Katun

Privacy Policy

Katun (iPhone app) and this website · Version 1.2 · Last updated: 7 November 2026

The German version is the primary text; this is a translation.

1. Controller and contact

The controller under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and, where applicable, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:

Nikola Marković
Reinach BL
Switzerland
E-mail: support@komovi.ch

Komovi is the name under which Nikola Marković publishes apps as a sole proprietor; "we" and "us" in this policy mean him. This policy covers the Katun app and the komovi.ch website. More details are in the legal notice.

Please use this e-mail address for any privacy request. We have not appointed a data protection officer; we are not required to.

2. What stays on your iPhone

2.1 Steps and calm minutes (Apple Health)

Katun uses Apple Health (HealthKit) only if you connect it with "Connect Apple Health" on "The walk" page and allow it in the iOS prompt. iOS asks once about these things:

• Read: steps. Katun reads your total steps per day and nothing else: no routes with locations, no heart rate, no other health data. It turns them into progress in the game: the herd climbs the trail, grass grows, herbs are found, the katun earns care.
• Read: whether you use a wheelchair. If Apple Health says so, Katun offers once to move the herd with your wheelchair distance instead of steps. Katun never switches by itself and uses this for nothing else.
• Read: wheelchair distance and pushes (only if you choose "Wheelchair" under "How you get around" on "The walk" page). Katun reads the total per day; the distance moves the herd like steps, and the page shows the pushes. Apple Watch counts them when wheelchair mode is on.
• Write: Mindful Minutes. If you allow it, Katun saves your calm time by the fire, at the spring and on the stone (a minute or more) to Apple Health as Mindful Minutes. It writes nothing else. You can switch this off at any time with "Save calm minutes to Apple Health" on "The walk" page.

Your health data never leaves your iPhone. Katun keeps its own record of your daily steps and calm minutes in a file on the iPhone that is left out of iPhone backups. It never goes to iCloud, to your neighbours, to Game Center or to us. Katun passes no health data to any ad SDK and never uses it for ads, marketing or profiling; we sell no data. Only game values go to iCloud, to your neighbours and to Game Center (section 3), never a step count and never minutes. (Apple Health itself can sync its data end-to-end encrypted through your iCloud if you switched that on in iOS; that is Apple's service, not Katun's.)

Calm minutes instead of steps: if you choose "Calm minutes carry the herd" under "How you get around", your calm minutes by the fire, at the spring and on the stone move the herd, and Katun reads no steps. How far the herd goes this way is worked out from your calm minutes and, like them, stays on your iPhone. The choice itself ("How you get around") also stays on the iPhone and doesn't go to iCloud.

You can change the access at any time under iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Health → Katun. Without Apple Health Katun keeps working; the herd just doesn't climb with your steps. iOS doesn't tell apps whether you declined reading; Katun then simply sees no steps.

2.2 Your katun, your chest and your settings

Katun stores your katun (herd, buildings, cellar, level, the year's blanket), how far you have heard Baba's tales, and the entries in your chest (your text, the date and the question it answers) in files on your iPhone. iOS encrypts them on the device: the chest while the iPhone is locked, the katun until the first unlock after a restart. We do not receive this data.

Also on the device: your settings (e.g. weather, length of calm sessions, when your day starts, the evening note), the first name you enter for your neighbours, and a random identifier by which Katun recognises your katun in a neighbourhood. The widget and the Live Activity get a small summary through a shared app container on the device, without step counts. The evening note is scheduled by the iPhone itself; nothing is sent for it.

2.3 No account, no analytics, no tracking of our own

Katun needs no registration and has no user account. The app contains no analytics or crash-reporting services of ours and no tracking of our own. In App Store Connect, Apple gives us aggregated figures without personal reference (e.g. downloads, purchases, countries), plus crash reports and usage statistics only from people who allowed sharing with app developers in iOS (see Apple's privacy policy). In AdMob, Google likewise shows us only aggregated ad figures (e.g. impressions, earnings).

3. What leaves your iPhone, and where it goes

3.1 iCloud: your katun in your own iCloud

With the switch "Keep the katun in iCloud" on "The katun" page (on until you switch it off), Katun keeps a copy in the iCloud key-value store of your own iCloud account:

• your katun without steps and without calm minutes: herd, buildings, cellar, level and care, how far the herd has come on the first ascent, the year's blanket, and the days whose steps have already been counted (dates only, no numbers, so another device doesn't count them twice);
• how far you have heard Baba's tales;
• your chest. If it grows too big (iCloud holds about one megabyte here), it stays on the iPhone; "The katun" page tells you so.

