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Privacy policy

stepO Privacy Policy

Welcome to stepO. This Privacy Policy explains what information the stepO mobile application (the "App") collects, how we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices and rights you have. In this policy, "stepO," "we," "us," and "our" refer to the operator of the App, and "you" refers to anyone who downloads or uses the App.

Last updated October 4, 2026

00Introduction

We wrote this policy to describe how the App actually works. Please read it carefully. By creating an account or using the App, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the App.

If you have any questions at any time, email us at privacy@stepofit.com.

01Summary of key points

  • We collect the information you give us (such as your name, email, profile details, workouts, food logs, and coach messages) and information from your device that you allow us to access (such as your location during workouts and step data from Apple Health).
  • We use your information to run the App's features: workout tracking, step counting, nutrition logging, the AI Coach, safety alerts, and live location sharing with people you choose.
  • We do not sell your personal information. We do not show ads. We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
  • Some features rely on trusted service providers, such as Google Firebase for sign-in and Anthropic for the AI Coach. They receive only what they need to provide their service to us.
  • Information you get from Apple Health is never used for advertising or sold.
  • You can view and edit your information in the App, turn permissions off in iOS Settings, and permanently delete your account and all of its data from inside the App.

02Information we collect

We collect information in three ways: information you provide directly, information collected from your device with your permission, and limited technical information generated when the App communicates with our servers.

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect your name and email address. You can sign up with an email address and password, with Sign in with Apple, or with Google Sign-In. Your password is handled by Google Firebase Authentication; we never see or store your password. If you use Sign in with Apple, Apple may share your name and either your real email address or a private relay address that forwards to you, depending on the choice you make. If you use Google Sign-In, Google shares your name and email address with us. We also keep a record of which sign-in method you used and when your account was created.

Profile Information

During setup and in Edit Profile, you may choose to provide your age, height, weight, daily step goal, units preference, the coach you prefer, and a profile photo. These details are optional, but some of them make the App more accurate. For example, your weight and height help us estimate calories burned, and your step goal powers your progress rings.

Location Information

When you start a walk, run, or ride, the App collects precise GPS location from your device to record your route, distance, pace, and splits. With your permission, the App continues recording your route while your screen is off or the App is in the background, but only while a workout is in progress. iOS shows a location indicator whenever this happens, and background tracking stops as soon as the workout ends. The App also uses your current location, while you are using it, to show the map, find nearby safety alerts, plan routes, and show local weather. We do not track your location when you are not using the App or when no workout is in progress. More detail is in Section 8.

Apple Health Information

If you allow it, the App reads the following from Apple Health: step count, walking and running distance, active energy burned, workouts, and heart rate. The App writes your completed stepO workouts to Apple Health, together with their distance, active energy, and step samples. Heart rate is read only to show heart rate charts on your device; it is not sent to our servers. Step counts and activity totals are synced to your stepO account so your history, statistics, streaks, and achievements work across sessions. Section 7 explains the special protections that apply to Apple Health information.

Motion and Step Data

With your permission, the App uses your iPhone's motion sensors to count steps and detect activity more accurately. Step counts are stored in your account as daily totals.

Workout Information

For each workout you record, we store the activity type (walk, run, or ride), start and end time, duration, distance, pace, estimated calories burned, estimated steps, and the GPS route points that make up your route.

Nutrition Information

If you use the nutrition features, we collect the foods and meals you log, including portion sizes, calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat, along with the meal type and date. We also collect your nutrition goals, favorite foods, water intake logs, and weight logs.

Food Photos

If you use "Snap a meal," the App sends the photo you take or pick to our servers, which pass it to our AI provider (Anthropic) to identify the foods and estimate their nutrition. We store the detected food items and their nutrition estimates in your account. We do not keep the photo itself after it has been analyzed.

AI Coach Conversations

When you chat with a stepO coach, we store your messages and the coach's replies in your account so the conversation can continue and so you can see your recent chats. To give you personal answers, each request to the Coach includes context from your account, as described in Section 5.

Safety Alerts

If you report a hazard (for example poor lighting, a road obstruction, or an aggressive animal), we collect the category, any short note you add (up to 200 characters), the location where you placed the alert, and the time. When you confirm or clear someone else's alert, we record your response so each person is counted once.

Trusted Contacts and Live Location Sharing

You can invite other stepO users to be your trusted contacts by entering or picking their email address. We use that email address only to find the matching stepO account and send the invite. Once a contact accepts, and while you have live sharing turned on during a workout, we store your most recent location so your accepted trusted contacts can see where you are. Only the latest position is kept, it is updated as you move, and it is cleared when you stop sharing.

