Privacy Policy - Berrylands Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Berrylands Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all Berrylands Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including prospective customers, current customers, and anyone who enquires about our services. We are committed to handling personal information lawfully, fairly, and transparently in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By using our services or submitting your personal information to us, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

1. What Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the information that is necessary for us to provide our carpet cleaning services, manage our business, and comply with legal obligations. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identity information: your name and, where relevant, the name of your company or property owner.
Contact information: address, telephone number, and email address.
Service information: details about the cleaning services requested, property access notes, preferred appointment times, and records of completed jobs.
Payment information: billing details and transaction records. We do not routinely store full card details unless necessary for secure processing.
Communication records: emails, text messages, call notes, complaints, feedback, and any other correspondence.
Technical information: basic information such as IP address, device type, or browser data if it is collected through digital systems used to manage enquiries or bookings.
Special category data: we do not intentionally collect special category data, such as health information, unless you choose to share it with us for a specific reason, for example to help us arrange safe access or accommodate a vulnerability. If we do receive such information, we will only process it where permitted by law and only when necessary.

We do not collect more information than we need. Where possible, we limit data collection to what is relevant to the service requested.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

to respond to enquiries and provide quotations;
to schedule and deliver carpet cleaning services;
to communicate with you about appointments, changes, or follow-up matters;
to process payments and issue invoices or receipts;
to maintain accurate business records;
to handle complaints, customer service matters, and warranty or re-clean requests;
to comply with tax, accounting, insurance, and other legal obligations;
to protect our business, staff, and customers from fraud, misuse, or unlawful activity;
to improve our services, systems, and customer experience.

We will only use your personal data for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or for closely related purposes that you would reasonably expect.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. Berrylands Carpet Cleaners relies on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process your data where it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform a contract with you. This includes arranging appointments, delivering cleaning services, and managing related customer communications.

Legal obligation

We process some data where needed to meet legal requirements, such as tax records, accounting obligations, or compliance with consumer and business regulations.

Legitimate interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include maintaining records, improving services, managing complaints, preventing fraud, and ensuring business security. When relying on legitimate interests, we consider whether the processing is necessary and whether it has a fair impact on you.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example if it is needed for optional marketing communications or for the use of certain non-essential processing activities. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect processing that has already taken place lawfully.

4. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors on our behalf or with independent controllers where required by law. These may include:

Payment service providers who process transactions securely;
Accounting and bookkeeping providers who assist with financial records and tax compliance;
IT, software, and cloud storage providers who support booking systems, communication tools, and document storage;
Customer service or administration providers who help manage operational tasks;
Professional advisers such as insurers, legal advisers, or auditors where necessary;
Public authorities where disclosure is required by law or necessary to protect rights, safety, or legal interests.

We only use processors that provide sufficient guarantees regarding security, confidentiality, and compliance with data protection law. Where processors handle data on our behalf, they are only permitted to act on our instructions and for the purposes we specify.

We do not sell your personal data. We will not share it for unrelated third-party marketing purposes unless you have clearly agreed to that.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet legal, accounting, insurance, and operational requirements. Retention periods vary depending on the type of data and why it is held.

Customer and service records: retained for a reasonable period to manage follow-up queries, service history, and business administration.
Financial and tax records: retained for the period required by applicable law.
Communication records: retained for as long as needed to deal with enquiries, disputes, and customer service issues.
Marketing data: retained until you opt out, withdraw consent, or we determine it is no longer needed.

When data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you. Retention is based on necessity, not convenience.

6. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, or disclosure. These measures may include restricted access, password protection, secure storage, staff awareness, and controlled sharing with approved processors.

Although we work hard to safeguard your information, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure. We therefore cannot guarantee absolute security, but we continually review our practices to reduce risk.

7. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to conditions and exemptions, but we will always consider and respond to your request in line with the law.

Right of access: you can ask for confirmation of whether we process your data and request a copy of it.
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 circumstances.
Right to restriction: you can ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to data portability: you can request certain data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time.

If you exercise any of these rights, we may need to verify your identity before responding. We aim to handle requests within the time limits set by law.

8. International Transfers

If any of our processors store or access data outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your information. These safeguards may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or equivalent legal mechanisms recognised under data protection law.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and business customers. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is incidentally provided by an adult customer in connection with a booking or property access arrangement. If we become aware that we have collected data unlawfully, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law, our services, or our business practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their data is handled.

11. Complaints and Supervisory Authority

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, you should first raise the issue with us so that we can try to resolve it. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK’s data protection supervisory authority if you believe your rights have been infringed.

Summary of our commitment: Berrylands Carpet Cleaners processes personal data fairly, securely, and only where legally permitted, with respect for customer privacy at every stage.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Berrylands Carpet Cleaners customers in the area.