Privacy Policy - West Green Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how West Green Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all West Green Carpet Cleaners customers in area, including anyone who enquires about, books, receives, or pays for our carpet cleaning and related services. We are committed to handling personal data in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We respect your privacy and aim to be clear, fair, and transparent about our data practices.

1. Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is necessary for providing our services, managing customer relationships, and meeting legal obligations. Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect the following categories of information:

Identity details: your name and, where relevant, business name.
Contact details: address, email address, telephone number, and any preferred communication method.
Service information: details about the cleaning services you request, property access requirements, appointment times, service preferences, and notes relating to the work to be carried out.
Billing and payment data: invoice details, payment status, and limited payment information needed to process transactions or confirm receipt of payment.
Customer communications: records of messages, enquiries, complaints, feedback, and service-related correspondence.
Technical and usage data: basic information generated when you communicate electronically with us, such as timestamps and message delivery records.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is provided to us by you and is strictly necessary for a service-related reason, such as access or safety instructions. If such information is provided, we will handle it with extra care and only where a lawful basis applies.

2. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data only for legitimate business and legal purposes connected to our services. Typical uses include:

responding to enquiries and providing quotations;
booking, delivering, and managing cleaning services;
confirming appointments and handling schedule changes;
issuing invoices, processing payments, and keeping accounting records;
resolving complaints and service issues;
maintaining internal records and service quality;
meeting legal, tax, and regulatory obligations;
protecting our business, customers, and staff from fraud, misuse, or security risks.

We will not use your data for purposes that are incompatible with the reasons it was collected unless we obtain permission or are otherwise legally allowed to do so.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. West Green Carpet Cleaners relies on the following lawful bases, depending on the situation:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing a quote, carrying out a cleaning service, managing bookings, and handling payment and invoicing.

Legal Obligation

We may process personal data to comply with laws and regulations, including accounting, tax, and record-keeping requirements.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include service administration, improving our operations, preventing fraud, keeping business records, and responding to customer queries. When we rely on this basis, we consider the impact on your privacy and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

Consent

In limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example where we need permission for optional communications or to process information not covered by another lawful basis. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

4. How We Share Personal Data

We do not sell personal data. We only share personal information where necessary and lawful. In some cases, we may share data with trusted third parties who help us operate our business and provide services efficiently.

These recipients may include:

Payment service providers: to process payments and reduce payment risk.
Accounting and bookkeeping processors: to manage invoices, tax records, and financial reporting.
IT and communications providers: to store records, manage emails, and maintain secure systems.
Operational service providers: where support is needed for scheduling, record management, or service delivery.
Professional advisers: such as insurers, legal advisers, or auditors where necessary.
Public authorities: where disclosure is required by law or to protect legal rights.

Where we use third-party processors, they are only allowed to act on our instructions and must protect your data using appropriate technical and organisational measures. Processors do not own your data; they handle it on our behalf and are required to keep it secure and confidential.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, and for any additional period required by law or legitimate business needs. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason it is held.

Customer and service records: retained for a period needed to manage the relationship, resolve disputes, and maintain service history.
Financial records: retained for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Communication records: retained for a reasonable period to support customer service and complaint handling.
Legal and insurance records: retained for as long as necessary to defend or manage claims.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will delete it securely, anonymise it, or archive it where appropriate. We do not keep personal data indefinitely.

6. Data Security

We take the security of personal data seriously and use appropriate safeguards to reduce the risk of unauthorised access, loss, misuse, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality expectations, and careful management of digital and paper records. While no system can guarantee complete security, we review our safeguards periodically and aim to keep personal data protected at all times.

7. Your Rights Under GDPR

If you are a customer or prospective customer of West Green Carpet Cleaners, you have rights over your personal data. These rights may apply depending on the circumstances and the legal basis for processing:

Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Right to erasure: you can request deletion of your data in certain situations.
Right to restrict processing: you can ask us to limit how we use your data in some cases.
Right to data portability: you can request that data you provided to us be transferred to you or another controller where applicable.
Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests, and in some cases to direct marketing.
Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority if you believe your data has been handled unlawfully. We encourage you to raise concerns with us first so we can try to resolve them promptly and fairly.

8. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and property-related customers. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is incidentally provided in the context of a household service and only where necessary for safety or access reasons. If we become aware that we have collected personal data inappropriately, we will take steps to delete it or otherwise handle it lawfully.

9. International Transfers

Where any service provider processes data outside the UK, we will ensure that suitable safeguards are in place to protect your information in accordance with applicable law. This may include approved contractual protections or other lawful transfer mechanisms. We remain responsible for selecting processors that treat your data carefully and lawfully.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect legal, operational, or service changes. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We recommend reviewing this policy periodically so that you remain informed about how your data is used.

11. Summary of Our Commitments

West Green Carpet Cleaners is committed to processing personal data fairly, transparently, and securely. We collect only the information needed to provide our services, rely on valid lawful bases, retain data only as long as necessary, and use trusted processors under appropriate safeguards. Most importantly, we respect your rights and aim to handle all customer data with care and accountability.

This Privacy Policy applies to all West Green Carpet Cleaners customers in area.