This way the katun comes along to a new iPhone and follows you to an iPad. This data is held by Apple in your account; we have no access to it. Apple transfers and stores iCloud data encrypted. Apple's processing is governed by your agreement with Apple and Apple's privacy policy. If you switch it off, Katun puts nothing more in iCloud; to delete what is already there, see section 9.

3.2 Neighbours

Neighbours are optional. If you invite someone under "Neighbours over the ridge" on "The katun" page, Katun creates a small neighbourhood in your own iCloud (CloudKit) and shares it through Apple's sharing, e.g. by Messages, Mail or a link, with the people you choose. It is never public: only people who are invited and accept can read it and write to it. Everyone needs an iCloud account for this.

What everyone in your neighbourhood sees:

• the first name you enter for your neighbours (without one, it says "A neighbour");
• your herd's names, including the names you give lambs;
• your katun's level and which buildings stand;
• when you were last at your katun (Katun uses it to show whether your lamp is lit or you are away);
• the help you bring each other: who lit whose fire, watered whose herd or counted it home, and on which day. Katun deletes these entries once the help has arrived.

What never goes to your neighbours: steps, calm minutes, your chest, Baba's tales, your weather and your location.

The neighbourhood is kept in the iCloud of the person who invited, and Apple provides it; we have no access to it. Katun recognises your katun there by a random identifier, not by your Apple Account. Apple's sharing shows the members who belongs to the neighbourhood, and depending on how you invite, the person you invite sees your e-mail address or phone number, as with any message. Only invite people you know.

Leaving, hiding and reporting: "Leave the neighbourhood" on "The katun" page takes you out at any time: your entry is deleted from it, and if you invited, the whole neighbourhood is deleted. On a neighbour's card, "Hide this neighbour" means their katun and name no longer appear for you; a hidden neighbour still sees your katun as long as you are in the same neighbourhood, so leave it if you don't want that. "Report" opens an e-mail to us with the neighbour's name and their random neighbour identifier, so we can look into it. The person who invited can remove individual people or stop sharing for everyone in Apple's sharing sheet ("The katun" page, "Invite another").

3.3 Game Center

Game Center is Apple's service for games and is optional. If you are signed in to Game Center on your iPhone, Katun uses it without asking again; otherwise Katun doesn't ask at launch, only when you tap "Sign in to Game Center" on "The katun" page. Katun reports to Game Center:

• your progress on the achievements (e.g. level 5 reached, the first building, every chapter heard; for the first ascent as a percentage of the way);
• three values for the leaderboards: care this week, care in all and the number of Lutalica's finds.

Care is the game value that grows from everything you do in Katun: walking, sitting by the fire, writing, greeting the herd, hearing tales, building. A step count, a distance or calm minutes never go to Game Center. You choose who sees your Game Center profile in the iOS Settings under Game Center. Apple processes this data as an independent controller under Apple's privacy policy.

3.4 Weather and location

On its own, the katun has mountain weather that Katun makes up for the season; nothing is sent for that. If you tap the sun or the moon, you can choose real weather instead:

• "Weather like yours": only if you switch this on does iOS ask for your location (only while using the app). Katun asks only for your approximate location and sends it to Apple Weather (WeatherKit) at most once an hour to get the current weather and temperature. Katun doesn't store the location and passes it to no one else.
• "Weather on Kom": the real weather on Kom Kučki. For this, Katun asks Apple Weather with the fixed coordinates of the peak; your location is not used.

Katun shows the temperature only while the app is running. Whether it rained, the sun was out or there was mist, the katun remembers for the day, because rain grows the grass. Like any service on the internet, Apple sees your device's IP address and processes the requests under Apple's privacy policy. You change the location permission under iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Katun.

3.5 Ads: Google AdMob and Google User Messaging Platform

When: only without Katun Pro and without "Only remove the ads". One small banner, from 6:00 to 21:00: at the foot of the app's pages (the hearth by day only) and under the place bar on the home screen. Never during calm time by the fire, at the spring or on the stone, or with Baba on her bench, and not in the two minutes after; never while you write in the chest, never late at night, never with Baba's tales or a big card. On the home screen Google's question comes at the earliest on your second day. Before that, the Google SDK is not started. Katun only allows ads that Google rates as suitable for everyone.

