Privacy policy

Who we are

Re-Turn Tracker is published by Info-Sphere Ireland Limited ("we", "us"), a company registered in Ireland. For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Irish Data Protection Acts, we are the data controller for the limited personal data described below. You can reach us at support@info-sphere.ie.

Re-Turn Tracker is an independent app. It is not made by, endorsed by or connected to Re-turn, the operator of Ireland's Deposit Return Scheme, or to any retailer. Nothing you do in the app is shared with them.

What stays on your phone

When you save a voucher, it is written to a database inside the app on your phone. That record holds:

• the barcode number printed on the slip, and its value
• the date you added it
• the machine or shop it came from, if you picked or typed one
• how many small and large containers went in, if you counted
• any note you wrote, and whether you have marked it redeemed

None of this is transmitted to us. It is not backed up to our servers, it is not synchronised between your devices, and we have no technical means of reading it. We do not know which vouchers you hold, what they are worth, or whether you have spent them. If you delete the app, they are gone — which is why the app offers an export you control.

The same goes for the copy of the machine list the app keeps so the map works without signal, your language and theme choices, and the totals on the home screen and the home-screen widget: all computed on the device, from the device.

With Pro on an iPhone, automatic backup copies your vouchers to your own iCloud — under the Apple ID signed in on the phone — a few seconds after each change. The copy goes from your phone to Apple, never through us, and we cannot see it; a new iPhone on the same Apple ID can restore it. You can switch it off, and delete the copy, in Settings › Backup and restore. Deleting the app does not delete that copy, so delete it there first if you want it gone.

A backup you export is a file on your phone, and you choose where it goes — usually your own iCloud Drive, Google Drive or OneDrive, straight from the phone's share sheet. It never reaches our servers, and we keep no copy of your vouchers anywhere. An iPhone's own iCloud Backup may also include the app's data; on Android, the phone's own Google backup includes it only with Pro. That backup is between you and Apple or Google. A backup can be locked with a passphrase you choose; when it is, the file is encrypted on your phone before it is written, and only that passphrase opens it. The passphrase is never stored anywhere and is never sent to us — we cannot open a locked backup, and we cannot recover the passphrase if you forget it. Moving to a new phone by "beam" streams the backup directly between the two phones over your local network; no server is involved and nothing passes through us.

The camera

The camera reads the barcode on a voucher slip and, when you move to a new phone, the transfer code shown on the other phone's screen. Both happen on the device: the barcode is decoded on the phone, inside the app, and only the digits it finds are kept; no image is stored or sent.

The one time a picture leaves your phone is when you choose to send a photo of a machine (below).

Your location

If you allow it, the app asks your phone for its position once when you open the Machines tab or tap "near me", so it can sort machines by distance, and when you report on a machine, to check you are standing at it. There is no background tracking: the position is held in memory only, the sorting and the check happen on the phone against the cached machine list, and the position is never sent to us. The app works without the permission; the list is simply unsorted, and reporting on a machine needs it.

One thing involves a place rather than you. While the map is on screen, your phone reads the part you are looking at from our own map of Ireland, which we host, or, if you turned on Offline map, from the copy kept on your phone, which sends nothing at all. If our map cannot be reached, the app fetches OpenStreetMap's own tiles instead (see other services). Whichever server answers sees the area you are looking at, as with any map.

The machine list and deposit tiers

The app downloads the list of return points and the current deposit values from our server. Those requests carry no personal data — the response is identical for every user of the app, which is what allows it to be cached — and the app keeps a copy so it keeps working with no connection.

Machine reports

Tapping "working", "broken", "full", "no vouchers", "busy" or "quiet" sends that one word to our server with the machine it refers to and a random installation identifier the app generated (see below). A report carries no words of your own. The server records the time and the IP address the request came from, and the country that address maps to.

Reports are combined into a status for the machine — the latest condition report in the last 24 hours, the latest queue report in the last 3 hours — and that status is what other people see. No identifier or address is shown to anyone using the app.

The identifier lets the server ignore one phone repeating itself and keep the map honest; the IP address lets us stop abuse and rate-limit the service. No report is ever linked to a name, and none is shared with Re-turn, a retailer or anyone else.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) in running a map that people keep honest, and in preventing its abuse.

Retention: the IP address on a report is removed after 90 days. The report itself — the word, the time, the machine and the random identifier — is kept as part of the machine's history.

