private step counter apps
Five of 19 iPhone step counters say they collect no data at all, and six say they use data to track you. We read the App Privacy label of every one on . All nineteen are in the table below. Each label is written by the app's own developer, and the last section says what that means for how far to trust it.
- 5 of 19 show Data Not Collected: Steps — Simple Pedometer, STEPPI, Simply Step, Plod and GAIT — Minimal Step Widgets.
- 6 of 19 list Data Used to Track You: StepsApp Pedometer, Pedometer α, Steps — Activity Tracker, Pikmin Bloom, Stepz and Walkr.
- 6 of 19 name third-party advertising as a purpose. Five of them are trackers; the sixth is Pedometer++, which tracks nothing.
- 3 of 19 link Health & Fitness data to your identity: Pikmin Bloom, Stepz and Fito.
- 12 of 19 neither track you nor link any data to you.
Nineteen labels, read on one day
The apps are the nineteen in our open survey of iPhone step counters. Every label was read from its US App Store listing on the same day, so an update since then can change a row. A dash means that heading is not on the label.
| app | Data Used to Track You | Data Linked to You | Data Not Linked to You |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angel Step ours | — | — | Health & Fitness, Purchases, Identifiers |
| StepsApp Pedometer | Identifiers, Usage Data | — | Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics |
| Pedometer++ | — | — | Location, Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics |
| Pedometer α | Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics | — | Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics |
| Steps — Activity Tracker | Identifiers, Usage Data | Purchases, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data | Diagnostics |
| Pikmin Bloom | Contact Info, Identifiers | Health & Fitness, Purchases, Location, Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics | — |
| Stepz | Purchases, Identifiers, Usage Data, Other Data | Health & Fitness, Purchases, Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics, Other Data | — |
| Walkr | Identifiers | Contact Info, Identifiers | Health & Fitness, Location, Contact Info, Contacts, Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics |
| Steps — Simple Pedometer | Data Not Collected | ||
| StepDog | — | — | Health & Fitness, Location, Identifiers, Usage Data |
| Fito | — | Health & Fitness, Location, Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data | Diagnostics |
| Habbie | — | — | Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics |
| STEPPI | Data Not Collected | ||
| Hot Girl Steps | — | — | Health & Fitness, Contact Info |
| CanGoGo | — | — | Health & Fitness, Purchases, Browsing History, Usage Data, Diagnostics |
| Simply Step | Data Not Collected | ||
| Plod | Data Not Collected | ||
| GAIT — Minimal Step Widgets | Data Not Collected | ||
| Yep — Minimalist Step Tracker | — | — | Purchases, Location, Identifiers, Usage Data |
Category names are Apple's own. Data Used to Track You means the data is linked with data from other companies for targeted advertising or measurement, or shared with data brokers. Data Linked to You is tied to your identity; Data Not Linked to You is collected but not tied to it. What each heading means for an app's funding is on step counters without ads.
Which one, if privacy is the reason
If you want nothing collected at all, the five with Data Not Collected are the whole answer. Four of them describe a home screen widget too: Steps — Simple Pedometer, Simply Step, Plod and GAIT. STEPPI doesn't mention one.
If your health data is the worry, look for Health & Fitness in the middle column. Three labels put it there, linked to you: Pikmin Bloom, Stepz and Fito. Five more collect it without linking it. That group includes ours, and so does the next section.
If you want a big, established app with no tracking, Pedometer++ has no tracking section and nothing linked to you. Its label does list third-party advertising among the purposes of what it collects without linking.
A step counter needs very little in the first place. The iPhone does the counting with its own motion hardware and keeps the total in Apple Health. All an app needs is permission to read it. Anything a label lists beyond that is a choice the developer made, and the label is where they tell you.
What a label can't tell you
The developer writes it. Every listing says so above its privacy section: Apple requires the label but does not check it. Read it as a declaration, not an inspection.
It describes the app, not one version of it. A developer updates the label when the app changes, and what an app collects can vary with the features you use, as every listing notes. This table is a reading from one day. Before you install, open the listing and look again; it takes ten seconds.
Where we stand
Angel Step has no tracking section and nothing linked to you. It is not among the five that collect nothing. Its label lists three categories under Data Not Linked to You: Health & Fitness, Purchases and Identifiers, for app functionality and for analytics of purchases. The privacy page spells out what each of those is. In short: the purchase service files its record under a random ID the app makes, not under you, and none of your health data goes to it.
There are no ads, no account and no analytics about your walking. The number is the one Apple Health already holds, and it sits in free widgets on the home screen and the lock screen.
How we read them
We opened each app's US App Store listing on 25 October 2026 and copied the summary of its App Privacy section: the headings and the categories under each. The nineteen apps, their ratings and prices are in our open survey; ratings there were read on 17 August 2026. The labels themselves are public, and anyone can check a row against the listing it links to.
Sources
- What Apple means by tracking, and what a developer must declare: User privacy and data use, Apple.
- How the App Privacy section is built and by whom: App privacy details on the App Store, Apple.
- The nineteen labels: each app's US App Store listing, linked from its row, read on 25 October 2026.
- The nineteen apps, their ratings and in-app purchases: our open survey (CC BY 4.0, doi:10.5281/zenodo.22032007).
Updated