Privacy Policy for Recycle How

Effective date: 27-09-2026

Recycle How ("we," "our," or "us") respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how our mobile application Recycle How (the "App") collects, uses, and protects your information.

1. Information We Collect

When you use Recycle How, we may collect the following information:

  • Photos you upload: You can take a picture of an item to identify materials for recycling.
  • Pseudonymous usage identifiers: Generated by Firebase to prevent abuse and manage rate limiting.
  • Interaction counts: The number of times a unique user interacts with the App is recorded to enforce fair usage limits.
  • Location for detection history: When you use nearby recycling guidance, your selected place, postal code, and coordinates may be stored with a detection so its history can show the same guidance later.
  • Error diagnostics: When the App or its backend encounters an error, we may receive a crash report with the original error message, a stack trace, app version, basic device information, and your pseudonymous Firebase user ID. We use Sentry to process these reports. Error messages can occasionally contain information supplied to another service. We do not intentionally include photos, precise location, search text, or request bodies in Sentry reports.
  • Feedback information: If you choose to provide feedback during testing or via forms.

We do not collect:

  • Your name, email address, phone number, or other directly identifying personal information through the App.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information to:

  • Identify materials in your uploaded photos using Google Cloud Vision API.
  • Match detected materials with recycling guidance from RecycleNow.
  • Enforce fair usage by tracking anonymous interaction counts.
  • Improve the performance and reliability of the App.
  • Diagnose and fix App and backend errors.

3. Data Storage and Retention

  • Photos: Uploaded images are stored temporarily in secure Google Cloud Storage and automatically deleted within 1 hour.
  • App data: Metadata (labels, similarity scores, rate limits) may be cached in Firestore for performance and may be associated with a pseudonymous Firebase identifier.
  • Interaction counts: Stored with a pseudonymous identifier and used for rate limiting.
  • Detection history: May include the selected place, postal code, and coordinates associated with saved recycling guidance.
  • Error diagnostics: Stored by Sentry to help us investigate crashes and unexpected errors.
  • Feedback forms: If you participate in testing, responses may include your email address or other voluntary details. These are stored securely and only used for testing purposes.

4. Data Sharing

We do not sell or share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes.
We use trusted service providers solely to provide the App's functionality:

  • Google Cloud Platform (Cloud Storage, Vision API, Vertex API, Geocoding)
  • Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Functions)
  • Sentry (error reporting)
  • RecycleNow website (to display recycling information)

5. Your Rights

You may:

  • Request deletion of feedback data you have provided by contacting us.

Since most data in the App is temporary and anonymized, we generally cannot identify individual users from App usage alone.

6. Security

We use industry-standard security measures (such as encrypted storage and secure connections) to protect your information. However, no method of electronic storage is 100% secure.

7. Children's Privacy

Recycle How is not designed for children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from users under 18.
Use of the App is not restricted by age, but it is intended for adults.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The effective date will be updated accordingly.

9. Contact Us

If you have questions or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

Email: [email protected]