PepStep Privacy Policy

Effective November 2, 2026

The short version

Apple Health and motion

PepStep asks Apple Health for permission to read your step count. It reads your steps from the moment you tap Start Counting, never anything earlier, and saves one total for each day on your device. Between Health updates, the iPhone's motion sensor keeps the count moving with each step; iOS asks you about Motion & Fitness for that.

When you set up your profile you can also fill in your age or birthday, sex, height and weight from Health, or type them in. All of them are optional, and they stay in your profile on your device.

PepStep never writes anything to Health, and Health data is never used for advertising or shared with anyone. You can change what PepStep may read in the Health app: tap your picture, then Apps under Privacy.

What PepStep stores

Everything PepStep keeps stays on your device, in the app's own storage:

• your profile: your name, username, character, picture, theme and any health details you entered
• your profile photo, if you picked one
• your daily step totals, your score, coins, items and the mischief in your bag
• your settings

Widgets, the Lock Screen and Siri read today's numbers from a shared space on your device, not from anywhere online. If you back up your device, these files can be part of that backup, which Apple holds under its own privacy policy.

Friends and usernames

Friends is off until you turn it on. When it's on, PepStep uses Apple's iCloud (CloudKit) and Game Center. There are no servers of mine.

• Your username is saved in iCloud with a public key, so friends can find you. No name, email address or other detail is attached to it.
• Friends you add by username get a card with your steps today, your score, how fast you're walking and your character. Each card is sealed with encryption so only that friend can open it, and they only see it once they've added you back.
• Invites you send hold your username and character, and the friend's answer comes back sealed the same way.
• Game Center friends see your steps today and your character as your score on a PepStep leaderboard, shown through Game Center. Game Center is Apple's service, under Apple's privacy policy.

No messages, photos or anything else pass between players. Removing a friend deletes what you shared with them. Turning off Share my steps and look, or Friends, deletes everything you shared; your username stays yours. To have your username released, email me.

Mischief

When you use a prank on a friend, PepStep sends them a sealed note saying which prank, from whom and when, so their app can play it and take the points off. Their friends are told the same way. PepStep asks iCloud to send a notification when one arrives for you; the notification doesn't say who it's from, and your app fills that in on your iPhone.

Location and weather

With Your weather in the world or the Weather score bonus on, PepStep asks for your approximate location while the app is open, rounds it to about 5 km and asks Apple's WeatherKit for the weather there. The location is kept in memory only and never saved or shared. Turn both off in the weather settings (the score card in Home's drawer), or turn off Location for PepStep in the iOS Settings app.

Notifications

Walk reminders, the mystery box, milestones and town arrivals are notifications created on your device. Mischief notifications come through iCloud as described above. You can turn each one off in Profile › Reminders & Notifications, or all of them in the iOS Settings app.

Purchases

Coin bundles are sold through the App Store, and Apple takes care of payment. I never see your card details or your Apple Account. Your coins are recorded on your device. Apple's sales reports don't tell me who bought them.

What I don't collect

Nothing you put into PepStep is stored anywhere I can see, and I don't sell or pass on anything. The app has no ads, analytics, tracking or third-party SDKs, and it doesn't connect to any server of mine.

Like every developer, I get anonymous numbers from Apple, such as download counts, plus crash reports from people who have chosen to share them with app developers in their device's settings.

If you email me, I get your email address and whatever you write, which I use only to reply.

Deleting your data

In Profile › Friends, tap the button beside a friend and choose Remove to delete what you shared with them, or turn off Walk with friends to delete everything you've shared through iCloud. Deleting the app removes everything PepStep has stored on your device. Your steps stay in Apple Health, where they came from.

Children

PepStep isn't directed at children under 13. It only asks for an age or birthday as an optional health detail, which stays on your device.

Changes to this policy

If I change this policy, I'll post the new version on this page and update the date at the top.

Contact

Questions about privacy: contact@barnhillsoftware.com. For help with the app, see PepStep Support.

PepStep is made by Ryan Barnhill · Barnhill Software