Privacy Policy - Childs Hill Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Childs Hill Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet and upholstery cleaning services. It applies to all Childs Hill Carpet Cleaners customers in the area and to anyone who enquires about our services, receives a quotation, books a service, or interacts with us in connection with our business. We are committed to handling personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and other applicable privacy laws.

We value your privacy and aim to collect only the information that is necessary, use it fairly and transparently, and retain it only for as long as needed for lawful business and legal purposes.

1. Information We Collect

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

Identity details such as your name and title.
Contact information such as your address, telephone number, and email address.
Service details such as the nature of the cleaning requested, property access details, preferred appointment times, and relevant service instructions.
Payment information such as payment method, transaction details, and billing records. We do not intentionally store full card details unless this is required for processing through a secure payment system.
Communication records such as emails, messages, call notes, and any feedback, complaints, or service requests.
Technical information where applicable, such as device or browsing data if you visit a digital service connected with our business. This may include basic usage information used for security, analytics, or service improvement.

We may also receive personal data indirectly from third parties, such as property managers, landlords, tenants, letting agents, referral partners, or payment providers, when this is necessary to arrange or complete a service.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

to provide quotations and respond to enquiries;
to schedule, deliver, and manage cleaning services;
to verify service details and access arrangements;
to process payments and maintain accounting records;
to communicate about bookings, changes, or service issues;
to handle complaints, disputes, and warranty-related matters;
to maintain records for business, tax, and legal compliance;
to improve our services, customer care, and internal operations;
to protect against fraud, misuse, or unlawful activity;
to comply with legal or regulatory requirements.

We do not sell your personal data. Any use of your information is limited to the purposes described in this policy or as otherwise required by law.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. The lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes quoting for work, confirming bookings, delivering services, and managing payments.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain data where required to meet legal obligations, such as tax recordkeeping, accounting, fraud prevention, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include improving services, maintaining business records, managing customer relationships, and defending legal claims. When relying on legitimate interests, we consider whether the processing is proportionate and privacy-friendly.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example where we send certain types of optional marketing messages or use non-essential cookies or similar technologies if applicable. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

Special category data is not usually needed for carpet cleaning services. If such information is ever collected, it will only be processed where a lawful basis and additional legal condition apply.

4. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who help us operate our business. These third parties act as processors or independent controllers depending on the service they provide.

Processors may include:

payment processors;
accounting and bookkeeping providers;
IT support and cloud storage providers;
customer management or scheduling systems;
communication service providers;
professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers;
subcontracted service providers where required to complete a booking.

Where we use processors, we ensure appropriate contractual and security measures are in place so that your data is handled only on our instructions and with adequate protection. We may also share data with public authorities, insurers, or other third parties where necessary to comply with legal obligations, protect our rights, or support a lawful claim.

We require all third parties with access to personal data to respect confidentiality and data protection requirements. We only share the minimum information necessary for the relevant purpose.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the reason it was collected.

Quotation and enquiry records are generally kept for a limited period to manage follow-up questions, customer service, and business administration.
Booking and service records are typically kept for the duration of the customer relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Payment, invoice, and accounting records are retained in line with tax and financial obligations.
Complaint or dispute records may be retained longer where needed to resolve the issue or defend a legal claim.

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

6. 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 information.
Right to erasure – to ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances.
Right to restrict processing – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to data portability – to request transfer of data you have provided to us, 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 exceptions. If you wish to exercise any of your rights, we may need to verify your identity before responding.

7. Security of Your Data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and careful management of shared records. While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to maintain a level of protection appropriate to the risks involved.

8. Marketing Communications

If we send marketing communications, we will do so only where permitted by law. You may opt out of marketing at any time. Service-related messages, such as booking confirmations, invoices, or updates necessary to perform a contract, are not marketing and may still be sent when relevant.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adult customers and property-related service arrangements. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is incidental and necessary for a specific service arrangement approved by a parent, guardian, or responsible adult. If we become aware that children’s data has been collected incorrectly, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect legal, operational, or technological changes. The most current version will apply to the personal data we hold at the time. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their information is handled.

11. Summary of Key Principles

We only collect data needed to provide and manage carpet cleaning services.
We use personal data lawfully, fairly, and transparently.
We share data only with trusted processors or where legally required.
We retain data only for as long as necessary.
We respect your data protection rights and privacy choices.

Childs Hill Carpet Cleaners is committed to responsible data handling and to treating your personal information with care. This policy applies to all customers in the area who use our services or contact us in relation to our work.