Your data stays yours.

Privacy policy

Effective 2 September 2026

This policy explains how Halfstep handles information when you use the Halfstep iPhone app, widgets, Live Activities, shortcuts, and notification actions. Halfstep is provided by Samuel Negash (“we”, “us”, or “our”).

The short version is literal: we do not collect personal data through Halfstep. The app has no user account, no developer-operated backend, no analytics or advertising SDK, and no tracking technology.

Data in the app

To build and run your plan, Halfstep lets you enter or creates information on your device. Depending on how you use the app, this may include:

• Plan and purchase inputsYour nicotine product, strength, quantity, timing, spending estimate, taper schedule, and quit date.
• Activity recordsSession timestamps, counts, trigger tags, check-ins, cravings, slips, plan changes, and progress.
• Your private sentenceAn optional sentence about your reason for making a change. It is stored separately with complete file protection and is excluded from widgets, notifications, Live Activities, and exports.
• PreferencesSettings such as reminder choices, quick-logging surfaces, and where your private sentence may appear.

This information is processed on your device to provide the app’s features. We do not receive it, use it for advertising, sell it, or share it with data brokers.

Your private iCloud database

Halfstep uses Apple CloudKit to sync your plan and log through the private database connected to your iCloud account. This helps restore your plan on another device or after replacing a lost phone.

Your private iCloud database is operated by Apple and is not a Halfstep server. We cannot read its contents. Apple processes this data under the terms and privacy choices that apply to your Apple Account and iCloud service.

Your optional private sentence is kept only in the app’s protected local storage and is not placed in the shared app-group store used by widgets.

Purchases

If you buy the Halfstep plan pass, Apple processes the payment through the App Store. We do not receive your card or bank details. The app receives only the StoreKit information needed to confirm whether the pass is available to you and to restore the purchase.

Apple’s handling of App Store transactions is governed by Apple’s own privacy policy and account terms.

Notifications and device features

Halfstep may ask for notification permission only when a reminder can be useful. Notification scheduling and responses are handled using Apple’s system frameworks. The app does not request your location and does not include your private sentence in a notification.

Widgets, Live Activities, Control Center controls, the Action Button, and shortcuts receive only the limited numeric plan state needed to show a count or log a session. They cannot access your private sentence.

Your controls

Access and export

You can view your plan and history in the app and export your logged data from Settings, whether or not you have purchased the plan pass.

Correction

You can correct relevant inputs and check-ins inside Halfstep. The underlying activity log is append-only, so corrections are recorded as new events instead of silently rewriting history.

Deletion and retention

You can delete your private sentence from Settings. To remove the rest of Halfstep’s local data, delete the app from your devices. Data synced to iCloud is retained according to your iCloud settings and Apple’s policies; you can manage iCloud app data from your Apple Account settings.

Because we do not collect or hold your app data on our systems, we cannot retrieve, export, correct, or delete it for you.

Children

Halfstep is intended for adults managing their own nicotine use. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children—or from anyone else—through the app.

Changes to this policy

If Halfstep’s data practices change, this policy will be updated before the new practice applies. The effective date at the top will also change. A change that introduces collection, tracking, a developer server, or a third-party SDK would require both an updated policy and updated App Store privacy disclosures.