Privacy Policy for New Malden Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how New Malden Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related services. It applies to all New Malden Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including individuals and businesses who request a quotation, make a booking, receive a service, or otherwise interact with us in connection with our services.

We are committed to handling personal information in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the information that is necessary to provide our services, manage our customer relationship, and meet our legal obligations. Depending on your interaction with us, we may collect the following categories of personal data:

Identity data: your name or the name of your business contact.
Contact data: address, email address, telephone number, and other details needed to arrange and deliver services.
Service information: details about the rooms, carpets, upholstery, or other items requiring cleaning, plus service preferences and instructions.
Transaction data: records of quotations, invoices, payments, refunds, and service history.
Communication data: messages, enquiries, feedback, complaints, or correspondence with our team.
Technical data: basic information collected when you communicate electronically, such as device or browser details, where relevant to service administration.
Special category data: we do not intentionally collect sensitive personal data. If such information is shared with us accidentally, we will treat it carefully and only process it where permitted by law.

We do not seek to collect more data than is required for the purposes described in this policy. If you choose not to provide certain information, we may be unable to complete a booking, issue an accurate quotation, or deliver the requested service.

2. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data for specific business and legal purposes. These include:

responding to enquiries and providing quotations;
booking, confirming, and carrying out cleaning services;
managing payments, invoices, and financial records;
maintaining service records and customer history;
handling complaints, disputes, and follow-up requests;
improving our service quality, training, and operational planning;
meeting tax, accounting, insurance, and other legal obligations;
preventing fraud, misuse, or unlawful activity;
communicating important information about the service you have requested.

We will only use personal data for the purposes for which it was collected unless we reasonably determine that we need to use it for another compatible purpose and the law allows this.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for each type of processing. New Malden Carpet Cleaners relies on the following lawful bases:

a) Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes arranging quotations, confirming appointments, carrying out cleaning work, and managing payments related to the services you request.

b) Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain information where needed to comply with legal duties, such as accounting, tax, insurance, or record-keeping obligations.

c) Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is in our legitimate interests to do so and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include managing customer relationships, improving operations, preventing fraud, and keeping appropriate business records.

d) Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example if you explicitly agree to a type of communication or optional processing that is not necessary for the service. Where consent is used, you have the right to withdraw it at any time.

We do not rely on consent where another lawful basis is more appropriate.

4. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who support our business operations. These organisations act as processors or, in some cases, independent controllers. We only share data when it is necessary and appropriate.

Examples of processors may include:

payment processors that handle card or electronic payments;
accounting or bookkeeping providers that assist with invoicing and financial records;
IT and cloud storage providers that securely host emails, files, and business systems;
customer management or scheduling tools used to organise bookings and service records;
professional advisers such as insurers, legal advisers, or accountants where necessary.

Any processor we use is required to process personal data only on our instructions, to keep it secure, and to comply with applicable data protection laws. We do not sell your personal data.

We may also disclose personal data if required by law, to respond to lawful requests from public authorities, or to protect our rights, property, staff, customers, or the public.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including any legal, accounting, or reporting obligations.

Retention periods depend on the type of data and the reason for processing. In general:

quotation and enquiry data may be kept for a limited period to manage follow-up and business administration;
customer and service records may be retained for the duration of the relationship and for a reasonable time afterwards;
financial and tax records are retained for the period required by law;
complaints or dispute records may be kept as long as needed to resolve the issue and protect our legal position.

When data is no longer needed, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you. We review retained information periodically to ensure it is not kept longer than necessary.

6. Data Security

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, password protection, and limiting access to personal data to authorised personnel only.

While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to safeguard information in line with the nature of the data we process and the risks involved.

7. Your Data Protection Rights

Under applicable data protection law, you have rights regarding your personal data. These rights may be subject to certain conditions and exemptions, depending on the circumstances.

Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
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 data portability: you can request that certain data be provided to you or another organisation in a structured, commonly used format.
Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or to direct marketing where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we will respond in accordance with applicable law. We may need to verify your identity before acting on your request.

8. Automated Decision-Making

We do not use personal data to make decisions about you solely by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects. If this changes in the future, we will update this policy and provide any required information.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and business customers. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children as part of our standard operations. If we become aware that we have unintentionally collected such information, we will take reasonable steps to delete it unless we are legally required to keep it.

10. International Transfers

Where any personal data is transferred outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect it, as required by data protection law. This may include the use of approved contractual terms or transfers to countries with adequate protection.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or operational needs. The revised version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how their data is handled.

12. Summary of Our Commitment

New Malden Carpet Cleaners is committed to respecting your privacy and handling personal data responsibly. We collect only what is needed, use it for clear and lawful purposes, share it only with appropriate processors or where required by law, keep it only as long as necessary, and support your rights under data protection law. If you use our services in the New Malden area, this policy governs how your personal information is processed.