Privacy Policy - Dartmouth Park Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Dartmouth Park Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all Dartmouth Park Carpet Cleaners customers in the Dartmouth Park area, including prospective customers, existing customers, and anyone who interacts 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. Who This Policy Applies To

This policy applies to individuals who request, receive, or enquire about carpet cleaning and related services provided by Dartmouth Park Carpet Cleaners in the Dartmouth Park area. It also applies to people who communicate with us by telephone, email, online forms, text message, or any other means connected with our services.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is necessary for providing our services, managing our business, and meeting legal obligations. Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect the following categories of data:

• Identity information: your name and, where relevant, business name.
• Contact details: address, phone number, and email address.
• Service details: information about the property, the carpets or upholstery to be cleaned, access notes, and appointment preferences.
• Payment information: billing details and records of payments made. We do not store full card details where payment processing is handled by a secure third-party provider.
• Communication records: messages, call notes, enquiries, complaints, and service feedback.
• Technical information: basic device or usage data if collected through digital systems used to manage appointments or communications.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is strictly necessary and you have chosen to provide it, or we are required to do so by law. If such information is received accidentally, we will handle it with extra care and delete or restrict it where appropriate.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• to respond to enquiries and provide quotations;
• to schedule, deliver, and manage cleaning services;
• to communicate appointment updates or service-related information;
• to process payments and maintain accounting records;
• to handle complaints, disputes, or follow-up requests;
• to improve service quality and customer experience;
• to comply with legal, tax, and regulatory obligations;
• to protect our business from fraud, misuse, or security incidents.

We ensure that personal data is used only for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes and not in ways that are incompatible with those purposes.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process personal data. Dartmouth Park Carpet Cleaners relies on the following lawful bases:

a) Contract

We process your personal data where it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, and to perform our contract with you. This includes arranging services, cleaning carpets, issuing invoices, and managing appointments.

b) Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. These interests may include service management, business administration, responding to customer enquiries, record keeping, and protecting against fraud or misuse.

c) Legal Obligation

We process personal data where required to comply with legal duties, including tax, accounting, insurance, or regulatory obligations.

d) Consent

Where we rely on consent, such as for certain optional communications, we will ask for your clear permission. You may withdraw consent at any time, and this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Sharing Personal Data and Processors

We may share personal data only where necessary and with appropriate safeguards. We do not sell personal information. In some cases, we use trusted third parties, also known as processors, to help us operate our business. These may include:

• payment processors that handle secure transactions;
• booking or scheduling providers that help manage appointments;
• IT and cloud service providers that store or maintain business systems;
• accounting or bookkeeping services that support financial administration;
• communication tools used to send service updates or respond to enquiries.

Any processor acting on our behalf is required to protect your data, use it only for our instructions, and apply appropriate security measures. Where data is shared with processors, we ensure that contractual and technical safeguards are in place.

We may also disclose personal data if required by law, court order, or a regulatory authority, or if necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

6. International Transfers

If any processor or service provider stores or accesses data outside the UK, we will take steps to ensure an adequate level of protection. This may include using approved contractual safeguards and assessing whether the destination country provides appropriate data protection measures.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as it is needed for the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law. Retention periods depend on the type of information and the reason it is held. In general:

• customer enquiries may be kept for a limited period to manage follow-up communication;
• service records may be retained for business administration, warranty handling, and quality control;
• financial and tax records may be retained for the periods required by law;
• complaints or dispute records may be retained until the matter is resolved and for a reasonable time afterwards.

When data is no longer required, we will securely delete, anonymise, or archive it in accordance with our retention practices.

8. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against accidental loss, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and limiting access to those who need it for legitimate business purposes.

While we work to protect all information, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs, we will respond in line with our legal obligations and take steps to reduce any risk to affected individuals.

9. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These may include the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• rectify inaccurate or incomplete data;
• erase your data in certain circumstances;
• restrict our processing in certain situations;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing;
• data portability for data processed on the basis of consent or contract, where applicable;
• withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent.

These rights are not absolute. Some requests may be limited where we must retain data to comply with legal obligations or where the law allows us to refuse a request.

10. How to Exercise Your Rights

If you wish to exercise any of your rights, please provide enough information for us to identify you and understand your request. We will respond within the timeframe required by law and may need to verify your identity before taking action. We may also ask for clarification if your request is unclear or too broad.

11. Complaints

If you have concerns about how your personal data is handled, we encourage you to raise them with us first so that we can review the matter. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or operational practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise made available. We recommend reviewing this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

13. Summary of Our Commitment

Dartmouth Park Carpet Cleaners is committed to handling personal data responsibly, securely, and lawfully. We collect only the data we need, use it for clear and legitimate purposes, and keep it only for as long as necessary. We work with trusted processors under appropriate safeguards and respect your rights under data protection law. This policy applies to all Dartmouth Park Carpet Cleaners customers in the area and is designed to provide a transparent explanation of how we manage personal information.