Privacy Policy

Overview

Walkimals is a social step tracker for iPhone. You choose a mascot, earn walking rewards, and can optionally 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 in version 1.1. 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.

Step sharing is optional and is off until you enable it. When enabled, Walkimals uploads a derived daily step total together with the applicable day, 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, coins, and progress 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.

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, whose component is bundled but whose push auto-initialization and notification permission are not enabled in version 1.1
• Google Cloud Vision for profile-photo safety moderation
• The Walkimals API for account, profile, friend, leaderboard, moderation, and opted-in step-sharing data

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

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 stores local game state and preferences on your iPhone, including mascot choice, daily goal, coin balance, reward progress, and step-sharing consent. Deleting your Walkimals account removes server-side account data but does not automatically erase unrelated local game state. Deleting the app removes its 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. Walkimals does not collect payment or financial information in version 1.1.

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, 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.

Your Choices

• Change or revoke Apple Health access in iOS Settings
• Turn derived step sharing on or off inside Walkimals Settings
• 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

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 jogicodes@gmail.com or use the support page.