Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Step Tomo is made by Foggo Apps, the independent studio of developer Charles Chiejina ("we", "us"). This policy explains what the Step Tomo app does with your information. It covers Step Tomo for iPhone and Apple Watch, including its watch complications, and Step Tomo for Android phones and Wear OS watches, including its watch tile. You can reach us at support@foggoapps.com.

2. Apple Health and Health Connect

Step Tomo feeds your pet with the movement your phone already records: Apple Health (HealthKit) on iPhone, and Health Connect on Android. Step Tomo only reads or writes health data after you allow it, and only the types listed here.

Apple Health, on iPhone and Apple Watch

With your permission, Step Tomo reads:

When you finish a walk in Step Tomo, on your Apple Watch or your iPhone, Step Tomo writes it to Apple Health as a walking workout, with its steps, distance and active energy (and the route, if you turned on Record my route), so it counts toward your rings. You are asked for permission the first time you start a walk.

You can change Step Tomo's access at any time in the Health app (Sharing → Apps) or in Settings → Health → Data Access & Devices.

Health Connect, on Android

With your permission, Step Tomo reads these Health Connect data types:

When you finish a walk in Step Tomo, on your phone or your Wear OS watch, Step Tomo writes it to Health Connect as a walking exercise session with its steps and distance, if you allowed it to. Step Tomo only writes exercise sessions, steps and distance.

You can change or remove Step Tomo's access at any time in Health Connect (Android Settings → Security & privacy → Privacy → Health Connect → App permissions → Step Tomo; on some phones, the Health Connect app). Removing access stops Step Tomo reading or writing from then on. Data Step Tomo already wrote stays in Health Connect until you delete it there.

How we use health data

Health data from Apple Health or Health Connect is used only for Step Tomo's features: feeding your pet and its progress, Today, History, and your walks. It is processed on your phone and watch. Raw health samples, heart rate and routes stay on your device. The only activity information that leaves your device is the backup of your Step Tomo profile described below (your walk summaries and pet progress, including the steps your pet has eaten today, never raw health samples or routes) and, if you add friends and leave "Show my steps to friends" on, your daily step total and streak.

Health data is never sold, never used for advertising or marketing, never used to build profiles for ads, and never shared with third parties or data brokers. It is never stored by us in iCloud or in any cloud storage of our own apart from that profile backup. Without health access the app still works, but your pet will not see your steps. To delete the Step Tomo data we hold, including your walk summaries, use Delete account in the app or see Delete your account.

3. Motion and step sensors

With your permission, Step Tomo uses your iPhone's motion processor (Core Motion) to notice when you are walking, so your pet can walk with you in real time and your egg can count the steps of its hatching walk. If you wear AirPods or Beats with head tracking, it can also use their head motion to detect steps while a walk is on screen. On Android, with the Physical activity permission, Step Tomo uses your phone's step sensor in the same way while a walk is running. This motion data is processed on the device as it arrives and is not stored or sent anywhere.

4. Location and routes

Step Tomo only uses your location if you turn on Record my route before a walk, and only while that walk is running, with "While Using the App" permission on iPhone, or "While using the app" permission on Android (where an ongoing notification shows while the walk runs). It uses your precise location to draw the route map on your walk summary. The route is saved with that walk on your phone and is never sent to us or anyone else. Step Tomo does not use location in the background, for ads, or at any other time. On Android, the street map drawn behind a route is loaded from OpenFreeMap, which receives your IP address and the map area being shown, as with any web map, but not your route. You can turn the option off per walk or remove location access in Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services on iPhone, or in Settings → Location → App location permissions on Android.

5. Apple Watch and Wear OS

The Apple Watch app counts its own steps from Apple Health on the watch. Your iPhone sends the watch what it needs to show your pet (its name, species, stage, level, XP, mood, your goal, streak and today's totals) directly over Apple's WatchConnectivity. This goes device to device through Apple's system and never through our servers. The complications and Smart Stack card read the same information from a shared container on the watch.

On Wear OS, with your permission, the watch app uses Health Services on the watch to count your steps, distance and floors, and to show your heart rate during a walk. Your phone and watch exchange what they need (your pet, goal, today's totals and walks you finish on the watch) directly over Google's Wearable Data Layer, device to device and never through our servers. Walks you finish on the watch are saved by your phone, which writes them to Health Connect as described above.

6. Accounts, name and email (optional)

You don't need an account to use Step Tomo. Everything works without one.

