Health Data & Privacy
What we use and why.
The short version
WatchieBesti reads the wearer's steps and heart rate from their Apple Watch to make the pet respond to real activity. That data never leaves the device. We don't collect it, store it, or send it anywhere.
What we read (and why)
The wearer's daily steps
Steps are the main way the app knows the wearer is active. They're compared against a daily goal. More steps means a happier pet.
Example: if the wearer walks 4,000 steps, the pet is content. At 6,000 or more, the pet is happy and bouncing.
Current heart rate
Heart rate tells the app how hard the wearer is working — not just that they moved, but that they were really active. Running gives a bigger happiness boost than strolling.
Example: a wearer who runs for 20 minutes gets a bigger pet boost than one who walks the same number of steps.
Baseline heart rate
A reference number so the app can tell the difference between resting and active heart rates. Read once, not constantly monitored.
Used behind the scenes — never shown to the wearer.
Planned for future versions
- Sleep schedule — the pet will sleep when the wearer sleeps, so waking up to a sleeping pet feels natural.
- Optional iCloud sync — if you choose to enable it, the wearer's pet data (growth stage and progress) will sync across their devices via their private iCloud account. This is opt-in, governed by Apple's privacy policy, and never accessible to us.
Neither feature is in the app yet. This page will be updated when they ship.
What we don't do
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We never send health data to a server.
The app works entirely offline. There is no backend, no cloud database, no "syncing to our servers."
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We never sell or share data.
With anyone. For any reason.
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We never show raw health numbers to the wearer.
No step counts on screen, no heart rate graphs, no calorie displays. The wearer sees a pet, not a dashboard.
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We never collect personal information.
No name, no email, no account, no login. The app works immediately out of the box.
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We have no analytics or tracking.
No Google Analytics, no Mixpanel, no Firebase, no advertising SDKs. This website doesn't track you either.
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We have no ads.
Not now, not ever. WatchieBesti is a one-time purchase.
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We have no social features.
No chat, no profiles, no friend lists, no leaderboards.
Where data lives
All health data stays in two places, both on the wearer's device:
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01
Apple HealthKit
Apple's built-in health database on the watch. We read from it. We never write to it.
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The app's local storage
The app saves a daily "activity score" — a single number, not raw health data — so the pet remembers how yesterday went. This is stored on-device and deleted when you uninstall the app.
If the wearer has an iPhone paired with their watch, the pet's mood (not raw health data) syncs between watch and phone using Apple's built-in device-to-device communication. This does not go through the internet.
Permission is always optional
When the app first opens, it asks for permission to read health data. The wearer can say no to any or all of these. The pet still works — it just won't respond to real activity. You can change these permissions at any time in the Apple Watch Settings app under Privacy & Security → Health.
How to delete everything
Uninstall the app. That's it. All pet data and activity scores are deleted. We have nothing on our end to delete because we never had it.
Questions?
Email us at [email protected]. We're a small team and we read every message.