Privacy Policy

StepHaven is a city-building game for iPhone: the steps you walk become points you spend on a town. This policy explains what information the app uses, where it goes, and the choices you have.

Steps and Apple Health

If you allow it, StepHaven reads your step count from Apple Health to work out how many points you've earned. If you use a wheelchair and turn on Count Wheelchair Pushes, it also reads the wheelchair pushes your Apple Watch records, which earn points the same way. When you light an Ember before a workout, it also reads the active calories (Active Energy) and exercise minutes your Apple Watch records during that Ember only, so workouts like cycling or swimming can earn points too. It reads nothing outside the Embers you start. It only reads steps and, if you use them, pushes and Ember workout data; it never writes to Health and reads nothing else there.

• Your step, push and workout data is used on your phone to calculate points and boosters. Whether you count pushes is a setting kept on your phone, and the Embers you light (when and for how long) are kept on your phone for the app, its widgets and its Live Activity; neither is backed up or sent anywhere. It is never sent to us, to analytics, or to anyone else, and it is never used for advertising.
• You can turn this off at any time in the Settings app, under Health → Data Access & Devices → StepHaven. The game still works without it; you just won't earn points from walking, pushing or workouts.
• StepHaven's widgets show your points and today's steps on your Home Screen and Lock Screen. That information is shared only between the app and its widgets on your phone.

Your havens and progress

What you build, your inventory, levels and similar game progress are saved on your phone. If you're signed in to iCloud, StepHaven also backs them up to your own private iCloud storage through Apple's CloudKit, so you can restore them on a new phone. StepHaven's developer cannot see the contents of your private iCloud data.

The backup holds your game progress, such as your havens, items, points spent and your experience total, but never your step, push or calorie counts. After a restore, any figures that depend on your walking are worked out again from Apple Health on your phone.

To get a backup back on a new phone, sign in to the same iCloud account and StepHaven will offer to restore it.

Shared havens

If you start or join a shared haven, its contents are stored in iCloud and shared with everyone who joins it:

• Everyone in a shared haven can see and change what's built there. Each item records which player placed it, so that an item someone else removes can be returned to the player who placed it. Players are identified by a random number created when the app is installed, never by email or Apple Account.
• You can choose a name and a colour to show your friends in shared havens (in the app's Settings). It's optional and can be anything you like; you don't need to use your real name. When you choose one, it is stored with each shared haven you're in, where everyone in that haven can see it, for example on things you build. It is also kept with your iCloud backup so it comes back on a new phone. It is never included in analytics.
• Joining uses a six-character code. The code is stored in Apple's public CloudKit database alongside the haven's name and the link needed to join. Someone with the code can ask to join, and the person who started the haven decides whether to let them in. A request to join is kept in the public CloudKit database for up to seven days and holds the name and colour you chose (if any) and an anonymous iCloud identifier that Apple gives StepHaven, so the haven's creator can add you. Only share the code with people you trust.
• The person who started a shared haven can remove a player. For this, each player's entry in the haven's list includes the same anonymous iCloud identifier. It is not your Apple Account, email or name.
• Each shared haven keeps a list of who is in it, by the same random number, with the dates each player joined and left, the name and colour each player chose (if any), and the haven's progress level when each player joined. It is used to show who is in a haven, how many players it has, and when everyone has left, and so that joining a haven someone else has built up doesn't count as your own progress.
• The haven's name, and the time zone of the person who started it (so everyone sees the same time of day), are visible to everyone in the haven.

Nobody can delete a shared haven for everyone, including the person who started it, because friends may still be building there. When you leave one, it is removed from your device at once, and what you built stays in the haven for your friends. Once every player has left, the haven and its join code are deleted from iCloud.

Anonymous analytics

StepHaven uses TelemetryDeck to count how the app is used, for example how many people finish the introduction, open the Workshop, or view the StepHaven+ screen. TelemetryDeck is designed for privacy: it doesn't collect personal data, and the identifier it uses is a one-way hash created on your device, so it can't be linked back to you.

• Analytics never include health data (no step, push or calorie counts, not even rough ranges, and nothing about whether you've connected Apple Health or count pushes) or anything you've typed, such as haven names, building names or join codes. For Embers, analytics count only that one was lit, its chosen length, where it was lit from (such as the app, a widget or Siri) and whether it earned any points, never how many points or any calorie or minute figures.
• The welcome screens may ask where you heard about StepHaven. Answering is optional; if you pick an answer (such as TikTok or a friend), only that choice is counted.
• When you buy something, the analytics count the purchase: which product, whether it was a free trial, the App Store country, the currency and the price. They don't include anything that identifies you or your Apple Account.
• The data is used only to improve the game. It is not used for advertising and is not combined with data from other apps or websites.

Measuring Apple Ads

StepHaven may be advertised with Apple Ads. To tell whether those ads work, the first time you open the app it asks Apple's AdServices framework whether StepHaven was installed from an Apple Ads ad. If it was, Apple returns which campaign, ad group, keyword and ad led to the download, the type of download and the App Store country, and the app counts that once in the anonymous analytics above. If it wasn't, nothing is counted. This uses no advertising identifier (IDFA), doesn't track you across other apps or websites, and the app never asks for tracking permission. iOS may also tell Apple's ad networks (SKAdNetwork) that the app was installed, which is done by Apple without identifying you.

Crash and performance reports

iOS can give apps reports about crashes, freezes and slow launches through Apple's MetricKit. StepHaven keeps the most recent reports on your phone. It sends only the type of problem (for example, "a crash" and its technical cause) through the anonymous analytics above, so problems can be found and fixed. The reports contain technical information about the app, not personal information.

If you've chosen to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone's settings, Apple may also share crash information with the developer. That is handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy.

Purchases

StepHaven+ and item packs (such as the Cottage Garden and Halloween Town packs) are sold through the App Store. Apple handles payment; StepHaven never sees your card or payment details. The app learns which StepHaven+ plan or packs your Apple Account has, so it can unlock what you've paid for, and counts each purchase in the anonymous analytics described above. You manage subscriptions in the Settings app, under your name → Subscriptions.

Photos

Photo mode takes a picture of your haven. Each one is kept in the app's album on your phone; it isn't backed up or sent anywhere. It is only saved to your library or shared when you choose to, through the iOS share sheet. StepHaven can add photos to your library when you ask it to, but it never reads your existing photos.

What StepHaven doesn't do

• No accounts, no sign-up, and no email address or phone number collected.
• No location data and no contacts.
• No ads in the game, no advertising identifiers, and no tracking across other apps or websites.
• No selling, renting or trading of any data.

Deleting your data

• Delete a haven from the Havens screen in the app. It is removed from your phone and from your iCloud backup straight away, and the pieces you'd placed go back to your inventory. A shared haven is removed from iCloud once every player has left (see Shared havens).
• Delete all of StepHaven's iCloud data in the Settings app: your name → iCloud → Storage → StepHaven.
• Deleting the app removes everything stored on your phone.

Children

StepHaven doesn't knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children. Because there are no accounts and no personal information is collected, the game can be played without sharing any.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.

Contact

Questions about privacy in StepHaven? Email richmondbrody274@gmail.com.