Sequence: (1) In the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google first asks for your consent through its consent platform (UMP); no ads are loaded before that. If you decline, Google may still serve so-called limited ads: according to Google without any personalisation and without a local device identifier; the IP address is still used to deliver the ad, and cookies or local storage only to detect invalid traffic. (2) Only if you agree there (or Google does not need to ask where you are) does iOS then show the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt, once; if you decline on Google's form, Katun does not ask about tracking. (3) Only then does the ad SDK start and load a banner.

Non-personalised: every ad request is flagged as non-personalised. According to Google, such ads are based only on context, such as the approximate location (city). Google does not use advertising identifiers or cookies to target them, but does use them for frequency capping, aggregated ad reporting and to fend off invalid traffic.

What Google receives (according to the privacy manifest in Google's SDK, which our App Store privacy label is based on): IP address and approximate location derived from it, device and system information, a device identifier (see below), interactions with ads (impressions, clicks), advertising data, diagnostic and performance data, and SDK crash data. Google receives the advertising identifier (IDFA) only if you choose "Allow" in the ATT prompt; Apple and Google treat this as "tracking". If you decline, the app and the ads work the same, just without the IDFA; according to Google, the SDK may still use other device identifiers that are limited to one app or developer. Google never receives health data: Katun gives the ad SDK no steps, no calm minutes and nothing from your chest.

Withdrawal: you can change or withdraw your consent for Google at any time with "Ad privacy choices" under "Privacy and help" on "The katun" page (shown where Google's form applies), and tracking under iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. With Katun Pro or "Only remove the ads", Katun shows no ads and doesn't start the ad SDK.

Provider: Google processes this data as an independent controller; for people in Switzerland and the EEA this is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (parent company: Google LLC, USA). The basis is Google's Controller-Controller Data Protection Terms, which also cover the Swiss FADP. Privacy: policies.google.com/privacy · How Google uses data from partner apps: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites · AdMob data disclosure: developers.google.com/admob/ios/privacy/data-disclosure.

3.6 Purchases: Apple App Store

Katun is free. Katun Pro ("Pro for a year", renewing automatically, or "Pro for life") and "Only remove the ads" are handled exclusively by Apple through the App Store; we receive no payment data. The app checks whether a purchase is active directly on your iPhone with Apple's StoreKit: Apple signs every transaction and iOS verifies the signature locally. The app sends no purchase or transaction data to us or to anyone else; there is no third-party purchase service and we keep no purchase statistics. "Restore purchases" asks Apple for your purchases. Apple sells the app and its in-app purchases in its own name on our behalf (as commissionaire; for customers in Switzerland and Europe this is Apple Distribution International Ltd., Ireland) and processes the purchase data as an independent controller, governed by Apple's privacy policy.

4. This website and e-mail

4.1 Hosting and server logs

This website is hosted by our hosting provider hosttech GmbH (Switzerland; servers in Switzerland), which runs it on our behalf. On every request the web server stores technically necessary data in server logs: IP address, date and time, page requested, status code and amount of data transferred, the referring page (referrer) and browser and operating system (user agent). This is needed to deliver the site, find errors and fend off abuse.

4.2 Access statistics from the server logs

From these server logs the hosting automatically creates access statistics (Webalizer), e.g. page views per day, most visited pages, referring websites, browsers and countries of origin. The statistics can also list the IP addresses or host names of the most frequent visitors. We use them only to see how the website is used overall and to spot errors. We do not combine them with other data and create no profiles. No cookies and no scripts are used for this.

4.3 Google Search Console

We registered the website with Google Search Console to see how it appears in Google Search. No Google code is embedded on this website for this; Google receives no data from us when you visit this website. Google shows us only aggregated figures on search queries, impressions and clicks in Google Search. What Google processes when you use Google Search is governed by Google's privacy policy.

4.4 No cookies, no third-party content

This website sets no cookies, uses no analytics or tracking scripts and loads no fonts, images or videos from third parties. There are no forms, accounts or newsletters on this website.

4.5 E-mail and support

If you e-mail us, we process your e-mail address, your name (if given) and the content. We use them only to answer your request and fix errors. The mailbox is hosted by hosttech in Switzerland. Please don't send us health data, including screenshots from Apple Health; a description is enough.

5. Purposes and legal bases

Under the Swiss FADP we process personal data in line with the principles of Art. 6 FADP; where consent is required, we ask for it. Steps and calm minutes are health data and therefore sensitive personal data (Art. 5(c) FADP); that is why Katun reads and writes them only with your explicit permission in iOS and keeps them on your device. The GDPR details in the table apply where the GDPR applies in an individual case, for example if you live in the EU.

