Privacy Policy - Clapham Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Clapham Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all customers of Clapham Carpet Cleaners in the Clapham area and to anyone who uses our services, requests a quotation, books an appointment, or otherwise interacts with us. We are committed to handling personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who we are

Clapham Carpet Cleaners provides professional carpet cleaning and related cleaning services for domestic and commercial customers. In order to deliver these services, we may need to collect and process certain personal data. We only process personal data where we have a valid lawful basis and only for purposes that are necessary, proportionate, and transparent.

2. Personal data we collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Identity data such as your name or business name.
Contact data such as address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details such as property type, cleaning requirements, preferred appointment times, and service history.
Billing and payment information such as payment status, invoices, and transaction records.
Communication data such as messages, enquiries, complaints, and feedback.
Technical data where relevant, such as device or browser information if you communicate with us electronically.
Special instructions you provide about access to the property, items to be cleaned, or any service-related preferences.

We aim to collect only the information that is necessary to arrange, provide, manage, and improve our services. We do not intentionally collect more personal data than we need.

3. How we use personal data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotes and estimate service requirements.
To schedule, confirm, and carry out cleaning services.
To communicate with you about bookings, service updates, and changes.
To issue invoices and process payments.
To manage customer records and service history.
To handle enquiries, complaints, and customer support requests.
To comply with legal, regulatory, tax, and accounting obligations.
To protect against fraud, misuse, or security incidents.
To improve our services and internal operations.

We do not sell your personal data.

4. Lawful basis for processing

Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. Depending on the situation, we may rely on one or more of the following:

Contract

We process your data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes taking bookings, delivering cleaning services, managing appointments, and processing payment-related information.

Legal obligation

We may process personal data when required to comply with legal obligations, such as record-keeping, tax, accounting, or responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. Examples include service improvement, customer management, record maintenance, and protecting our business from fraud or misuse. We always consider whether our interests are balanced against your privacy rights.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where it is required for certain optional communications. If we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time, although this will not affect processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Retention of personal data

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the purpose of processing.

Booking and service records may be retained for a reasonable period to manage customer relationships and service history.
Financial and invoice records may be retained for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Communication records may be retained for as long as needed to resolve disputes, complete services, or maintain accurate business records.

When personal data is no longer required, we will take reasonable steps to delete, anonymise, or securely destroy it. Retention is limited to what is necessary and proportionate.

6. Sharing personal data and processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to run our business and provide our services. These third parties may act as processors or, in some circumstances, independent controllers.

Examples of processors may include:

Payment service providers that handle card or electronic payments.
Accounting or bookkeeping providers that help manage financial records.
IT, cloud storage, or software providers that support booking, messaging, or record management.
Administrative service providers who assist with customer communications or scheduling.

Where a third party acts as a processor, they may only process your personal data on our instructions and are required to protect it appropriately. We seek to ensure that appropriate contracts and safeguards are in place.

We may also disclose personal data if required by law, regulation, court order, or where necessary to protect our rights, property, staff, customers, or the public.

7. International transfers

In some cases, our processors or service providers may store or access data outside the UK. If this occurs, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that any transfer is lawful and that suitable protections are in place, such as approved contractual safeguards or equivalent legal mechanisms.

8. Data security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, limited staff access, and data minimisation practices. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Your rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may apply in certain circumstances and may be subject to legal exceptions.

Right of access – you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification – you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure – you can ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction – you can ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object – you can object to processing based on legitimate interests, and in some cases to direct marketing.
Right to data portability – you can request a copy of certain data in a structured, commonly used format.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we will respond within the time limits required by law. We may need to verify your identity before responding to protect your data.

10. Complaints and supervisory authority

If you are concerned about how your personal data has been handled, you have the right to raise a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority in the UK. We encourage you to contact us first so we can try to resolve any issue promptly and fairly.

11. Changes to this policy

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

12. Summary of our commitment

Clapham Carpet Cleaners respects your privacy and handles personal data responsibly. We collect only what is needed to deliver and manage our services, rely on clear lawful bases, keep data only as long as necessary, share it only with appropriate processors or where legally required, and respect your rights under data protection law. This policy applies to all Clapham Carpet Cleaners customers in the Clapham area.