StudyStep

StudyStep has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking. Your study record lives on your device. Two things do use the network, and both are described below: the app downloads corrected questions, and — only if you choose to pair with a parent — it syncs your study record through your own iCloud account.

What we can and cannot see

This is the short version, because it is the part that matters.

We cannot see your study record. When a parent is paired, the child's work is synced through Apple's iCloud between those two people's devices. It is stored in the child's private iCloud area and shared with the parent. We have no access to it. We cannot read what you have answered, how you did, or when you studied.

We can see a pairing code while it is being used. Connecting a parent and a child needs a short code that both devices can find, so that one record is stored in a shared area we are able to read. It holds the code itself, an anonymous identifier Apple gives us for the parent's iCloud account, a link to the shared data, an expiry time, and the anonymous identifier of the child who used it. It contains no names and no study data, and it is deleted once pairing is finished or the code expires.

Information stored on your device

The app saves your work locally so it survives between sessions: your first name, year level and chosen subjects, which questions you have answered and whether you got them right, how long you spent, your streak, the schedule that decides when a question comes back for review, and your settings.

This is held on your device using the operating system's standard local storage. If you never pair with a parent, it never leaves the device, and it is permanently removed when you delete the app.

Downloading corrected questions

Questions are written by people and people make mistakes. So that a wrong answer key can be fixed without waiting for an App Store update, the app checks a few times a day for a corrected set of questions and downloads it if there is one.

The files are hosted publicly on GitHub Pages. The request contains nothing about you — no name, no identifier, nothing about what you have studied. As with any web request, GitHub receives your device's IP address and the usual server log information. We do not receive any of it. Their privacy practices are GitHub's own.

If the app is offline, or the host cannot be reached, it uses the questions it was installed with.

Pairing with a parent

Pairing is optional. A student who never pairs sends nothing anywhere, and the whole of the revision side works exactly the same.

If you do pair, the following is synced through Apple's iCloud so the parent can see how study is going: the child's first name, year level and state; each study session, meaning the topic, when it started and ended, how many questions were answered and how many were right; each answer within it, meaning which question, which option was chosen, whether it was correct and how long it took; and any topics the parent has asked the child to concentrate on.

This travels between the two devices through the child's own iCloud account, using Apple's CloudKit. It is not sent to us and we cannot read it. Apple's handling of iCloud data is covered by Apple's privacy policy.

Either side can end the pairing. Deleting the app removes the local copy, and removing the shared data from iCloud removes the parent's copy.

Subscriptions

The parent dashboard is a paid subscription. Revision itself is free and always will be: a student who never pays keeps every question, every article and their whole progress record.

Payment is handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. We never see card numbers, billing addresses or any other payment detail. We are told only whether a subscription is currently active.

Speech and listening

The languages sections read French and German aloud using the speech voices built into iOS. Nothing is recorded. The app does not ask for the camera or the microphone.

Notifications

If you turn on the daily question, that reminder is scheduled by iOS on your device. Nothing is sent from a server to make it happen.

Third parties

The app contains no advertising networks, no analytics services and no third-party tracking software of any kind. The only outside services involved are Apple, for iCloud sync and subscription billing, and GitHub, which hosts the question files the app downloads.

Tracking

The app does not track you across apps or websites, and does not access your device's advertising identifier.

Children's privacy

StudyStep is written for students in Years 7 to 10. It has no chat, no social features and no user-generated content, and a child is never asked to buy anything — the subscription is a parent's, bought on a parent's device.

We ask a student for a first name only, so the app can address them. If a parent pairs with the child, that first name and the study record described above are synced through iCloud to the parent, which is the point of the feature. None of it reaches us.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the revised version will be posted on this page with an updated date above.

Curriculum

StudyStep is aligned with the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). Curriculum content is © VCAA; the topic summaries and questions in this app were written for it.

Support

Questions, bug reports and feedback are welcome at support@scipsolutions.com.au

We aim to reply within a few business days. When reporting a problem, telling us your device model and iOS version helps a lot.

StudyStep is developed and published by SCIP Solutions.