Privacy policy: Plain Steps (working name): Step Counter

Status: this app is in development and has not been released yet. This policy describes what the app is designed to do, as written in its specification; it will be reviewed again before release.

In short

The app counts steps using the motion sensor of the phone you already carry. It has no account, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking, and it contains no network code. It does not ask for your location. Nothing leaves the phone.

What is stored on your phone

In a local database inside the app:

• Step counts in 15-minute buckets and the time each source observed, so the history can reach beyond the system's own window (on iPhone, the system keeps only 7 days).
• On Android, short-lived sensor readings used to work out the counts, which the app prunes after 14 days; the raw readings are also kept in a file inside the app that is excluded from system backups.
• Adjustments you type, such as steps you add to a day, your goal and goal changes, and which sources you have switched on.
• Settings you enter: height and weight (used only for estimated distance and calories), an optional step length, units, week start, language, theme and app lock options.
• The app also offers "Delete all data" and "Forget this source's data" under your own control.

Permissions

• One prompt before the first number: Motion and Fitness on iPhone, Physical activity on Android. It is requested from a card on the Today screen after a one-sentence explanation, not at launch.
• Notifications on Android: only if you turn on "Keep counting reliably", which runs a foreground service of the health type. Without it, the app saves readings about every 15 minutes, at restart and when you open it.
• Apple Health and Health Connect: read only, and only when you switch them on, to add steps from a watch or other apps. The app never writes to them. There is no background delivery of Health data.
• Android also uses boot-completed so counting resumes after a restart. Android release builds have no internet permission, and no location, storage or exact alarm permission.
• iPhone may refresh in the background opportunistically.

Backup and export

Backups are encrypted by default and restored by you. You can export your history as CSV, where days with no data are left empty rather than zero. Files are shared through the system share sheet and you decide where they go.

What the app does not do

No advertising, no analytics, no crash reporting, no accounts, no network use, no location. The app is meant for your own numbers: steps are used only to show them to you. Planned store privacy labels: App Store "Data Not Collected"; Google Play collects nothing and shares nothing.

Contact

Questions about privacy: plainapps@tuta.com.