Privacy Policy - Primrose Hill Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Primrose Hill Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all Primrose Hill Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including individuals who request quotations, book services, receive cleaning treatments, or otherwise interact with us in connection with our carpet cleaning and related services. 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.

1. Who We Are

Primrose Hill Carpet Cleaners acts as a data controller for the personal data we collect and process in connection with our services. This means we determine the purposes and means of processing personal data that is necessary to deliver our services, manage our business, and meet legal obligations.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the personal data that is relevant and necessary for the purposes described in this policy. The types of data we may collect include:

Identity details such as your name and, where relevant, company name.
Contact details such as address, telephone number, and email address.
Service details such as the type of cleaning requested, appointment history, preferences, and instructions for accessing the property.
Billing and payment information such as invoice details, payment status, and transaction records.
Communication records including messages, notes, complaints, feedback, and correspondence related to your booking or service.
Technical data such as basic website usage data if you interact with our online services, including device information and cookies where applicable.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless you choose to provide it and it is necessary for a specific service or legal reason. If such data is provided, we will only process it where permitted by law and with appropriate safeguards.

3. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotes, schedule appointments, and deliver carpet cleaning and related services.
To communicate with you about bookings, access arrangements, service updates, and follow-up matters.
To issue invoices, process payments, and maintain financial records.
To respond to enquiries, feedback, complaints, and requests.
To improve our services, staff training, and customer experience.
To maintain internal records and manage our business operations.
To comply with legal, accounting, insurance, and regulatory obligations.

We only use your information for specific, explicit, and legitimate purposes. We will not process personal data in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for each processing activity. Primrose Hill Carpet Cleaners relies on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes taking bookings, providing cleaning services, managing service delivery, and handling payment or invoice administration.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and where your rights do not override those interests. This may include managing enquiries, improving service quality, preventing fraud, securing our systems, and keeping business records. We always assess the impact on your privacy before relying on this basis.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain personal data where required to comply with legal obligations, including accounting requirements, tax rules, consumer law, and record-keeping obligations.

Consent

Where we rely on consent, we will request it clearly and separately. For example, consent may be used for certain optional communications or specific processing activities. You may withdraw consent at any time, and doing so will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Sharing Your Personal Data

We may share personal data with trusted third parties, but only where necessary and only for legitimate business or legal purposes. These may include:

Service providers who support scheduling, administration, payment processing, IT, or storage of records.
Professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers where needed for business compliance and protection.
Public authorities where disclosure is required by law, regulation, court order, or official request.

Any third party that processes personal data on our behalf acts as a processor or, in some cases, an independent controller. Where processors are used, we ensure there is an appropriate written contract in place requiring them to process data only on our instructions and to maintain suitable security measures.

6. Data Processors

We may use processors to support the delivery and administration of our services. These may include:

IT and cloud storage providers;
appointment scheduling systems;
email and communication service providers;
payment and invoicing providers;
customer record management tools;
website hosting or analytics providers, where applicable.

Processors are only permitted to use personal data for the specific services we instruct them to provide. They are not allowed to use your information for their own unrelated purposes.

7. International Transfers

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

8. Data Retention

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

In general:

customer booking and service records are kept for a period necessary to manage our relationship and service history;
financial and invoice records are retained for the period required by tax and accounting law;
complaint and communication records are kept for a reasonable period to resolve disputes and maintain service quality;
data no longer required is securely deleted or anonymised.

We regularly review retention needs to ensure we do not keep personal data longer than necessary. Where appropriate, records may be securely destroyed or irreversibly anonymised.

9. Security of Your Personal Data

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include restricted access, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and safeguarding of electronic records.

While no system can be guaranteed as completely secure, we take reasonable and proportionate steps to protect the information entrusted to us.

10. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These 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 situations.
Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent.

You are also entitled to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed.

11. How We Respond to Rights Requests

We will respond to valid rights requests within the time limits set by applicable law. In some cases, we may need to verify your identity before responding or may be unable to comply fully where legal exemptions apply. If this happens, we will explain the position as far as the law permits.

12. Cookies and Similar Technologies

If we operate any online services that use cookies or similar technologies, these may be used for basic website functionality, performance analysis, and service improvement. Where legally required, we will provide appropriate notice and choices regarding non-essential cookies.

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or operational 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 about how we process personal data.

14. Summary of Our Commitment

Primrose Hill Carpet Cleaners is committed to handling personal data responsibly and transparently. We collect only what we need, use it for clear and lawful purposes, keep it only as long as necessary, and protect it with appropriate safeguards. We respect your privacy and will continue to process personal data in a way that is lawful, fair, and secure.