Privacy Policy - Haringey Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Haringey Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related services. It applies to all Haringey Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including individuals, households, landlords, tenants, and business customers who request or receive our services. We are committed to handling personal information lawfully, fairly, and transparently in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By using our services, you acknowledge that we may process your personal data as described in this Policy. We only collect data that is necessary for legitimate business purposes, service delivery, legal compliance, and customer support.

1. Data We Collect

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

• Identity details: your name, title, and where relevant, the name of your organisation or property manager.
• Contact details: address, email address, telephone number, and service location details.
• Service information: details about the cleaning service requested, property access instructions, preferred dates and times, and records of completed work.
• Payment information: payment status, transaction references, and billing records. We do not store more payment data than is necessary for accounting and recordkeeping.
• Communication records: emails, messages, complaints, feedback, and notes relating to your enquiry or booking.
• Technical data: basic website or device information if you contact us through online channels, such as IP address, browser type, or cookie-related data where applicable.
• Special category data: we do not normally seek special category data. If you voluntarily provide information that may reveal sensitive details, we will only process it where permitted by law and strictly necessary.

We aim to collect only the minimum amount of personal data required to provide a safe, reliable, and professional service.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• to respond to enquiries and provide quotations;
• to arrange bookings and deliver cleaning services;
• to communicate about appointments, changes, or service issues;
• to manage payments, invoices, and receipts;
• to handle complaints, feedback, and aftercare;
• to maintain business and financial records;
• to improve our services, operations, and customer experience;
• to meet legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations;
• to prevent fraud, misuse, or unlawful activity;
• to protect our staff, contractors, customers, and property.

We do not sell personal data. We also do not use personal data for unrelated purposes that would be unexpected or incompatible with the reason it was originally collected.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis to process personal data. Depending on the context, Haringey Carpet Cleaners relies on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform a contract with you. This includes handling bookings, carrying out cleaning services, confirming appointments, and issuing invoices.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. Examples include improving services, managing customer relationships, keeping internal records, preventing misuse, and ensuring service quality.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain records where required by law, including tax, accounting, insurance, health and safety, or dispute-resolution requirements.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where it is appropriate to send optional marketing communications or use certain non-essential cookies. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

When we rely on legitimate interests or consent, we take care to ensure that processing is proportionate and respects your privacy.

4. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to operate our business and deliver services. These third parties act either as independent controllers or as processors acting on our instructions.

Examples of processors may include:

• booking and scheduling service providers;
• payment processors or invoicing software providers;
• email, telephone, and communication service providers;
• IT support, cloud storage, and data backup services;
• accountants or bookkeeping providers;
• customer management and record-keeping systems;
• professional advisers, where needed for legal or insurance matters.

Where a third party acts as a processor, we require them to process data only on our instructions, keep it secure, and comply with applicable data protection law. We do not permit processors to use your data for their own unrelated purposes.

We may also disclose data if required by law, court order, regulatory request, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Haringey Carpet Cleaners, our customers, staff, or the public.

5. International Transfers

If any of our service providers store or process data outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or equivalent lawful transfer mechanisms designed to protect your personal information.

6. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. The retention period depends on the type of data and the reason for processing.

• Customer and service records: retained for the duration of the customer relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards to manage queries, disputes, and service history.
• Financial and tax records: retained for the period required by law.
• Communication records: retained for as long as needed to deal with the enquiry, complaint, or ongoing service matter.
• Marketing preferences: retained until you withdraw consent or object, where applicable.

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

7. Data Security

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

However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure. While we take reasonable steps to safeguard personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. 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 circumstances and the legal basis for processing:

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

These rights are not absolute, and some may be limited where we must retain or process data to comply with legal obligations or defend legal claims.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary in connection with a household booking or lawful service arrangement made by an adult. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child without appropriate basis, we will take steps to delete it where required.

10. Complaints and Supervisory Authority

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, you can raise the matter with us so that we can review and address it. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection supervisory authority if you believe your rights have been infringed.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, business practices, or service arrangements. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically to stay informed about how your data is used.

In summary, Haringey Carpet Cleaners respects your privacy and is committed to processing personal data responsibly, transparently, and only when lawful and necessary. This Policy is intended to ensure that customers across the Haringey area understand what data we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, who may process it on our behalf, and what rights they have under data protection law.