# Privacy policy

Updated 24 October 2026

This policy describes how the Pedometer app (package com.askelmittari.askelmittari) handles data. The app is developed and published by Petri Tynkkynen.

**The app collects nothing for itself, requires no account, and contains no ads or analytics. All measurements are created on your phone and stay there.**

## What data the app handles

The app handles the following data on your phone:

- **Steps and movement.** The step count from the phone's step sensor and the activity type recognised by the operating system (still, walking, running, cycling, in vehicle).
- **Location.** GPS position, speed and altitude, used to draw the route you travelled.
- **Health data.** Heart rate measured with the camera, plus the blood pressure and weight readings you enter yourself, along with any notes.
- **Profile and settings.** Height, weight, stride length, daily goal, units and the app's other settings.

## Where the data is stored

All of the above is stored only in your phone's internal memory, in the app's own storage. Nothing is sent to the developer or to third parties.

**Android's automatic backup.** Android may include the app's storage in your device's normal backup, which is saved to your own Google account. Backup is a Google feature that you can turn off in your phone's settings under Google › Backup. The developer has no access to those backups.

## Use of the network

The app uses the network for two things, and neither one includes any of your measurements:

- **Loading map tiles** from OpenStreetMap's servers. The request reveals only which map tiles the app is drawing.
- **Updating this policy and the user guide.** The texts ship with the app and work offline. At most once a day the app checks whether a newer version exists.

Both are ordinary requests without identifiers. The servers keep a normal web log entry, the same as when you open any web page.

## Location in the background

When continuous route recording is on, the app uses location even when it is not on screen or is closed. This is what makes the feature work: your route is drawn on the map automatically without having to start a trip.

Tracking is shown as a persistent notification the whole time, and it can be stopped in the app's settings at any moment. Location is stored only on your phone.

## Use of the camera

The camera and flash are used solely to measure your heart rate when you place a fingertip on the lens. No image is stored and nothing is sent anywhere; the app reads only the variation in brightness.

## Showing maps

Maps are open data from OpenStreetMap. Tiles you have viewed are kept in a cache on your phone so the map draws faster and uses less mobile data. The cache can be cleared by clearing the app's data in your phone's settings.

## Health data and Health Connect

Heart rate, weight and blood pressure are health data, and they are handled like everything else: on the phone only.

You may turn on the export to **Health Connect** in the settings, which also stores steps, weight, heart rate and blood pressure in Android's own health data store for your other apps to use. The export is off by default, it requires permissions you grant separately, and you can revoke them at any time in Health Connect. As a separate choice, the app can also **read steps** from Health Connect, for example those a watch measured while your phone was not with you. Reading covers steps only, is off by default and requires its own permission. Steps read this way are stored only on your phone and are never exported back to Health Connect.

## Notifications

The app shows a persistent notification while background tracking runs, and, if you want, reminders for blood pressure measurements. Notifications are built on the phone and no server is contacted for them.

## Deleting your data

You can delete the data yourself:

- The app's settings include clearing the history.
- Uninstalling the app removes everything it has stored.
- Data exported to Health Connect is deleted in Health Connect's own settings.

The developer does not hold your data, so there is no one you need to send a deletion request to.

## Permissions and why they are needed

- **Physical activity** — reading the step sensor and recognising the activity type.
- **Location** — drawing your route on the map.
- **Camera** — measuring heart rate from a fingertip.
- **Notifications** — the tracking notification and blood pressure reminders.
- **Network** — map tiles and updates to this policy and the guide.
- **Health Connect (write)** — only if you turn the export on yourself.
- **Health Connect (read steps)** — only if you turn the step import on yourself.

## Children

The app is not directed at children under 13 and collects no information about the user's age.

## The app is not a medical device

The heart rate measurement, body mass index and blood pressure classification are indicative and do not replace assessment by a healthcare professional. Calorie counting is an estimate.

## Changes to this policy

The current version of the policy is always shown in the app. Significant changes are described in the app's release notes.

## Contact

Petri Tynkkynen
info@mobileapps.fi