Privacy Policy - Gardeners North Sheen

Gardeners North Sheen is committed to protecting the privacy and personal data of every customer. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect personal information when providing gardening services to customers in the North Sheen area. It applies to all Gardeners North Sheen customers in the area, including prospective clients, existing clients, and anyone who communicates with us about our services.

We process personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. We aim to handle data lawfully, fairly, transparently, and only for clearly defined purposes. This policy should help you understand what information we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over your personal data.

1. Data We Collect

We collect only the information that is necessary to provide gardening services efficiently and safely. Depending on your interaction with us, we may collect the following categories of personal data:

Identity information: name, title, and basic customer identifiers.
Contact information: address, email address, and telephone number.
Service information: details about the gardening work requested, property access notes, service preferences, and job history.
Payment information: payment records, invoicing details, and transaction references.
Communication records: emails, message history, notes from calls, and feedback.
Technical information: limited device or usage details if you interact with us through digital channels.
Special category data: we do not actively seek special category data. If such information is ever provided to us incidentally, we will only process it where a lawful basis applies and where it is necessary.

We may receive data directly from you when you request a quote, book a service, or make an enquiry. In some cases, data may also be provided by a family member, property manager, landlord, or another person acting on your behalf. We may use publicly available information only when necessary to verify service details or maintain accurate records.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for specific and limited purposes related to delivering our services. These purposes include:

responding to enquiries and providing quotes;
booking, delivering, and managing gardening services;
issuing invoices and processing payments;
maintaining customer records and service history;
communicating about appointments, updates, or changes;
handling complaints, disputes, or service issues;
meeting legal, tax, and accounting obligations;
improving service quality and business operations;
preventing fraud, misuse, or unauthorised access;
securing our systems and protecting customers, staff, and property.

We will not use your personal data for purposes that are incompatible with the reasons for which it was collected, unless we have a valid legal basis to do so.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

We only process personal data when we have a lawful basis under data protection law. The main lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract

We process data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. For example, we use your contact details, service address, and booking information to provide gardening services, manage appointments, and complete work requested by you.

Legal Obligation

We process some information to comply with legal obligations, including tax, accounting, insurance, record-keeping, and regulatory requirements.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include maintaining service records, handling customer enquiries, improving services, and protecting our business from misuse or fraud. When relying on legitimate interests, we consider whether the processing is necessary and proportionate.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time. If consent is withdrawn, this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

4. Retention of Personal Data

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

Customer and service records: retained for as long as needed to manage the business relationship and address any follow-up issues.
Financial and invoice records: kept for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Communication records: stored for a reasonable period to support customer service and dispute resolution.
Security-related records: retained only as long as necessary for safety, fraud prevention, or incident management.

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

5. Processors and Data Sharing

We may share personal data with trusted processors who help us operate our services. These third parties only process data on our instructions and are required to protect it appropriately. Typical processors may include:

IT and hosting providers;
email and communication service providers;
accounting and bookkeeping services;
payment processing providers;
administrative support tools used for scheduling or record management.

We may also disclose data where required by law, for example to tax authorities, law enforcement, insurers, or courts. If a business transfer occurs, personal data may be shared with advisers or successors as part of that process, subject to appropriate safeguards.

We do not sell personal data. We do not permit processors to use your information for their own purposes.

6. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality expectations, and careful management of digital and paper records.

Although no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to maintain a level of protection appropriate to the type of data we hold and the risks involved.

7. Your Rights

You have a number of rights under data protection law. Subject to legal conditions and exemptions, these include the right to:

access the personal data we hold about you;
rectify inaccurate or incomplete information;
erase your data in certain circumstances;
restrict how we process your information in certain cases;
object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing;
data portability where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means;
withdraw consent where consent is the basis for processing;
raise a concern with the relevant data protection authority if you believe your rights have been infringed.

We will respond to valid rights requests within the time limits set by law. In some cases, we may need to verify your identity before responding in order to protect your data.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal duties, or data handling practices. When significant changes are made, we will take reasonable steps to ensure customers are aware of the update. The latest version will always describe how we process personal data at the time it is collected and used.

9. General Principles

We are committed to ensuring that personal data is:

processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently;
collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes;
adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary;
accurate and kept up to date where appropriate;
retained only for as long as necessary;
secured against unauthorised or unlawful processing.

Gardeners North Sheen treats privacy as an important part of customer care. By keeping our data practices limited, accountable, and transparent, we aim to support trust in every service we provide across the North Sheen area.