Account deletion
Delete your account
You can delete your WasteAway account and the personal data attached to it, from inside the app or by writing to us. This page sets out what to settle first, both routes, what is erased, what we keep, and how long it takes.
First: nothing still in progress
The app refuses to delete while any of these is open, and names the one that is blocking it.
| Still in progress | How to clear it |
|---|---|
| A pickup a collector has already taken on | Wait for it to finish, or cancel it in the app. |
| A pickup you have paid for that nobody has claimed | Cancel it. The money goes back to the wallet that paid. |
| A pickup booked for cash that nobody has claimed | Cancel it. No money has moved. |
| A recyclables buy-back that is not finished | Cancel it if it has not been weighed yet. If it is under review after weighing, wait for the review to finish. |
| An open complaint about one of your pickups | Wait for us to decide it. Either side of a complaint blocks a deletion while it is open. |
| A plan your estate pays for | Ask an estate manager to cancel it or move it to another unit. It is yours to use, not yours to end. |
| Being the only manager of an estate that still has members or a running plan | Make another member a manager first. |
| For collectors: a job you have claimed | Finish it, or hand it back. |
| For collectors: a buy-back you have accepted | Finish it, or end it in the app. If it is under review after weighing, wait for the review to finish. |
Then: clear any balance the account is holding
Money with a way out has to leave first. WasteAway refuses the deletion while a balance that can still be cleared, such as collector earnings or a payout under review, is above zero, and the app names the balance that is blocking it. Your own wallet is the one exception: The app cannot pay wallet money out to a bank, so it offers to let you give it up instead. Support can return it by hand if you ask before you delete. Nothing is taken without your confirmation.
Usually that balance is the wallet. Money in your WasteAway wallet pays for pickups and plans. The app has no way to send it back to a card or bank account, so a wallet is emptied by spending it. That is true of a top-up and of a refund credited back to you alike. If you would rather not spend it, the app lets you give up what is left as part of deleting, and it shows you the exact amount before asking you to confirm.
Deleting also ends any collection plan you pay for yourself. Future visits stop, and the part of the month you have paid for but not yet received is added to what you give up. The app shows one figure covering both, and asks before taking anything. To keep the value instead, spend the wallet down and let the plan run to the end of its month first.
| What is holding money | How to clear it |
|---|---|
| Your wallet | Spend it, or ask us to send it back. Wallet money pays for WasteAway pickups and plans, and the app has no way to send it to a bank account, but support can do it by hand: write to us before you delete. Otherwise book a pickup, or let your plan’s next visits draw the balance down. The app also lets you give up what is left when you delete, and shows the exact amount first. |
| A business or estate wallet you own | Spend it the same way, or add a manager who can spend it: an estate that still has someone able to bill the wallet does not block your deletion at all. Business wallet money pays for pickups and plans, and the app has no way to send it to a bank account. |
| Collector earnings | Request a payout and wait for it to reach your bank account. |
| A payout already under review | Wait for it to reach your bank account. Our team approves payouts, and the amount is held out of your balance until then. |
| Cash you collected for WasteAway | Remit it in the app. A payout also settles it, but only once your earnings cover the cash you are holding. |
| Recyclables cash in your wallet | Spend it in the app. This is the money a buy-back paid you, and it clears the same way the rest of the wallet does. |
| A withdrawal already under review | Wait for it to reach your bank account. The amount is held out of your balance until it does. |
| Buy-back fees you owe | Settle them from Earnings in the app. |
| Earnings still clearing | Pay for a finished job is held for three days, the time a customer has to raise a problem. Wait for that to pass, then request a payout. |
Have a balance you would rather have back? Email support@wasteaway.ng with the subject “Wallet balance” and tell us the amount. The app has no way to send wallet money to a card or a bank account. We can do it by hand, and you do not have to delete your account or give the balance up first. If you would rather spend it, we will work out what it can cover, including a pickup at an address you choose.
A pickup you have already booked must finish, or be cancelled, before the account can go. The money we are holding for that pickup then lands back in your wallet, where you can still spend it, rather than moving after you have gone.
Deleting in the app
This is the fastest route, and it takes effect immediately.
- Open WasteAway and go to Profile.
- Scroll to Delete account.
- Confirm on the dialog that explains what is about to happen.
Collectors delete the same way, from the collector Profile screen. Deletion revokes every signed-in session at once: the device you delete from signs out immediately, and any other device still signed in loses access within minutes.
Deleting without the app
If you have already uninstalled WasteAway, or you cannot get into your account, ask us directly:
- Email privacy@wasteaway.ng with the subject “Delete my account”.
- Include the phone number the account is registered to.
- We confirm the request with that number before we act on it, so nobody can close your account with an email alone.
We complete verified requests within 30 days, the response window the Nigeria Data Protection Act gives us, and email you when it is done. If the account still holds a balance we will tell you which one it is and how to clear it. If money is left in your wallet, we will name the exact amount and ask you to confirm in writing that you give it up before we go ahead.
What is deleted
Cleared from your account the moment the deletion goes through:
- The name, email address and photo on your profile.
- The identity-verification details on your account, including the ID type and the last digits we held, along with your verified badge.
