Transparency Statement

What we collect

During a search

What we do store

Theme preference only. If you toggle light or dark mode, that choice is saved in your browser's localStorage — a small, local store on your device that never leaves it. We never read it server-side; it never reaches our servers.

Last-searched address. If you've done a search before, your postcode, UPRN, and address label are also saved in localStorage so the app can auto-load your schedule next time. This stays on your device only. Clear your browser storage to remove it.

Collection schedule cache. Once your bin schedule has loaded, the collection dates are saved in localStorage for up to 6 hours. On a repeat visit within that window, the app shows your schedule instantly from this local cache — no server request needed. This data lives entirely on your device, is never sent to us, and is discarded automatically after 6 hours or when you clear your browser storage.

How your postcode is handled

1. You type a postcode into the browser.
2. The app sends it to our server route.
3. Our server passes the postcode to postcodes.io — a free, open-data UK postcode lookup — to confirm it's valid and determine which council area it falls in (Aberdeen City or Aberdeenshire).
4. Armed with the correct council, our server queries that council's systems to find the addresses at your postcode.
5. You pick your address; the council returns your bin schedule.
6. The result is sent back to your browser and displayed.
7. The postcode is not logged, not stored in a database, not written to disk by us.

That's it.

Why postcodes.io? Postcode-to-council boundaries don't follow simple numeric patterns. Several AB postcodes straddle the city/shire boundary, so a lookup against the official boundary data is the only reliable way to route the request correctly. postcodes.io is read-only — it looks up public geographic data. It does not store or log individual queries.

Server-side caching — the detail

To avoid hammering the council systems with repeat requests, our server keeps a short-lived, in-memory cache. Here's exactly what that means:

• What's cached: The bin collection schedule for a given UPRN (your property reference number — a code assigned by Ordnance Survey to every addressable property in the UK).
• What's not cached: Your postcode, your IP address, any identifying information.
• How long: 6 hours. After that, the entry is discarded and the council is queried fresh on the next request.
• Where: In the memory of the Vercel serverless function instance. This is not a database. It is not persisted to disk. When the instance shuts down or is replaced, the cache is gone.
• Who can see it: Nobody. It's process memory, not accessible externally.

A UPRN on its own is publicly available information — it's linked to an address, not a person.

Third-party services

We use the following external services. We're listing them because honesty requires it.

Vercel (hosting)

Fan's Yer Bin? is deployed on Vercel. Vercel handles the infrastructure. As a result, Vercel's edge network processes inbound requests. Their standard infrastructure logs (timestamps, response codes, edge region) may be retained in line with their own privacy policy. We do not configure or have access to custom server logs.

Vercel Analytics

We use Vercel Analytics to measure page views and general traffic. This is privacy-focused analytics — it does not use cookies, does not fingerprint devices, and does not track individual users across sessions. It gives us aggregate numbers (e.g., "500 visits today") with no user-level data.

Vercel Speed Insights

We use Vercel Speed Insights to measure page load performance (Core Web Vitals). Again, this is aggregate and non-identifying — it tells us whether the site is fast, not who is using it.

postcodes.io (postcode validation)

We use postcodes.io to validate postcodes and determine which council area they belong to. This is a free, open-source service using publicly available Ordnance Survey data.

• Your postcode is sent to api.postcodes.io each time you search (or served from our short-term cache if the same postcode was looked up recently).
• postcodes.io returns the council district name only. It does not receive your UPRN, IP address, or any other identifying information.
• postcodes.io does not store or log individual postcode queries. See the postcodes.io about page for details.

Postcode lookup cache: Our server caches postcode→council mappings in memory for up to 24 hours. Repeated searches for the same postcode won't call postcodes.io again within that window. The cache holds only the postcode string and the council name — no user data. It lives in process memory and is discarded when the server restarts.

What we don't use

• Google Analytics
• Mixpanel, Amplitude, or any behavioural analytics
• Advertising networks or tracking pixels
• Session recording tools (Hotjar, FullStory, etc.)
• Third-party fonts or asset CDNs — fonts are system fonts, no external CDN requests

Data retention

How it compares to the official council websites

Security

• All traffic is served over HTTPS. Your postcode and UPRN are encrypted in transit.
• No sensitive data is stored on our side, so there is nothing to breach.
• Vercel provides DDoS protection at the infrastructure level.

What we can and can't guarantee

We can guarantee

• No intentional collection or storage of personal data on our part.
• No user tracking, no ads, no third-party data sharing by us.
• The server cache contains only UPRNs (public property references) paired with bin schedules — no names, postcodes, or identifying information.
• Honest updates to this document if any of the above changes.

Outside our control

• Some addresses have no regular schedule. Communal bin stores, on-demand collections, and privately-managed properties may not appear in council scheduling systems. If your address has no fixed collection day, the app will say so — it won't show incorrect dates.
• Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council's own systems will process your UPRN when we query them. Their data handling is governed by their own privacy policies.
• postcodes.io processes your postcode as part of the council lookup. Their handling follows their own privacy policy.
• Your ISP sees that you visited this site. That's true of every website.
• Vercel's infrastructure-level logging follows Vercel's own privacy policy, not ours.

Your rights

Because we hold no personal data about you, there is nothing to access, correct, or delete via a Subject Access Request — there's simply no record of you in our systems.

If you have a question about how the site works, or a concern about privacy, open an issue on GitHub or get in touch via the contact details on the homepage.

Changes to this statement

If we add a new third-party service, change how caching works, or anything else privacy-relevant changes, we will update this document and note the date at the top. We won't bury changes.