Privacy Policy - North Sheen Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how North Sheen Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all North Sheen Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including prospective customers, current customers, and anyone who contacts us for a quotation, booking, or service enquiry. We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

North Sheen Carpet Cleaners provides carpet cleaning and related cleaning services to customers in the local area. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the data controller for the personal data we collect and use in connection with our services. This means we decide why and how your personal data is processed.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the personal data that is necessary to provide our services, manage bookings, meet legal requirements, and improve the customer experience. The types of data we may collect include:

• Identity data, such as your name.
• Contact data, such as your address, phone number, and email address.
• Service data, such as details of the cleaning services requested, property access notes, and booking preferences.
• Payment data, such as payment status and transaction records. We do not intentionally store full card details unless required by a secure payment provider.
• Communication data, such as messages, emails, calls, feedback, complaints, and service-related correspondence.
• Technical and usage data, if you interact with digital systems used for administration, such as IP address, device information, or cookie-related data where applicable.
• Marketing preferences, where you have chosen to receive or not receive promotional information.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is necessary and you choose to provide it, for example if relevant to access requirements or service adjustments. Where such information is provided, we handle it with additional care and only where there is a lawful basis to do so.

3. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
• To manage bookings, schedules, and service delivery.
• To process payments, refunds, and accounting records.
• To communicate with customers about appointments and service updates.
• To handle complaints, disputes, and after-service support.
• To maintain records for legal, tax, and insurance purposes.
• To improve our services, customer experience, and internal operations.
• To send marketing communications where permitted by law and where consent or other lawful conditions apply.

We only use personal data for the purposes for which it was collected, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another compatible purpose and that this is permitted by law.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for each use of personal data. We rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes booking services, delivering cleaning work, managing payments, and communicating about the services you have requested.

Legal Obligation

We may process personal data to comply with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting, fraud prevention, and record-keeping requirements.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, provided that your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This may include service administration, quality assurance, internal record management, and responding to customer queries. We always consider whether this processing is reasonable and proportionate.

Consent

Where required, we rely on your consent, for example for certain types of marketing or for processing optional information you provide. You may withdraw consent at any time, although this will not affect processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.

5. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We do not sell personal data. However, we may share personal data with trusted third parties who act as processors or independent controllers where necessary to operate our business and provide our services. These may include:

• Payment processors that handle secure transactions.
• Booking or scheduling systems used to manage appointments.
• IT and cloud service providers that host data, software, or backups.
• Accountants or bookkeepers supporting financial records and tax compliance.
• Customer communications providers used for service-related messages.
• Professional advisers, such as insurers, legal advisers, or auditors, where necessary.

Where a third party acts as a processor, they are only permitted to process personal data on our instructions and are required to keep it secure and confidential. We take reasonable steps to ensure processors provide appropriate technical and organisational safeguards.

We may also disclose personal data if required by law, to protect our rights, to prevent fraud, or to support a legal claim.

6. International Transfers

If any processor stores or accesses personal data outside the United Kingdom, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that your data receives an adequate level of protection. This may include relying on approved contractual safeguards or ensuring the destination country provides appropriate legal protections.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying legal, accounting, and reporting requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of data and the reason for processing.

• Enquiry data may be kept for a limited period after the enquiry ends.
• Customer and service records may be retained for the duration of the service relationship and for a reasonable period afterward.
• Financial and tax records are retained for the period required by law.
• Complaints and dispute records may be retained longer where necessary to resolve issues or defend legal claims.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete, anonymise, or archive it in line with our retention practices. We review retention needs periodically to ensure we do not keep information longer than necessary.

8. Data Security

We take the security of personal data seriously and use reasonable measures to protect it from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, password protection, and staff awareness practices. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exemptions:

• Right of access – to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification – to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure – to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to restriction – to ask us to limit the way we use your data in certain situations.
• Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing.
• Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
• Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we will review your request in accordance with applicable law. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

10. Marketing Communications

We may send marketing messages only where this is lawful. If you have consented to receive such communications, you can change your preference at any time. You can also object to direct marketing, and we will stop using your data for that purpose.

11. Cookies and Similar Technologies

If we use websites, booking platforms, or digital tools that rely on cookies or similar technologies, these may be used to support functionality, security, analytics, or user preferences. Where required, we will provide appropriate notice and obtain consent for non-essential cookies. Any such use will be limited to what is necessary and lawful.

12. Children’s Data

Our services are generally intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary in connection with a service request made by an adult customer and lawful processing conditions are met.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, our services, or how we handle personal data. The most current version will apply to your use of our services. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their data is used.

14. Our Commitment

We aim to process personal data in a manner that is lawful, transparent, proportionate, and secure. We respect privacy rights and work to ensure that all customers in the North Sheen area can rely on fair handling of their personal information. If you provide us with personal data, we will use it only for legitimate business purposes and in line with the principles of data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, and confidentiality.

Last updated: This policy is intended to remain current and applicable to all North Sheen Carpet Cleaners customers in the area.