Privacy Policy
What stays on your device
Your ratings, streak, daily results, history of played exercises and any problem reports you file are stored only on your device, using the standard iOS app storage. They are not transmitted to us or to anyone else, and they are deleted when you delete the app or use Profile → Reset all progress. We have no servers holding your data, and no accounts.
What we collect
Nothing. We run no analytics, we operate no server that receives your activity, and we never see your ratings, answers or history.
Advertising
Version 1.1 introduced advertising to keep the app free. One ad appears per day, after you finish the daily set. There are no ads inside a puzzle.
The ads come from Google AdMob. To serve and measure them, AdMob collects data from your device, including your device's advertising identifier, coarse information about the ads you were shown and interacted with, and diagnostic data about the ad itself. This data goes to Google, not to us; we only ever see aggregate counts of impressions and earnings, which cannot identify anyone.
On iOS you are asked, once, whether Stepwise may track your activity across other companies' apps and websites. If you decline, ads still work — they are simply generic rather than personalised, and the advertising identifier is not used to track you. Declining costs you nothing in the app.
Google's handling of this data is governed by its own policies: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services and the Google Privacy Policy. You can also review AdMob's data disclosures.
Removing the ads
Profile → Ads offers a one-off in-app purchase that removes advertising permanently on your Apple ID. Once bought, the app makes no ad requests at all: nothing is sent to Google, and no advertising identifier is read. Purchases are handled by Apple; we never see your payment details.
Sharing
When you choose to share a result or a challenge, the iOS share sheet sends the text you see (a short message and a link containing only a puzzle identifier) to the app you pick. Stepwise does not see who you share with.
Children
Stepwise is a training tool for working software engineers and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children under 13. Ad content is restricted to Google's most conservative content rating.
Changes
This policy is updated before a change to the app's data practices ships, and the App Store privacy details are changed to match. The effective dates above record when that last happened.