Your journal is yours.

Steps is published by Tamarin. Contact: tamarin.dev@proton.me.

Local journal data

Your goals, answers, actions and reflections are stored locally on your iPhone using Apple's SwiftData. Steps has no account and no ads inside the app, and it keeps no copy of your journal on a server. Your words leave your iPhone only when you use an AI feature, as described below.

Measuring our ads

Steps includes Meta's SDK (FacebookCore) so we can tell whether our ads on Facebook and Instagram lead people to install the app. When Steps is installed and opened, the SDK sends Meta app events about the install and the launch, with technical details such as the device model, the iOS version, the app version, the language and the time zone, and an identifier the SDK creates for this installation. The first time you answer every goal of an evening, the SDK sends Meta one more event saying that it happened, once and without any of your words, so that our ads can reach people who keep a journal. When you start a free trial or a subscription, the SDK also sends Meta an event about it, with the plan, its price and currency, so that our ads can reach people who find Steps worth paying for. Meta measures the results of our ads through Apple's SKAdNetwork. Steps never asks for permission to track you and does not share your device's advertising identifier, and your goals, answers, actions and reflections are never sent to Meta. Meta handles this data under its own privacy policy.

Usage data

Steps uses TelemetryDeck to learn which parts of the app people use. The app sends short signals, such as the journal being opened, an evening being fully answered, a tab or a Journey period being viewed, the reminder or a widget being on, the paywall being shown, or a free trial or subscription starting, with counts like the number of goals or a range for how many evenings in a row you've answered. Each signal also carries technical details such as the device model, the iOS version, the app version, the language and region, the day the app was first opened and general session statistics, and a code that the TelemetryDeck SDK derives on your iPhone, with a one-way hash, from the identifier iOS gives the app, so that an installation is counted once without anyone knowing who you are. Your goals, answers, actions, reflections and anything else you write are never sent. You can turn this off at any time in Settings with Share anonymous usage data, and nothing more is sent from then on. TelemetryDeck handles this data under its own privacy policy.

Our download page

Our ads link to a download page at stepsjournal.github.io, which counts its visits and the taps on its download buttons with Umami, an analytics service that does not use cookies. It records the page address, including the label of the ad that brought you there, which button you tapped, whether the page stayed open for at least ten seconds, the site you came from and general details such as your browser, device type, language and country. It does not identify you, and nothing from the app or your journal is involved. Umami handles this data under its own privacy policy.

Reminders

With your permission, iOS schedules a local daily notification. It does not contain your journal text. You can change its time or disable it in the app or iOS Settings.

Backups and exports

Your device backup may include app data according to your Apple backup settings. An export is created only when you choose to export and save or share it. You control its destination and any subsequent copies.

Migration

When upgrading from numeric ratings, the original journal document is kept locally as a recovery copy. Actions remain available, and old ratings are not treated as Yes or Not today. The recovery copy is removed with Delete all journal data.

Retention and deletion

Data remains in the app until you delete it. In Settings, choose Delete all journal data to remove the app's goals, answers, actions and reflections and cancel its reminder. Exported copies and existing device backups must be managed separately. Steps creates no account and no identity on its server, so there is nothing to delete there; its daily counters expire on their own after 31 days. Deleting your journal does not cancel a subscription, which you manage in your Apple Account settings.

AI features

Steps Premium includes a weekly review, a word on tonight and Dig deeper, written by Anthropic's Claude, an AI service. They run only when you ask for them, and Steps asks for your permission before the first one. When you ask, Steps sends what that feature needs through Steps' server to Claude: the goals, answers and sentences of that week, that evening or that entry, and your daily reflections only if you allow them in Settings. Steps' server, hosted by Supabase, keeps no journal text and no identity. Anthropic deletes what it receives within 30 days and does not use it to train its models; content flagged by its safety systems can be kept longer. Anthropic handles this data under its own privacy policy. You can turn the AI features off in Settings, and nothing is sent after that.

Premium and purchases

Subscriptions are sold and managed by Apple, and we never see your name, your payment details or your Apple Account. To confirm a subscription before an AI feature runs, the app sends Steps' server the proof of purchase that Apple signs, and the server checks it with Apple. The one free weekly review uses Apple's DeviceCheck, which lets the server ask Apple whether this iPhone has already had it, without identifying you. To keep each subscription within a daily number of AI requests, the server keeps counters keyed by a one-way code made from the purchase or the device, never the code itself, and they expire after 31 days. When a free trial or a subscription starts, and usage data is on, TelemetryDeck receives the plan, its price and currency, and the App Store country.

Contact and updates

For any privacy question or request, write to tamarin.dev@proton.me. Material changes will be reflected in the app and on this page.