system, advertising, or analytics. Optional companion sharing is controlled by the user through their Apple iCloud account.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes, we will update this page and the date above.

Contact

For questions about this policy or your data, email mrsamuelche@gmail.com.