Privacy Policy
Kingston Carpet Cleaners Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Kingston Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our customers in our service area. It also explains your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy applies to all Kingston Carpet Cleaners customers, including prospective, current and past customers, as well as individuals who contact us with enquiries about our services.
Who We Are and Scope of This Policy
Kingston Carpet Cleaners is a carpet, upholstery and related cleaning services provider operating in the Kingston area and surrounding locations. For the purposes of data protection law, Kingston Carpet Cleaners is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy applies whenever we act as a data controller, which includes our dealings with all Kingston Carpet Cleaners customers in our service area and individuals who interact with us directly.
Personal Data We Collect
We only collect personal data that is relevant to providing and managing our cleaning services, communicating with you and complying with our legal obligations. The types of personal data we may collect include:
Identification and contact information, such as your full name, billing address, service address, and any other address you provide in connection with our services.
Communication details, such as your preferred method of contact and the content of communications you send to us, including enquiries, service requests, feedback and complaints.
Service and booking information, including details of the services you request, dates and times of appointments, property access instructions you choose to provide, and records of services delivered.
Payment and transaction information, such as the amount charged, payment method type, and confirmation of payment. We do not collect or store complete payment card details if processed through third party payment providers.
Technical and usage information, such as basic details about how you contact us online, which may include IP address, device type and general interaction data, to the extent that this is necessary for security, troubleshooting and service improvement.
How We Collect Personal Data
We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us by phone, through online forms, by post, in person or by any other communication method you choose to use. We may also receive personal data from third parties where this is necessary for providing our services, such as referrals from existing customers or business partners. When we receive personal data from third parties, we ensure that they have a lawful basis to share it with us.
Lawful Bases for Processing
We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the circumstances, this may include:
Contractual necessity: We use your personal data to enter into and perform a contract with you, including arranging appointments, providing cleaning services, communicating about bookings, issuing invoices and processing payments.
Legitimate interests: We may process your personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Examples include managing our business operations, improving our services, responding to general enquiries, preventing fraud, and maintaining security.
Legal obligation: We may process your personal data where we are required to do so by law, such as keeping accounting and tax records, handling legal claims and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.
Consent: In some cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of marketing or where no other lawful basis is available. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.
How We Use Your Personal Data
We use personal data for the following purposes:
To provide and manage our services, including handling booking requests, carrying out carpet and upholstery cleaning, and managing follow up visits where needed.
To communicate with you about your enquiries, bookings, changes to appointments, service updates and any issues relating to your account.
To manage payments, invoicing, refunds and related financial administration.
To maintain business records, including service history, tax records, and information needed for auditing and regulatory compliance.
To improve our services and customer experience, which may include reviewing feedback and analysing aggregated, non identifying data.
To protect the security of our systems, prevent fraud and protect our legal rights.
Sharing Your Personal Data with Processors and Other Recipients
We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and where there is a lawful basis. These recipients may include:
Service providers acting as data processors, who provide services such as secure data hosting, appointment management, payment processing, accounting or IT support. These parties are only allowed to process your personal data on our documented instructions and must keep it secure.
Professional advisers, such as accountants, auditors, insurance providers or legal advisers, where necessary for the management and protection of our business and to comply with legal obligations.
Public authorities or law enforcement agencies, where we are required or permitted by law to share data, for example to prevent or investigate crime or to comply with statutory obligations.
We take steps to ensure that any third party with whom we share personal data provides sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures in such a manner that processing meets the requirements of data protection law and ensures the protection of your rights.
International Transfers
Where personal data is transferred outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area by our processors or service providers, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include using standard contractual clauses or ensuring that the destination country has an adequacy decision issued by the relevant authority.
Data Retention
We retain personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including for satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. The length of time we keep personal data will vary depending on the type of information and the reasons we collected it.
Generally, we retain customer records, booking details and related contact information for a period that reflects the typical lifecycle of our customer relationships and the limitation periods for legal claims. Financial and invoicing records are retained for the time required by tax and accounting laws. When personal data is no longer required for these purposes, we will securely delete or anonymise it.
Security of Your Personal Data
We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, encryption in transit where appropriate, staff training and procedures for managing suspected data breaches. While no system can be completely secure, we continually review and update our practices to enhance the security of your data.
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 include:
Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you, together with certain information about how we use it.
Right to rectification: You have the right to request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data about you is corrected or completed.
Right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you may request that we delete your personal data. This right is not absolute and may be limited where we have a legal obligation or compelling legitimate grounds to retain the data.
Right to restriction of processing: You may request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, for example while we are verifying the accuracy of the data or considering an objection you have raised.
Right to object: You may have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis. We will stop processing unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue or where processing is necessary for legal claims.
Right to data portability: Where our processing is based on your consent or on a contract and carried out by automated means, you may request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format or transfer it to another controller where technically feasible.
Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before your withdrawal.
How to Exercise Your Rights
If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, please contact Kingston Carpet Cleaners using your preferred communication method. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request, particularly where the request involves access to personal data. We aim to respond to all valid requests within one month, or within any extended period permitted by law where requests are complex or numerous.
Right to Complain
If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, we encourage you to contact us in the first instance so that we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority for data protection if you believe your rights have been infringed.
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. When we make significant changes, we will take appropriate steps to bring the updated policy to your attention. The most recent version of this Privacy Policy will always apply to the personal data we hold and process.
