Step counter app without an account or ads: what to check before you install

Counting steps is a simple job. Even so, you’ll run into apps that want an account, show ads or send off data about how you use them. You can spot many of them before you even download. Three checks are enough:

1. The store label. Does the app use data to track you across other apps? Does it contain ads?
2. Permissions. Counting steps only takes steps. An app that also wants heart rate, sleep or location should have a good reason.
3. The account. If the app doesn’t need one for anything, it shouldn’t ask for one. Without an account, though, it’s good to know how backup works.

Why steps are more sensitive than they look

A number like “8,000 steps” looks harmless. But a record of your movement, hour by hour and day by day, can reveal your daily routine — and if location is added, the places you go too.

In their privacy labels, both Apple and Google put movement and exercise data in the health and fitness category. The GDPR then counts data concerning physical and mental health among the special categories that may only be processed in exceptional cases, for example with explicit consent (Art. 4(15) and Art. 9).

Even removing names may not be enough.

In a study by Na et al. (2018), a machine-learning algorithm matched “anonymized” activity records to the right participant for 94.9% of 4,720 adults. It worked with accelerometer data summed up in 20-minute blocks, plus demographic data from the US health survey NHANES 2003–2004.

What the App Store shows

On every app’s page, you’ll find an App Privacy section. According to Apple, it can include these groups:

• Data Used to Track You — data that’s linked with data from other companies’ apps and websites for advertising, or shared with data brokers. For a step counter, ideally this group is missing.
• Data Linked to You — data tied to your identity, such as your account, device or phone number.
• Data Not Linked to You — the developer has to strip direct identifiers before collecting it and must not link it back to you.
• Data Not Collected — the developer states that it collects no data from the app.

The detailed view also lists the purpose for each type of data. “Third-Party Advertising” means the app uses the data to show other companies’ ads, or shares it with those who show them.

Three things help when reading the label:

• The developer fills it in. The App Store states outright that this information has not been verified by Apple.
• It may leave out data that only Apple collects, such as payments for in-app purchases.
• Only data that leaves the phone counts as “collected”, and only if the developer can access it for longer than needed to handle the request. An app that processes your steps only on your phone doesn’t have to list them — and that’s fine.

What Google Play shows

On Google Play, look for the Data safety section and tap See details below it. There, developers describe what data the app collects, whether it shares it with third parties and what for.

Movement and exercise data fall under the “Fitness info” type. “Device or other IDs” also deserves a look — this is where the advertising ID belongs, for example.

Ads are revealed by the Contains ads label on the app’s page. Developers have to declare ads; the label doesn’t cover offers of in-app purchases or paid upgrades, though.

Here, too, the developer fills in the information. Google says the developer alone is responsible for complete and accurate declarations and that its review process isn’t designed to verify their accuracy. On top of that, data passed to a service provider that processes it on the developer’s behalf, such as a hosting company, doesn’t count as “shared.”

After installing: permissions in Apple Health and Health Connect

An app that reads steps from Apple Health or Health Connect has to ask for access. You decide for each type of data separately, and you can withdraw your consent at any time.

A step counter only needs steps, and maybe workouts. If it wants more, it’s fair to ask why.

iPhone. Apple requires apps to ask for permission to read and to write each type of data separately. An app also can’t tell whether you denied it read access — it simply doesn’t get data from other sources. You can change this in the Health app: Summary → your picture or initials → under Privacy, tap Apps → choose the app and turn individual permissions on or off.

Android. On Android 14 and newer, you’ll find Health Connect under Settings → Security and privacy → Privacy Controls → Health Connect; on older versions, you install it from the Play Store. Under Permissions and data, tap App permissions, pick an app and turn off read and write access for specific types of data. According to Google, the data is stored locally on your device, and a newly allowed app can see data from the last 30 days plus everything new. Note: removing permissions doesn’t delete data that’s already stored.

Menu names may differ depending on your system version and phone manufacturer. A detailed walkthrough is in Health Connect: what it is and how to set it up.

