Privacy Policy
Effective date: 30 September 2026
Parker is a walking companion app made by Nathaniel Leong trading as Parker - Walking with Parker ("Parker", "we", "us"). This policy explains what information Parker uses, why, who else receives it, how long we keep it and the choices you have. We wrote it to be read, so it is in plain language. If anything is unclear, email us at hello@walkingparker.app.
1. The short version
- Your steps stay on your phone unless you use Town. Parker reads your step count from Apple Health to show your progress and grow your Parker. If you sign in to Town, we receive a small profile and only the walk details you choose to show (section 3.2). We do not sell health data, we never use it for advertising, and we never give it to advertisers.
- You can use Parker without an account. Signing in is only needed for Town (friends) and to keep purchased cupcakes safe across devices.
- Town is friends-only. Friends always see your Town name, your Parker's outfit, your level and whether you are resting. Your Parker's shape, how far along today's goal you are, and your step count are each hidden unless you switch them on.
- There are no ads in Parker today. If we add optional rewarded ads later, we will update this policy and tell you in the app before any ad appears.
- We do not sell your personal information.
- You can delete your account in the app (Settings > Delete account), which deletes your Town data from our servers.
2. Who is responsible for your information
Nathaniel Leong, trading as Parker - Walking with Parker, is an individual based in Singapore and is the data controller (the person responsible under data protection law). We contact users by email only.
- Data Protection Officer / privacy contact: Founder, hello@walkingparker.app
- EU representative (GDPR Article 27): Not yet appointed. We are not marketing Parker in the EU yet.
- UK representative (UK GDPR Article 27): Not yet appointed. We are not marketing Parker in the UK yet.
3. What we use and why
3.1 Information that stays on your device
This information is stored only on your iPhone (and in Parker's home-screen widget). We do not receive it.
| Information | Why | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Step count from Apple Health | Show today's progress, set your personal goal, keep your streak, grow and dress your Parker, grant cupcakes and badges | Read-only. Parker never writes to Apple Health. You can turn access off in the Health app at any time. |
| Game progress (level, XP, streak, cupcake history, wardrobe, badges, home decor, goal, Rest Mode) | Run the game | Stored in the app. If you are signed in, some of it is also sent to us, see 3.2 and 3.3. |
| Footprint photos you add to your journal | Your personal walk journal | Before saving, Parker shrinks each photo and removes its metadata, including location. Photos are never uploaded. Parker uses the system photo picker, so it only sees the photos you pick. |
| Notification settings and reminder times | Send at most one kind reminder a day, at a time that suits your walks | Scheduled on your phone. |
| Your age band (under 13, 13 to 17, or 18 and over) | Apply age-appropriate settings | When you start Parker we ask for your birth year. We keep only the age band, not the birth year. |
3.2 If you sign in for Town
Town lets you add friends with a friend code, ring a friend's bell (a preset, positive sticker, there is no free-text chat) and walk together in a pack of 2 to 5 friends.
| Information | Why | Legal basis (EEA/UK) |
|---|---|---|
| Account identifiers: an account ID we assign, and the email address and sign-in method from Sign in with Apple or Google. If you use Apple's "Hide My Email", we get a private relay address. Google may also give us your name; we do not show it to anyone. | Create and secure your account, let you sign in on a new device, contact you about your account | Contract |
| Town profile: the Town name you choose (1 to 20 characters), your friend code, your Parker's outfit, level and whether you are in Rest Mode | Show your Parker to your friends | Contract |
| Parker's shape (a look that reflects recent walking) | Shown to friends only if you turn on "Show Parker's shape" in Settings | Consent |
| Progress range (a rough range such as "getting going" or "goal met") | Shown to friends only if you turn on "Show my progress today" or "Share my walk stats" | Consent |
| Today's step count | Shown to friends only if you turn on "Share my walk stats" | Consent |
| Pack walk data: your daily goal and this week's step total, used to fill the pack's shared progress bar | Run pack walks. Other members see only the pack total, not your share | Contract, and consent for health-related data |
| Friends, friend requests, bells and pack invites, and any blocks or reports you make | Run Town and keep it safe | Contract, and legitimate interests (safety) |
| Your time-zone offset | Stop bells arriving in your quiet hours (21:00 to 08:00 your time). Never shown to others | Legitimate interests (being a considerate app) |
| Daily counters for lookups, friend requests and bells | Prevent spam and friend-code guessing | Legitimate interests (safety) |
| Push token from Apple, if you allow notifications | Send at most one bell summary a day. Turning notifications off in iOS Settings stops them | Consent |
Parker's shape, step ranges and step counts are health-related information. Where the law treats them as special category or sensitive data (for example in the EEA and UK), we rely on your explicit consent, which you give by turning on the matching setting or joining a pack. All of these settings start off. You can withdraw consent by turning the setting off or leaving the pack.
3.3 Cupcake purchases
Cupcakes are Parker's in-app currency. You can earn them by walking, and where purchases are available you can buy them with in-app purchases. During the TestFlight beta, purchases may run through Apple's test (sandbox) environment and may be unavailable.
- Apple processes every payment. We never see your card or bank details.
