Privacy Policy

Last updated October 31, 2026

This policy explains how Steppagotchi, operated by [LEGAL ENTITY TBD], handles your information. Steppagotchi is available in the United States only and is for users 13 and older.

Steppagotchi has no sign-in or user accounts. Your Steppagotchi data lives on your iPhone and in your own iCloud, and our servers keep no profile of you.

What we collect

• Age band: from a neutral date-of-birth check and Apple's Declared Age Range, where available. Only the age band is kept, on your iPhone. Users under 13 are blocked, and their date of birth is not saved.
• Step and activity data: with your permission, step counts from Apple Health, used on your iPhone to grow your pet and track goals and streaks.
• Time zone: your home time zone (for example, America/New_York), saved on your iPhone and in your iCloud. The app uses it only to decide when your day and month roll over (daily goal, Leaves limits, quests, weekly chest, streaks, shields and revives, and monthly spending limits), so all your devices agree. If your iPhone spends a few days in a different time zone, the app offers to switch your home time zone. To do this, it keeps your previous time zone, when a change takes effect, the time zone your iPhone is in, and the last few days it saw a different one (these last two stay on this iPhone only). We do not collect your location, and the time zone is not used for analytics or ads or sent to us.
• Purchase records: Apple processes payments and the app checks your purchases on your iPhone. We never receive your card details, and the app does not send us your transaction IDs.
• Wallet records: your Earned and Bought Leaves balances and spending history, kept on your iPhone and in your iCloud.
• Support messages: what you send us by email, including your email address.
• Technical data: when you use a cloud feature or visit our website, Cloudflare, which hosts them, sees your IP address and keeps basic request records (see Retention). Cloud requests also carry a security code from Apple's App Attest (see AI features). Crash reports, only if you share them with developers in your iPhone's settings, via Apple.

Data saved in your iCloud

Purchase records (transaction IDs, product, price, currency and date), Leaves pack balances, refunds and owned items are saved on your device and in your own iCloud account (Apple's iCloud key-value storage), so they are restored when you reinstall the app and on your other devices. The app also creates a random install ID, which is not your Apple ID or an advertising ID, to keep Leaves balances correct across devices. We do not receive this iCloud data on our servers.

The same iCloud storage also keeps your streak items: a record each time you get or use a shield or revive (the item, whether it was earned or bought, and the date); the months you claimed your free Pro shield; and a record of each streak break (your streak length, an internal streak ID, when it broke, the deadline to revive it, the day your walk-back started, the dates you hit your step goal since then, whether it was resolved, and the day it applies to). The dates a shield covered a missed goal can be worked out from these records. It also keeps your home time zone, when you set it and, after a change, your previous time zone and when the new one takes effect. Together these decide when your day and month roll over for goals, Leaves limits, quests, streaks, shields, revives and monthly spending limits, so all your devices agree. It holds no step counts and never your crisis or quiet-day state; the only goal results it holds are the shield and streak-break records described here.

Saved only on this iPhone. The app also keeps a small backup in this iPhone's Keychain: your Leaves balances, your monthly purchase-limit total (for users 13 to 17) and the random install ID. It stays on this iPhone, is not synced to iCloud and is not sent to us. iOS keeps it even if you delete the app, so your balances and purchase limit stay correct if you reinstall. It holds no health, step, crisis or quiet-day data. Delete my data removes it, except your purchase-limit total for the current month, which is kept until the month ends so the limit can't be reset. The app also keeps three more things on this iPhone only:

• a scrambled code made from your iCloud sign-in (not your Apple Account name or email), so it can tell if you switch iCloud accounts and keep each account's data separate;
• if you do switch, a copy of the previous account's Steppagotchi data, labelled with a scrambled code for that account, kept for up to 90 days so it can be restored if that account comes back;
• the time zone your iPhone is in, the last few days it saw a different one, and any time zone you told the app not to switch to, so it can offer to update your home time zone.

None of these is ever synced to iCloud or sent to us, and Delete my data removes them.

Categories of personal information

Sensitive data

We process health and step data only with your consent and only to provide the app. We do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you.

Crisis support

If the app detects signs of a crisis, it shows support resources (such as 988) and pauses goals, quests, offers and notifications until midnight. The pause is stored only on your device and is cleared at midnight. We never store or send the content that triggered it. If we count how often the support screen is shown, we do so only in aggregate, never linked to you or your device.

How we use it

Only to run Steppagotchi: your pet, goals, streaks, challenges, purchases, purchase limits for users 13 to 17, safety and support. Steppagotchi has no ads. We do not sell or share your personal information for advertising, do not track you across apps or websites, and do not use Apple Health data for advertising, marketing or data mining. Apple Health data is never shared with third parties for those purposes.

AI features

Some of Steppagotchi's AI runs on your iPhone. On supported iPhones, your walk plans, weekly recaps and pet diary are written on your device with Apple's on-device models, and that data does not leave your phone for AI. Your pet diary always stays on your iPhone.

Cloud AI (optional). Recap voice always uses the cloud (MeloTTS). Walk plans use the cloud (Mistral Small 3.1) only if your iPhone cannot make them on the device. When available, AI outfit images will also use the cloud (FLUX.1 [schnell]). These run on Cloudflare Workers AI through Steppagotchi's servers, only after you turn the feature on. Requests and generated images are checked for safety with Llama Guard 3 and Llama 3.2 Vision on Cloudflare. What we send: your weekly recap text for recap voice; a step summary (today's steps, your goal and streak) and your pet's species and mood for walk plans; and, for AI outfits when available, the style and options you choose. We never send raw Apple Health data, your name, email address or install ID. The models' creators (Mistral AI, Black Forest Labs, MyShell and Meta) do not receive your data.

