WasteStart Mobile
Last updated: 10 September 2026
This policy explains how the WasteStart Mobile app ("the app") handles personal data. It applies to drivers and field staff who use the app to carry out collection rounds for a waste or recycling operator.
The app is published by Waste Start Limited ("WasteStart", "we", "us"), a company registered in Ireland (Company No. 788567) with its registered office at Unit 6e, Nutgrove Office Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14, D14 A0X2, Ireland.
Who controls your data. WasteStart Mobile is a workforce app. The operator that employs you (your "employer") decides what work data is collected and why, and is the data controller for that data. WasteStart acts as a data processor on the employer's behalf for the operational data described below, and as a controller only for the limited data needed to run and support the app itself (e.g. your account and support correspondence). If you want to exercise your data-protection rights over your work data, your employer is the first point of contact — see Section 9.
We only collect data needed to run the app and carry out your work.
| Data | Examples | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Account details | Name, email address, organisation/employee identifiers | Sign you in and show your account |
| Precise location | Your GPS position while you navigate; your position throughout an active schedule — including while the app is in the background or your screen is off | Calculate and follow HGV-safe routes, and show your employer's office where the round is |
| Photos and signatures | Images you attach to an issue report; signatures you capture to confirm completed work | Document issues on site and confirm work |
| Work data | Schedules, jobs, statuses, weighbridge weights, checklist responses, issue reasons and notes you enter | Run your collection round and keep the office up to date |
| Technical data | App version, platform (Android/iOS), a push-notification (FCM) token | Deliver notifications and keep the app working |
We do not collect data from children, and the app is not directed at anyone under 18 (see Section 11).
There are three distinct flows.
When you start a schedule in the app, it begins sending your position to WasteStart so your employer's office can see where the round is. This continues for as long as that schedule is active — including while the app is in the background, while you are using other apps, and while your screen is off.
A position is sent when you have moved a meaningful distance, and — when you are stationary — at least once every 75 seconds, so the office can tell a parked vehicle from a lost signal. In practice that is roughly 60 positions an hour while driving and about 12 an hour while parked. These are periodic snapshots, not a continuous second-by-second recording, and they are collected at a lower accuracy than the turn-by-turn navigation on your device uses — enough to show where the round is, not to reconstruct your exact path.
You can always tell when it is running.
How it stops. Tracking ends when you tap Finish on the schedule, or when you sign out. There is also an automatic backstop: if the app has been off screen for 60 minutes with no interaction, tracking gives itself up. Finishing the schedule or signing out is the reliable way to stop it — if a schedule is left open and the app is left on screen (for example a handset sitting in a cradle on charge), reporting can continue past the end of your working day.
Outside an active schedule, nothing is sent for dispatcher visibility. The app never tracks you when you are not on shift.
We use the data above to:
Lawful bases (UK GDPR / EU GDPR). Processing is carried out on the basis of performance of a contract (with your employer / providing the service), legitimate interests (running, securing and improving the service), and legal obligation where applicable. Your employer determines the lawful basis for the work data it controls, including location while you are on shift.
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with:
Your shift positions are not shared with HERE, Google, or any other third party — they go only to WasteStart, for your employer.
Where data is processed outside the UK/EEA, we rely on appropriate safeguards (the UK International Data Transfer Agreement / EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or an adequacy decision).
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Location — "while using the app" (precise) | HGV-safe navigation and routing, and dispatcher visibility while you are on shift |
| Camera | Attach photos to issue reports |
| Notifications | Operational alerts, and the ongoing shift-tracking notification on Android |
| Network/Internet | Sync with the office and fetch maps/routes |
| Foreground service (Android) / background location updates (iOS) | Keep navigation and shift tracking running while you drive with the app off screen |
We do not ask for "all the time" location access. The app requests only the while using the app level of location permission — not Android's "allow all the time" or iOS's "always". Tracking is always started by you, on screen, when you begin a schedule, and then runs as a visible ongoing service (see Section 2) for the duration of that shift. That is why it can keep reporting with the app off screen without the app ever holding background-location permission.
You can change permissions in your device settings; some features won't work without them (e.g. navigation needs location).
Under UK GDPR / EU GDPR you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to processing of your personal data, and to data portability.
Because your employer is the controller of your work data, please contact your employer first to exercise these rights. For app-account or support data that WasteStart controls, contact us at support@wastestart.com.
You also have the right to complain to your data-protection supervisory authority. WasteStart is established in Ireland, so its lead authority is the Data Protection Commission (Ireland, dataprotection.ie). If you are in the UK, you may instead contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) (ico.org.uk).
Accounts are provisioned by your employer; you cannot create one yourself within the app. Here, deletion means revoking your access to the app — your employer holds the operational content you captured (see below). To request it, email support@wastestart.com from your registered address (subject "Data deletion request"), or contact your employer's WasteStart administrator. We action verified requests within 30 days, subject to any legal retention obligations, and your employer can revoke your access at any time.
What is deleted: your login — email, password and authentication token — and the account that lets you sign in, so you can no longer access the app.
What is kept: the operational content you captured during your work (schedules, jobs, weighbridge weights, checklist responses, issue notes, photos, signatures and your last reported position) belongs to and remains with your employer, who is the data controller and determines how long it is kept (see Section 6).
Signing out of the app immediately stops shift tracking and clears all data held on the device — cached schedules, jobs, drafts, queued changes and attached photos — and removes your authentication token from secure storage (see Section 7).
WasteStart Mobile is a workplace tool intended for employed drivers aged 18 or over. It is not directed at, and we do not knowingly collect data from, children.
We may update this policy from time to time. We will post the updated version here and change the "Last updated" date. Material changes will be communicated through your employer or in the app.