Accounts and sign-in

At the end of setup, or later in Settings → Account, you can link Sign in with Apple (on iPhone) or Sign in with Google (on iPhone, or on Android through Android's Credential Manager) to your Step Tomo profile. Or you can just save a recovery email. We do this so your pet, walks, coins and progress can be recovered on a new phone, or if your phone's save is lost.

When you link Apple or Google, we receive a user identifier from them and the email address you choose to share. With Apple, that can be a private relay address that hides your real email. We never receive your Apple or Google password. Your sign-in and email are stored with your profile backup by our database provider, Supabase, over an encrypted connection.

Your name and email

You can type your first name during setup or in Settings. It is kept on your phone so the app can greet you, and it is included in your profile backup.

A recovery email, or the email from Apple or Google, is kept with your backup to identify your account. We use it for account recovery and support. The app does not send you email. We don't sell your email, share it with anyone else, or combine it with Health data.

News is separate. Send me pet news and walking tips is off unless you tick it. If you tick it, we may send occasional Step Tomo news to that email. You can unsubscribe with the link in any email, or by emailing us.

Our legal basis (where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies) is providing the service you asked for (your account and backup), and your consent for news, which you can withdraw at any time. Supabase may store the data on servers outside your country; it acts as our processor under its data processing terms.

7. What stays on your device

Everything else Step Tomo keeps is stored locally on your phone and watch: your pets and their progress, levels, coins and items, your step goal and settings, history, walks, finds and routes. Like other app data, it is included in your own device backup if you use one. We cannot see it.

Your Step Tomo profile (cloud backup)

So that your progress survives a new phone or reinstalling the app, Step Tomo backs up your profile to our database provider, Supabase, over an encrypted connection, linked to an anonymous account ID. If you linked Apple, Google or a recovery email, the backup is also linked to that account. The backup contains: your name (if you gave one), your pets (name, species, stage, level, shiny), coins, items and collection, app settings (step goal, units), and summaries of the walks you took in Step Tomo (date, duration, steps, distance, finds). It does not contain your routes or raw Health samples.

What other players see: your name and your active pet's species, stage and whether it's shiny may appear as a walker on other players' walk paths. Friends you add see a little more, as described in Friends. You can turn the walk path off in Settings. You can delete your backup at any time with Delete my cloud data in Settings → Friends and privacy, or by emailing us; we delete it within 30 days.

Deleting your account

Delete account in Settings → Account removes your account, its linked Apple or Google sign-in and recovery email, and all your cloud data: your profile, pets, walks, friends and waves. Reports other players made about you are kept for up to 90 days for safety, as described in Reports. The data on your phone stays until you delete the app. No app? You can also ask us by email; see Delete your account.

The app also saves a tiny record of your first hatch (the species and the date) in your iPhone's Keychain, so reinstalling the app doesn't change which pet hatched first. It contains no health data. It stays on the device.

On Android, the same first-hatch record, and the sign-in token and device ID that reconnect a reinstalled app to your backup, are kept in Google Block Store, Android's equivalent of the Keychain. They contain no health data. Block Store keeps them on your phone through a reinstall, and Google includes them in your device's Google backup only when that backup is end-to-end encrypted.

Deleting the app deletes its data from that device, apart from that Keychain record, which iOS keeps until you erase the device, and those Block Store values, which Android keeps until you erase the device or clear Google Play services' data.

8. Purchases

Step Tomo Premium subscriptions, the Lifetime purchase and coin packs are sold by Apple through the App Store on iPhone, and by Google through Google Play on Android. Apple or Google processes the payment; we never see your card details, Apple Account or Google Account password. Their handling of your purchase is covered by Apple's Privacy Policy and Google's Privacy Policy.

On both platforms, the app also sends purchase records to our service provider RevenueCat (revenuecat.com): which product you bought, when, and renewals and restores. It also sends your anonymous account ID, and your name and email if you gave them. We use RevenueCat to keep your purchases working across your devices and to understand purchases in aggregate (purchase analytics). It is never used for tracking or ads. See RevenueCat's Privacy Policy.

9. Notifications

If you allow notifications, reminders such as hungry nudges, streak alerts, goal reached, level-ups and the Sunday recap are created and scheduled on your phone. They are not sent from a server, and we don't collect anything to send them.

10. What we don't do

• No advertising, and no advertising or usage analytics SDKs in the app. RevenueCat only sees purchase records.
• No tracking across other companies' apps or websites, and no advertising identifier.
• No selling or renting of personal data, ever.
• No use of health, motion or location data for anything other than the features described here.
• No required accounts. Accounts are optional, and you can use Step Tomo without signing up or signing in.

