Privacy policy
Private by design.
This policy covers the Rootstep: Move Planner app for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch and this website, rootstep.app.
In short
- No account, no ads, no analytics, no tracking, and no third-party code in the app.
- We have no servers. Your plan, documents and photos stay on your device and in your own iCloud, which we cannot read.
- Rootstep only goes online for iCloud, for official pages, and for currency rates. None of those requests carries anything about you.
- The App Store privacy label for Rootstep is Data Not Collected.
- The only personal data we ever receive is an email you choose to send us.
1. Who is responsible
Rootstep is made by an independent developer based in Basel, Switzerland (“we”, “us”), who is responsible for the processing described here under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and, where it applies, the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Contact: privacy@rootstep.app. The developer's name is also shown on Rootstep's App Store page.
2. What we do not collect
Rootstep does not collect, receive or store any personal data on our side. There is no account, sign-in or user ID. There is also no advertising, no analytics, no crash-reporting service and no tracking across apps or websites. The app contains no third-party software development kits (SDKs). We do not sell or share data, because we have none to sell or share.
3. Data on your device and in your iCloud
The app needs the things you enter to work. That includes your route and moving dates, steps and deadlines, documents with their numbers and expiry dates, scans and photos, boxes, budget and receipts, contacts, comments and reminders. It is stored:
- on your iPhone or iPad, protected by your device's encryption,
- in your private iCloud database (Apple's CloudKit), if you are signed in to iCloud. This keeps your devices in sync and lets you share a move, and
- on your Apple Watch, if you use Rootstep there. Your iPhone sends it the move you have open: the route, the dates, the counts of official steps and the next steps with their dates, never document numbers or notes. The watch keeps only the latest copy, and the steps you marked done there until your iPhone has them.
We cannot access your iCloud data. Apple stores and processes it under the Apple Privacy Policy. With Advanced Data Protection turned on, most iCloud data is end-to-end encrypted.
Document numbers and notes never appear in reminders, widgets or exports. Rootstep stores the trial's start in your iCloud key-value store so that the trial works the same on all your devices.
Deleting your data: Settings › Delete all data removes everything from all your devices and your iCloud. Deleting a single move removes that move. You can also manage Rootstep's iCloud data in your device's iCloud settings.
4. Sharing a move with others
If you invite people to a move through iCloud, they can see that move, and edit it if you allow that. This includes any documents, comments and photos in it. Apple's CloudKit sharing carries the invitation, and only the people you choose receive it. There is no public link.
Rootstep shows the names that iCloud gives for the participants. To remember which family member is which, it keeps an anonymous iCloud user record identifier on each member, inside the shared move. It stores no participant's email address. All of this stays in the participants' iCloud and goes nowhere else.
5. When Rootstep goes online
Apart from Apple's services, Rootstep only makes the requests below. Each one is a plain HTTPS request without cookies, identifiers or any information about you or your plan. As with any request on the internet, the receiving server sees your device's IP address and the address of the page or file requested.
| What | When | Sent to |
|---|---|---|
| iCloud sync and sharing | While you are signed in to iCloud | Apple (CloudKit) |
| Reading an official page during route setup | Only when you ask Rootstep to read it | The government website concerned |
| Checking a sentence you pasted | Once, when you paste it | The website of that page |
| Weekly page check | Once a week, while Settings › Official pages is on (on by default). The same happens when you tap Check all links now | The pages behind the rules you confirmed and the links you added |
| Daily currency rates | At most twice a day, only while your budget has costs in another currency and “Update rates daily” is on | The European Central Bank (one public file, the same for everyone) |
| Purchases and restore | When you buy, restore or ask for a refund | Apple (App Store) |
When you open an official page or a link, it opens in Safari. From then on, that website's own privacy policy applies.
6. Apple features on your device
- Assistant and letter helper. Text recognition, Apple Intelligence (where available) and Apple's translation all run on your device. A letter you read is not stored or uploaded. If you open it from Mail or Files, the copy the system hands over is deleted once it has been read.
- Face ID and Touch ID. The system handles the check. Rootstep only learns whether it succeeded and never sees biometric data.
- Apple Watch. Your iPhone sends the watch its copy through Apple's WatchConnectivity, and a step you mark done on the watch goes back to your iPhone the same way. The watch app makes no network requests of its own.
- Notifications, widgets, the Live Activity, Siri, Shortcuts and Spotlight. These show parts of your plan on your device. The Spotlight index stays on the device.
- Purchases. Apple processes all payments. We receive no payment details, name or email address from Apple.
7. Permissions
Rootstep asks for a permission only when you use the feature that needs it, never at launch. Saying no only switches off that feature.
| Permission | Used for |
|---|---|
| Camera | Scanning documents, letters, receipts and box labels, and photographing what goes into a box |
| Calendars | Adding your deadlines and appointments to a calendar called “Rootstep”. Rootstep reads only that calendar. |
| Face ID | Locking your documents |
| Photos (add only) | Saving box labels and images you share to Photos. Rootstep never reads your photo library. |
| Notifications | Reminders before your deadlines, and a notice when an official page changed |
8. When you email us
If you write to support@rootstep.app or privacy@rootstep.app, we receive your email address, your message and anything you attach. We use them only to answer you and to fix what you report, and we never add you to a mailing list. Our email provider stores the messages for us. We keep correspondence for as long as we need it to help you, and for at most two years after the last message, unless the law requires longer.
The app's Report an outdated rule and Request official pages buttons open an email in your own mail app. It names the step, the page or the country and nothing about you, and you decide whether to send it.
9. This website
rootstep.app is a static website. It sets no cookies and has no analytics, trackers, embedded videos, external fonts or third-party scripts. To deliver the pages and protect the site, our hosting provider processes technical connection data such as your IP address. We don't use this data to identify visitors.
If you pick light or dark appearance on this site, your browser remembers the choice in its own storage. Nothing about it is sent anywhere. The sample planner on the home page runs entirely in your browser.
10. Children
Rootstep is rated 4+ and is meant for families planning a move together. Because we collect no personal data, we collect none from children either. Comments in a shared move are seen only by the people its owner invited.
11. Your rights
Under the FADP and the GDPR you have the right to know what personal data we hold about you, and to have it corrected or deleted. You may also object to its processing, restrict it, or receive it in a portable form. Apart from emails you sent us, we hold no data about you. Your plan is in your hands: you can export it, edit it or delete it in the app at any time.
To exercise a right, write to privacy@rootstep.app. You can also complain to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) or to the data protection authority where you live.
12. Where data is processed
We are based in Switzerland. Apple (for your iCloud), our email provider and our website's hosting provider may process data in other countries, including the United States. They do so under their own safeguards, such as adequacy decisions, the Swiss–US and EU–US Data Privacy Frameworks, or standard contractual clauses.
13. Security
Your data is protected by your device's encryption and by iCloud. You can also lock your documents with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. Temporary files for viewing and sharing are encrypted while your device is locked, and removed when you close them. All of Rootstep's network requests use HTTPS.
14. Changes to this policy
If Rootstep changes how it handles data, we will update this page and its date before the change reaches you. If you have to agree to a change, the app will ask you first.