Surrey Carpet Cleaners Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Surrey Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data relating to our customers in the Surrey area. We are committed to complying with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act, and to handling your information lawfully, fairly, and transparently.
Scope of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to all Surrey Carpet Cleaners customers and prospective customers located within the Surrey area. It covers personal data collected when you contact us, request a quotation, book a service, visit our website, or otherwise interact with us in connection with our carpet and upholstery cleaning services.
Data Controller
Surrey Carpet Cleaners is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. As data controller, we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data and are responsible for ensuring that such processing complies with applicable data protection laws.
Personal Data We Collect
We may collect and process the following categories of personal data about you:
Identification and contact details: name, address, property location in Surrey, email address, and communication preferences.
Service and booking information: dates and times of appointments, details of the services requested, information about the areas to be cleaned, access instructions, and related notes required to perform the service safely and effectively.
Billing and payment information: billing address, details of payments made, and basic transaction history. We do not store full payment card details; where card payments are used, this information is handled by a secure third party payment processor.
Communication records: records of communications with you by phone, online forms, or other methods, including enquiries, quotations, feedback, and complaints.
Technical data: limited technical information when you visit our website, which may include your IP address, browser type, basic device information, and pages visited. This information is used to help us administer and improve our website and services.
Lawful Bases for Processing
We will only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis for doing so. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:
Contract: we process personal data to enter into and perform contracts with you, including providing quotations, confirming bookings, delivering cleaning services, and handling related communications and payments.
Legitimate interests: we process personal data for our legitimate business interests, provided that your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include managing our business operations, improving our services, maintaining security, preventing fraud, and keeping basic records of past work in case of queries or repeat bookings.
Legal obligations: we process personal data where necessary to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, such as tax and accounting requirements.
Consent: in limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of marketing communications. Where we rely on consent, you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.
How We Use Your Personal Data
We use your personal data for the following purposes:
To respond to enquiries and provide quotations for our services.
To set up and manage appointments, including confirming, rescheduling, or cancelling bookings.
To deliver carpet and upholstery cleaning services at your property.
To manage billing, invoicing, and payments and to maintain accurate financial records.
To communicate with you regarding the services provided, including any follow-up queries, feedback, or complaints.
To improve our services, training, and customer experience based on anonymised or aggregated information.
To send you information about our services that may be of interest to you, where permitted by law or where you have provided your consent.
To comply with legal, regulatory, or professional obligations and to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
Data Sharing and Processors
We may share your personal data with carefully selected third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These third parties only process your personal data according to our instructions and for the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy. They are required to keep your data secure and confidential.
Processors may include:
Payment service providers that process card or electronic payments securely on our behalf.
IT and software providers who host or support our booking systems, customer databases, and website.
Professional advisers, such as accountants, for the purpose of fulfilling legal and regulatory obligations.
We may also share your personal data with third parties where required by law, for example with law enforcement authorities, regulators, or courts, or where necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
We do not sell your personal data to third parties.
International Transfers
Where any of our processors or service providers are located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place before any transfer of personal data takes place. These safeguards may include standard contractual clauses approved by relevant data protection authorities or other lawful mechanisms designed to protect your personal data to a standard essentially equivalent to that under UK law.
Data Retention
We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
In general, we keep customer records and related service information for a standard retention period that allows us to respond to queries, handle repeat bookings, and meet our legal obligations. Financial and transactional records are retained for the period required by tax and accounting regulations.
When personal data is no longer required for these purposes, we will securely delete or anonymise it so that you can no longer be identified from the information.
Data Security
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction, or damage. These measures include limiting access to personal data to personnel and service providers who have a business need to know it and are subject to confidentiality obligations.
While we strive to protect your information, no transmission of data over the internet or any storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. However, we continually review and update our security measures in line with industry standards and legal requirements.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under data protection laws, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, these include the right to:
Access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you and information about how we process it.
Rectification: request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data about you.
Erasure: request that we delete your personal data where there is no longer a lawful reason for us to keep it.
Restriction: request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
Objection: object to our processing of your personal data where we are relying on legitimate interests or where we are using your data for direct marketing.
Data portability: request a copy of personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and request that we transfer it to another controller where technically feasible.
Withdraw consent: where processing is based on your consent, withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing before consent was withdrawn.
If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact details available on our main website or any written correspondence you may have from us. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request.
Complaints
If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, we encourage you to contact us so that we can address your concerns. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection supervisory authority. Details of how to do this are available from the authority and on its official website.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. Any updated version will apply to all Surrey Carpet Cleaners customers in the Surrey area from the date it is made available. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.