Privacy

Last updated: June 7, 2026

In Step helps two people keep a shared daily walking streak. This page explains what we collect, how we use it, and your choices. A few bracketed items (contact email, legal entity) are finalized before public launch.

What we collect

Account. When you sign in with Sign in with Apple or an email and password, we store your account identifier, email, and a display name and photo if you add them.

Step data. With your permission, In Step reads your daily step count from Apple Health (HealthKit), only to show your activity and calculate your streaks.

Optional health context. If you turn on personal insights, the app additionally reads (read-only) your sleep, resting heart rate, walking distance, flights climbed, and active energy from Apple Health — used only to show you trends and correlations inside the app, stored separately from your streak data, never used to determine your streak. This is optional and requested separately.

We never write to Apple Health, and we never use Health data for advertising or share it with third parties for marketing. You can revoke Health access at any time in the Health app or iOS Settings.

Buddy & social content. When you pair with a buddy, we store the partnership, your shared streak history, and any reactions, messages, or photos you exchange. This is visible to you and your paired buddy.

Device & notifications. We store a push-notification token and basic device/app metadata (model, OS version, app version) for delivery and diagnostics.

Subscriptions. If you purchase In Step Plus, Apple processes the payment. We store your entitlement status (active/expired) verified through Apple. We do not receive or store your payment-card details.

How we use it

• Provide core features: streaks, step tracking, buddy pairing, messaging, and group step challenges.
• Send the notifications you’ve enabled (reminders, buddy activity).
• Operate, secure, and improve the service and prevent abuse.
• Process and validate subscriptions.

Storage & sharing

We use Google Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Cloud Functions, Cloud Storage, Cloud Messaging) to run the backend, and Apple services for sign-in, Health access, push delivery, and in-app purchases. We do not sell your personal information, and we don’t share it except with these providers that operate the app, or when required by law.

Retention & deletion

You can delete your account anytime from Settings, which removes your profile, step history, device tokens, and subscription record, ends your buddy partnerships, and deletes your authentication account. You can also contact us to request deletion.

Children

In Step is not directed to children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their personal information.

Your choices

• Revoke Health access in the Health app or iOS Settings.
• Disable notifications in iOS Settings or in the app.
• Delete your account and data from Settings.

Changes

We may update this policy and will revise the date above.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: instepsupport@gmail.com.