- When you buy, we receive and keep a record of the purchase: the transaction ID, product, number of cupcakes, price and currency, App Store country, and dates. We link it to your account so your cupcakes are saved and come back when you sign in on a new device.
- We keep a history of cupcakes earned and spent, so we can show it to you and fix mistakes.
- If Apple refunds a purchase, Apple tells us, and we remove the refunded cupcakes (see the Terms of Use).
- A guest account may be created in the background when you first buy, so your cupcakes are not lost. It holds no email address until you sign in.
Why: to deliver what you bought (contract), keep financial records the law requires (legal obligation), and prevent fraud and refund abuse (legitimate interests).
We do not answer Apple's optional "consumption" questions about refund requests.
3.4 Ads
Parker has no ads and no advertising software in this version. If we add optional rewarded ads in a later version, we will update this policy first, tell you in the app before any ad can appear, and ask for any consent the law requires. We will not use your health data for ads, and we will not track you across other companies' apps and websites.
3.5 Age
When you start Parker we ask for your birth year, or use the age range you have shared through Apple (on iOS 26 and later). We keep only an age band (under 13, 13 to 17, or 18 and over), not your birth year. We use it to keep ads off and to make sure age-appropriate rules apply. Town is for people aged 13 and over.
3.6 Support
If you email us, we use your email address and what you tell us to help you. We keep the conversation only as long as needed to help you and handle follow-ups, then delete it.
4. What we do not do
- We do not sell or rent your personal information, and we do not "share" it for cross-context behavioural advertising as defined in California law.
- We do not use Apple Health data for advertising, marketing or data mining, and never store it in iCloud.
- We do not run analytics or tracking software in Parker, and we do not use this website for tracking either.
- We do not collect your precise location, contacts or microphone.
- We do not use your information to make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.
5. Who receives your information
| Recipient | What | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase (our database and sign-in provider), hosted in Seoul, South Korea | Town, account, purchase and cupcake records | Runs our servers on our instructions (processor) |
| Apple | Sign in with Apple, payments and refunds, push notifications | Apple's own services under Apple's terms |
| Google sign-in, only if you choose it | Sign-in | |
| Your friends in Town | What 3.2 says they can see | Because you added them |
| Advisers, authorities, buyers | Only what is needed | Legal advice, legal requests we are required to follow, or a merger or sale of our business (we will tell you first) |
6. International transfers
We are based in Singapore and our servers are in Seoul, South Korea. If your information moves to a country without equivalent protection, we use legal safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK Addendum) and contractual protections required by Singapore's PDPA.
7. How long we keep information
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| On-device data | Until you delete the app or the data |
| Town profile, friends, bells, packs | While your account exists. Bells older than 90 days are deleted |
| Rate-limit counters | 30 days |
| Purchase and cupcake records | While your account exists, then a minimal, pseudonymised record for 5 years for tax, refund and dispute purposes |
| Deleted accounts | Removed from our live database when deletion completes. Copies in routine backups are overwritten as the hosting provider's backups expire |
8. Your choices and rights
In the app:
- Apple Health: turn step access on or off in the Health app.
- Friend visibility: Town settings ("Share my walk stats") and Settings > Town privacy ("Show Parker's shape", "Show my progress today"). You can also block or report anyone.
- Notifications: iOS Settings > Parker.
- Delete your account: Settings > Delete account. This deletes your Town profile, friends, bells, packs and cupcake balance from our servers and signs you out of Sign in with Apple for Parker. Unused cupcakes cannot be refunded by us and are lost. Refunds for recent purchases are handled by Apple at https://reportaproblem.apple.com.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or port your information, object to or restrict some uses, withdraw consent, and opt out of sale, sharing or targeted advertising (we do none of the last three). To use any right, email hello@walkingparker.app. We will reply within the time the law sets (usually 30 days, 45 days in some US states) and will not treat you differently for using your rights. You can appeal a decision by replying to our answer. You can also complain to your data protection authority, for example the PDPC in Singapore, your EU supervisory authority, the ICO in the UK or the OAIC in Australia.
9. Children
Parker is a general-audience app and is not made for children under 13. It is not in the App Store Kids category.
- Town is for people aged 13 and over. Parker shows no ads to anyone in this version.
- Purchases go through Apple, so Apple's Ask to Buy and Screen Time controls apply.
- If you are a parent and think your child under 13 (or under the age of digital consent in your country) gave us personal information without your permission, email hello@walkingparker.app and we will delete it.
10. Security
Data travels encrypted (HTTPS). Our database uses row-level access rules so each account can read only its own data and its friends' public Town profile. Footprint photos are stored with iOS file protection. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.
11. Regional notes
- Singapore (PDPA): you can withdraw consent and ask for access or correction at hello@walkingparker.app.
- EEA, UK and Switzerland: legal bases are listed above.
- United States: see section 4 for sale and sharing. California residents: the categories we collect are identifiers, commercial information (purchases) and sensitive personal information (health-related Town data, only with your consent). We do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you.
- Australia: we handle information under the Australian Privacy Principles. Some information is stored overseas (section 6).
12. Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. The date at the top shows the latest version.
13. Contact
Parker - Walking with Parker · Email: hello@walkingparker.app · Data Protection Officer / privacy contact: Founder, same email