What “no sign-up” means — and what it doesn’t

Without an account, the app doesn’t have your email or password, so it can’t lose them in a data breach either. But there are three consequences worth keeping in mind:

• No account doesn’t mean no data collection. An app can send a device identifier or usage statistics even without a login. What counts is the store label, not the lack of a sign-up.
• Backup has to work differently. With nothing to sign in to, losing your phone or reinstalling can wipe your history in the app. Ask whether the app offers a backup and what you need to restore it. On iPhone, according to Apple, Health app data is stored encrypted in iCloud if the phone is signed in to an Apple Account and Health syncing is turned on. So the risk mainly concerns the history inside the app itself.
• Deleting your data. Support can’t look you up by email. Google Play explicitly requires apps that offer accounts to let you delete them both in the app and on the web. For apps without accounts, it suggests checking the privacy policy or contacting the developer — worth doing before you need it.

How Tada! handles it

Tada! counts active days and is built exactly this way: no account, no email. It reads only steps and workout minutes from Apple Health or Health Connect, and your steps, workouts and location never leave your phone.

A record on the server is only created once you have a shared streak or a backup. It mainly holds your nickname, color, streak length, best and today’s status, plus a random ID number, your language, time zone, phone platform and a key for delivering notifications; with backup, also a record of which days were completed (what the server knows about you).

Tada! has no ads and no third-party analytics. According to its privacy policy, the only other things it sends are anonymous counters with no identifier, which you can turn off, and technical crash reports.

Backup is optional. You turn it on in More → Profile (the app also offers it at your 30-day milestone), and when you do, you get a recovery code that’s shown only once.

On a new phone, choose “I have a recovery code” the first time you open the app, and your streak, your best and your record of completed days come back. Without the code, restoring isn’t possible, and not even support can recover a lost code (restoring after losing your phone). That’s the price of nobody knowing you by your email.

What Tada! doesn’t do: it measures nothing itself; it only reads what your phone or watch writes to Apple Health or Health Connect. And it doesn’t send your numbers to your buddy, only whether you’re done for today.

If you want to share exact steps, there’s a comparison in Step counter app for couples and friends. And if all you want is to see the number on your iPhone, you don’t need another app at all — the iPhone counts steps on its own and the Health app shows them.

Steps that stay on your phone Tada! needs no account or email, has no ads and never sends your steps, workouts or location to the server. It just keeps track of whether today was active. Download for iPhone

Frequently asked questions

Is an app without sign-up automatically anonymous?

No. An app can still send a device identifier or usage statistics; “no sign-up” only means the data isn’t tied to your email. The store label and the privacy policy give you a hint of what the app actually sends.

Can I take away an app’s access to my steps later?

Yes, at any time — on iPhone in the Health app, on Android in Health Connect. On Android, though, this doesn’t delete data that’s already stored in Health Connect; that’s deleted separately.

Sources

1. Apple (2026). About privacy information on the App Store and the choices you have to control your data. Apple Support. link
2. Apple (2026). App privacy details on the App Store. Apple Developer. link
3. Google (2026). Understand app privacy & security practices with Google Play’s Data safety section. Google Play Help. link
4. Google (2026). Provide information for Google Play’s Data safety section. Play Console Help. link
5. Google (2026). Prepare your app for review (Ads declaration). Play Console Help. link
6. Apple (2026). Authorizing access to health data. Apple Developer Documentation. link
7. Apple (2026). Share your data in Health on iPhone. iPhone User Guide. link
8. Apple (2026). Back up your Health data in iCloud on iPhone. iPhone User Guide. link
9. Apple (2026). Intro to Health data on iPhone. iPhone User Guide. link
10. Google (2026). Get started with Health Connect. Android Help. link
11. Google (2026). Manage connected apps in Health Connect. Android Help. link
12. European Parliament and Council of the European Union (2016). Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation), Art. 4(15) and Art. 9. EUR-Lex. link
13. Na, L., Yang, C., Lo, C. C., Zhao, F., Fukuoka, Y., Aswani, A. (2018). Feasibility of Reidentifying Individuals in Large National Physical Activity Data Sets From Which Protected Health Information Has Been Removed With Use of Machine Learning. JAMA Network Open, 1(8), e186040. link
14. Tada! (2026). What the server knows about me. Tada! Help. link
15. Tada! (2026). Restoring after losing your phone. Tada! Help. link
16. Tada! (2026). Why Tada! needs access to health data. Tada! Help. link
17. Tada! (2026). Privacy Policy. link