Privacy Policy - Dulwich Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Dulwich Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data relating to its customers and prospective customers in the Dulwich area. It applies to all Dulwich Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including individuals who request quotes, make bookings, receive cleaning services, or otherwise interact with our business. We are committed to handling personal information in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By using our services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed as described in this policy. We aim to collect only the information necessary to provide our services properly, manage customer relationships, meet legal obligations, and improve the quality of what we offer.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you interact with us. This may include:

Identity details such as your name and, where relevant, business name.
Contact details such as address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details such as the type of carpet cleaning or related service requested, appointment times, and property access notes.
Payment-related information such as transaction records and billing history. We do not store more payment data than is necessary for processing and accounting.
Communication records including enquiries, complaints, feedback, and correspondence relating to your booking or service.
Technical and usage information if you communicate with us electronically, such as basic device or message metadata where applicable.
Special instructions you choose to provide, such as access arrangements or cleaning preferences.

We do not intentionally collect unnecessary personal data, and we ask that you only share information that is relevant to your enquiry or service request. If you provide information about another person, you must ensure you have the right to do so and, where appropriate, their permission.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
To arrange, deliver, and manage cleaning services.
To communicate about bookings, changes, or service issues.
To process payments, invoices, and receipts.
To maintain internal records and customer history.
To handle complaints, disputes, or claims.
To comply with legal, tax, and accounting requirements.
To protect our business from fraud or misuse.
To improve customer service and service quality.

We only use your information in ways that are compatible with the purposes for which it was collected, unless we have a lawful reason to use it for another compatible purpose. We do not sell personal data.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal data. Depending on the situation, Dulwich Carpet Cleaners relies on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process your data when it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract or to perform a contract with you. This includes managing quotes, bookings, cleaning services, invoices, and related communications.

Legal Obligation

We may process your data where we are required to do so by law, including for tax, accounting, recordkeeping, and compliance purposes.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and interests do not override those interests. Examples include maintaining service records, responding to customer queries, improving service delivery, and protecting our business against fraud or unauthorised activity.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where you expressly agree to a particular type of communication or optional use of your data. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time.

Where special category data is involved, we will only process it when there is an appropriate lawful basis and additional condition under data protection law. In ordinary carpet cleaning services, such data is not usually required.

4. Sharing Your Information and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who assist us in operating our business. These organisations act as processors or independent controllers depending on the service they provide. We require appropriate safeguards and only share data when necessary.

Examples of processors may include:

Payment service providers that process transactions securely.
Accounting or bookkeeping providers that help manage financial records.
IT and cloud storage providers that support secure data storage and communication systems.
Scheduling or administrative software providers used to manage bookings and service records.
Professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers where necessary.

We may also disclose personal data if required by law, regulation, court order, or a request from a public authority with lawful power to obtain the information. In the event of a business reorganisation, transfer, or sale, customer data may be transferred as part of that process, subject to appropriate legal protections.

Where processors are used, they are only permitted to process data on our instructions and must protect it appropriately. We do not allow processors to use your personal data for their own unrelated purposes.

5. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. The retention period depends on the type of information and the reason it is held.

As a general rule:

Customer service and booking records are kept for a reasonable period to manage follow-up queries, complaints, and service history.
Financial and tax-related records are retained in line with applicable legal obligations.
Enquiry records may be kept for a short period if no service is booked, so that we can respond appropriately to repeat contact or disputes.
Where data is no longer required, it is securely deleted, anonymised, or otherwise disposed of safely.

We review retention periods regularly to ensure they are appropriate and not excessive. When personal data is no longer needed, we take steps to remove it from active systems and, where possible, from backups in accordance with our retention procedures.

6. Data Security

We take the security of your information seriously and use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or loss. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and appropriate data management practices.

Although no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to reduce risk and handle any incidents responsibly. If a personal data breach occurs and it is legally required, we will notify the relevant authority and affected individuals in accordance with applicable law.

7. Your Rights

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

Right of access - to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification - to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure - to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction - to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object - to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing, where applicable.
Right to data portability - to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format where the legal conditions are met.
Right to withdraw consent - where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

To protect your privacy, we may need to verify your identity before responding to a rights request. Some rights may be limited by law, for example where we must keep information for tax or legal reasons.

8. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adult customers and property occupants arranging cleaning services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children for direct service provision. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected such data without a lawful basis, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data protection practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise made available. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their data is used.

10. Our Commitment to Privacy

Dulwich Carpet Cleaners values the trust placed in us by our customers. We are committed to processing personal data responsibly, keeping it secure, and only using it for clear and legitimate purposes. If you are a customer in the Dulwich area, this policy explains how we protect your privacy while delivering our services efficiently and professionally.

In summary: we collect only the data needed to provide carpet cleaning services, process it under a valid lawful basis, keep it only as long as necessary, use trusted processors where required, and respect your data protection rights.