1. Introduction
Adam Golczak (“we,” “our,” or “us”) operates the StepQuest mobile application (the “App”). This Privacy Policy explains our practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of information through the App.
StepQuest is built to work without an account and without a server of ours. There is no sign up, no login, and no profile. Your steps, your character, and your progress live on your device. A small number of third party services are involved (advertising, crash reporting, and app store payments), and this policy explains exactly what each of them receives.
We are the data controller for the limited processing described below. You can reach us at adam@pxlborn.com.
2. Information We Collect
We do not operate any servers, and we do not collect, receive, or store any personal information about you ourselves.
We never ask for and never receive:
Personal Information
- Name, email address, phone number, or postal address
- User account credentials or login information
- Payment card numbers, billing addresses, or Apple ID / Google Account details
Health Information
- Your step data never leaves your device. See Section 4.
Usage Data
- No analytics SDK is present in the App
- We do not build user profiles, track behaviour, or measure sessions
The only information that leaves your device goes directly to the third parties listed in Section 10, for advertising, crash diagnostics, and purchases. We do not receive that information in a form that identifies you.
3. What Is Stored on Your Device
Everything the App needs is stored locally, in an app private database (SQLite) and in local key value storage:
- Daily step totals read from Apple Health or Health Connect
- Your chosen daily step goal and adventure settings
- Character state: level, XP, hearts, potions, and current run
- Gold balance, owned avatars, quests, and achievements
- A record of any in app purchases (transaction id, product id, date)
- Your notification and app preferences
The Apple Watch app and the Home Screen widgets read this same on device data through a shared app group. Nothing in this list is uploaded to us.
4. Health and Step Data
Health data gets its own section because it is the most sensitive thing the App touches.
- The App requests read only access to your step count. It requests no other health data type.
- The App never writes anything to Apple Health or Health Connect.
- Step data is stored on your device only. It is never transmitted to us, never transmitted to any third party, and never included in crash reports.
- Health data and anything derived from it is never used for advertising, marketing, or data mining, and is never passed to the advertising SDK. This is both our policy and a requirement of Apple’s HealthKit rules.
- Access is granted by you, through the system permission prompt, and can be revoked at any time in iOS Settings (Health, Data Access & Devices) or in Android’s Health Connect settings. If you revoke it, the App keeps working with the step history it has already recorded but stops receiving new steps.
- The App uses background delivery so your step total stays current without you opening the App. This runs entirely on device.
5. Advertising
StepQuest is free and shows banner ads through Google AdMob. Ads are removed permanently for anyone who buys one of the optional support tiers.
- The App requests non personalized ads only. It does not build an advertising profile of you and does not use your data to target ads.
- The App does not track you across other apps or websites. It shows no App Tracking Transparency prompt because it has nothing to ask for, and it declares no tracking in its App Store privacy manifest.
- Even for non personalized ads, Google receives technical information required to serve and measure an ad: IP address, device type and operating system version, the app and ad slot requesting the ad, coarse location inferred from the IP address, and identifiers used for frequency capping and fraud prevention. That processing is governed by Google’s Privacy Policy and Google’s advertising terms.
- On iOS, Apple’s SKAdNetwork may be used for install attribution. It is designed by Apple to report conversions in aggregate, without a user level identifier.
- No health data, no step counts, and nothing derived from them is ever sent to the ad SDK.
6. In App Purchases
The App offers optional consumable support tiers that grant in game gold and remove ads. Gold buys cosmetic avatars only and never affects hearts, step goals, or progress.
- All payments are processed by Apple (StoreKit) or Google Play Billing. We never see or store your payment details.
- We receive no purchaser identity from Apple or Google. What the App keeps locally is the store transaction id, the product id, and the purchase date.
- Because consumable purchases are not restorable through the store, a copy of that purchase record is written to your own iCloud key value store so your gold and your ad free status survive a reinstall or a new device. That record sits in your personal iCloud account, under Apple’s control, and we have no access to it. It contains no personal information beyond the transaction and product ids. You can prevent this by turning off iCloud for StepQuest in iOS Settings.
- The App may occasionally ask you to rate it using Apple’s standard system prompt. That prompt is handled entirely by the App Store and sends us nothing.
7. Crash and Error Reporting
The App uses Sentry to report crashes and errors, so failures can be diagnosed and fixed. Reports are sent to Sentry’s European (Germany) data region.
A crash report contains the error type and stack trace, the app version and build, the device model, the operating system version, and a random installation identifier generated by the Sentry SDK.
A crash report does not contain your health or step data, your name, your email address, your IP address as a stored identifier, or any account information. The SDK is explicitly configured with personally identifying data collection turned off, and crash reporting is disabled entirely in development builds.
Sentry’s processing is governed by Sentry’s Privacy Policy.