Photos of machines

From a machine's panel you can take a photo of the machine and send it. The app shrinks it and redraws it on your phone before sending, which leaves out the information a camera stores inside a photo (such as where it was taken); our server removes any that remains before storing it. With the photo go the machine it shows, the random installation identifier (see below), the time, and the IP address and country it came from.

A person checks every photo before anyone else sees it. Once approved it is shown to everyone using the app on that machine's panel, without your identifier or anything else about you. Each phone keeps one photo per machine. Please keep people and number plates out of shot: photos that show them are rejected.

Lawful basis: your consent, given by choosing to send the photo (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can withdraw by asking us to remove it; and our legitimate interests in preventing abuse, for the IP address.

Retention: an approved photo stays for as long as it shows the machine, or until you ask us to remove it. A rejected photo is deleted 30 days after it was checked. The IP address is removed after 90 days.

When the app opens

When the app opens, it sends its random installation identifier with the phone's model, operating system and app version; our server notes the IP address and country, uses them to count installs and prevent abuse (our legitimate interests), and deletes the daily records that hold the IP address after 12 months.

Feedback you send us

If you tell us a machine is wrong or missing, report a problem or send a suggestion from Settings › About, we receive your message, the kind you picked, your app version and platform, the same random identifier, and — only if you type it — an email address to reply to. We keep these so we can act on them and check whether a problem has recurred. Ask and we will remove your address from a message.

Pro, if you buy it

Pro is an optional one-off purchase, and the purchase belongs to Apple or Google: they sell it, take the payment and handle any refund. We never see your name, your Apple or Google account, or your card. We keep only a record of it, so the app can unlock Pro and restore it later: the store's reference for the purchase (its transaction identifier) and the store's confirmation of it, the product, your platform and app version, and the same random identifier. Our server checks that reference with Apple or Google, and they tell it if a purchase is refunded.

Lawful basis: performing the contract you made by buying Pro (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR). Retention: for as long as Pro is yours, so it can be restored on this phone or a new one; a refunded purchase stays on record, marked refunded.

Server logs

Like any web service, our API records a line for each request: the time, the HTTP method and path, the response status, how long it took, the app's user-agent string, the IP address, and the country. We use this to run the service, spot faults and detect abuse. IP addresses can be personal data under GDPR; our lawful basis is legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) in keeping the service available and secure. These logs are deleted after 90 days.

Other services the app talks to

A few things happen between your phone and someone other than us. None of them receives your vouchers.

• Map tiles — only when our own map cannot be reached, the map background is drawn from tiles fetched from the OpenStreetMap Foundation's tile servers. Those servers see your IP address and which tiles you asked for, under the Foundation's own privacy policy. With Offline map turned on, the phone never needs them. With no connection and no offline copy, the map shows no background; the pins and the list still work.
• Directions — "Directions" opens Apple Maps or Google Maps with the machine's coordinates. From that moment you are in their app, under their terms.
• The rating prompt — after a few uses the app may ask your phone to show the App Store's or Google Play's own rating sheet. We never see what you choose.
• The Pro purchase — paying for Pro happens in the App Store or Google Play, under their own terms and privacy policies. They take the payment and tell us only that the purchase was made, or refunded.
• Links — the app links to re-turn.ie for the scheme's own rules; that opens in your browser.

What we never do

• We do not sell or rent personal data.
• We do not tell Re-turn, a retailer or anyone else which vouchers you hold, where you returned containers, or whether you redeemed anything.
• We do not use advertising identifiers, and there are no third-party advertising or analytics SDKs in the app. There are no ads.
• We do not build a profile of you, and we make no automated decisions about you.

Cookies

This website sets no cookies and runs no third-party analytics. The app is not a website and uses no cookies. Nothing here needs a consent banner, which is why you did not get one.

Who else can see the data

Our server and database are operated by us and located in Ireland. If you email us, your message passes through our mail provider in the ordinary way, as any email does. The map, directions, scanner and app-store services listed above are separate controllers that your phone contacts directly; we pass them nothing, except that our server asks Apple or Google to confirm a Pro purchase by its reference.

Your rights

You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict and port your personal data, and to object to processing based on legitimate interests. There is very little to exercise them against: a random install identifier, the IP address on recent reports and logs, and a reply address only if you typed one into a feedback message. Deleting the app removes everything held on your phone — see delete my data for what that does and does not cover.

You can also write to support@info-sphere.ie. We will respond within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Irish Data Protection Commission, dataprotection.ie.

Children

Re-Turn Tracker is a tool for keeping track of deposit vouchers and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16.

Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Where a change materially affects data we already hold, we will say so on this page and in the app's release notes before it takes effect.