Privacy Policy - Kensington Carpetcleaning

This Privacy Policy explains how Kensington Carpetcleaning collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data in connection with the services we provide. It applies to all Kensington Carpetcleaning customers in the area, including prospective customers, current customers, and anyone who interacts with us in relation to our carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, stain removal, and related services.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in line with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy should help you understand what information we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have over your data.

1. Who We Are

Kensington Carpetcleaning is a service provider operating in the local area and offering cleaning services for homes and businesses. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the data controller for the personal data we collect and use about our customers and website visitors, where applicable.

This means we decide how and why your personal data is processed, and we are responsible for ensuring that processing is carried out in accordance with applicable law.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the personal data that is necessary to provide our services, manage our customer relationships, and operate our business effectively. Depending on the nature of your interaction with us, this may include:

• Identity details such as your name;
• Contact details such as your address, email address, and telephone number;
• Service information such as the type of cleaning requested, property details, access requirements, and preferred appointment times;
• Payment information such as transaction records, billing details, and payment confirmations;
• Communication records such as messages, enquiries, complaints, feedback, and service notes;
• Technical data where relevant, including basic information about how you interact with our digital communications;
• Marketing preferences if you have chosen to receive updates or promotional messages.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is strictly necessary and you provide it voluntarily. If such information is ever provided, it will be handled with additional care and only where a lawful basis exists.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• To respond to enquiries and provide quotations;
• To schedule, deliver, and manage our cleaning services;
• To communicate with you about bookings, service changes, or follow-up matters;
• To process payments and maintain accurate records;
• To handle complaints, disputes, and customer support requests;
• To comply with legal and regulatory obligations;
• To improve our services, operations, and customer experience;
• To send marketing information where permitted by law and where you have not objected.

We only use your personal data for the purposes for which it was collected unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another compatible purpose. If we need to process your data for a new reason that is unrelated, we will explain the legal basis before doing so where required.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. Kensington Carpetcleaning relies on the following lawful bases depending on the activity involved:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to perform a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract. This includes providing quotes, arranging appointments, carrying out cleaning services, and managing billing.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include managing customer relationships, maintaining records, preventing fraud, improving services, and handling general business administration.

Legal Obligation

In some cases, we must process and retain data to comply with legal obligations, such as accounting requirements, tax rules, record-keeping duties, or responses to lawful requests from authorities.

Consent

Where required by law, we will rely on your consent, such as for certain forms of marketing. You may withdraw consent at any time, and this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who help us run our business. These third parties act as processors or, in some cases, independent controllers. We only share the minimum information necessary and ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place.

Processors may include:

• Payment service providers that handle card or electronic transactions;
• Booking or scheduling providers that help manage appointments;
• IT and cloud storage providers that store or secure business data;
• Accounting and bookkeeping providers that support invoicing and financial records;
• Communication service providers that assist with email or message delivery;
• Professional advisers such as legal or accounting advisers where necessary.

All processors are required to handle your data securely and in accordance with written contractual obligations. They may only process your data on our instructions and for the specific purposes we set out.

We may also disclose personal data if required to do so by law, by a court order, or to protect our rights, property, staff, customers, or others.

6. International Transfers

If any of our service providers store or process data outside the UK, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that your personal data receives a level of protection that is equivalent to UK data protection standards. This may include the use of approved safeguards and contractual protections.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying legal, accounting, or reporting obligations. The retention period depends on the type of data and the reason it was collected.

In general:

• Customer and booking records are retained for as long as needed to manage the service relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards;
• Payment and invoice records are retained for the period required by tax and accounting laws;
• Communication records are retained for as long as needed to resolve queries or support service history;
• Marketing records are retained until you withdraw consent or object, where applicable.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete, anonymise, or archive it in accordance with our retention procedures.

8. How We Protect Your Data

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard personal data against accidental loss, unauthorised access, misuse, disclosure, or alteration. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and regular review of our data handling practices.

While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we take data security seriously and work to reduce risks to an appropriate level.

9. Your Rights

As a data subject under UK GDPR, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may not apply in every situation, but we will always respond to your request in accordance with the law.

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

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we will assess your request and respond within the legal timeframe. We may need to verify your identity before acting on your request.

10. Marketing Preferences

We may send you service-related communications that are necessary for the performance of our services. We will only send promotional messages where we are permitted to do so by law. You may opt out of marketing at any time. If you do, we will stop sending marketing communications, although we may still contact you for important service or administrative reasons.

11. Children’s Data

Our services are directed at adults and business customers. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children in the ordinary course of our business. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child without appropriate authorisation, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in legal requirements, business practices, or service arrangements. 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 informed about how we process personal data.

13. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, we encourage you to raise them with us first so we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority if you believe your rights have been infringed.

By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.