Privacy Policy - Highbury Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Highbury Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related cleaning services. It applies to all Highbury Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including prospective customers, current customers, and anyone who interacts with us in connection with our services.

1. Who We Are

Highbury Carpet Cleaners provides professional cleaning services for homes and businesses. In the course of delivering those services, we act as a data controller for the personal data we collect and process. This means we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal information in line with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We are committed to handling personal data fairly, lawfully, and transparently. We only collect information that is necessary for the purposes described in this policy, and we take steps to keep it secure.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you use our services. This may include:

• Identity information such as your name.
• Contact details such as address, email address, and telephone number.
• Service details such as cleaning requests, service preferences, property access notes, and appointment times.
• Payment information such as billing details and transaction records. We do not store full card details where payment is processed by a secure payment provider.
• Communication records such as enquiries, complaints, feedback, and correspondence.
• Technical information where relevant, such as basic device or browser information if you interact with us electronically.
• Contract and account records such as quotes, invoices, service history, and booking records.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is necessary and lawful to do so. If such information is ever shared with us incidentally, we will handle it with extra care and only process it where permitted by law.

3. How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data in several ways, including:

• when you request a quote or make a booking;
• when you communicate with us by phone, email, or messaging;
• when we visit your property to provide services;
• when you make a payment or receive an invoice;
• when you leave feedback or make a complaint;
• when our service providers share information needed to complete your booking;
• and when you otherwise interact with us in connection with our services.

Where data is collected indirectly, we ensure that the source is appropriate and that the collection is relevant to the services we provide.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

We process personal data only when we have a valid lawful basis under GDPR. Depending on the circumstances, the lawful bases we rely on include:

Contract

We process your data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotations, arranging appointments, carrying out cleaning services, issuing invoices, and handling service-related queries.

Legal obligation

We may process certain information to comply with legal duties, such as tax, accounting, and record-keeping obligations.

Legitimate interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include managing customer relationships, improving our services, preventing fraud, and maintaining internal records.

Consent

In limited situations, we may ask for your consent to process certain data or to send you specific communications. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

Vital interests and legal claims

In rare cases, we may process data to protect vital interests or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

5. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• to provide quotes and confirm bookings;
• to carry out carpet cleaning and related services;
• to manage customer accounts and service records;
• to process payments and issue invoices;
• to respond to queries, complaints, and feedback;
• to maintain safety, security, and quality standards;
• to meet legal, accounting, and tax requirements;
• and to improve our services and internal operations.

We always aim to use data only for purposes that are compatible with the reason it was collected.

6. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We do not sell personal data. However, we may share personal information with trusted third parties where necessary to deliver our services or comply with legal obligations.

These third parties may act as processors or independent controllers. Processors only handle personal data on our instructions and are required to protect it appropriately.

Examples of processors and service providers may include:

• IT and hosting providers who support our systems and data storage;
• payment processors who securely handle card or electronic payments;
• accounting and bookkeeping providers who assist with financial records;
• booking or scheduling tools used to manage appointments;
• communication service providers that help us send emails or messages;
• professional advisers such as lawyers, insurers, or auditors where necessary.

Where we disclose personal data to processors, we put appropriate contractual safeguards in place to ensure that data is only processed in accordance with our instructions and applicable law.

We may also share data with public authorities, regulators, or law enforcement where required by law or where necessary to protect our legal rights.

7. International Transfers

In some cases, our processors may store or access data outside the UK. Where this happens, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms, so that your personal data remains protected to the required standard.

8. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including for legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the reason for processing. In general:

• booking and service records are retained for a period necessary to manage our business and customer relationship;
• financial and invoice records are retained for the period required by tax and accounting laws;
• communications and complaints may be kept for as long as needed to resolve the matter and maintain records;
• data collected with consent is kept until consent is withdrawn or the information is no longer needed.

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

9. Security of Personal Data

We take the security of personal data seriously and use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, loss, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, restricted permissions, and staff awareness procedures.

Although we work hard to protect your data, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs, we will respond in accordance with our legal obligations.

10. Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may apply depending on the circumstances:

• 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 some situations, you can request that we delete your data.
• Right to restriction — you can ask us to limit the way we use your data in certain cases.
• Right to object — you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
• Right to data portability — in some cases, you can receive your data in a reusable format or ask us to transfer it.
• 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 in accordance with applicable law. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request. Please note that some rights are subject to legal limits and may not always apply.

11. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children in the ordinary course of business. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected such data without appropriate permission, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or data processing practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically to stay informed.

13. Summary of Our Commitments

Highbury Carpet Cleaners is committed to processing personal data responsibly, transparently, and in accordance with GDPR principles. We collect only the information needed to provide our services, use it for clear and lawful purposes, retain it only as long as necessary, and share it only with trusted processors or where required by law. We also respect your rights and aim to make it easy for you to exercise them.

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