Privacy Policy - Spitalfields Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Spitalfields Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all customers of Spitalfields Carpet Cleaners in the Spitalfields area, including anyone who requests, receives, or enquires about our carpet cleaning and related 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.

Last updated: This policy applies from the date of publication and should be read alongside any service terms that may apply to your booking.

1. Who We Are

Spitalfields Carpet Cleaners provides carpet cleaning and related domestic and commercial cleaning services. For the purposes of data protection law, we act as a data controller in relation to the personal data we determine the purpose and means of processing. This means we decide why and how your personal information is used when you contact us, request a quote, make a booking, or receive a service.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the information needed to manage enquiries, deliver services, handle payments, and meet legal obligations. The categories of personal data we may collect include:

• Identity information: your name, title, and where relevant, business name.
• Contact information: address, email address, telephone number, and any other details you provide when making an enquiry or booking.
• Service information: details about the property, carpet type, cleaning requirements, preferred appointment times, and notes you share about access or special instructions.
• Billing and payment information: records relating to invoices, payment status, and transaction details. We do not store unnecessary card data beyond what is required for payment processing.
• Communication records: emails, messages, call notes, complaints, feedback, and records of any correspondence with us.
• Technical and usage data: limited information such as device identifiers, IP address, or browser data may be collected if you interact with our digital systems, where applicable.

We generally collect data directly from you. In some cases, we may receive information from a third party, such as a landlord, letting agent, facilities manager, or another person arranging a service on your behalf. In such cases, we will rely on that party to ensure they have a lawful basis for sharing your data with us.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• to respond to enquiries and provide quotations;
• to arrange and deliver cleaning services;
• to manage bookings, scheduling, and service updates;
• to process payments and maintain financial records;
• to handle complaints, queries, and customer support;
• to improve our services, training, and customer experience;
• to meet legal, accounting, tax, and regulatory requirements;
• to protect our business, customers, and staff from fraud, misuse, or security risks.

We only use your personal data for the purposes for which it was collected, unless we reasonably determine that we need to use it for another compatible purpose.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. Depending on the activity, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotes, confirming bookings, carrying out cleaning services, and issuing invoices.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. Examples include managing customer relationships, improving our services, maintaining records, and protecting our business against fraud or disputes. We consider the potential impact on you before relying on this basis.

Legal Obligation

We process some information because we must comply with legal requirements, including tax rules, accounting obligations, and record-keeping duties.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain optional communications. Where consent is used, it will be specific, informed, and freely given. You may withdraw consent at any time, and this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Sharing Your Information and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. However, we may share information with trusted third parties who help us operate our business. These third parties act as processors when they handle data on our behalf and only according to our instructions.

Processors and service providers may include:

• payment service providers who process transactions securely;
• accounting and bookkeeping providers;
• IT, cloud storage, email, and system support providers;
• customer management or scheduling software providers;
• professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers;
• subcontractors or cleaning operatives, where necessary to deliver a service you have booked.

We require processors to protect personal data, use it only for specified purposes, and maintain appropriate security measures. In some circumstances, we may also disclose personal data to law enforcement, regulators, courts, or other public authorities where required by law or where necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

6. International Transfers

Some processors may store or access data outside the United Kingdom. Where this occurs, we take steps to ensure that your personal data remains protected by appropriate safeguards, such as approved transfer mechanisms and contractual protections, in line with applicable law.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, and reporting requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of information and why it is held.

As a general approach:

• customer enquiry records are kept for a limited period after the enquiry is concluded;
• booking and service records are retained for as long as needed to manage the customer relationship and address any issues;
• invoice, tax, and accounting records are retained for the period required by law;
• complaints and dispute-related records may be kept longer where necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.

8. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures are designed to reflect the nature of the information we process and the risks involved. Although no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we continually review our practices to reduce risk.

9. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights regarding your personal data. Subject to legal limitations, these include:

• The right of access: to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• The right to rectification: to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• The right to erasure: to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
• The right to restrict processing: to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain cases.
• The right to object: to object to processing based on legitimate interests, including direct marketing where applicable.
• The right to data portability: to receive certain information in a structured, commonly used format where technically feasible.
• The right to withdraw consent: where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed. We encourage you to raise concerns with us first so that we can try to resolve the issue promptly.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and business customers arranging cleaning services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is incidentally provided by an adult customer in connection with a service request. If we become aware that we have collected child-related personal data without an appropriate lawful basis, we will take steps to delete it.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, our services, or how we process personal data. Any updated version will apply from the time it is published. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically to remain informed about how we handle personal information.

12. Summary of Our Commitment

Spitalfields Carpet Cleaners is committed to processing your personal data in a way that is lawful, fair, and transparent. We only collect information that is necessary, use it for clearly defined purposes, keep it only as long as needed, and share it only with trusted processors or where the law requires. Protecting your privacy is an important part of the service we provide to all customers in the Spitalfields area.