Privacy Policy - Bermondsey Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Bermondsey Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related cleaning services. It applies to all Bermondsey Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including individuals who enquire about our services, book appointments, receive quotations, or otherwise interact with us in connection with our work.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We take privacy seriously and aim to ensure that customers understand what information we collect, why we collect it, and the rights available to them.

1. Who We Are

Bermondsey Carpet Cleaners provides professional carpet cleaning and associated cleaning services for domestic and commercial customers. In the context of this policy, references to “we,” “us,” and “our” mean Bermondsey Carpet Cleaners as the controller of personal data. This means we decide how and why personal data is used.

2. Personal Data We Collect

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

• Identity details such as your name.
• Contact details such as phone number, email address, and service address.
• Booking information such as requested dates, service type, and special instructions.
• Payment-related information such as invoice details and transaction records.
• Service history including previous jobs, preferences, and complaint records.
• Communication records such as emails, messages, call notes, and service-related correspondence.
• Technical data if you interact with our digital systems, such as limited device or usage information used for security and service administration.

We may also receive personal data indirectly from third parties where necessary to provide our services, such as property managers, landlords, letting agents, or business clients who arrange services on behalf of a customer. In those cases, we expect the party sharing the data to do so lawfully and to have informed the individual where required.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
• To schedule, confirm, and carry out cleaning services.
• To communicate with customers about appointments, changes, or aftercare.
• To manage billing, payments, refunds, and accounting records.
• To maintain internal records and monitor service quality.
• To handle complaints, disputes, and customer support requests.
• To meet legal, regulatory, and insurance requirements.
• To prevent fraud, misuse, or unauthorised access to our systems.

We only use personal data for the purposes described above or for compatible purposes where permitted by law. We do not use personal data in a way that is incompatible with the reason it was collected.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

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

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes handling booking details, service addresses, job instructions, and payment information needed to provide our services.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This can include maintaining records, improving service delivery, managing customer relationships, and protecting our business from misuse or fraud.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain personal data where required to comply with legal or regulatory obligations, such as tax, accounting, insurance, and record-keeping requirements.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where you have agreed to receive certain optional communications. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. How We Share Personal Data

We do not sell personal data. We may share it only where necessary and appropriate for legitimate business or legal reasons. Recipients may include:

• Service processors who support booking, administration, communication, accounting, or IT functions.
• Payment service providers who handle transactions securely.
• Professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, legal advisers, or auditors.
• Property owners, agents, or managers where they are involved in arranging or authorising the service.
• Public authorities where disclosure is required by law or necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Where we use third-party processors, they are only permitted to process personal data on our instructions and must keep it secure. We seek to ensure that appropriate contracts and safeguards are in place.

6. International Transfers

Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate protections are applied in line with applicable data protection law. This may include the use of approved contractual safeguards or relying on adequacy regulations where available.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason it is held.

• Booking and service records are generally kept for a period needed to manage the customer relationship and address any follow-up queries or disputes.
• Invoice, tax, and accounting records are kept for the period required by law.
• Communication records may be kept for a reasonable time to handle complaints, support requests, and continuity of service.
• Consent-based marketing records are retained until consent is withdrawn or the data is no longer needed.

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

8. Data Security

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

While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to safeguard information appropriately and review our practices regularly.

9. Your Rights

Depending on the circumstances, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• 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 information.
• Right to erasure - to request deletion of your data in certain situations.
• Right to restriction - 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 receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
• Right to withdraw consent - where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal limitations. If you make a request, we may need to verify your identity before responding. We aim to respond within the time limits set by applicable law.

10. 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 in connection with a property or service arrangement and appropriate authority has been given by a responsible adult. If we become aware that we have collected personal data improperly from a child, we will take steps to delete it where required.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal obligations, or operational needs. Any revised version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their information is handled.

12. Complaints

If you have concerns about how your personal data has been used, you may contact us through the usual customer service channels. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection regulator if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed.

We hope to resolve concerns directly and fairly, and we will always aim to deal with privacy matters responsibly and promptly.

13. Summary of Our Commitment

Bermondsey Carpet Cleaners is committed to respecting your privacy and using personal data responsibly. We collect only what we need, use it for clear and lawful purposes, keep it secure, retain it only as long as necessary, and ensure that customers in the area can exercise their rights effectively. Privacy, transparency, and accountability are central to the way we operate.