- If you applied to collect: your National Identification Number, your identity document, your photograph, your vehicle photograph, your vehicle plate number, the scan of any licence we checked, and your guarantor's name and phone number.
- Any collector or administrator role on the account, and the link to a collector profile.
- Your saved cards, and the devices registered to receive notifications.
- Every sign-in session, on every device: revoked at once, with any still-open app losing access within minutes.
The images behind those documents are removed from our storage by a separate job that runs after the deletion. If any of them cannot be removed automatically, a person handles it.
Copies of the details listed above can stay in our encrypted backups for a short time, until those backups are replaced automatically.
Deletion is final. That phone number can no longer sign in, and it cannot be used to create a fresh account: signing in with it returns “this account has been deleted”. If you want to use WasteAway again later on the same number, write to support@wasteaway.ng and we will sort it out with you.
What is kept, and why
What survives includes your job and payment history, with the addresses, notes, complaints and ratings attached to it, and the phone number the account was registered to. Any issue report or fraud review survives too, and so does your place on any estate member list and any estate you set up. The messages we sent you, records of how you used the app and your security settings stay with the closed account. If you collected, the vehicle and licence facts and the work record a past collection needs stay too. None of it can sign in, none of it is used to market to you, and none of it is sold.
| Retained | Why it is kept |
|---|---|
| Payments, refunds, payouts and buy-back settlements | Money movements are recorded in an append-only ledger. Nigerian tax and financial regulations require us to keep these records. |
| The bank details on any payout or withdrawal you requested | A payout or withdrawal record has to show where the money went: the bank, the account number and the account holder’s name. |
| A collector record, if you applied to collect | Your vehicle type stays with the collections it belongs to, and so do the licence details we checked: the authority, the reference, the dates and the fact we verified it. So does your work record: whether you were approved, the terms and safety checks you confirmed, the jobs you completed or handed back, and the ratings customers gave you. Your name stays on the collector record only where a past collection needs it to remain attributable, and in the pickup and buy-back updates customers have already received. |
| Every pickup, plan and buy-back on the account, paid or not | A payment is only auditable next to the job it paid for, and an unpaid or cancelled job is part of the same history. Each record keeps its date, the price parts, the verified weights on a buy-back, the notes you added, when and where the collector’s proof photo was taken, and where the load went. The photos you added and the proof photo itself stay with the record for twelve months after the job ends, then they are deleted. |
| The addresses attached to those collections | A retained collection record is only meaningful next to the place it happened. Every address saved on the account is kept alongside those records, including any address no collection ever used. Each one keeps its map pin, postcode, directions and contact number, and any note a collector made about finding it. |
| Your complaints, refund requests, reasons for cancelling and ratings | They are the record of what was asked and what was decided, so each stays with the job, plan or payment it belongs to. So does any note our team, a collector or your estate added. A rating also counts toward that collector’s average. |
| Your phone number on the closed account | It is the account key. Keeping it is what stops the number being recycled into your old account, and it keeps the retained financial records attributable. |
| Reports of an issue on a job, such as a spill or an injury, with any photos attached, and fraud reviews | They are the record of what happened and what was done about it, which we keep for safety and fraud prevention. |
| Your place on an estate’s member list, and any estate you set up | The estate’s managers still see your name, phone number, role and unit on that list. It is the estate’s record of who belonged and who had access. An estate you set up stays registered to you until another member takes it over. |
| A record of any estate handover or closure you took part in | We keep a short record of what happened and when, without names or phone numbers, for six years, so the change can be checked later. |
| Messages we sent you, and records of how you used the app | Your in-app inbox is our record of each update we sent you, such as a booking confirmation or a payout notice. App usage records, such as opening the app or making a booking, show us which features are used. Both stay linked to the closed account until they are deleted: messages twelve months after they are sent, and usage records 90 days after they are recorded. |
| Security and settings records on the closed account | Your past sign-ins stay with the closed account as its security record until 30 days after each one expires. Your PIN and your notification choices stay with it too, and your PIN is stored only as a one-way hash. The sign-in codes we sent are also stored only as one-way hashes, and are deleted shortly after they expire. Any referral you made or received stays too, and so does the reference our payment processor gave us for each card you saved. |
Issue reports and fraud reviews are deleted five years after they are closed. Payment and job records, with the notes and other details attached to them, are kept for as long as Nigerian tax and financial regulations require. After that, we delete them or remove what links them to you. The photos on a job are kept for twelve months after the job ends, then deleted. A photo needed for an open complaint, dispute or review is kept until that case is closed.
How long it takes
- In the app: immediate. Your profile and identity details are cleared, and your sessions end as you confirm.
- By email: within 30 days of us confirming the request is yours.
- Payment and job records: retained for the statutory period. After that, we delete them or remove what links them to you.
- Photos on a job: retained for twelve months after the job ends, then deleted. A photo needed for an open complaint, dispute or review is kept until that case is closed.
- Issue reports and fraud reviews: retained for five years after they are closed, then deleted.
- In-app messages and app usage records: messages are retained for twelve months after they are sent, and usage records for 90 days after they are recorded, then deleted.