Privacy Policy

Overview

Walkimals is a social step-sharing game for iPhone. You choose a mascot, earn coins by walking, collect outfits, and compare derived step totals with people you add directly. This policy explains what Walkimals collects, why it is used, where it is processed, and the controls available to you.

Anonymous Accounts And Identifiers

Walkimals creates a Firebase Anonymous Authentication account when the app starts. No email, phone number, or real name is required. The Firebase user ID is also used as the Walkimals backend account identifier so the app can keep your profile, friends, and shared progress associated with the correct account.

Account recovery and device migration are not available for anonymous accounts. If you lose access to the device or delete the app before deleting the account, you may lose access to that anonymous account.

Apple Health Data

With your permission, Walkimals reads step count from Apple Health (HealthKit). It uses those steps on your device to show progress and calculate coin rewards.

During onboarding, Walkimals clearly explains its required social step-sharing contract and asks for your explicit agreement before you can enter the core experience. After you agree, Walkimals uploads derived daily and weekly step totals together with the applicable dates, time-zone identifier, and sync time. Walkimals never uploads raw HealthKit samples. We do not read walking distance or active energy.

Social And Gameplay Data

Walkimals stores information needed to provide its account and friends features, including:

• Your handle, selected mascot, daily goal, coin balance, reward progress, and wallet ledger
• Your owned clothing, equipped outfit, and current Shop catalog state
• Your friend code, invite activity, direct friendships, blocks, and reports
• Your step-sharing preference and opted-in derived step snapshots
• Friend leaderboard totals for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly periods
• Service state such as notification tokens if that functionality is enabled

Your social circle is closed. Walkimals does not provide open discovery, a public feed, free-text chat, or public photo uploads.

Shop And In-App Purchases

Walkimals offers optional consumable coin packs through Apple's In-App Purchase system. Apple processes the payment and does not share your full payment-card details with Walkimals. Walkimals receives the product identifier, transaction identifier, purchase status, and signed transaction information needed to verify the purchase, credit coins, and handle refunds or revocations. Verified purchase and wallet records are associated with your Walkimals account.

Invite Links And App Clip Previews

A personalized invite can show the inviter's handle, mascot, and equipped outfit in a web page or App Clip preview. Invite previews do not expose step totals, private account identifiers, or friendship data. Opening a preview does not add a friend. Joining happens only in the full app after onboarding and explicit agreement to the step-sharing contract.

Android Waitlist

If you join the Android waitlist, Walkimals collects the email address you provide so we can contact you about Android testing and launch availability. The address is stored in encrypted form in the Walkimals backend. It is not used for unrelated marketing, and the one-step signup does not verify that you own the mailbox.

Waitlist records are kept while the Android waitlist has an active product purpose. You can request removal at any time by emailing us from the subscribed address. Remaining records will be removed after Android launch outreach concludes. Deleted live records may remain in restricted disaster-recovery backups for up to 14 days before those backups expire.

Optional Profile Photos

If you choose a profile photo, Walkimals resizes it to a private JPEG and uploads it to the Walkimals service. The photo is sent to Google Cloud Vision SafeSearch for automated moderation and is displayed only in the account and direct-friend experiences that use it. You can replace or remove the photo at any time.

Firebase And Service Providers

Walkimals uses the following services to operate and improve the app:

• Firebase Authentication for anonymous accounts
• Firebase Analytics for product interaction, app session, app-instance/device, and coarse geographic analytics
• Firebase Crashlytics for crash and diagnostic data
• Firebase App Check for app and service-integrity signals
• Firebase Remote Config for remotely managed app configuration
• Firebase Cloud Messaging for service notifications, step synchronization requests, and Live Activity updates
• Google Cloud Vision for profile-photo safety moderation
• The Walkimals API for account, profile, friend, leaderboard, moderation, Shop, verified purchase, invitation, and step-sharing data

These providers process data on our behalf under their own service terms and privacy commitments.

Feedback

If you answer an in-app feedback prompt, Walkimals stores the rating, optional comment, prompt source, and app version with your account so we can improve the product and follow up on reliability issues. Feedback is not used for advertising and is deleted with the account.

Analytics And Diagnostics

Firebase Analytics may collect an app-instance identifier, device/app information, product interactions, sessions, and coarse geography. Walkimals does not set the Firebase Analytics user ID to your social account ID. Crashlytics may collect crash reports and related diagnostic information needed to diagnose failures.

TestFlight builds can upload redacted developer diagnostics to the Walkimals API. This diagnostic path is not enabled for App Store builds. Live TestFlight diagnostic records are automatically removed after 14 days.

Data On Your Device

Walkimals caches game state and preferences on your iPhone, including mascot choice, daily goal, Shop state, outfit selections, reward progress, and step-sharing consent. The Walkimals service is authoritative for account-linked social, wallet, inventory, and purchase state. Deleting your account removes server-side account data. Deleting the app removes local data from the device.

Advertising, Sale, And Tracking

Walkimals does not show third-party advertising, sell personal information, or use collected data to track you across other companies' apps or websites. Apple processes payments for optional coin packs; Walkimals does not receive your full payment-card details.

Retention And Account Deletion

Account, profile, social, and opted-in step data is kept while the account is active or as needed to provide the service. You can permanently delete the account inside Walkimals Settings. Deletion removes the Firebase Authentication identity and Walkimals backend user record, profile photo, shared step snapshots, friendships, blocks, reports, notification tokens, wallet ledger, inventory, equipped outfit, verified purchase state, feedback, invite state, diagnostics tied to the account, and associated account identifiers.

Deleted database records may remain in restricted disaster-recovery backups for up to 14 days before those backups automatically expire. Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics records follow the retention settings configured for those Firebase services and may be retained in aggregated or de-identified form.

Apple keeps App Store transaction records under Apple's own policies. Those records are controlled by Apple and are not deleted through Walkimals account deletion.

Your Choices

• Change or revoke Apple Health access in iOS Settings
• Withdraw from the step-sharing contract by revoking Health access and deleting your account
• Replace or remove an optional profile photo
• Remove a friend, block another user, or submit a report
• Delete your complete Walkimals account inside the app
• Ask us to remove your Android waitlist email address

See the Privacy Choices page for step-by-step instructions.

Children's Privacy

Walkimals is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided information, contact us so we can investigate and delete it.

Changes To This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as Walkimals changes. We will update the revision date at the top of this page when we do.

Contact

For privacy, safety, moderation, or account questions, email support\@walkimals.com or use the support page.