GlobeSteps Privacy Policy

GlobeSteps · published by WellFrameLabs · Effective 19 August 2026

GlobeSteps turns your real walking into progress along real walking routes around the world. This policy explains exactly what the app reads, what leaves your phone, and what you can do about it. It covers the GlobeSteps Android app only.

The short version

GlobeSteps reads your step count from Health Connect. Nothing else.
Everything works with no account and no internet. If you never sign in, no personal data leaves your phone.
Signing in is optional. It exists only to back up your progress so a new phone can restore it.
We show no advertising, run no usage tracking, and never sell or share your data.
We collect crash reports, so that a crash we never hear about doesn't go unfixed.
You can delete everything at any time.

Health Connect and your step data

GlobeSteps requests a single Android permission, android.permission.health.READ_STEPS, and uses it to read step records from Health Connect. This is the only permission the app declares.

What we read

Step counts only. GlobeSteps requests no other Health Connect data type — no heart rate, sleep, weight, distance, location or exercise sessions.

How we use it

Route progress. We read the steps recorded between your last sync and now, and move your marker that far along the route you are walking. When your steps cover the route's distance, you earn a passport stamp.
Today's total. We show your step count for the current day.
Your week. We show a seven-bar chart of your daily step totals for the last seven days.

What we never do with it

We never write to Health Connect. Access is read-only.
We never read your health data in the background. Reads happen while you are using the app.
We never upload your individual Health Connect records to any server.
We never use health data for advertising, marketing, profiling, or any purpose other than showing you your own progress.
We never sell health data, and never transfer it to any third party for their own purposes.

You can revoke our access to Health Connect at any time, without uninstalling GlobeSteps, from the Health Connect app on your phone. Your step history belongs to Health Connect, not to us — deleting your GlobeSteps account does not change it.

What we collect

Android and Google Play use the word “collect” to mean data that leaves your device. By that definition, GlobeSteps collects nothing at all unless you choose to sign in, with the single exception of purchase data described below.

If you do not sign in

Your steps, route progress, completed routes and passport stamps are stored only on your phone, in the app's private storage. They are not transmitted anywhere. Uninstalling the app deletes them.

If you sign in with Google (optional)

Data	Why
Your name, email address and profile photo link	To identify your account and print your name on passport stamps
An account identifier	To attach your backup to your account and to nobody else's
Your passport backup: which routes you completed and when, your step progress on each route, your lifetime step total, your daily streak, and the date you first opened the app	So your progress survives a lost, replaced or reset phone

This backup is stored in Google Cloud Firestore in a document readable and writable only by your own signed-in account. No other user can read it.

If you buy a route collection

Data	Why
A record of what you purchased	To unlock what you paid for, and to restore it if you reinstall
A device or installation identifier	To attach your purchase to your installation of the app

Payment is handled entirely by Google Play. GlobeSteps never sees, receives or stores your card number, bank details, or billing address. Purchases are validated by our billing provider, RevenueCat, which is contacted when the app starts so it can tell the app what you already own.

Crash reports

GlobeSteps uses Firebase Crashlytics. Unlike everything above, crash reports are sent whether or not you sign in.

Data	Why
The error and its stack trace, your device model, operating system version and app version, and what the app was doing when it failed	So we can find and fix crashes. A crash that is never reported is never fixed
A randomly generated installation identifier	To tell one crash happening to fifty people from fifty crashes happening to one

Your step counts, route progress, passport and account details are never included in a crash report. Crash data is used only to fix the app, never for advertising, and never to identify you personally. Debug builds we run in development report nothing at all.

What we do not collect

Location. GlobeSteps holds no location permission of any kind. The routes on the map are fixed real-world paths from our own catalogue — they are not where you are.
Usage or behavioural analytics. The app contains no analytics SDK. We do not track which screens you open, which routes you look at, or how long you spend in the app.
Advertising identifiers. There is no advertising in GlobeSteps.
Contacts, calendar, photos, files, messages, microphone or camera.

Service providers

These companies process data on our behalf, under their own privacy policies. We do not sell or share your data with anyone for their own purposes.

Provider	What it handles
Google (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Google Play)	Optional sign-in, your passport backup, and payment processing
Firebase Crashlytics (Google)	Crash reports, as described above
RevenueCat	Validating purchases and telling the app which collections you own
Mapbox	Drawing maps and fetching the shape of each walking route. Mapbox receives the requests needed to serve maps, together with technical information such as your device type and IP address, as any web request involves. We do not send your step data, your identity or your location to Mapbox.

Security and retention

All data sent by GlobeSteps is encrypted in transit using HTTPS.
On-device data sits in the app's private storage, which other apps cannot read.
Your passport backup is retained until you delete it, or until you delete your account. We keep no separate copy or archive.
Records of purchases are retained by Google Play and RevenueCat as required by tax and accounting law, and so that Restore purchases keeps working.

Your choices

Do not sign in. The whole app works without an account.
Revoke Health Connect access at any time from the Health Connect app.
Sign out from the Profile screen. Your progress stays on the device.
Delete everything — see Delete your account and data for the exact steps and for what is deleted or kept.
Access a copy of the data held for your account, or ask us to correct it, by emailing us.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights over your personal data, including access, correction, deletion, and objection to processing. Email us and we will action any such request within 30 days.

Children

GlobeSteps is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age where you live). If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, email us and we will delete it.

International transfers

Our service providers may process and store data on servers outside your country, including in the United States. Where required, these transfers rely on the safeguards offered by those providers, such as standard contractual clauses.

Changes to this policy

If we change what the app collects or how it is used, we will update this page and change the effective date at the top. Material changes will be announced in the app.