Privacy Policy - Lower Clapton Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Lower Clapton Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all Lower Clapton Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including anyone who makes an enquiry, books a service, receives a quotation, or otherwise interacts with our business. 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.

1. Who This Policy Applies To

This policy applies to all Lower Clapton Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, as well as prospective customers, property occupants, account holders, and any person whose personal data we process when providing our cleaning services. It also applies to individuals acting on behalf of businesses, landlords, letting agents, or property managers where our services are requested.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is necessary for operating our services, managing our customer relationships, and meeting our legal obligations. The types of data we may collect include:

• Identity information such as your name or the name of your business contact.
• Contact details such as address, email address, and phone number.
• Service information including booking details, cleaning requirements, property access instructions, and service preferences.
• Payment and transaction data where relevant for billing, invoicing, and payment confirmation.
• Communication records such as emails, messages, complaints, feedback, and notes of telephone conversations.
• Technical data if you interact with our systems through online tools, such as device information, IP address, or cookies where applicable.
• Property-related information including room types, carpet condition, stain details, or other service-specific information needed to carry out the work properly.

We do not intentionally collect more data than is needed for the service. We do not seek to collect special category data unless it is necessary and lawful to do so. If such information is incidentally provided, we will handle it with appropriate safeguards.

3. How We Collect Personal Data

We may collect personal data directly from you when you:

• request a quotation or make a booking;
• contact us by phone, email, or message;
• provide information during a service visit;
• submit a complaint, query, or feedback;
• make payment or ask for an invoice;
• interact with our administrative or customer service processes.

We may also receive data from third parties such as landlords, property managers, letting agents, insurers, or payment providers where they arrange services on your behalf or are involved in the transaction.

4. Why We Use Your Data

We use personal data only for specific and legitimate purposes, including:

• to respond to enquiries and provide quotations;
• to arrange and deliver carpet cleaning services;
• to confirm appointments and manage bookings;
• to issue invoices and process payments;
• to maintain service records and customer history;
• to deal with complaints, claims, and service issues;
• to improve our services and customer experience;
• to comply with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory requirements;
• to protect our business, staff, customers, and property from fraud or misuse.

5. Lawful Basis for Processing

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

Contract

We process your data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes taking bookings, providing services, billing, and communicating about the work we are due to carry out.

Legal obligation

We process certain data to comply with legal obligations, including accounting, tax, record-keeping, consumer protection, and compliance with lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. These interests may include managing our business, improving services, preventing fraud, keeping records, and handling customer correspondence.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where it is required by law or where we use certain optional forms of communication or marketing. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

We will always assess the nature of the data and the reason for processing before deciding which lawful basis applies. We do not use personal data for purposes that are incompatible with the reason it was collected.

6. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to operate our business and provide services. These third parties act as data processors or independent controllers depending on the role they perform.

Examples of processors and service providers may include:

• Booking and administrative software providers used to manage appointments and customer records.
• Payment processors used to handle card or electronic payments.
• Accounting and invoicing providers used for bookkeeping and tax compliance.
• IT and cloud storage providers used to store and secure business data.
• Communication service providers used to send messages, reminders, or updates.

We may also disclose data where required by law, such as to law enforcement, regulators, courts, or other public authorities. Any processor we use is required to protect personal data, process it only on our instructions, and apply appropriate security measures.

7. International Transfers

Where a processor or service provider stores or accesses data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms required under data protection law.

8. Retention of Personal Data

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected and to meet legal, accounting, or reporting obligations. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the reason for keeping it.

• Customer and booking records are usually retained for as long as needed to administer the service and manage queries.
• Invoice and payment records are generally retained for tax and accounting purposes.
• Correspondence and complaint records may be retained for a reasonable period to resolve disputes and maintain evidence of service.
• Technical records are kept only as long as necessary for security, diagnostics, or operational needs.

When personal data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you. Retention is reviewed regularly to ensure data is not kept longer than necessary.

9. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and limiting access to data on a need-to-know basis.

Although we work hard to protect your information, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If a data incident occurs, we will respond in line with our legal obligations and take reasonable steps to reduce any risk to you.

10. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may apply in different circumstances depending on the legal basis for processing and any exemptions available under law.

• 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 information.
• Right to erasure – you can ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to restrict processing – you can ask us to limit how your data is used in some cases.
• Right to object – you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
• Right to data portability – you can request that certain data be provided to you or another organisation in a structured format.
• Right to withdraw consent – where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we will respond within the time limits set by law. In some cases, we may need to verify your identity before acting on your request.

11. Automated Decision-Making

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects. If this changes, we will update this policy and provide the information required by law.

12. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is necessary in the course of providing household services and only in accordance with applicable law. If we become aware that we have collected data unlawfully, we will take steps to delete it.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or 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 their data is used.

14. Summary of Our Commitment

Lower Clapton Carpet Cleaners is committed to respecting your privacy, using personal data responsibly, and maintaining transparency about how information is collected and processed. We only process data where we have a lawful basis, retain it only for as long as necessary, work with processors that are contractually bound to protect it, and support your rights under data protection law.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Lower Clapton Carpet Cleaners customers in the area.