Contacts on Your Device

If you choose to pick a trusted contact from your address book, iOS shows you the contact picker and gives the App only the contact you select. We do not upload, copy, or scan your address book. From the selected contact, we use only the email address needed to look up the person on stepO.

Camera and Photo Library

The App uses your camera and photo library only when you choose to take or select a profile photo, snap a meal, or scan a food barcode. Your profile photo is stored with your account. The App does not access your camera or photos in the background.

Subscriptions and Purchases

stepO Premium subscriptions are sold and processed by Apple through the App Store. Apple handles your payment information; we never receive your card number or billing details. The App checks your subscription status with Apple on your device so it can unlock Premium features.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, the App schedules reminders on your device, such as daily goal and workout reminders at the times you choose. These are local notifications created by your iPhone. We store your reminder preferences (which reminders are on and at what time) in your account.

Technical and Log Information

When the App connects to our servers, our servers automatically record basic request information, such as your IP address, the date and time, the part of our service requested, and whether the request succeeded. We use these records to keep the service running, prevent abuse, limit excessive requests, and fix problems. The App does not include advertising, analytics, or tracking software development kits (SDKs), and we do not collect your device's advertising identifier.

03Information stored only on your device

Some information stays on your iPhone and is not sent to us:

Deleting the App removes this on-device information, except items that iOS itself manages, such as data you chose to save in Apple Health.

  • Your sign-in token is kept in the iOS Keychain so you stay signed in securely.
  • App preferences, such as units, appearance, and which screens you last viewed, are stored on your device.
  • The App keeps a short-term copy of your most recent Today screen so it can show it instantly the next time you open the App. This copy is linked to your account on that device and is replaced as new data loads.
  • If you finish a workout while offline, the App keeps it on your device and uploads it when your connection returns.
  • Heart rate readings from Apple Health are shown on your device and are not uploaded.

04How we use your information

We use your information to:

We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not build advertising profiles about you.

  • Create, secure, and manage your account and sign you in.
  • Record and display your workouts, routes, steps, distance, pace, calories, and history.
  • Calculate statistics, streaks, goals, badges, and achievements.
  • Provide nutrition logging, food search, barcode lookup, and AI meal recognition.
  • Power the AI Coach, including daily plans, weekly reports, nutrition insights, recommendations, and chat replies.
  • Show you nearby safety alerts, let you report and confirm hazards, and warn you of hazards ahead on your route.
  • Share your live location with the trusted contacts you choose, only while you have sharing turned on.
  • Plan routes, show maps, and show local weather.
  • Sync workouts and activity with Apple Health when you allow it.
  • Schedule the reminders you turn on.
  • Unlock Premium features for active subscribers.
  • Respond to your questions and support requests.
  • Keep the service secure, prevent fraud, spam, and abuse of the safety alert system, and enforce our Terms of Service.
  • Diagnose problems and improve the App's features and reliability.
  • Comply with legal obligations.

05The AI Coach and AI food recognition

stepO's coaches and meal recognition are powered by Claude, an artificial intelligence model provided by Anthropic, PBC. When you use these features, our servers send Anthropic the information needed to answer you:

Anthropic processes this information to generate the response and returns it to us. Under its commercial terms, Anthropic does not use this information to train its models, and it keeps it only for a limited time for purposes such as safety and abuse monitoring, as described in its own policies. We do not send Anthropic your email address, your password, your precise GPS routes, or your heart rate.

  • AI Coach chat: your message, up to your last ten messages in the current conversation, the name of the coach you picked, and a summary of your account data: your first name, age, and weight if you provided them; your nutrition goals; what you have logged to eat today; your steps today and your seven-day step average; and a summary of your workouts from the last seven days (type, date, duration, distance, and calories).
  • Daily plans, weekly reports, nutrition insights, and recommendations: a similar summary of your activity and nutrition data.
  • Snap a meal: the photo you submit.

Please remember that AI responses are generated automatically and may be inaccurate or incomplete. Calorie and nutrition estimates from photos are approximations. The Coach is not a doctor, dietitian, or medical professional, and nothing it says is medical advice. Talk to a qualified professional about pain, injury, illness, eating concerns, or any medical condition.

06How we share your information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share information only in the following ways:

With Other stepO Users, at Your Direction

  • Trusted contacts you have accepted can see your name, profile photo, and live location while you are sharing.
  • People you invite as trusted contacts see your name and profile photo with the invite.
  • Safety alerts you post are visible to other stepO users near that location, including the category, your note, the location, and the time. Your name and profile are not shown with your alerts. We keep an internal link between the alert and your account to prevent abuse.

