Hounslow Carpet Cleaning Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Hounslow Carpet Cleaning collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to customers and prospective customers in the Hounslow area. It is intended to comply with the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Hounslow Carpet Cleaning customers and prospective customers in the Hounslow area who contact us, request a quote, make a booking, or otherwise interact with us in relation to our carpet cleaning and related services. It covers personal data collected through telephone enquiries, text messages, online enquiries, in-person discussions, and any other direct communications between you and Hounslow Carpet Cleaning.

Data Controller

For the purposes of data protection law, Hounslow Carpet Cleaning is the data controller in respect of the personal data we collect and process about you. 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 legislation.

Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is relevant and necessary for providing our services and running our business. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Your identity details, such as your name and, where relevant, your job title if you contact us on behalf of a business customer.

Your contact details, such as your billing address, service address, and, where provided, any alternative address for key collection or access, as well as your telephone number and, where provided, your email address.

Service details, such as information about the property where services are to be provided, including type of flooring or upholstery, number of rooms, level of soiling, access instructions, parking information and any specific instructions or preferences you provide.

Booking and transaction details, such as dates and times of appointments, details of services requested or provided, prices, discounts, payment status and method of payment. We do not store full payment card details.

Communication records, such as notes of your enquiries, quotes we have provided, complaints, feedback and any other correspondence between you and Hounslow Carpet Cleaning.

How We Collect Personal Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request information, obtain a quote, make or amend a booking, provide feedback, or contact us for any other reason. This may occur by telephone, text message, online forms, or in person. We may also obtain additional information about your property or requirements during a site visit or when providing our services at your premises.

Lawful Bases for Processing

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

Performance of a contract: We process your personal data where it is necessary to enter into and perform our contract with you, including taking steps at your request before entering into a contract, such as providing a quote, booking appointments and delivering carpet cleaning services.

Legitimate interests: We process certain personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as managing our operations, improving our services, planning routes and schedules, preventing fraud or misuse of our services, handling customer enquiries, and keeping basic records. When we rely on this lawful basis, we balance our interests against your rights and freedoms and only process data where our interests are not overridden.

Legal obligations: We may process your personal data where it is necessary to comply with legal obligations, including record keeping for tax and accounting purposes or responding to lawful requests from regulatory or enforcement authorities.

Consent: In limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example where we send certain types of marketing communications to individuals. When we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries and provide quotes for services you request.

To create and manage bookings, schedule appointments and provide our carpet cleaning and related services at your premises.

To communicate with you about your booking, including confirmations, reminders, updates, and any changes or issues relating to your appointment.

To process payments and manage invoices, accounting and internal administration.

To improve our services, including by reviewing feedback, resolving complaints and monitoring service quality.

To maintain appropriate business records and comply with legal, tax and regulatory requirements.

To protect our business, staff and customers, including fraud prevention, dispute resolution and exercising or defending legal claims.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors only process your data in accordance with our instructions and for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

Examples of processors we may use include:

IT service providers and hosting companies that store or process data on our behalf, such as providers of scheduling tools, invoicing tools or secure storage systems.

Professional advisers, such as accountants, where access to limited personal data may be necessary for compliance with tax or accounting obligations.

We may also share personal data with third parties acting as independent data controllers where required by law or where necessary to protect our rights, for example with law enforcement or regulatory bodies in response to lawful requests, or with our insurers or legal advisers in the context of a dispute or legal claim.

International Transfers

Where our trusted service providers or their systems are located outside the United Kingdom, we take steps to ensure that your personal data is given appropriate protection that is equivalent to the protection it receives in the United Kingdom. This may include ensuring that the country has an adequacy decision from the relevant authorities or that contracts with the recipient contain standard data protection clauses approved for use in international transfers.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

In general, we keep records of customer details, bookings, invoices and related information for a period that allows us to respond to queries, manage any potential disputes and comply with our legal obligations, including tax and accounting rules. After the relevant retention period has expired, we securely delete or anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be linked to you.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures include restricting access to personal data to those who have a business need to know it, using appropriate security controls on our systems and devices, and ensuring that our processors implement suitable data protection measures.

While we take reasonable steps to safeguard your data, no system can be completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your own communication methods secure when contacting us and for not sharing confidential information unnecessarily.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, these rights include:

Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation that we process your personal data and to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

Right to rectification: You have the right to request that we correct or complete personal data that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete your personal data.

Right to restriction of processing: In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data.

Right to data portability: In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we provide you with the personal data you have given us in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format or that we transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis, including any direct marketing activities.

Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Exercising Your Rights

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, you can contact Hounslow Carpet Cleaning using the contact details you normally use to communicate with us. We may need to verify your identity before replying to your request, particularly if the request concerns access to or erasure of personal data.

We aim to respond to all valid requests within one month. In some cases, particularly where requests are complex or numerous, this period may be extended. We will always inform you if we need more time to respond.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority for data protection if you are concerned about the way we handle your personal data. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve your concerns directly.

Marketing Communications

We may use your contact details to send you information about our services that we believe may be of interest to you, where we are permitted to do so by law. You can ask us to stop sending marketing messages at any time by following any unsubscribe instructions provided in the communication or by contacting us using your usual contact method. Even if you opt out of marketing communications, we may still contact you with service messages relating to bookings or other non marketing communications.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, our internal processes or applicable laws. Any changes will apply from the time the updated Privacy Policy is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.