How requests are checked. Each cloud request carries a code from Apple's App Attest that shows it came from the real app, plus your Apple subscription receipt so we can confirm Pro. To check these, our servers keep your iPhone's App Attest public key and a counter for up to 48 hours after its last use, and one-time security codes for 5 minutes or less. To enforce daily limits, they keep a usage count linked to a scrambled (hashed) form of your App Attest key ID, which deletes itself within 25 hours; weekly and monthly limits are counted on your iPhone. None of this is linked to your name, Apple ID, install ID, IP address or the content of your requests.

What is kept. Our servers and Cloudflare do not keep what you send or what comes back. Cloudflare keeps basic records of each request, such as your IP address, the time and which feature or model was used, but not the contents (see Retention). Cloudflare processes it for us only to give you the feature, under its data processing terms, and does not use it to train AI models. Generated walk plans and recap audio (and outfits, when available) are sent back to the app and saved on your iPhone and in your iCloud until you delete them or use Delete my data. Nobody uses this data for ads or marketing.

Your choices. Each cloud feature is off until you turn it on, and you can turn it off anytime in Settings, AI; the app then uses pre-written content. Users 13 to 17 use the same choices and never type free text into AI features. AI-generated text, voice and images are labelled.

Coming later. Pet chat is not available yet. When it launches, we will update this section and ask for your permission first; open AI chat will be for users 18 and over and follow our published AI safety protocol.

Who we share with

Only service providers that process data for us to run the app (Cloudflare for hosting and cloud AI), Apple for purchases and App Attest, or when required by law. No sponsors, advertisers or data brokers.

Retention and deletion

On our servers and our host's:

• Cloud AI requests and results: not kept by us or Cloudflare after the request.
• Daily AI usage counts (linked to a hashed App Attest key ID): deleted automatically within 25 hours.
• App Attest security data (a public key and counter): up to 48 hours after last use. One-time security codes: 5 minutes or less.
• Request records: we don't log requests. Cloudflare, our hosting provider, keeps basic request records (IP address, time, page or feature requested, never contents) for at least 31 days, and cloud AI usage records (model, time, size, whether it worked) for a period it sets, under its own policies.
• Support emails: 2 years.
• Under-13 date of birth: never saved.

We keep no purchase records, step data or saved AI results on our servers.

How to delete. In the app, go to Settings > Data & Privacy > Delete my data. This erases the app's data on this iPhone, in your iCloud and in this iPhone's Keychain, and your other devices erase their copies the next time they sync. If the app has blocked use on this iPhone because the user is under 13, Delete my data keeps that block (a simple flag, with no date of birth or other details) so it stays in place. It permanently removes your pet, Leaves (including Leaves packs and Bought Leaves), shields, revives and anything bought with Leaves, which cannot be recovered. Steppagotchi Pro and items you bought directly from the App Store come back with Restore Purchases (users 13 to 17 get back only items available for their age). Purchases are not refunded except under Apple's policies. Delete my data does not cancel Steppagotchi Pro; cancel it in your iPhone's Settings under your name, then Subscriptions. Apple keeps its own records of your App Store purchases under Apple's privacy policy.

After you use Delete my data, the app leaves a small deletion marker in your iCloud and on this iPhone so your other devices know to erase their copies and old data is not restored. It holds only a random code, the date you deleted and, until the month ends, that month's spending total for the purchase limit, and nothing else about you.

Because we keep no profile of you on our servers, Delete my data covers everything except: support emails (email support@steppagotchi.com to have them deleted); the security data and usage counts above, which delete themselves within 48 hours; and Cloudflare's request records, which Cloudflare deletes on its own schedule.

If we learn that a user is under 13, we delete any support emails or other data we hold about them.

Your rights

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

• know what personal information we have and get a copy of it;
• correct inaccurate information;
• delete your information;
• opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and targeted advertising (we do none of these);
• appeal if we decline your request.

To make a request, use Settings > Data & Privacy > Delete my data in the app, or email support@steppagotchi.com. Most of your Steppagotchi data is on your iPhone and in your iCloud, where you can see and delete it yourself. Because we have no accounts, we usually cannot link server records to you, and we will not ask for extra personal information just to try. For support emails, we confirm requests using the email address you wrote from. We respond within 45 days, and may extend this once by another 45 days when reasonably necessary, telling you why. You can use an authorized agent; we may ask the agent for proof of your permission. We will not discriminate against you for using your rights.

Appeals. If we decline your request, email support@steppagotchi.com with the subject "Appeal". We will answer in writing within 45 days, explaining what we did and why. If you are not satisfied, you can contact your state attorney general.

No sale or sharing. We do not sell or share anyone's data, including users under 16. We honour Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals as a request to opt out of sale and sharing, though we do neither.

Washington residents: see our Washington Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.

This website

steppagotchi.com uses no cookies, trackers or third-party scripts, and we don't run analytics. Like any website, our host Cloudflare keeps basic request records (IP address, time, page) for security; see Retention.

Changes

We will post updates here. For material changes, we will tell you in the app at least 30 days before they take effect; if you do not agree, you can stop using Steppagotchi and use Delete my data. Changes are not retroactive. We will ask for your consent first before using health or step data in a new way or for a new purpose.

Contact

Steppagotchi ([LEGAL ENTITY TBD]) · support@steppagotchi.com