St James's Carpet Cleaners Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how St James's Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data relating to customers and prospective customers in our service area. It also explains your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. By using our services, you acknowledge that your personal data will be processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all customers and prospective customers of St James's Carpet Cleaners in our service area, including individuals, tenants, landlords, letting agents, and businesses who contact us, request quotations, or use our carpet, upholstery, or related cleaning services.

Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is necessary for the provision and administration of our services. The types of personal data we may collect include the following categories.

Identification and contact details, such as your name, address, property access information, and any company or trading name where relevant. Communication details, such as your preferred contact method and the content of communications you send to us, including enquiries, booking requests, and feedback. Service details, such as the type of cleaning service requested, property type, room descriptions, and any specific instructions you provide about the work to be carried out. Billing and payment information, such as invoice details and records of payments. We do not directly store full card details where payment is processed using a third party payment processor that complies with relevant security standards. Usage and technical information where applicable, such as basic information provided by your browser or device when you visit our website, including pages visited and general interaction with our online content.

We do not intentionally collect special category data such as health information, racial or ethnic origin, or information relating to criminal convictions. Please do not provide such information to us unless it is strictly necessary and you understand how it will be used, for example to ensure our staff can safely access your property.

How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data in a number of ways. Directly from you when you contact us by phone, through our website contact or booking forms, or in person. During the provision of services when we attend your property and take notes required to deliver and manage the cleaning work. From third parties where lawful, such as letting agents, property managers, or landlords who book services on your behalf and provide your contact details to coordinate access and appointments. Automatically through limited website usage information, such as basic log data, where this is necessary to operate and secure our site.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We process your personal data only where we have a valid lawful basis under the UK GDPR. The main lawful bases we rely on are as follows.

Contract. We process your personal data to take steps at your request before entering into a contract and to perform our contract with you, for example to provide quotations, schedule appointments, attend your property, and issue invoices. Legitimate interests. We process personal data to pursue our legitimate business interests where these are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This includes keeping records of work completed, improving our services, responding to enquiries and complaints, and maintaining accurate accounts and business records. Legal obligation. We process personal data where necessary to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, such as tax and accounting obligations and record keeping. Consent. In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of marketing communication. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time using the contact details provided in this policy.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes, to the extent necessary in each case. To provide you with our cleaning services, including arranging site visits, carrying out cleaning work, and managing follow up. To respond to your enquiries, provide quotations, and manage bookings or changes to appointments. To issue invoices, process payments through our chosen payment processors, and maintain financial records. To manage our relationship with you as a customer, including recording past services and preferences. To handle any complaints, disputes, or legal claims. To administer and protect our business, including troubleshooting, auditing, and maintaining security.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the operation of our business and the provision of our services. These third parties act as data processors or, in some cases, as independent controllers.

Examples of third parties who may process your data on our behalf include payment processing providers who handle card transactions and other electronic payments, cloud service and data storage providers who host our electronic records and business systems, and professional advisers such as accountants and legal advisers where necessary for compliance and business management. Where we use processors, we put in place appropriate data processing agreements requiring them to process personal data only on our instructions, to keep it secure, and to comply with applicable data protection law.

We may also share personal data with third parties where required by law or in connection with legal proceedings, for example with law enforcement, regulators, or courts, or in connection with a business transfer where our business is sold or restructured. In such cases we will take appropriate steps to protect your data in accordance with this policy.

International Transfers

Where possible, we aim to keep your personal data within the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area. If we use a service provider that stores or accesses personal data outside these territories, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as the use of recognised standard contractual clauses or reliance on adequacy regulations.

Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including meeting any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

In general, customer and service records are retained for a period that allows us to respond to queries about past work, manage repeat bookings, and comply with tax and accounting rules. After the relevant retention period has expired, we will securely delete or anonymise your data so that it can no longer be linked to you.

Where you have given consent for marketing communications, we will keep your contact details for that purpose until you withdraw your consent or object to such processing.

How We Protect Your Data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to help protect your personal data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those employees and processors who need it to perform their duties, using secure systems for data storage where possible, and taking reasonable steps to ensure the reliability of those handling personal data on our behalf.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exemptions. These rights include the right to access your personal data and receive a copy of the information we hold about you, the right to rectify inaccurate or incomplete personal data, the right to erase your personal data in certain circumstances where there is no longer a lawful basis for us to continue processing it, the right to restrict our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including direct marketing, and the right to data portability where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, you can contact us using the contact details made available on our website or other service documentation. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request. We aim to respond within the time limits set by law.

Marketing Communications

We may use your contact details to send you information about services we think may be of interest to you, where we are permitted to do so by law. You can ask us to stop sending you marketing communications at any time by following the opt out instructions in the communication or by contacting us directly. If you opt out of marketing, we may still send you service or administrative messages that are necessary for the performance of our contract with you.

Complaints and Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the details provided on our website or in our service literature. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed. Further information on how to do this is available from the Information Commissioner's Office.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or data protection practices. Any updates will be posted on our website and will apply from the date of publication. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.