Privacy Policy - Southgate Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Southgate Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related services. It applies to all Southgate Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including anyone who enquires about, books, receives, or pays for our services. We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, transparent, and secure manner in accordance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

Southgate Carpet Cleaners is a service provider that processes personal data as a data controller for the purposes of operating its business, managing customer relationships, and delivering services. This means we decide why and how your personal data is used. We only process data that is necessary for legitimate business purposes and service delivery.

2. Personal Data We Collect

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

Identity details: name, title, and any other information you choose to provide when making an enquiry or booking.
Contact details: address, email address, and telephone number.
Service information: details of the cleaning service requested, property access information, job notes, and customer preferences.
Payment information: billing details, payment status, and limited transaction records. We do not store full payment card details where a third-party payment processor is used.
Communication records: emails, messages, call notes, complaint records, and feedback.
Technical information: basic website or device data if you interact with our online channels, such as IP address, browser type, and usage data, where applicable.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless you provide it voluntarily and it is necessary for a specific service request, such as accessibility or health-related instructions. Where such information is provided, we will handle it with extra care and only where legally permitted.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data to operate our business and provide quality services. Typical uses include:

responding to enquiries and providing quotes;
booking and managing appointments;
delivering carpet cleaning and related services;
processing payments and maintaining accurate financial records;
communicating service updates, reminders, or changes;
handling complaints, disputes, and customer support;
maintaining internal records, audit trails, and service history;
meeting legal, tax, and regulatory obligations;
protecting our business, staff, and customers from fraud or misuse.

We only use personal data for the purpose for which it was collected unless a compatible and lawful further use is permitted.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process personal data. Southgate Carpet Cleaners relies on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes taking bookings, delivering services, issuing invoices, and managing payments.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these interests do not override your rights and freedoms. Examples include managing customer communications, improving our services, maintaining records, preventing fraud, and ensuring the security of our business operations. We balance these interests against your privacy rights before relying on this basis.

Legal Obligation

Some processing is required to comply with legal duties, such as tax, accounting, record-keeping, health and safety, and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

Consent

Where we rely on your consent, such as for optional marketing communications or the processing of certain sensitive information, we will ask you clearly and separately. You may withdraw consent at any time, and this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. However, we may share it with trusted third parties who help us run our business. These parties act as processors when they process data on our behalf and only according to our instructions.

Payment service providers: to process payments securely.
IT and cloud service providers: to store data, manage systems, and maintain business tools.
Accountants and bookkeeping services: to support financial administration and legal compliance.
Professional advisers: such as legal or insurance advisers where necessary.
Customer communication tools: for email, messaging, or appointment management functions.

Where processors are used, we take steps to ensure appropriate contractual and technical safeguards are in place. These include confidentiality obligations, security measures, and restrictions on how data may be used. We may also disclose personal data if required by law, court order, or regulatory request.

6. International Transfers

If any of our processors store or access data outside the UK or EEA, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms designed to protect your personal data.

7. Retention of Personal Data

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including to satisfy legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Retention periods vary depending on the nature of the data and our obligations.

Customer and service records: retained for a reasonable period after the service ends to handle follow-up, disputes, and recordkeeping.
Financial and tax records: retained for the period required by law.
Communication and complaint records: retained for as long as needed to manage customer service and legal claims.
Marketing data: retained until you opt out or withdraw consent, where consent is the lawful basis.

When data is no longer needed, we will securely delete, anonymise, or archive it in line with our retention practices.

8. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and regular review of security practices. While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we take reasonable steps to safeguard the information we hold.

9. Your Rights Under GDPR

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may apply in different circumstances and may be subject to legal exceptions.

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

If you exercise any of these rights, we may need to verify your identity before responding. We will respond within the time limits required by law.

10. Marketing Communications

If we send promotional messages, we will only do so where permitted by law. You can opt out at any time, and we will respect your preferences. We do not use unfair or intrusive marketing practices. Any marketing data will be processed with your rights in mind and will be removed from active lists when you unsubscribe or object.

11. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults arranging carpet cleaning services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is incidentally provided by an adult customer and is necessary for service delivery. If we become aware that data has been collected inappropriately, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or data practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect personal data.

13. Contacting Us About Privacy

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your rights, or want to raise a concern about how your data is handled, you may contact us through our usual business communication channels. We will review and respond to privacy requests in accordance with applicable law.

Summary of our commitment: Southgate Carpet Cleaners processes personal data lawfully, securely, and transparently, using it only for legitimate business purposes and keeping it only as long as needed.

Important note: This policy applies to all Southgate Carpet Cleaners customers in the area and is designed to support GDPR-compliant data handling across our services.