Privacy Policy - Cudham Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Cudham Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all Cudham Carpet Cleaners customers in area, including anyone who requests a quotation, books a service, receives cleaning services, or communicates with us in connection with our business. We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

Cudham Carpet Cleaners provides carpet cleaning and related cleaning services for homes and businesses. For the purposes of data protection law, we act as the data controller for the personal data we collect and use in the course of providing and managing our services. This means we decide how and why your personal data is processed.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the information needed to deliver our services, manage our business, and meet legal or regulatory obligations. The personal data we may collect includes:

Identity details such as your name.
Contact details such as your phone number, email address, and service address.
Booking and service details such as appointment dates, cleaning requirements, property access information, and service history.
Billing information such as payment status, invoice records, and transaction references.
Communication records such as emails, messages, notes from calls, and feedback.
Technical data such as basic website or device information if you contact us online, where applicable.
Special category data only where necessary and where you provide it voluntarily, for example information about accessibility or health-related needs that affect service delivery.

We do not intentionally collect more information than is required. Please avoid sharing unnecessary personal details unless they are relevant to your service request.

3. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data to carry out the following activities:

Provide quotations and respond to enquiries.
Schedule, confirm, and deliver cleaning services.
Manage customer accounts, records, and service preferences.
Process payments, issue invoices, and maintain financial records.
Communicate about bookings, changes, delays, or service follow-up.
Handle complaints, disputes, and customer support requests.
Improve our services, operations, and customer experience.
Meet legal, tax, accounting, insurance, and regulatory obligations.

We only use your data for the purposes stated above or for closely related purposes that would be reasonably expected. If we need to use your data for a new and unrelated purpose, we will explain this to you where required by law.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for every processing activity. Cudham Carpet Cleaners relies on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to perform a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract. This includes providing quotations, taking bookings, carrying out cleaning services, and managing payment or service delivery.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your interests and rights do not override those interests. This may include maintaining business records, managing customer relationships, preventing fraud, improving services, and responding to customer enquiries. We balance these interests carefully and only process data where appropriate.

Legal Obligation

We process certain data when required to comply with legal obligations, such as tax rules, accounting requirements, insurance requirements, and record-keeping duties.

Consent

Where required, we will rely on your consent. For example, if we need to process optional information that is not necessary for service delivery, we will ask for permission first. You may withdraw consent at any time, although this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

Vital Interests and Public Interest

These bases are unlikely to apply in most cases, but where necessary, we may rely on them in exceptional circumstances to protect someone’s safety or comply with a public duty.

5. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where needed to operate our business and provide services. These third parties act as processors when they process data on our behalf, or as independent controllers where they use data for their own legal purposes.

Processors we may use include:

Payment service providers who handle card or online payment processing.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers who support invoicing, record keeping, and financial reporting.
IT and cloud storage providers who host business records, email systems, and secure data storage.
Customer management or scheduling software providers that help us manage bookings and service records.
Professional advisers such as insurers, auditors, or legal advisers where necessary.

We only share the minimum data needed for the relevant purpose and require processors to handle personal data securely and in line with data protection law. We do not sell personal data.

6. International Transfers

If any of our processors store or access data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms. We take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal data remains protected to a standard consistent with UK GDPR requirements.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected, and for any additional period required by law. Retention periods depend on the type of data and the reason for processing.

Quotation and enquiry records are usually retained for a limited period to help with follow-up and business administration.
Customer service records are retained for as long as the relationship continues and for a reasonable period after it ends.
Financial and tax records are kept for the period required by law.
Complaint and dispute records may be retained longer where necessary to resolve issues or defend legal claims.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so it can no longer identify you. In some cases, we may retain limited information for legal, insurance, or evidential reasons.

8. Security of Your Data

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, password protection, staff confidentiality practices, and data minimisation. While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we take data security seriously and regularly review our practices.

9. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to conditions or exemptions. They include:

The right to be informed about how we use your data.
The right of access to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
The right to rectification to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
The right to erasure in certain circumstances, sometimes called the right to be forgotten.
The right to restrict processing in certain situations.
The right to data portability where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means.
The right to object to processing based on legitimate interests or to direct marketing where applicable.
Rights related to automated decision-making, although we do not typically use automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, we will respond in accordance with legal requirements and within the applicable time limits. We may need to verify your identity before acting on your request.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary in connection with a property service and provided by an adult customer or authorised representative. Where child-related information is incidentally provided, we treat it with the same care and protection as other personal data.

11. Complaints

If you have concerns about how your personal data is handled, please raise them with us first so we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to complain to the relevant data protection authority if you believe your data protection rights have been breached. We encourage you to contact us promptly so concerns can be addressed quickly and fairly.

12. 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 handling practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain aware of how personal data is used.

By using our services, making an enquiry, or providing us with your personal data, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.