Privacy Policy - West Wickham Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how West Wickham Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing services to customers in the West Wickham area. It applies to all West Wickham Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including individuals who enquire about, book, receive, or pay for our cleaning services.

We are committed to handling personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and other applicable privacy laws. We respect your privacy and aim to be transparent about the information we process and the rights you have over that information.

1. Who We Are

West Wickham Carpet Cleaners provides professional carpet cleaning and related domestic and commercial cleaning services. In this Privacy Policy, “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to West Wickham Carpet Cleaners as the data controller for the personal data processed in connection with our services.

As a data controller, we determine why and how your personal data is used. We only process personal data where we have a lawful basis to do so and only for clear and legitimate purposes.

2. What Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the information necessary to provide our services, manage customer relationships, and meet our legal obligations. The categories of personal data we may collect include:

• Identity information: name, title, and, where relevant, business name.
• Contact details: address, email address, telephone number, and any preferred contact method.
• Service information: property details, cleaning requirements, booking history, service notes, and instructions related to the work we perform.
• Payment information: payment status, billing records, and transaction references. We do not intentionally store full card details unless this is necessary through a secure payment provider.
• Communication records: emails, messages, call notes, complaints, feedback, and other correspondence.
• Technical data: limited information such as website or device-related data if you interact with our digital services, where applicable.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is clearly needed for a specific reason and we have an appropriate lawful basis to do so. We ask that you do not provide sensitive information unless it is relevant to our services.

3. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• to respond to enquiries and provide quotations;
• to schedule, deliver, and manage carpet cleaning services;
• to issue invoices, process payments, and maintain financial records;
• to communicate about appointments, service updates, or changes;
• to handle complaints, feedback, and customer support requests;
• to improve our services, record service preferences, and maintain quality standards;
• to comply with legal and regulatory obligations;
• to prevent fraud, misuse, or unlawful activity;
• to maintain appropriate business records and operational administration.

We only use your data for purposes that are compatible with the reason it was collected. If we need to use your information for a new purpose, we will ensure there is a lawful basis and, where appropriate, provide you with further information.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. Depending on the activity, we rely on one or more of the following:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes managing bookings, delivering cleaning services, sending invoices, and handling related customer communications.

Legal obligation

We may process your data where required to comply with the law, such as for tax, accounting, and record-keeping obligations.

Legitimate interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include maintaining service records, improving our operations, handling routine communications, and protecting against misuse or fraud.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain optional communications. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time, and this will not affect processing already carried out before withdrawal.

5. Sharing Your Personal Data

We do not sell your personal data. We may share it only where necessary and with appropriate safeguards in place. Possible recipients include:

• Service providers and processors: third parties that help us operate our business, such as booking systems, payment processors, IT support, accounting software, or secure data storage providers.
• Professional advisers: accountants, insurers, legal advisers, or similar professionals where needed.
• Regulators and authorities: where disclosure is required by law, court order, or lawful request.
• Subcontractors: where necessary for service delivery, provided they are bound by confidentiality and data protection obligations.

Where a third party processes personal data on our behalf, they act as a processor and may only use the data according to our instructions. We take reasonable steps to ensure they are suitable and that appropriate contractual terms are in place.

6. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including meeting legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason it is held.

• Customer and service records: retained for as long as needed to manage the customer relationship and resolve service-related issues.
• Financial records: retained for the period required by tax and accounting law.
• Communication records: retained for an appropriate period to support customer service, complaints handling, and business administration.

When personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete, destroy, or anonymise it. We review retained data regularly to ensure it is not kept longer than necessary.

7. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, password protection, and limiting data access to personnel and processors who need it for legitimate business purposes.

No system is completely secure, but we aim to maintain a level of protection appropriate to the risks associated with the data we process.

8. International Transfers

If any personal data is transferred outside the UK, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place and that the transfer complies with applicable data protection law. This may include using approved contractual protections or transferring data only to countries with adequate legal protection.

9. Your Rights

Depending on the circumstances and the legal basis for processing, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Right of access: to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification: to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure: to request deletion of your data in certain situations.
• Right to restrict processing: to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to object: to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
• Right to data portability: to request certain data in a structured, commonly used format, where applicable.
• 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 UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you believe your data has been handled unlawfully or unfairly. We encourage you to contact us first so we can try to resolve any concerns.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are generally intended for adults arranging cleaning services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidental to household or property-related service arrangements and only to the extent necessary to provide our services.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our operations, legal requirements, or data protection practices. Any changes will take effect when published in the updated version. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we process personal data.

12. Summary of Our Commitment

West Wickham Carpet Cleaners is committed to processing personal data fairly, lawfully, and transparently. We collect only what we need, use it for clear purposes, keep it only as long as necessary, and apply appropriate safeguards when sharing it with trusted processors. If you are a customer in the West Wickham area, this policy applies to you and governs how we handle your personal information throughout our service relationship.