With Service Providers

We use trusted companies to operate the App. They may process your information only to provide their services to us. They are listed in Section 9.

For Legal Reasons

We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that it is required by law, subpoena, court order, or other legal process; to protect the rights, property, or safety of stepO, our users, or the public; or to detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues.

In a Business Transfer

If stepO is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of all or part of its assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will require any new owner to honor this Privacy Policy or notify you of any changes.

With Your Consent

We may share information for any other purpose with your permission.

07Apple Health (HealthKit) information

We treat information from Apple Health with extra care:

  • You decide what the App can read and write, and you can change this at any time in iOS Settings, Privacy and Security, Health, stepO.
  • We use Apple Health information only to provide the App's health and fitness features to you: showing your steps, activity, heart rate charts, and workouts; calculating your statistics and achievements; and personalizing the AI Coach.
  • We never use Apple Health information for advertising, marketing, or data mining, and we never sell it.
  • We never share Apple Health information with third parties except as necessary to provide the App's features to you, such as including your step totals in the context sent to our AI provider when you use the Coach, as described in Section 5.
  • We do not store Apple Health information in iCloud.
  • Heart rate is read and shown on your device only and is not uploaded.

08More about location

  • During a workout: precise location is recorded continuously to draw your route, including in the background with your permission, until the workout ends.
  • While you use the App: your location is used to center the map, show nearby safety alerts, plan routes, and look up your area.
  • Maps and places: maps, place search, directions, and address lookups are provided by Apple Maps (MapKit). When you use them, your device sends the map area, search terms, or coordinates to Apple under Apple's privacy policy.
  • Weather: to show local weather, the App sends your approximate location, rounded to about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles), to Apple Weather (WeatherKit) under Apple's privacy policy. No account information is sent with it.
  • Stored locations: we store the GPS routes of your workouts, the locations of safety alerts you post, and your latest location while live sharing is on.
  • Your control: you can change location access at any time in iOS Settings, Privacy and Security, Location Services, stepO. If you turn it off, workout route tracking, nearby alerts, and live sharing will not work.

09Third-party services

The App relies on the following services. Each has its own privacy policy, which we encourage you to read.

Services that your device contacts directly, such as Apple Maps, Apple Weather, USDA FoodData Central, and Open Food Facts, also receive your device's IP address as a normal part of the internet connection. We do not use Mapbox or any advertising network.

  • Google Firebase Authentication, provided by Google LLC: creates and verifies your sign-in and handles your password. It receives your email address, name, and sign-in details. Google Privacy Policy: policies.google.com/privacy
  • Google Sign-In, provided by Google LLC: if you choose to sign in with Google.
  • Sign in with Apple, provided by Apple Inc.: if you choose to sign in with Apple. Apple Privacy Policy: apple.com/legal/privacy
  • Apple Maps (MapKit), provided by Apple Inc.: maps, place search, directions, and address lookups.
  • Apple Health (HealthKit), provided by Apple Inc.: step, activity, workout, and heart rate data you allow.
  • Apple App Store (StoreKit), provided by Apple Inc.: processes subscription purchases and payments.
  • Anthropic, PBC (Claude): powers the AI Coach and meal photo recognition, as described in Section 5. Anthropic Privacy Policy: anthropic.com/legal/privacy
  • USDA FoodData Central, provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture: food nutrition search. Only the food name you search for is sent.
  • Open Food Facts: barcode lookups and food search. Only the barcode or search term is sent.
  • Apple Weather (WeatherKit), provided by Apple Inc.: local weather, using your approximate location only.
  • Akamai Technologies (Akamai Cloud, formerly Linode): hosts our servers and database in the United States.

10How long we keep your information

  • Account, profile, workouts, routes, steps, nutrition, weight, water, and achievements: kept for as long as your account exists, so your history remains available to you, and deleted when you delete your account.
  • AI Coach conversations: kept with your account so you can see recent chats, and deleted when you delete your account.
  • Food photos: not kept after analysis. The detected foods and nutrition estimates are kept with your account.
  • Live location: only your latest position is kept, and it is cleared when you stop sharing.
  • Safety alerts: shown to other users only until they expire, typically 24 hours after they are posted, and deleted when you delete your account.
  • Server request logs: kept only as long as needed for security and troubleshooting.
  • We may keep limited information longer if the law requires it or to resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.

