Belgravia Carpet Cleaning Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Belgravia Carpet Cleaning collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data relating to its customers in the Belgravia service area. It also explains your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, and how you can exercise them.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all customers and prospective customers of Belgravia Carpet Cleaning within our service area, including individuals, households, landlords, tenants, estate agents, and commercial clients. It covers personal data collected through our day-to-day operations, including booking enquiries, service delivery, and customer care activities.

Who we are and our role as data controller

Belgravia Carpet Cleaning determines the purposes and means of processing your personal data and acts as the data controller for the information described in this Privacy Policy. Where we use third parties to process personal data on our behalf, they act as data processors and are bound by contracts and data protection obligations.

Personal data we collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data about you when you engage with Belgravia Carpet Cleaning:

Identification and contact data: name, title, postal address, service address, and any alternative access addresses you provide for service purposes.

Communication data: information you provide when you contact us, including enquiries, instructions, feedback, complaints, and any notes we make in relation to providing services to you.

Booking and service data: information related to scheduled or completed services, such as preferred dates and times, property type, room details, access instructions, special cleaning requirements, and job history.

Billing and payment data: information required to issue invoices and record payments, such as billing address, payment status, and basic transaction details. Where we use third-party payment processors, we generally do not receive or store your full card details, and those processors manage your payment information in line with their own security standards.

Technical and usage data: when you interact with us online, we may collect limited technical data such as IP address, device type, and general browsing information, where this is necessary to operate and secure our online services.

Preference data: your stated preferences, for example regarding contact methods, reminder communications, and any consent you give for marketing communications.

How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data in several ways, including:

Directly from you, when you contact us, request a quotation, make a booking, or communicate with us by phone, in person, or through other channels.

From third parties acting on your behalf, such as property managers, landlords, estate agents, or relatives, where they provide information necessary to arrange or manage cleaning services.

Automatically, when you interact with our online content or digital tools, where basic technical information is generated as part of using those services.

Lawful basis for processing your data

We rely on one or more of the following lawful bases under the UK GDPR to process your personal data:

Contract: processing is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to provide carpet cleaning services, manage bookings, and handle billing and payment.

Legal obligation: processing is necessary to comply with legal or regulatory requirements, such as maintaining appropriate business records and complying with tax and accounting obligations.

Legitimate interests: processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these are not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights. These interests include managing and developing our services, responding to enquiries, improving customer experience, maintaining security, and defending legal claims.

Consent: where required by law, we will obtain your consent before sending direct electronic marketing communications, and you may withdraw this consent at any time.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide our services: managing enquiries, providing quotations, scheduling appointments, delivering carpet and upholstery cleaning, and following up on completed work.

To manage our relationship with you: communicating with you about bookings, responding to questions or complaints, sending service-related updates, and recording your preferences.

To handle billing and payments: preparing and sending invoices, processing payments via our chosen payment providers, and maintaining financial records.

To improve our services: reviewing customer feedback, understanding how our services are used, and making operational improvements while keeping data minimised and proportionate.

To ensure security and prevent misuse: protecting our staff, customers, and business, including preventing fraud or misuse of our services.

To comply with legal and regulatory obligations: maintaining records required by law and cooperating with relevant authorities where we have a legal duty to do so.

Data sharing and processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties acting as data processors or, where appropriate, as separate controllers. These include:

Service and operations providers: companies that support our day-to-day operations, such as IT and communications providers, booking or scheduling tools, and document storage services.

Payment and accounting providers: payment processing services and accountancy or bookkeeping providers that help us process payments and maintain accurate financial records.

Professional advisers: legal and other professional advisers, where necessary to obtain advice or protect our legal rights.

Authorities and regulators: law enforcement agencies, tax authorities, or regulators, where we are required to do so by law or where disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

Where we use processors, they may only process your personal data in accordance with our instructions, must keep your information confidential, and must implement appropriate security measures.

International transfers

If any of our service providers or processors are located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place for any transfer of personal data, in line with applicable data protection law. This may include the use of standard contractual clauses or other approved transfer mechanisms. You may contact us for further details of such safeguards where applicable.

Data retention and storage

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, and to meet any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. In determining appropriate retention periods, we consider factors such as the nature and sensitivity of the data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use, the purposes for which we process the data, and applicable legal obligations.

Typically, core customer and transaction records are retained for a defined period after the last interaction, in order to handle queries, repeat bookings, and legal or tax requirements. At the end of the relevant retention period, personal data is securely deleted, anonymised, or otherwise removed from our systems where this is appropriate.

Data security

We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, disclosure, or destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure storage practices, staff awareness and training, and reviewing our procedures on a regular basis. While we aim to safeguard your personal data, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights with respect to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exemptions:

Right of access: you can request confirmation that we process your personal data and ask for a copy of the information we hold about you.

Right to rectification: you can request that we correct or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

Right to erasure: in certain circumstances, you can ask us to delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or where you have withdrawn consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.

Right to restriction of processing: you can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in specific situations, for example while we verify its accuracy or consider an objection you have raised.

Right to data portability: in certain circumstances, you can request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format and transfer it to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to object: you can object to processing that is based on our legitimate interests, including profiling based on those interests, and we will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights, and freedoms or where processing is required for legal claims.

Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Exercising your rights and complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or have questions about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the usual contact details you use to reach Belgravia Carpet Cleaning. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request, in order to protect your privacy and security.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority if you are unhappy with how we process your personal data. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can seek to resolve your concerns directly.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data protection guidance. Any updates will apply from the date they are published. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we manage your personal data.