Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 10, 2026 · applies to version 1.0, including Look Back, Sticker Book, Look Back cards, subscriptions, and the feedback form

At a glance

Little Footsteps works without an account and without a server of our own; the app needs no internet for your entries. Everything you enter – child profiles, memories, baby words, photos, and dictated text – stays on your iPhone. We (the provider) receive none of it. There are no ads and no tracking. Anonymous usage statistics without content are only collected if you explicitly turn them on (Section 6b). Only if you write and send feedback yourself does it reach us through the Tellstack service (Section 6c).

1. Data controller / contact

RZ-Solutions
Owner: Gerhard Kanzler
c/o COCENTER
Koppoldstr. 1
86551 Aichach
Germany
Email: little-footsteps@rz-solutions.dev

The app never transmits the contents of your journal to us. We only process data if you contact us yourself – through the feedback form in the app (Section 6c), by email or through TestFlight feedback (Section 7) – and, if turned on, for the anonymous statistics (Section 6b).

2. What data the app stores on your device

Child profiles: First name, date of birth, an optional profile picture saved as a smaller copy without metadata, color palette, and layout.
Memories and milestones: Title, text, date, and optional time and time zone.
Baby words: The word exactly as the child says it, its intended meaning, and a note.
Photos: Unchanged copies of the photos you select, including their metadata (such as the time and location where they were taken). Smaller preview images are also stored.
Designed frames: Only the settings; the original photo is not changed.
Look Back and statistics: The app recalculates figures such as memories per month, firsts, and collected words from your entries each time. They are not stored separately.
Sticker Book: Which stickers have been collected for each child and when. Stickers only count what you have done in the app (such as “first photo”) and never assess the child’s development. You can turn off the Sticker Book in Settings.
Settings, the time of the last verified backup, and when the app last reminded you to back up.

The data is stored in the app’s protected storage area, which other apps cannot access, and is protected by iOS device encryption. After a restart, photos and profile pictures can only be read once the device has been unlocked for the first time.

3. Permissions

Photos: You select photos using the iOS photo picker. The app only sees the photos you select and does not have access to your photo library.
Add photos: Only when you save a designed image to the Photos app.
Microphone and speech recognition: Only while you dictate. Speech recognition runs exclusively on the device. Audio is neither saved nor sent. If speech recognition without internet access is unavailable on your device, the app does not offer dictation.

You can revoke all permissions anytime in iOS Settings.

Backup (“Create backup”): The app creates a folder containing all data and original photos. You choose the storage location yourself, such as iCloud Drive, “On My iPhone”, or a computer. The terms of the respective provider, such as Apple, apply to cloud storage. The backup is not encrypted and may contain photo locations. Please keep it secure.
Sharing: You share designed images and Look Back cards (for a month or year of your child’s life) through the iOS share sheet. They contain no metadata, including location or photo capture details. The child’s name appears only if you choose to show it.
Apple’s iCloud device backup: Depending on your iPhone settings, iOS may include the app’s data in your iCloud backup. We have no control over this; Apple’s privacy policy applies.

5. Data about children

The app stores information about your children exclusively on your device and only for you. There is no profiling, medical analysis, comparison with other children, or sharing of this information. Look Back, statistics, and stickers are calculated exclusively on the device.

6. Deletion

In the app: Settings → “Delete data”. There you can permanently delete removed memories, delete a child together with their memories, or delete all data.
If you delete the app, iOS removes all app data from the device. Backups you created yourself remain wherever you saved them.

6a. “Little Footsteps Plus” subscription

You purchase and manage the subscription through your Apple Account in the App Store. Only Apple receives payment details, your name, and your email address; we do not. On your device, the app checks with Apple whether a subscription is active and unlocks subscription features. We receive only aggregated sales figures from Apple that are not linked to you personally. Apple’s privacy policy also applies.

6b. Anonymous usage statistics (optional, off by default)

During onboarding and under Settings → About & privacy, you can turn on “Share anonymous usage statistics”. Only then does the app send short event messages to our own statistics server (Aptabase, self-hosted at analytics.rz-solutions.dev, operated by the provider (Section 1) on a rented server from Hetzner Online GmbH at its data center in Falkenstein, Germany; Hetzner processes the data only on our behalf (Art. 28 GDPR)).

What is sent: That the app was opened, onboarding was completed, a memory was saved (type: milestone, moment, or baby word; number of photos), dictation was set up or started (with a technical error code if it fails), a card was shared (template name), Look Back was opened, a backup was created, the subscription page was shown, or a purchase was completed. Also included are the app version, iOS version, language, and a random session number that changes after one hour of inactivity.
What is never sent: Names, dates of birth, text, titles, baby words, photos, or any other content; no device or advertising ID, and no device model. These event messages cannot be linked to an individual.
IP address: This is technically involved in transmission. The statistics server processes it only in memory to determine the country and generate an identifier that changes daily and cannot be reverse-engineered to recover the IP address. It does not store the IP address.
Legal basis: Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, § 25(1) TDDDG). You can withdraw it anytime using the same switch; after that, nothing more is sent and any event messages not yet sent are discarded.

6c. Feedback form (only when you send it)

Under Settings → Send feedback you can write to us. Nothing is sent until you tap “Send feedback”.

What is sent: your text, the type of feedback (if chosen), your email address (only if you enter one, so we can reply), plus the app version, iOS as the system, your iPhone model (e.g. “iPhone17,1”), the device language and the screen the feedback comes from. Nothing from your journal, no photos and no child profiles are included. Please don’t include passwords, payment details or other people’s data in your text.
Recipient: Feedback is transmitted to Tellstack (tellstack.app), a service developed and run by RZ-Solutions itself. It is stored on our own server at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg, Germany, and is not passed on to third parties.
Without a connection: If sending fails, the feedback stays encrypted on your iPhone and is sent automatically later. “Delete all data” also removes feedback that has not been sent yet.
Purpose and legal basis: handling and, if you wish, answering your feedback (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is fixing bugs and improving the app).
Retention: We delete feedback once your request has been handled, at the latest after 12 months. You can ask us to delete it earlier at any time (Section 8).

7. TestFlight beta

During the beta, Apple makes crash reports and your feedback available to us through TestFlight if you submit them or allow this in TestFlight. This may include the device model, iOS version, and the email address used to invite you. We use this information only to fix errors. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in a functioning app (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Apple’s TestFlight privacy policy also applies.

8. Your rights

To the extent that we process your personal data (Sections 1 and 7), you have the right to:

Access
Rectification
Erasure
Restriction of processing
Data portability
Object

You can also lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority; for example the Bavarian Data Protection Authority (lda.bayern.de) or the authority in your country of residence. You alone are responsible for the data in the app itself: it is stored only with you.

9. Changes

If the app changes, for example through optional synchronization, which could be introduced after the MVP at the earliest, we will update this policy beforehand. Any new data flows will require your explicit consent.

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