Bermondsey Carpet Cleaning Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Bermondsey Carpet Cleaning collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data in the course of providing carpet and upholstery cleaning and related services. It applies to all Bermondsey Carpet Cleaning customers in the service area, as well as individuals who contact us with enquiries, request quotes, or otherwise interact with our business.

We are committed to processing personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and applicable UK data protection laws. This Privacy Policy is intended to be transparent and easy to understand so that you know what happens to your personal information and what rights you have.

Personal Data We Collect

We collect personal data that is necessary to provide our services, respond to your requests, manage our business, and comply with legal obligations. The categories of personal data we may collect include:

Contact details such as your name, address of the property where services are provided, billing address where different, and any other location details you provide to help us reach you.

Communication details such as your preferred contact method and the content of communications you send to us, including enquiries, feedback, and complaints.

Service information such as details about the rooms or items to be cleaned, access instructions for your property, scheduling preferences, and any specific requirements or notes you provide about the job.

Payment and transaction information such as the amount charged, date of payment, and payment method used. We do not store full payment card details if card processing is carried out by a third-party payment processor.

Technical and usage information such as basic data generated when you visit our website or contact us online, which may include your IP address, device and browser type, and pages visited. This is used for analytics, security, and to improve our services.

Any other information you choose to provide voluntarily, for example if you leave a review, request a call back, or take part in a promotion.

Lawful Bases for Processing Personal Data

We process personal data only where we have a lawful basis to do so under data protection law. Depending on the context, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Performance of a contract. We process your contact details, service information, and payment details when this is necessary to provide our cleaning services, manage bookings, send confirmations, issue invoices, and handle related queries.

Legitimate interests. We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where these interests are not overridden by your rights and interests. This can include managing our relationship with you, improving and developing our services, keeping records, preventing fraud, and ensuring the security of our systems and premises.

Legal obligations. We may process certain personal data to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including accounting, tax reporting, record keeping, and responding to requests from competent authorities, where we are legally required to do so.

Consent. In some situations, we may rely on your consent to process your data, for example for certain forms of direct marketing. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time, and we will make it as easy to withdraw as it was to give.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

To provide and manage cleaning services, including taking bookings, confirming appointments, visiting your property, delivering the services, and following up where necessary.

To communicate with you about your bookings, appointments, service updates, and any queries or issues you raise with us.

To manage payments, issue invoices and receipts, process refunds where appropriate, and keep financial records for tax and accounting purposes.

To manage our relationship with customers, including handling complaints, obtaining feedback, and maintaining internal records of past services.

To improve our services and operations, including monitoring performance, carrying out analytics on service usage, and training staff.

To send marketing communications about our services where we are permitted to do so by law or where you have given consent. You may opt out of marketing at any time.

To protect our business, property, and systems, including preventing misuse, fraud, and security breaches.

Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected and to meet legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Customer and service records, including basic contact details, service history, and transaction information, are typically retained for a period aligned with applicable limitation periods and our accounting obligations. This allows us to respond to questions about past services, handle potential disputes, and comply with financial regulations.

Communications and enquiries that do not lead to a booking may be retained for a shorter period, which is limited to what is necessary to manage follow up and demonstrate how we handled the enquiry.

Marketing data, such as records of your preferences and consent, is kept for as long as we continue to send you marketing communications or until you opt out or withdraw consent, after which we keep a minimal record to ensure that your preference is honoured.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete, anonymise, or destroy it in line with our data retention policies and any applicable legal requirements.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your information with carefully selected third parties where this is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy or where we are legally required to do so.

Service providers and processors. We may use third parties to perform functions on our behalf, such as IT and hosting providers, payment processors, customer relationship management tools, accountants, and providers of communications and scheduling tools. These processors are only permitted to process personal data in accordance with our instructions and are required to protect it appropriately.

Professional advisers. We may share data with professional advisers such as accountants, auditors, or legal advisers where necessary for the services they provide to us.

Authorities and legal requirements. We may disclose personal data when required to comply with a legal obligation, court order, or request from a competent authority, or to protect our legal rights, the safety of our staff and customers, or to prevent or detect crime or fraud.

If we were to undergo a business restructuring, such as a merger, acquisition, or transfer of business, personal data may be shared with relevant parties, but only where appropriate safeguards and confidentiality obligations are in place.

International Data Transfers

Where our use of service providers results in personal data being transferred outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms, together with additional technical and organisational measures where required.

Data Security

We take the security of personal data seriously and implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction, or damage. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, encryption and pseudonymisation where appropriate, staff training, and regular review of our procedures and systems.

Despite our efforts, no system can be completely secure. We therefore cannot guarantee absolute security but strive to minimise risks and respond promptly to any potential issues.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to certain conditions and legal limitations, but we will always respond to any request you make in accordance with the law.

Right of access. You have the right to request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and to receive a copy of that data together with information about how it is used.

Right to rectification. You have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal data and to have incomplete data completed.

Right to erasure. In certain circumstances, you may have the right to request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected or where you withdraw consent and there is no other legal basis for the processing.

Right to restriction. You may request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, such as while we are assessing a request to rectify or erase data or where you have objected to our processing based on legitimate interests.

Right to object. You can object at any time to processing of your personal data carried out on the basis of our legitimate interests, including profiling. We will stop the processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds. You also have the right to object at any time to direct marketing, in which case we will stop sending you marketing communications.

Right to data portability. In certain circumstances, you may have the right to receive personal data that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to request that we transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.

Where we rely on consent as the lawful basis for processing your data, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services, or legal obligations. Any updates will be made available in the most recent version of this policy. We encourage you to review the Policy periodically to remain informed about how we handle your personal data.