Steps privacy policy

Who we are

Steps is made by Orionian, the app studio of Intelliworks Inc. In this policy, “we” means Orionian and Intelliworks Inc., and “the app” means Steps.

What the app collects

Nothing. The app doesn't collect, record or share any personal data or any data about how you use it. In particular, it has:

• no internet permission, so Android doesn't let it connect to anything, us included;
• no account or sign-in;
• no analytics, crash reporting, advertising or advertising IDs;
• no third-party services. Its only libraries are Android's own (AndroidX, including the Health Connect client), Kotlin's, and Google Play Billing, which lets you buy Steps Pro through the Play Store app.

Because the app has no way to send data, we never receive any data from it.

What stays on your phone

The app keeps no step history of its own: your steps are kept by Health Connect, and the app reads them again each time it shows them. It keeps only these, in its private storage, which other apps can't read:

• Settings: your goal, or a goal for each day of the week, with the day each one started, so past days keep the goal they had; whether distance is shown, and your height if you entered it, to estimate distance on the phone; whether the widgets are clear; and whether you've answered the app's offers to add the widget and to update it in the background.
• When Health Connect first let the app read, because Health Connect lets an app read only the 30 days before that unless you allow more.
• The widget's copy of what it shows: today's count and when it was read, your steps by hour today, this week, your streak and which days of this year met your goal, so the widget can draw without asking Health Connect again.
• Whether you have Pro, copied from Google Play so Pro works without a connection.

The widget shows your steps on your home screen, and on your lock screen only if you put it there. The app never places it on the lock screen itself.

To delete everything the app keeps, clear its storage in Android settings or uninstall it. Your steps stay in Health Connect either way; they're managed in Health Connect's settings. A copy of your settings in your Google backup (below) is managed in your Google account's backup settings.

Backups and files

What the app keeps leaves your phone only in these ways, each one yours to choose. We never receive any of it.

• Google backup. If backup is on in your phone's settings, Android saves the app's settings to your Google account only when the backup is end to end encrypted with your screen lock, so only you can open it. Without a screen lock, Steps isn't in the backup at all.
• Phone to phone. When you set up a new Android phone and choose to copy apps and data from this one, the app's settings come along, straight from one phone to the other.
• Neither carries when Health Connect first let the app read, the widget's copy, or whether you have Pro: on a new phone the app reads your steps from Health Connect again, and Google Play says whether you have Pro. Your steps themselves move with Health Connect, not with Steps.
• A spreadsheet file (CSV) of every day's steps and goal, made only when you tap Export and handed to Android's share sheet, where you choose who or what gets it. It isn't sealed: anyone with the file can read it. The app keeps it in its cache until the next export replaces it.

Permissions

The app asks for these, each for one job:

• Health Connect: three permissions, each listed with its purpose below. None is asked for until you tap Connect, and the one for reading in the background only after you've added a Steps widget.
• Google Play billing (com.android.vending.BILLING), to buy Steps Pro. It lets the app ask the Play Store app on your phone what you own and open its purchase screen. Android never asks you about it.

That's the whole list, and none of these lets the app reach the internet. The app's build fails if any other permission ever appears in it.

Health Connect

Health Connect is the part of Android where apps on your phone can share health data, if you allow it. On Android 14 and later it can also count your phone's own steps. The app asks for nothing until you tap Connect, and you allow or refuse each permission on Health Connect's own screen.

This is the app's screen “How Steps uses Health Connect”, which Health Connect opens from its privacy policy link, word for word:

How Steps uses Health Connect

Steps reads your steps from Health Connect to show today's count, your steps by hour and your history. It reads the one total Health Connect keeps, so steps from your phone and your watch aren't counted twice.

If you allow it, Steps also reads steps from before the 30 days Health Connect allows by default, for your week, month and year.

If you allow it, Steps also reads your steps while it's closed, about every 15 minutes, so its widget stays current.

Steps only reads: it never writes or changes anything in Health Connect. It has no internet access, so nothing it reads leaves this phone through Steps. It never shares or sells health data and never uses it for ads. You can take back any permission at any time in Health Connect's settings.

Each permission, and what the app does with it:

• Steps, read only (READ_STEPS): the total number of steps Health Connect keeps, from your phone's own counting or the apps you allow there, such as your watch's. The app reads Health Connect's own total, never adding up what each app saved.
• Read health data history (READ_HEALTH_DATA_HISTORY), read only: Health Connect gives apps the last 30 days unless this is allowed, and the history shows weeks, months and years. Asked for together with steps, and again from History or Settings if you refused, where Health Connect offers it.
• Read health data in the background (READ_HEALTH_DATA_IN_BACKGROUND): today's steps, about every 15 minutes while the app is closed, so the widget stays current. Asked for only after you've added a widget, and used only while one is on your screen. Without it, the widget updates when you open the app or tap the widget, and shows the time of its last update once its count is 20 minutes old.

Reading. The app reads when you open it or tap the widget and, if you allow it, in the background. Everything it reads stays on your phone.

Writing. Never. The app asks for no permission to write, so it can't add, change or delete anything in Health Connect.

Third parties

The app shares nothing with anyone, because it has nothing to share and no way to send it. It contains no third-party services.

If you buy Steps Pro, Google Play handles the purchase, the payment and any refund, under Google's own privacy policy. Google gives us a record of each order, such as its date, price and the buyer's region, so we can keep our accounts and help with refunds. We never see your payment details.

Three links in the app open your browser: this policy (from Settings and from the Health Connect screen above), and the study behind the 7,000-step goal it starts with. Your browser fetches them, not the app, which passes nothing to it but the address.

You get the app through Google Play, which handles your Play account and downloads under Google's own privacy policy. Google Play gives us aggregated statistics, such as install counts by country, that don't identify you. If you've allowed your phone to share usage and diagnostics with Google, Google may also show us anonymous crash and performance reports for the app. The app itself plays no part in either.

Children

Steps is meant for people 13 and over and isn't made for children. It collects no data from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If the app ever changes what it does with data, we'll update this page and its effective date before that version is released. A new permission would be listed here, with its reason.

Contact

Questions about this policy or the app: hello@orionian.com

Intelliworks Inc. (Orionian), Canada.