Effective Date: 11 June 2026 · Last Updated: 11 June 2026
Sowaka is a workplace step-challenge app. Your employer (the "Company") runs a challenge in which you track your daily steps, earn points called "strydes," appear on a leaderboard, and earn team bonuses. This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, who can see it, and the choices you have.
The Company (and, where applicable, team) you belong to
Optional profile details you or your Company may add: profile photo, department, position, age, and gender
You provide these when your Company invites you, or when you sign in and complete your profile.
Activity data
Your daily step count and an hourly breakdown of your steps
These are read only from your phone's own built-in motion/step sensor — on Android the hardware step counter (the "Physical activity" permission), and on iOS the device pedometer ("Motion & Fitness"). We use this data solely to compute your steps and strydes.
Derived challenge data
Strydes, streaks, lunch/squad bonuses, team membership, rank, and badges, all generated from your activity.
Technical data
Basic request logs needed to operate and secure the service. Your sign-in tokens are stored only on your device.
2. What we do NOT collect
We do not collect or read:
Precise or background location
Contacts, photos, files, messages, microphone, or camera
Any health or medical data beyond your step count
A device identifier or advertising ID
Health Connect, Google Fit, Apple Health, or Apple Watch data — steps come only from your phone's own sensor, never from a shared health store
3. How we use your information
To run your Company's step challenge — counting strydes and showing your progress ring, leaderboard, team page, streaks, and bonuses
To keep you signed in and to sync your steps to your account
To operate, secure, and debug the service
To send essential service messages
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data, and we do not use it for advertising.
4. Who can see your data
Within your Company — your name, strydes, rank, and team standing are visible to other members of your Company as part of the leaderboard and team features. Your Company's administrator can choose to hide the leaderboard.
Service providers — we host our database on Supabase (which runs on Amazon Web Services in the Mumbai, India region) and host the application on Vercel. These providers process data only on our behalf, under their own security commitments.
Legal — we may disclose data if required to by law.
5. Storage & security
Data is stored on managed cloud infrastructure located in India.
Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS / TLS 1.2 or higher) and at rest.
Sign-in tokens are stored only on your device, never shared with other users.
6. Data retention
We retain your data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account (see the next section), we permanently delete your personal data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain limited records by law, in which case those records are kept only as long as legally required.
7. Your choices & rights
You can:
Access a copy of your data
Correct your data
Delete your account and all associated personal data
You can start an account deletion from within the app (Profile → "Delete account & data") or by emailing care@getsowaka.com from your account's email address. Full details are on our Data & Account Deletion page.
You can also revoke the motion/step permission at any time in your phone's settings (Android: "Physical activity"; iOS: "Motion & Fitness"). The app will then stop reading new steps.
8. Children
Sowaka is intended for working adults and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children.
9. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. We will revise the "Last updated" date above and, for material changes, notify you in the app.