On this page
The short version
- Before you make an account, your steps stay on your phone.
- Sole Mates reads your step count from Apple Health and nothing else.
- Only friends you accept, and people in challenges you join, see your steps.
- We don’t sell your data or track you across other apps, and your step data is never used for advertising.
- You can delete your account and data in the app at any time.
What we collect, and why
Before you make an account. Sole Mates reads your steps on your phone to show you your week. Nothing about you or your steps leaves the phone. We receive only three setup events (the app was opened for the first time, Apple Health was connected, and whether steps were found), tied to a random ID made on your phone and never to your name, email or step count.
Your account. If you sign in with Apple, Apple gives us your name and an email address, which can be a private relay address Apple creates for you. If you sign up with email, you give us your first name and email address, and we email you a 6-digit code to sign in. You choose a first name, last initial and @username.
Your steps. Your daily step totals from Apple Health, the dates they’re for and your time zone. We don’t read individual step records, workouts, heart rate or any other health data, and we leave out steps typed in by hand. We start saving them once you agree at sign-up. The app re-sends your last 7 days of totals when you open it, and sends new totals about once an hour in the background, so your board and challenges stay current.
Your goal and streak. The daily goal you set, its history and your streak.
Challenges and groups. The challenges you start or join (their names, dates and who’s in), the groups you’re in and their names, everyone’s totals and ranks, and the results. Group names are checked against the same short list of slurs and threats as usernames.
Cheers, nudges and taunts. Which ready-made message you sent to which friend, and when. There’s no typing, so there’s nothing else to store.
Invite links. Your invite code. If you leave your email on an invite page to hear when Sole Mates comes to Android, we keep that email, the invite code and the time, and use them only to tell you. We delete them once we have.
Friends and safety. Friend requests you send and receive, your friends, people you block and reports you make. Names and @usernames are checked against a short list of slurs and threats.
Notifications. If you turn them on, a token from Apple that lets us send notifications to your phone.
Setup events. A few events about getting started, such as signing up, sending a first invite and a first friend accepting. They’re tied to the same random ID, not to your account, and never include step counts. We use them only to see where people get stuck.
Support emails. What you write to us, plus the app and iOS versions the app adds to the email. Never your steps.
Technical logs. Our hosting provider keeps standard logs, such as IP addresses and request times, for security and fixing problems, for up to 7 days.
How we use it
To run Sole Mates: your board, challenges and results, ranks, goal, streak, cheers and notifications. To keep it safe: checking names, handling reports and preventing abuse. To send sign-in codes, to answer your emails, and to see where new people get stuck. That’s all. We never use your Apple Health data for advertising or marketing, and we never store it in iCloud.
Who can see what
- Friends you’ve accepted see your first name, last initial, @username, step totals for the last 7 days, your rank, and when your steps last updated.
- People in your groups see your first name, last initial and @username, and in each challenge you’re both in, your total for that challenge and your rank, during it and in its results. If they aren’t your friends, they never see your daily steps or your board, and they can send you a friend request.
- A friend you send a cheer, nudge or taunt to sees your name with the message.
- Anyone with your invite link sees your first name, last initial and @username on its page at joinsolemates.com, never your steps.
- Anyone signed in to Sole Mates can find you by name or @username and sees your initials, name and @username, never your steps. People you’ve blocked, or who’ve blocked you, can’t find you.
- Someone you send a request to sees your name and @username.
- If we add features that show your steps to more people, we’ll update this policy before they launch.
Companies that help us run Sole Mates
- Supabase stores our database, handles sign-in and runs our server code, in the United States.
- Apple provides Sign in with Apple, notifications and the App Store.
- Cloudflare and Google handle hello@joinsolemates.com: Cloudflare forwards email sent there to a Gmail inbox.
- An email delivery service sends the 6-digit codes for email sign-in.
- Cloudflare hosts joinsolemates.com.
They use your information only to provide their services to us, and they protect it at least as well as this policy does. We don’t share your information with analytics or advertising companies.
We’ll disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect someone’s safety. If Sole Mates moves to a company we own, or to a new owner, your information moves with it and this policy still applies.
Keeping and deleting your data
We keep your data while you have an account. In the app, Settings, then Delete Account removes your account, profile, steps, goal history, friends and friend requests, blocks, invite code, cheers and notification tokens. It takes you off your friends’ boards and out of your groups and any live challenges, and past results show “Deleted account” in your place. If you signed in with Apple, it also disconnects Sole Mates from your Apple Account. Copies in backups are gone within 7 days. Reports you made, or that were made about you, are kept for up to 2 years for safety. Setup events aren’t linked to you, so they stay. Logging out doesn’t delete anything. If you can’t open the app, email us and we’ll delete your account.
Turning off Steps for Sole Mates in Apple Health stops new steps from reaching us. Steps we already have stay until you delete your account.
Your choices and rights
Wherever you live, you can:
- See or get a copy of your data: email us.
- Correct it: change your name or @username in Settings, or email us.
- Delete it: use Delete Account, or email us.
- Withdraw consent: turn off Steps for Sole Mates in Apple Health, turn off notifications in your iPhone’s Settings, or delete your account.
We’ll reply within 45 days. If we say no to a request, reply with “Appeal” and we’ll look again and explain our decision.
We don’t sell your personal information, share it for advertising, or use it for targeted ads. Because there’s nothing to opt out of, browser Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals don’t change anything here.
Children
Sole Mates is for people 13 and older. If we learn that someone under 13 has an account, we delete it. If you think your child has one, email us.
Security and where data is stored
Your data is encrypted between the app and our servers, which are in the United States. Access is limited to what’s needed to run Sole Mates. No system is perfectly secure, so we can’t promise that nothing will ever go wrong. If something does, we’ll tell you as the law requires.
Changes to this policy
If we make an important change, we’ll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect, and the date at the top will change.
Contact
Grant Road Studio LLC, maker of Sole Mates · hello@joinsolemates.com
If you live in Washington or Nevada, our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy also applies to your step data.