Privacy Policy - Gants Hill Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Gants Hill Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data in connection with the carpet cleaning services we provide. It applies to all Gants Hill Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including prospective customers, existing customers, and anyone who communicates with us about our 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

For the purposes of data protection law, Gants Hill Carpet Cleaners acts as the data controller for the personal information we collect and process in relation to our services. This means we determine why and how your personal data is used. We only process personal data where we have a valid legal basis and only for legitimate business and service-related purposes.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Identity information such as your name or the name of a business contact.
Contact details such as your address, telephone number, and email address.
Service details including the type of cleaning requested, property access notes, carpet or upholstery condition, and appointment preferences.
Payment information where needed to process invoices, payments, or refunds. We do not intentionally store full card details unless a secure payment provider requires limited information for transaction handling.
Communication records such as emails, messages, call notes, and complaints or feedback.
Technical data if you interact with our digital systems, including IP address, device details, browser type, and basic usage logs.
Special category data only where it is necessary and you voluntarily provide it, for example if you share access requirements related to health or disability. We process such data only when permitted by law and with appropriate safeguards.

We aim to collect only the data we need. We do not seek to gather unnecessary information, and we never intentionally request more personal data than is required for service delivery, administration, legal compliance, or legitimate business needs.

3. How We Collect Personal Data

We collect data directly from you when you make an enquiry, request a quotation, book a service, pay for a service, complete a form, or communicate with us. We may also collect information from third parties where necessary, such as payment processors, referral partners, or property managers acting on your behalf. In limited cases, we may obtain information from publicly available sources when required for business verification or fraud prevention.

4. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

to provide quotes and confirm bookings;
to deliver carpet cleaning and related services;
to manage customer accounts, invoices, and payments;
to communicate with you about appointments, changes, or service issues;
to respond to questions, feedback, and complaints;
to maintain business records and service history;
to improve our services, processes, and customer experience;
to comply with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations;
to prevent fraud, misuse, or security incidents.

We do not use personal data for unrelated purposes without first ensuring that the new use is compatible with the original purpose or that another lawful basis applies.

5. Lawful Basis for Processing

We process your personal data only when we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the activity, our lawful bases may include:

Contract - where processing is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract or to perform the contract for carpet cleaning services.
Legal obligation - where we must process data to meet tax, accounting, consumer protection, or other legal requirements.
Legitimate interests - where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include service management, record keeping, fraud prevention, and improving operations.
Consent - where you have given clear permission for a specific purpose, such as receiving optional marketing communications or providing special category information in limited circumstances.

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

6. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties who help us operate our business. These parties act as processors when they process personal data on our instructions and under written agreements. They are only permitted to use the data for the agreed purpose and must protect it appropriately.

Examples of processors or service providers may include:

Payment processors for handling secure transactions;
Accounting and bookkeeping providers for invoicing and financial record keeping;
IT, hosting, and data storage providers for secure system operation;
Customer communication tools for managing emails, messages, and booking updates;
Booking or scheduling systems used to organise service appointments.

We may also disclose data to professional advisers, insurers, law enforcement, courts, or regulators where required or permitted by law. If we ever share data outside the UK or European Economic Area, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected. Retention periods depend on the nature of the information and the legal or operational need to retain it. In general:

customer service and booking records are kept for a reasonable period to support service history, dispute resolution, and business administration;
invoice and tax records are retained for the period required by law;
communications and complaint records are retained long enough to resolve issues and demonstrate compliance;
data collected with consent is kept until consent is withdrawn or the purpose ends.

When personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete, anonymise, or archive it in line with our retention practices. We do not keep information indefinitely without a valid reason.

8. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, role-based permissions, staff confidentiality obligations, and the use of trusted service providers. While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we aim to maintain strong safeguards appropriate to the nature of the data we process.

9. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights regarding 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;
Right to complain - to the relevant data protection authority if you believe your rights have been infringed.

Some rights are subject to legal conditions and exceptions. For example, we may need to retain certain records to comply with legal obligations even where deletion is requested.

10. Automated Decision-Making

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects. If this position changes, we will update this policy and provide the required information about the logic involved and your available rights.

11. Marketing Preferences

Where permitted, we may send limited marketing communications about our services if you have requested information or consented to receive such updates. You can opt out of marketing at any time. If you object to marketing, we will stop using your details for that purpose as soon as reasonably practicable.

12. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adult customers and business contacts. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary in a service context and provided by an adult with parental responsibility or another lawful basis applies. If we learn that we have collected data inappropriately, we will take steps to delete it.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or data handling practices. Any updated 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 personal data is handled.

Summary of Our Commitments

Gants Hill Carpet Cleaners is committed to handling customer data responsibly, transparently, and securely. We collect only what we need, use it for clear and lawful purposes, retain it for no longer than necessary, and work with processors who are contractually obliged to protect it. Most importantly, we respect your rights and will act promptly on valid requests wherever possible.