Summary
Binformation is a UK bin day reminder app. It stores your address on your device only. It sends your postcode, approximate location and house identifier to a backend service to look up your council's bin collection schedule. It shows advertisements through Google AdMob. It does not require an account.
Who we are
Binformation is developed by Keep Computing (sole trader, United Kingdom). Contact details: keepcomputing.co.uk.
What data the app handles
Data you enter
- Postcode — required to identify your council.
- House number or name — required to identify your specific collection round.
These are stored locally on your device using Android's DataStore. They are not synchronised to any cloud account.
Data derived from your postcode
When you enter your postcode, the app queries the postcodes.io service (via a proxy endpoint) to convert the postcode into an approximate latitude and longitude. This is the centroid of your postcode area, which typically covers multiple households. The app does not read your device's GPS. The latitude and longitude are stored locally on your device together with your postcode and house number.
Data sent to our backend
To look up your bin collection schedule, the app sends the following to kepthouse.app/api/, an API hosted by the same developer:
- Your postcode
- The approximate latitude and longitude derived from that postcode
- The address string you entered, in the form "house, street, postcode"
The backend uses this information to identify your council, look up your property in the Ordnance Survey UPRN dataset, and fetch your bin schedule from the council's published source. The backend logs this request for operational purposes (error tracing, rate limiting). Logs are retained for up to 30 days and are not shared.
Data shown in the app
The bin collection schedule returned by the backend is cached on your device. It is refreshed daily in the background. The schedule contains the dates and types of your upcoming bin collections. It does not contain any personally identifying information about you.
Advertising — Google AdMob
Binformation displays a single non-personalised banner advertisement on the schedule screen through Google AdMob. AdMob is configured with "Tag For Under Age Of Consent" set globally, so the Android advertising identifier is not used to personalise the ads shown to you. Ads are filtered to the G (general audience) content rating. See Google's disclosure at support.google.com/admob.
If you prefer no advertisements, a one-off in-app purchase permanently removes the banner. Once removed, AdMob is no longer initialised for your installation.
You can reset your Android advertising ID at any time from your device's Settings → Privacy → Ads.
Payments — Google Play Billing
The one-off "Remove ads" purchase is handled entirely by Google Play Billing. The app never sees your payment details. We only receive a confirmation from Google that the purchase occurred so that the app can unlock the ad-free state. See Google's privacy policy.
Analytics and crash reporting
The current release of Binformation does not include any third-party analytics or crash reporting. If this changes in a future release (for example, if Firebase Analytics or Firebase Crashlytics is added), this policy will be updated and you will be asked for consent where required by UK GDPR.
Notifications
The app posts local notifications on your device the evening before each scheduled bin collection. Notifications contain the name of your address and the bin types to put out. They are generated on your device and are not sent through any third-party push service.
Third parties your data touches
- postcodes.io — postcode to coordinates lookup (via our proxy)
- Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) — address lookup (via our proxy)
- Your council's public bin schedule source — queried via the UK Bin Collection Data project
- Google AdMob — advertising (unless the remove-ads upgrade is purchased)
- Google Play Billing — payments
- Google Play Services — required for AdMob and Billing to function
Children and target audience
Binformation's Google Play target audience is set to ages 13 and up. It is a utility app for household bin management and is not designed, marketed, or directed at children under 13.
Advertising in the app is served exclusively through Google AdMob, which is a Google Play certified ad network. Because the Play Console target audience includes users aged 13 to 15, Binformation configures AdMob to treat all users as being under the age of consent. In practice this means:
- Ads are non-personalised — the advertising identifier on your device is not used to select which ads you see.
- Ads are filtered to the "G" (general audience) content rating — no mature or adult content.
- We do not run rewarded ads, interstitial ads, pop-ups, or video ads of any kind. A single banner on the schedule screen is the only ad format.
We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. The app does not operate a cloud account — everything the app knows about the user is held on the user's device. Uninstalling the app, tapping "Change address" in Settings, or clearing app data from Android Settings removes all stored address information from the device.
If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child has used the app, you can remove any stored data directly by uninstalling it. For any further questions, see keepcomputing.co.uk.
The app complies with applicable laws on children's privacy including the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR / EU GDPR), including the GDPR age-of-consent provisions for users under 16 in EU member states where that threshold applies.
Your rights (UK GDPR)
Because the app stores your address only on your device, you can exercise the following rights yourself without needing to contact us:
- Access — open the Settings screen to see the address Binformation holds.
- Erasure — tap "Change address" to clear the stored address, or uninstall the app to remove all stored data.
- Rectification — edit your address at any time via "Change address".
If you have questions about the brief backend log retention described above, or believe your rights under UK GDPR have been breached, see keepcomputing.co.uk for contact details. You may also lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Data retention
Address and schedule data on your device persist until you tap "Change address", clear app data, or uninstall the app. Backend request logs are retained for up to 30 days.
Changes to this policy
Material changes to this policy will be announced in the app's changelog on the About screen and noted on this page. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision.
Contact
Keep Computing (sole trader, United Kingdom)
keepcomputing.co.uk