11How we protect your information

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information. These include access controls on our servers and database, a signed access token that is checked on every request, limits on repeated requests, and storing your sign-in token in the iOS Keychain. Passwords are managed by Google Firebase and are never stored on our servers.

Connections between the App and our servers do not yet use HTTPS encryption. We are working to enable encrypted connections for all traffic between the App and our servers, and we will update this policy when that is complete. Connections to Apple, Google, Anthropic, and the other providers listed in Section 9 are encrypted by those providers.

No method of storing or sending information over the internet is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we learn of a security incident that affects your personal information, we will notify you as required by law.

12Your choices and rights

You are in control of your information:

We may need to verify your identity before completing a request, usually by confirming it from the email address on your account. We aim to respond within 30 days.

  • View your information: your workouts, steps, nutrition logs, achievements, and profile are available in the App at any time.
  • Correct your information: update your name, age, height, weight, step goal, and photo in Edit Profile.
  • Delete individual records: where the App offers the option, you can delete individual workouts, food entries, water and weight logs, and your own safety alerts.
  • Permissions: you can turn off location, Apple Health, motion, camera, photos, contacts, and notifications at any time in iOS Settings. Features that depend on a permission will stop working until you turn it back on.
  • Live sharing: turn live location sharing on or off whenever you want, and remove trusted contacts at any time.
  • Delete your account: see Section 13.
  • Request a copy or ask for help: email privacy@stepofit.com with any privacy request, including a request for a copy of your information.

13Deleting your account

You can permanently delete your account from inside the App at any time: open the You tab, go to Account, and choose Delete account. You will be asked to confirm twice. When you confirm, we immediately and permanently delete your account and all related data from our database, including your profile, workouts and routes, step history, nutrition logs, favorite foods, water and weight logs, achievements, AI Coach conversations, trusted contacts, live location, safety alerts, and reminder settings, and we delete your sign-in account from Firebase Authentication. This cannot be undone.

Deleting your stepO account does not delete workouts the App has already written to Apple Health, because that data belongs to you in the Health app. You can remove it in the Health app. If you have a Premium subscription, deleting your account does not cancel it; manage or cancel subscriptions in iOS Settings, your name, Subscriptions.

If you cannot access the App, email privacy@stepofit.com from the email address on your account and we will delete your account for you.

14U.S. state privacy rights

Depending on where you live, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Oregon, and other states with privacy laws, you may have the right to:

To exercise these rights, email privacy@stepofit.com. You may use an authorized agent, and we may ask for proof of the agent's authority. If we deny your request, you may appeal by replying to our decision. We respond to verified requests within the time required by law, generally 45 days.

  • Know what personal information we collect, use, and disclose, and receive a copy of it.
  • Correct inaccurate personal information.
  • Delete your personal information.
  • Opt out of the sale of personal information or its sharing for targeted advertising. We do not sell or share personal information for these purposes.
  • Limit the use of sensitive personal information. We use sensitive information, such as precise location and health information, only to provide the features you request.
  • Not be discriminated against for exercising your rights.

In the past 12 months, we have collected the categories of personal information described in Section 2: identifiers (name, email, account ID, IP address), personal records, physical characteristics you choose to provide (age, height, weight), health and fitness information, precise geolocation, photos, user-generated content, and internet activity limited to requests to our servers. We collect them from you and your device for the purposes described in Section 4, and we disclose them only as described in Section 6.

15Users outside the United States

stepO is operated from the United States, and our servers are located in the United States. If you use the App from another country, your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in your country.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we process your information to perform our agreement with you and provide the App (for account, workout, nutrition, and coach features), based on your consent (for location, Apple Health, camera, contacts, and notifications, which you can withdraw at any time in iOS Settings), and for our legitimate interests in keeping the service secure and working. You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to the processing of your information, to data portability, and to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. Contact us at privacy@stepofit.com to exercise these rights.

16Children's privacy

stepO is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under the age required to consent to data processing where you live, use the App only with the involvement of a parent or guardian. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, email privacy@stepofit.com and we will delete it.

17Health and safety notice

stepO is a fitness and wellness app, not a medical device. Step counts, distances, calories, nutrition estimates, and coaching are estimates for general fitness purposes only. Safety alerts are posted by other users and may be incomplete or wrong; always pay attention to your surroundings. Consult a doctor before starting a new exercise or diet program.

18Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the App changes or as the law requires. When we do, we will change the "Last Updated" date at the top. If we make significant changes, we will notify you in the App or by email before they take effect. Your continued use of the App after an update means you accept the updated policy.

19Contact us

If you have any questions, requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or your information, please contact us:

Email: privacy@stepofit.com

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