Privacy Policy

What we collect

GentleSteps does not collect personal data. There is no account, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking.

Camera and photos

GentleSteps asks for camera access only when you choose Take Photo for a bird profile. The photo is used only as your bird's profile picture.

Choosing a photo from your library uses the system photo picker, which shares only the photo you select. No photo library permission is needed.

If you decline camera access, you can still choose a photo from your library or keep the drawn species picture. You can change camera access at any time in the Settings app under GentleSteps.

Where your data is stored

Bird profiles, photos, journal notes, lesson progress, stage progress and saved recommendations are stored only on your device. They are included in your device backups if you use them.

Small preferences, such as your theme, text size and the bird you last selected, are kept in the app's local settings on your device.

Third parties

GentleSteps does not send your data to anyone and uses no third party services.

Keeping and deleting data

Deleted birds and journal entries stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days and are then removed. You can delete them sooner from Recently Deleted.

Reset Learning Progress in Settings clears lesson and stage progress. Deleting the app removes all of its data from your device.

Children

GentleSteps is not directed at children and collects no personal data from anyone.

This website

This website does not use cookies, analytics or advertising, and it does not ask you to sign in.

• Fonts. The site loads the Nunito typeface from Google Fonts. When your browser downloads it, Google receives your IP address and basic browser information. See Google's privacy policy.
• Hosting. Like any web server, our hosting provider may keep standard technical logs (such as IP address, browser type and time of request) to keep the site running and secure. We don't use them to identify you.
• Contact form. The contact form on the home page does not send or store anything. To reach us, please email us directly.

When you email us

If you write to us, we receive your email address and whatever you include in your message. We use it only to reply to you, never for marketing, and we delete it when it's no longer needed. You can ask us to delete your messages at any time.

Apple and the App Store

Downloads and updates are handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy. If you choose to share analytics with app developers in your device settings, Apple may give us aggregated, anonymous statistics such as crash reports and install counts. These cannot be used to identify you.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will appear in the app and on this page with a new effective date.