Crash reports: if you choose to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone settings, Apple may pass us anonymous crash reports and diagnostics. These do not identify you and you can turn this off in Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements. On Android, if you allow usage and diagnostics sharing, Google may give us similar anonymous crash and performance reports through Google Play. Step Tomo adds no crash reporting SDK of its own.

11. Friends

Friends are optional. Nothing is shared with a friend until you accept their request, or they accept yours.

What friends see

Your friends see your display name, your active pet (its name, species, stage and whether it's shiny), your level and when you were last active. If Show my steps to friends is on (it is on by default), they also see today's step total and your streak. You can turn it off in Settings → Friends and privacy.

What is never shared

Your email, your device ID, your walks, your routes and your health data are never shared with friends. Of your steps, friends only ever get your daily total.

Friend codes

Our server gives you a random 8-character friend code. Anyone with your code or your invite link can send you a friend request, and nothing is shared until you accept. Code lookups are rate-limited, so codes can't be guessed in bulk.

Waves

When you wave at a friend, we store who waved at whom and when. You can wave at each friend at most once an hour. A wave is marked seen when it is delivered, and waves are kept for up to 3 days.

Reports

If you report someone, we store who made the report, who was reported, the reason, a copy of their name and pet name at that time, and when it was made. We review reports by hand. Reports about you are kept for up to 90 days, even if you delete your cloud data, for safety. Reports you made are deleted with your data. All reports are deleted after 90 days.

Blocking

Blocking someone ends your friendship and any requests between you, and deletes the waves between you. It also hides each of you from the other's friend codes, requests, waves and walk path. The person you block isn't told. You can unblock them in Settings → Friends and privacy → Blocked people.

Deleting your friends data

Delete my cloud data in Settings → Friends and privacy removes your profile backup and also your friendships, blocks, waves and the reports you made.

12. Service providers

We use a few companies to run Step Tomo. They handle data only for us, and only for these jobs:

• Apple: the App Store, payments, Sign in with Apple, and Apple Health (HealthKit), which runs on your devices.
• Google: Google Play, payments on Android, Sign in with Google (through Credential Manager on Android), Block Store, and Health Connect and Health Services, which run on your devices.
• OpenFreeMap: street map tiles behind your routes on Android.
• Supabase: cloud backup, accounts and Friends.
• RevenueCat: purchase records (privacy policy).

13. Data we collect

This is the data that can leave your device. All of it is linked to you. None of it is used for tracking.

14. Your choices and rights

• Permissions. Health, Motion & Fitness, Location and Notifications can each be turned off in iOS Settings at any time. On Android, Health Connect access is managed in Health Connect, and Physical activity, Location, Notifications and the watch's sensor access in Android Settings.
• Your email. Unsubscribe from news with the link in any email, or ask us to access, correct or delete the email and name we hold by writing to support@foggoapps.com. We reply within 30 days.
• Your cloud data. Use Delete my cloud data in Settings → Friends and privacy to delete your profile backup and your friends data.
• Your account. Use Delete account in Settings → Account to delete your account, its sign-ins and all your cloud data.
• Everything else is on your device, so you control it directly; deleting the app removes it.

Depending on where you live (for example the EU, UK, California and other US states, Canada, Japan or Brazil), you may have rights to access, correct, delete or port your personal data, to object to or restrict processing, to withdraw consent, and to complain to your local data protection authority. We honour these requests for everyone, wherever you live. We do not sell or "share" personal information as those terms are defined under California law.

15. Children

Step Tomo is a general-audience app. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country). The personal information we can receive is the name you choose, which friends you add can see, and an optional email or Apple or Google sign-in. If you are under that age, please don't enter an email or link an account. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

16. Security and retention

Data on your devices is protected by iOS, watchOS, Android and Wear OS, including device encryption and the protections of Apple Health and Health Connect. Your account, email and backup are sent over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). We keep your account, email, profile backup and friends data until you delete them. If you unsubscribe from news, we stop sending it. Waves are kept up to 3 days and reports up to 90 days.

17. Changes to this policy

If we change how Step Tomo handles data, we will update this page and the date above, and for significant changes we will tell you in the app before the change applies.

18. Contact

Foggo Apps (Charles Chiejina)
Email: support@foggoapps.com
Help: Step Tomo Support · Terms of Use