Privacy Policy - Covent Garden Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Covent Garden Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data in connection with our carpet cleaning services. It applies to all Covent Garden Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including individuals who enquire about our services, receive a quote, book an appointment, or otherwise interact with us. We are committed to handling personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

Covent Garden Carpet Cleaners provides professional carpet cleaning and related cleaning services to residential and commercial customers. In the course of delivering our services, we may process personal data about customers, property occupants, authorised representatives, and business contacts. We act as a data controller for the personal information we collect and determine the purposes and means of processing that data.

2. Information We Collect

We only collect personal data that is relevant and necessary for providing our services, managing our relationship with you, and meeting legal obligations. The types of information we may collect include:

Identity data such as your name and, where needed, the name of a business or organisation.
Contact data such as your address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details such as property access instructions, carpet cleaning preferences, room information, stain or fabric details, and service notes.
Transaction data such as records of quotes, invoices, payments, and service history.
Communication data such as enquiries, complaints, feedback, and correspondence.
Technical data if you interact with our digital systems, including device, browser, and usage information where applicable.
Marketing preferences where you have indicated whether you wish to receive promotional information.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless you voluntarily provide it and it is necessary for a specific request, such as accessibility needs or health-related instructions. Where such information is provided, we will handle it with additional care and only process it where lawful to do so.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data only for legitimate business and legal purposes. These include:

Providing quotes and arranging services.
Carrying out carpet cleaning and related services.
Managing bookings, schedules, and access arrangements.
Processing payments and maintaining financial records.
Responding to enquiries, complaints, and requests.
Improving our services, operations, and customer experience.
Meeting tax, accounting, insurance, and regulatory obligations.
Sending service-related updates and, where permitted, marketing communications.
Protecting our business, staff, customers, and property from fraud, misuse, or other unlawful activity.

We will not use your personal data for purposes that are incompatible with the reasons it was collected unless we have a lawful basis to do so.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for every item of personal data we process. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on one or more of the following bases:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotations at your request, scheduling services, and delivering carpet cleaning work.

Legal Obligation

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

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests do not override your rights and freedoms. This may include managing bookings, improving services, maintaining internal records, and handling limited marketing to existing customers where allowed by law.

Consent

Where required, we will rely on your consent, for example for certain marketing communications or the processing of sensitive information that you voluntarily provide. You can withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Sharing Your Information

We may share personal data with carefully selected third parties only when necessary for the operation of our services or to meet legal requirements. These may include:

Service providers and processors who support our business operations, such as booking, administration, communication, payment, IT, and data storage providers.
Professional advisers such as accountants, auditors, insurers, or legal advisers where necessary.
Regulators, law enforcement, or public authorities where we are legally required or permitted to disclose information.
Subcontractors or technicians involved in delivering the cleaning service where it is necessary to complete the job.

We require all processors and third parties who handle personal data on our behalf to respect confidentiality, protect data appropriately, and process it only in accordance with our instructions and applicable law.

6. Processors We Use

Where we engage third-party processors, they may process personal data only for specified purposes and under contractual safeguards. Typical processor categories may include:

Appointment scheduling and customer administration systems.
Payment processing providers.
Email, messaging, and communication services.
Cloud storage and document management services.
IT support and cybersecurity providers.
Website or analytics services, where applicable.

We assess processors on their security and privacy practices before use and expect them to maintain appropriate technical and organisational measures. We do not sell your personal data.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, and reporting obligations. Retention periods depend on the type of data and the purpose for which it is used.

As general guidance:

Quote and booking records may be retained for a reasonable period to manage enquiries, repeat services, and disputes.
Invoices, payment, and tax records may be kept for the periods required by law.
Correspondence and complaint records may be retained for as long as needed to resolve issues and demonstrate proper handling.
Marketing preferences are retained until you update your preferences or withdraw consent.

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

8. International Transfers

If any of our processors store or access personal data outside the UK, we will ensure suitable safeguards are in place to protect that information. These safeguards may include UK adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms. We will only transfer data where appropriate protections are established.

9. Data Security

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

While we take reasonable steps to protect information, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs and we are required to notify you or a regulator, we will do so in accordance with applicable law.

10. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These may include:

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 how we use your data in certain cases.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or 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.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal exceptions. If you exercise any of these rights, we will respond in accordance with data protection law.

11. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is necessary for service delivery and provided by a responsible adult. If we learn that we have collected data from a child in error, we will take appropriate steps to delete it where required.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data handling practices. Any updates will take effect when published in the revised version. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how we protect personal data.

13. Your Responsibility

Please make sure that any personal data you provide to us is accurate and kept up to date. If you provide information about another person, you should only do so where you have the authority to share it and have informed them about this Privacy Policy where appropriate.

14. Summary of Our Commitment

Covent Garden Carpet Cleaners is committed to processing personal data fairly, lawfully, and transparently. We collect only the information we need, use it for clear and legitimate purposes, keep it only as long as necessary, and protect it with appropriate safeguards. We also ensure that our processors meet high standards of confidentiality and security. Most importantly, we respect your rights and aim to respond promptly and responsibly to any request relating to your personal information.

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