Privacy policy

System Think Van LLC publishes HGRS. This policy says what HGRS collects, why, who sees it, how long it is kept, and how to see it or have it deleted.

Last changed 2026-11-13.

What HGRS collects, and why

Your sign-in email address: The address you sign in with, or the one Apple or Google gives us when you sign in with them, so you can sign in. It is never shown to other people.
The name you use in groups: The name the other members of your groups see. You choose it, and you can change it at any time.
Your profile photo, if you add one: The photo you choose for your account, sent as a square JPEG without its location. The members of your groups see it beside your name, and the organizer of a group you ask to join sees it beside your request. Nobody outside your groups sees it, nor does anybody you blocked, and we do not scan it; it is read through an address that works for ten minutes.
Your daily goal: The daily step goal you set for yourself, kept with your account so it follows you when you install the app again or sign in on another iPhone. Only you see it: nobody in your groups does, and no challenge reads it.
The name Apple or Google shares: When you sign in with Apple or Google and they share your name, it is kept with your sign-in and only offered as the first suggestion for your name in groups. It is never shown to other people, and it is deleted with your sign-in.
Step data, only for challenges you join: For each day of a challenge you join: your daily step total from Apple Health, the time you reached the goal, and how many steps each app or device recorded. It keeps score in that challenge. Nothing is sent before you agree on the challenge's consent screen.
Your account id and your device's push token: To keep your account apart from others, and to send you the notifications you allow.
What you write and do: Group names, challenge titles and notes, cheers, the reason an entry or a day's steps was voided, the people you block and any report you make.
Messages and photos you send in a group's chat: The words, the photos (sent as JPEG, without their location) and the reactions you share in a group's chat. The members of the group see them, with your name in groups. Nobody outside the group sees them, and we do not scan your photos; a photo is read through an address that works for ten minutes.
Photo posts and comments you share in a group: The photos (sent as JPEG, without their location), the caption and the challenge you tag a post with, the comments you write and the cheers you give. The members of the group see them, with your name in groups, in the group and on their Home. Nobody outside the group sees them, and we do not scan your photos.
Request logs: A line for each request the app makes (when, which route, how it ended, which version of the app called, and your account id once you have one), to keep the service working.

Without an account, your steps and settings stay on your iPhone; the app only asks which version is current.

HGRS does not collect your location, your contacts, your phone number, purchases or payment details, your browsing, or anything for advertising. It shows no ads, contains no tracking and never sells data.

Adults only

HGRS is for adults 18 and over. When you sign up we keep the date you confirmed you are 18 or over and the version of the age check your app ran — never your birth date or your age range. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we delete it.

Your step data and your consent

HGRS reads Steps from Apple Health and never writes to Apple Health.
Your step data leaves your iPhone only for a challenge you join, after its consent screen. Consent is per challenge.
The members of the group see your daily totals, the time you reached the goal, your entry count and when your app last synced, and in a Most steps challenge your total and place. The challenge's organizer also sees how many steps each app or device recorded, and days that were flagged for review.
Leaving a challenge or the group stops the sharing at once, and your days and entries leave a challenge whose result is not in yet (its drawing, the names its organizer recorded, or its final standings).
Step data is never used for advertising and is never kept in iCloud.

Reports and blocks

When you report something, we keep your reason and a copy of what you were shown, so we can act on it; the person you reported is never told who reported them. When you block someone, we keep who you blocked and where you met. We may replace text that breaks the Terms with "Removed for breaking the rules".

Who processes it for us

Amazon Web Services stores the data and runs the service, in the United States, including the sign-in service that holds your sign-in email address. Apple's push notification service delivers notifications, with the first words of a new chat message, or of a comment on your post or a reply to your comment, when the members allow their notifications. Each is bound by its agreement with us to protect the data as this policy does, and to use it only to provide its service to us. We share data with nobody else, except where the law requires it: a photo reported as apparent child sexual abuse material is reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

How long it is kept

Your profile (your name in groups and your daily goal): as long as your account, and deleted with it.
Your profile photo: until you change or remove it, or delete your account. A photo you upload for it and never use: 1 day.
Challenge data (daily totals, standings, entries and flags): 400 days after the challenge ends and its late steps stop counting.
Drawing records and the organizer's recorded picks, which hold no names, and final standings, which hold each person's total and place but no names: 3 years.
Group activity and cheers: 90 days, except a photo post's, which are kept with the post.
Chat messages and their photos: while the group exists. A message you delete, or the organizer removes, loses its words and photos at once. A photo you upload and never send: 1 day.
Posts, their photos, their comments and the cheers on them: while the group exists. A post you delete, or the organizer removes, loses its photos, its comments and every cheer on them at once, and a comment removed loses its words and its cheers.
Reports: 90 days. A report keeps a copy of the message and its photos for 90 days, even if the message is deleted. A report of a post or a comment keeps a copy of its caption and photos, or of its words, for 90 days, even if it is deleted. A report of a profile photo keeps a copy of it for 90 days, even if it is changed or removed, or your account is deleted.
A photo reported as apparent child sexual abuse material: 366 days from its report, with the report's record, because US law requires us to preserve it for the authorities; then it is deleted.
A join request: until it is answered or withdrawn; one left unanswered stops counting after 30 days and is deleted when the group's owner next opens its requests, when you ask to join again, or with the group or your account. A declined one is remembered 30 days and deleted within 60 days.
A device's push registration: 60 days after the app last renewed it.
Request logs: 30 days.
Backups: deleted data leaves our backups within 35 days.

Your rights

See your data: write to us from the email address you sign in with, and we send you a copy of everything we hold about you.
Correct it: change your name in the app; write to us for anything else.
Withdraw your consent: leave the challenge, or the group, in the app.
Delete it: delete your account in the app (how), or write to us.

We answer every request within 45 days. Residents of Washington have the rights our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy describes.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app at any time (how). Your profile, your profile photo, your daily goal, the date you confirmed you are 18 or over, your memberships, requests, blocks, reports and push registrations, and your sign-in are deleted; your chat messages, their photos and your reactions are deleted for everybody; your posts with their photos and every comment on them, your comments and your cheers are deleted for everybody; and your step data leaves every challenge whose result is not in yet (its drawing, the names its organizer recorded, or its final standings). Most of it goes at once; what a long history of messages, posts, comments, reactions and cheers leaves is deleted in the background within a day. In a Most steps challenge whose final standings were shown, your total and place stay, as “Former member”, on its board until 400 days after the challenge ends and its late steps stop counting, and in its standings record, which names nobody, for 3 years. A marker that your account was deleted is kept 90 days, so your other devices learn it. Reports other people made about you are kept until they expire, 90 days after they were made. Blocks other people made of you, which name only your former account id, are kept until the person who made one opens their list of blocked people or deletes their account.

Consumer health data

Step data can be consumer health data under Washington's My Health My Data Act. Our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy says how we handle it and how to use your rights.

Changes

When this policy changes, the new version is posted here with its date.

Contact

System Think Van LLC: support@systemthinkvan.com.