8. Notifications
The App can send reminders about your daily goal and confirmations when you reach it.
These are local notifications only, scheduled on your device by the App itself. There is no push server, no push token is generated or transmitted, and no notification content ever leaves your device. Notifications are optional and can be turned off at any time in your system settings.
9. Permissions
The App may request the following permissions:
- Health / Step count (read only): required for the core gameplay loop. Without it the App cannot track your goal.
- Notifications: optional, for goal reminders.
- Network access: used to load ads, submit crash reports, and complete purchases.
- Background refresh: used to update your step total while the App is closed.
10. Third Party Services
The App integrates the following third party services, and no others:
| Service | Purpose | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Google AdMob | Banner ads | Device and network data for non personalized ad delivery |
| Sentry (EU region) | Crash reporting | Crash diagnostics, app and device version, install id |
| Apple StoreKit / Google Play | In app purchases | Payment processing, handled entirely by the platform |
| Apple iCloud (key value) | Purchase record backup | Transaction and product ids, in your own iCloud account |
The App contains no analytics service, no advertising network other than AdMob, no social media integration, and no third party cloud storage of your data.
11. Data Security
Your game data, step history, and settings are stored in the App’s private storage, protected by your device’s sandboxing and encryption. Because there is no account and no server holding your data, there is no central database of users to breach.
All network connections made by the App use encrypted transport (HTTPS / TLS).
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but the surface here is small by design: the less data that leaves your device, the less there is to protect.
12. Children’s Privacy
The App is not directed to children under the age of 13 (or the applicable age of digital consent in your jurisdiction), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. The App shows advertising, which is why it is not classified as a child directed app.
Because the App requests non personalized ads only and performs no cross app tracking, no advertising profile is built for any user, regardless of age. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided information through the App, contact us at adam@pxlborn.com.
13. International Data Transfers
We hold no data of yours, so we make no transfers of our own. The third parties above operate internationally:
- Sentry receives crash reports in its European (Germany) region.
- Google and Apple may process the data described above outside your country, including in the United States, under the safeguards set out in their own privacy policies (such as Standard Contractual Clauses where required).
14. Your Privacy Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights under laws such as the GDPR (EU and UK), the CCPA/CPRA (California), and other applicable privacy laws, including the rights of access, correction, deletion, portability, and objection.
Since we hold no personal data about you, there is nothing for us to look up, export, or delete on request. In practice, you control everything directly:
- Delete all your data: uninstall the App. All local game and step data is removed with it. Your Apple Health data is unaffected, since it belongs to the Health app, not to us.
- Delete the iCloud purchase records: turn off iCloud for StepQuest, or remove the App’s iCloud data from iOS Settings.
- Stop health access: revoke step permission in iOS Health settings or Health Connect.
- Stop seeing ads: purchase any support tier, which disables ads permanently on that device.
- Exercise rights against a third party: requests concerning ad delivery or crash diagnostics can be directed to Google or Sentry through their own privacy channels linked above.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross context behavioural advertising, as those terms are defined under California law. Because only non personalized ads are requested, no such sharing takes place.
Where the GDPR applies, our legal bases are: your consent for health data access and notifications, performance of a contract for processing purchases, and legitimate interests for non personalized advertising (funding a free app) and crash reporting (keeping the App working).
15. Data Retention
We retain nothing, because we receive nothing.
- On device data is kept until you delete it or uninstall the App.
- iCloud purchase records remain in your iCloud account until you remove them.
- Crash reports are retained by Sentry according to its standard retention period, after which they are deleted automatically.
- Ad request data is retained by Google according to its own policies.
16. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in the App or for operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. When we do, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy. Material changes will be reflected in the App’s store listing.
Your continued use of the App after any changes constitutes your acceptance of them.
17. Compliance with Laws
We aim to comply with applicable privacy and data protection laws, including:
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA)
- Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
- Apple’s HealthKit and App Store privacy requirements
- Other applicable local and international privacy regulations
18. Your Consent
By downloading, installing, and using StepQuest, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and agree to its terms.
19. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us:
Email: adam@pxlborn.com
We will respond to your inquiry within a reasonable timeframe.
20. Governing Law
This Privacy Policy is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Poland, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.
Summary
In plain language: StepQuest turns your daily step count into a game. It reads your step count from Apple Health, read only, and keeps it on your phone. There are no accounts, no logins, and no servers of ours, so we never see your steps, your character, or anything about you. The app is free and shows banner ads, which are non personalized, and buying any support tier removes them for good. Crashes are reported to Sentry so they can be fixed, with no health data attached. Purchases go through Apple or Google, who never tell us who you are. Uninstall the app and everything goes with it.
If you have questions, we’re here to help at adam@pxlborn.com.