Your steps stay on your devices.

Who we are

Trailstep is published by Thomas Cole, trading as TheBigEDev, in the United Kingdom. Contact: contact@thebigedev.co.uk.

For UK data-protection law, Thomas Cole is the controller of any personal data he actually receives. In ordinary use of the app, that is limited to emails you choose to send. The app does not send your Health data, journeys, or awards to TheBigEDev.

The short version

• There is no Trailstep account and no sign-in.
• Step counts are read from Apple Health on your iPhone, and from Apple Health on your Apple Watch when you use the watch app. They are not written back to Health.
• Journeys, settings, and awards are stored on your iPhone. Widgets and the watch read a small progress snapshot shared between your own Apple devices.
• We do not use advertising or analytics SDKs, and we do not track you across apps or websites.
• The App Store, Apple Maps, and Apple Health are Apple’s services. We do not receive your payment card details.

Information that stays on your devices

The app stores, on your iPhone, the trail you chose, when the journey started and any pauses, awards you have earned, your step goal, an optional height used only to estimate stride, and whether you turned on the labelled sample-data view. Progress along a trail is calculated from Health when the app runs. It is not kept as a separate step ledger on a server, because there is no server for that.

A small snapshot (trail name, distance, today’s steps, the next milestone, and a simplified drawing of the route) is saved in an app group on your device so the widgets and Live Activity can show it. If you use the Apple Watch app, that snapshot is sent to your own watch with Apple’s WatchConnectivity. It is not sent to TheBigEDev.

You can remove this information by deleting the journey in the app or by deleting the app. Steps already in Apple Health are controlled in the Health app, not by us.

Apple Health

If you allow it, the app reads two kinds of Health data: step count, and walking and running distance. The permission is read-only. The app does not ask for permission to write Health data, and it does not read other Health categories such as heart rate, workouts, or medical records.

Those readings are used to move you along the selected trail, to draw the steps chart, to count a streak against the goal you set, and to award badges. Watch-recorded steps are included when Apple Health on the iPhone has them. The watch app can also read today’s step count from Health on the watch when the iPhone is out of range, so the ring on your wrist can update.

Health data is special-category data under UK GDPR. It is processed on your device to provide the app you asked for. We do not receive a copy. You can turn the permission off in Settings › Health › Data Access & Devices › Trailstep. The app then shows an explanation and empty figures. It does not fill the gap with made-up steps.

A “sample data” switch in Settings shows an example journey, clearly labelled “Sample data”. That example is not written into Apple Health and is not saved as your real journey.

Motion

While a walk session is open on the iPhone screen, the app may read live step counts from the motion processor so the Live Activity can move before Apple Health has caught up. That live figure is only used for the current day, and only as a temporary boost. It is not a background location trace. The app does not ask for location permission and does not use GPS to follow you.

Maps, search, and walking directions

The trail lines shipped with the app are stored on your iPhone. They come from OpenStreetMap and are © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence. Showing a map uses Apple Maps. Apple receives the usual map-tile requests from your device, under Apple’s privacy policy.

If you create a custom journey, the place names you type are searched with Apple’s search, and the walking route is requested from Apple Maps directions. Those requests leave your iPhone and go to Apple, not to TheBigEDev. If Apple cannot return a walking route, the app does not invent a straight line.

Look Around, where you choose it on a milestone, is also Apple’s feature. It is only requested for that place, and only if Apple has imagery there.

Subscriptions

Some trails and extra custom journeys are part of an optional auto-renewing subscription sold through the App Store (a monthly plan and a yearly plan, the yearly plan including a free trial when Apple offers one). Apple processes the payment. We do not see your card number, billing address, or Apple ID password. The app can see, on your device, whether the subscription is active so it can unlock those trails. Restoring purchases asks Apple, via StoreKit, to confirm purchases already tied to your Apple ID.

The free app includes the West Highland Way, Hadrian’s Wall Path, and the Inca Trail, plus one custom journey. Widgets, the Live Activity, and the watch app work with the journey you have. They are not a separate data product.

What we do not do

• No account, profile, or cloud backup of your journeys operated by us.
• No advertising, no analytics SDK, and no tracking across other companies’ apps or websites.
• No sale or rental of your information.
• No location permission and no background location.
• No writing to Apple Health.

The privacy nutrition label in App Store Connect is meant to match this: Data Not Collected. The app does not collect data from you, and nothing is used for tracking. The app’s privacy manifest declares no tracking and records the required-reason API for on-device preferences (UserDefaults, reason CA92.1).

Children

Trailstep is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Because the app has no account, we also have no database of users to search. If you believe a child has emailed us, contact contact@thebigedev.co.uk and we will delete that correspondence.

Your rights

UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 give you rights of access, correction, deletion, restriction, and objection, and the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

We do not hold your Health data or journeys, so we cannot look them up or delete them for you. You control them on the iPhone, the watch, and in Apple Health. If you email us, you can ask us for a copy of that correspondence or ask us to delete it. We will respond within one month.

How long email is kept

Emails you send to contact@thebigedev.co.uk are kept for as long as needed to answer you and for a short period afterwards in case you follow up, unless the law requires longer. They are not added to an advertising list.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that affects what the app does with information, the date at the top will change and the new text will be published at this address. The copy in the App Store listing will be updated to match.

This page describes the iOS app. It is not medical advice, and the trails are a way to measure everyday steps, not a navigation aid. The terms of use are at thebigedev.co.uk/trailstep/terms.