Privacy Policy - St Pauls Cray Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how St Pauls Cray Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all St Pauls Cray Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including prospective customers, existing customers, and anyone who interacts with us in relation to carpet cleaning and related services.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent way in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We only collect information that is necessary for the provision, management, and improvement of our services.

1. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you interact with us and what services you request. This may include:

Identity information such as your name.
Contact information such as your address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details such as the type of cleaning requested, property access information, appointment preferences, and any relevant instructions.
Payment information such as billing details and payment records. We do not store full payment card details where payment is processed securely by a third party.
Communication records such as emails, messages, notes from calls, complaints, and service feedback.
Technical and usage information where applicable, such as device details or browsing interactions if you engage with our digital services.
Special category data only where you voluntarily provide it and it is necessary for service delivery, for example information relating to allergies, mobility needs, or access requirements.

We aim to keep personal data accurate and relevant, and we do not intentionally collect more data than we need.

2. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data to provide our services effectively and to manage our business relationship with you. This may include:

Arranging quotes, bookings, and appointments.
Delivering carpet cleaning and related services.
Managing customer accounts and service records.
Processing payments and handling invoices.
Responding to enquiries, complaints, and service requests.
Maintaining internal records for quality, training, and operational purposes.
Meeting legal, accounting, and tax obligations.
Improving our services, customer experience, and business processes.

Where appropriate, we may also use data to protect our legitimate business interests, such as preventing fraud, managing risk, or ensuring the security of our systems and staff.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

We only process personal data where we have a valid lawful basis under data protection law. The main lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract

We process your personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing a quotation, confirming a booking, carrying out cleaning services, and handling payment for those services.

Legal Obligation

We may process personal data where required to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including tax recordkeeping, accounting requirements, and responses to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process certain data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. These interests may include managing customer relationships, improving services, record keeping, fraud prevention, and business administration.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, particularly where processing involves optional communications or special category information not otherwise required for service delivery. Where consent is used, you can withdraw it at any time.

4. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who help us operate our business. These parties act as processors or, in some cases, independent controllers. We only share information where necessary and under appropriate safeguards.

Processors may include:

Payment service providers who securely handle transaction processing.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers who assist with financial administration.
IT and cloud service providers who support data storage, email, and business systems.
Customer management and booking systems used to schedule and manage appointments.
Professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers where necessary.

We require processors to process personal data only on our instructions, to keep it secure, and to comply with applicable data protection requirements. We do not sell personal data.

In rare circumstances, we may be required to disclose information to law enforcement, regulators, or courts where legally obliged to do so.

5. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet legal, accounting, or reporting obligations.

Retention periods depend on the type of data and the reason for processing. In general:

Customer service records are kept for the duration of the customer relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Financial and tax records are typically retained for the period required by law.
Communication records may be retained for evidence, quality control, or dispute resolution for a limited period.
Special category or sensitive information is kept only as long as needed for the relevant service or support purpose.

When data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.

6. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and regular review of our data-handling practices.

Although we take reasonable steps to protect your information, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. We therefore encourage all customers to share only the information necessary for the services requested.

7. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may apply depending on the legal basis for processing and the circumstances of the request.

Right of access – you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification – you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure – in certain cases, you can request deletion of your personal data.
Right to restriction – you can ask us to limit how we use your data in some situations.
Right to object – you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to data portability – you can request transfer of certain data to you or another provider in a structured format.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority if you believe your data has been handled unlawfully. We encourage you to raise concerns with us first so we can address them promptly.

8. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and business or household customers arranging cleaning services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidentally provided in connection with a service request and is necessary for practical reasons such as access arrangements. Where such data is received, we handle it carefully and only for the relevant purpose.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, our services, or our data-handling practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how we process personal data.

10. Contact and Further Information

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your rights, or want more information about how your personal data is used, you can raise your request through our standard service channels. We will respond in line with applicable data protection requirements.

Summary of our commitment: we collect only necessary information, use it for clear and lawful purposes, retain it for limited periods, share it only with trusted processors, and respect your data rights at all times. This policy applies to all St Pauls Cray Carpet Cleaners customers in the area.