No automated individual decisions, no profiling by us: we make no decisions based solely on automated processing that have legal effects on you or significantly affect you (Art. 21 FADP). What happens in the game is calculated by the app on your device, only for you.

6. Recipients and transfers abroad

We do not sell personal data and do not pass on health data. Only these recipients receive personal data:

• hosttech GmbH, Richterswil, Switzerland: hosting of the website and the e-mail mailbox, on our behalf; data in Switzerland.
• Apple: Apple Distribution International Ltd., Ireland, and Apple Inc., USA: iCloud, Neighbours, Game Center, Apple Weather, App Store and purchases (sections 3.1 to 3.4 and 3.6).
• Google: Google Ireland Limited, Ireland, and Google LLC, USA: Search Console (4.3) and ads (3.5).
• Your neighbours: the people in your neighbourhood, with the details in section 3.2.

Countries and safeguards: data may go to Switzerland, Ireland (EU) and the USA; Apple and Google also run data centres in other countries (see their privacy policies). Under Annex 1 of the Swiss Data Protection Ordinance (DPO), the EU offers adequate data protection. Since 15 September 2024 the USA is adequate only for companies certified under the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework: for Google LLC the transfer relies on that certification. Apple says it bases transfers to the USA on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses with the adaptations required for Switzerland, recognised by the FDPIC (Art. 16(2)(d) FADP).

7. Retention

• Data on the iPhone: until you delete Katun (see section 9).
• Apple Health: Mindful Minutes that Katun saved stay in Apple Health until you delete them there, even if you delete Katun.
• iCloud: until you remove Katun's data in your iCloud settings.
• Neighbourhood: your entry, as long as you belong to it or until the person who invited ends the neighbourhood; entries about help, until the help has arrived.
• Location: Katun doesn't store it.
• Apple (Game Center, Apple Weather, App Store) and Google: according to their privacy policies. Purchase data is kept only by Apple (in your Apple Account) and by StoreKit on your device; we keep none.
• Support e-mails: until the request is resolved, at most two years, unless the law requires longer retention.
• Website server logs: according to the hosting provider, usually a few days to weeks; then they are deleted.
• Access statistics (Webalizer): as a monthly summary for as long as the hosting exists.
• Search Console: aggregated figures according to Google (currently about 16 months).

8. Your rights

You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability / handover, the right to object to processing and the right to withdraw any consent at any time with effect for the future. Because we hold no data from Katun, you can exercise most of these rights directly in the app and in the iOS Settings (see below). For everything else, an e-mail to support@komovi.ch is enough; we usually reply within 30 days and may ask you to confirm your identity. Questions about purchases and refunds are answered by Apple (reportaproblem.apple.com), as we hold no purchase data.

You can lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: in Switzerland the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC, edoeb.admin.ch), in the EU the authority of your country of residence.

9. How to delete your data

• Starting afresh: "Start a new katun" at the foot of "The katun" page replaces your katun with a new one, here and in your iCloud; your chest is kept.
• Everything on the iPhone: delete Katun. This removes your katun, your chest, Katun's record of your steps and minutes and all settings on this iPhone.
• iCloud: switch off "Keep the katun in iCloud" on all your devices, then remove Katun's data under iOS Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Storage.
• Neighbours: leave the neighbourhood (section 3.2). The person who invited stops sharing in Apple's sharing sheet.
• Apple Health: remove the access under iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Health → Katun; delete the Mindful Minutes Katun saved in the Health app.
• Game Center: this data is managed by Apple; for access and deletion, go to privacy.apple.com.
• Location: switch off "Weather like yours", or remove the permission in the iOS Settings.
• Ads: "Ad privacy choices" on "The katun" page, and tracking in the iOS Settings (section 3.5).

10. Children

Katun is not made especially for children and is not in the App Store's Kids category. We don't ask anyone's age and do not knowingly process data of children. Parents can limit purchases, Game Center and sharing with others through Screen Time in iOS. Children and teenagers should ask their parents before inviting neighbours.

11. Security

Katun stores your data with the data protection built into iOS (see section 2.2). All connections to the services named above are encrypted. Because your data lives on your device and in your iCloud account, its protection also depends on the security of your device and your Apple Account.

12. Changes

We update this policy when the app or the law changes. The version published here applies; we mention material changes in the app's release notes.

Version 1.2 · Last updated: 7 November 2026