Privacy

Privacy policy

Your steps stay on your iPhone, your walk lives in your own iCloud, and the only thing others can see is a lamp you share, without your name.

Effective date: 2026-11-01

WalkBuddy is published by MT Design and Dynamics LLC. This policy explains how WalkBuddy handles information.

1. Your steps stay on your iPhone

  • WalkBuddy reads your step count from Apple Health (it never writes to Health) and, while the app is open, from this iPhone's Motion & Fitness.
  • Your steps are turned into your buddy's walk on the phone. Hourly step counts are kept on this iPhone for 30 days, are left out of backups, and never leave the phone: not to iCloud, not to us, not to anyone.
  • WalkBuddy never uses Health or Motion data for advertising, marketing or data mining, and never shares or sells it.
  • You can change these permissions at any time in the iOS Settings app, under Privacy & Security > Health and Motion & Fitness.

2. Your walk in your iCloud

  • If you are signed in to iCloud, WalkBuddy keeps your game in your private iCloud database (Apple CloudKit), so it moves with you to a new iPhone: the buddy's place on the trail and its things, your koras, your lamps and their dedications, your credits and the records of your purchases. These are stored encrypted.
  • It holds no step counts, no daily distances and nothing about the times of day you walk.
  • Only you can read your private iCloud data; we cannot. Apple stores it under Apple's privacy policy.
  • Without iCloud, everything stays on this iPhone.

3. Lamps you share with other walkers

  • A lamp you light is shown to other WalkBuddy players unless you turn this off: Koras > Show my lamps to other walkers.
  • A shared lamp is stored in Apple's CloudKit public database without your name, with only its place on the trail (to about 25 m), its size and style, and the hour it was lit and the hour it goes out.
  • With every such record, CloudKit also stores an identifier of your iCloud account that is specific to WalkBuddy. It does not say who you are, but it shows which lamps were lit by the same account. We use it only to keep lamps working, for example to limit how many lamps one account can show.
  • Other walkers never see your name, your account, your dedication, your koras or your steps.
  • The app deletes your shared lamps within 7 days after they go out, and at once when you turn sharing off or use Delete everything. A lamp that has gone out is never shown again. If you delete the app before its lamps are cleaned up, the app can no longer remove them; we delete lamp records that have gone out from the database.

4. Purchases

  • Credits are bought through Apple's App Store. You enter your payment details in Apple's own sheet; WalkBuddy never sees them.
  • So that bought credits reach your walk, also on a new iPhone, the app attaches a random identifier of your walk to each purchase and keeps the transaction records in your private iCloud database. Apple handles purchases under its own privacy policy.

5. Weather

  • WalkBuddy shows the real weather at Mount Kailash from Apple Weather (WeatherKit). It always asks for one fixed point near Darchen: it never uses or sends your location and never asks for location permission.

6. What WalkBuddy does not do

  • No ads, no analytics, no tracking across apps or websites, no third-party code, and no account with us. Nothing is sold or shared with data brokers.
  • Notifications are scheduled on your iPhone; nothing about them is sent to a server.
  • The share card is a picture made on your iPhone; it goes only where you send it.
  • Crash reports, if you choose to share them with app developers in iOS Settings, are handled by Apple.

7. This website

  • walkbuddy.ai sets no cookies and has no analytics or trackers; its fonts and code are served from this site.
  • It is hosted by Cloudflare, which handles your IP address and browser details to deliver the pages and protect the site.

8. Keeping and deleting your data

  • Your data stays until you delete it. Koras > About and settings > Your data > Delete everything deletes your walk, your lamps and your credits, including credits you bought, on this iPhone and in iCloud, and removes your shared lamps. Your steps in Apple Health are not touched.
  • You can also delete WalkBuddy's iCloud data in the iOS Settings app (your name > iCloud > Manage Storage > WalkBuddy). Deleting the app removes what is on this iPhone; your iCloud copy stays until you delete it.
  • One small mark stays in this iPhone's keychain after deleting, so that the welcome credits are given only once on each iPhone. It holds no personal information.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example in the European Union, the United Kingdom or California), you may have the right to access, correct or delete your personal information, and to complain to a data protection authority. Almost everything WalkBuddy keeps is on your iPhone and in your own iCloud, under your control. For the shared lamp records, use Delete everything or contact us.

10. Children

WalkBuddy is not directed to children. It does not knowingly collect personal information from children.

11. Changes

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.

12. Contact

Privacy questions: support@walkbuddy.ai