Privacy Policy - Marylebone Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Marylebone Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related services. It applies to all Marylebone Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including prospective, current, and former customers, as well as individuals who enquire about our services or otherwise interact with us. We are committed to handling personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and other applicable privacy laws.

1. Information We Collect

We collect only the personal data that is necessary for lawful business purposes. The types of information we may collect include:

Identity information, such as your name and title.
Contact information, such as your telephone number, email address, and service address.
Service details, including cleaning requirements, property type, preferred appointment times, and notes relevant to the service.
Billing and transaction information, such as invoicing details, payment status, and records of services purchased.
Communication records, including correspondence, complaints, feedback, and service updates.
Technical and usage data, where relevant, such as information obtained when you interact with us online through enquiry forms or similar tools.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is provided by you and is necessary for a specific lawful purpose. If such information is received, we will handle it with additional care and only where permitted by law.

2. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
To arrange, manage, and deliver carpet cleaning services.
To communicate about appointments, changes, follow-ups, and service-related matters.
To issue invoices, process payments, and maintain business records.
To handle customer service issues, complaints, and disputes.
To improve our services, internal processes, and customer experience.
To comply with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations.
To protect our business, customers, staff, and property from fraud, misuse, or security risks.

We ensure that personal data is used only for the purposes for which it was collected, unless another compatible lawful purpose applies.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

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

Performance of a Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes arranging services, completing cleaning work, managing bookings, and processing payments related to services you request.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain data where needed to comply with legal obligations, such as accounting, tax, insurance, record-keeping, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include improving service quality, managing customer relationships, preventing fraud, ensuring network and information security, and maintaining internal administration.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example where it is required for specific optional communications or data uses. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time, without affecting 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 for legal, accounting, reporting, and dispute-resolution requirements. Retention periods vary depending on the type of information and why it is held.

Customer and service records may be retained for the duration of the relationship and for a reasonable period afterward to handle queries or disputes.
Financial records are typically retained for the period required by tax and accounting laws.
Correspondence and complaints may be kept for as long as needed to resolve the matter and maintain appropriate business records.

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

5. Sharing Personal Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties that help us operate our business. These third parties act as processors when they process data on our instructions. They are required to keep data secure and use it only for the agreed purpose.

Examples of processors may include:

Payment service providers that help process card or electronic payments.
Accounting or bookkeeping providers that assist with financial records and compliance.
IT and cloud hosting providers that store or support business systems.
Customer communication tools used to send service-related messages.
Administrative or scheduling providers that support booking management.

We may also share personal data with independent third parties where required by law, where necessary to protect our rights or property, or where a service provider is acting as a separate controller rather than a processor. We do not sell personal data.

6. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, accidental loss, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and careful selection of service providers. While we work hard to protect your information, no method of transmission or storage is entirely risk-free.

7. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to legal conditions and exemptions, these rights may include:

Right of access - to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification - to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure - to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction - to request limited use of your data in certain situations.
Right to data portability - to receive certain data 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 processing is based on consent.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we will respond in accordance with applicable law. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. In some cases, we may not be able to comply fully where we are required to retain information or where an exemption applies.

8. International Transfers

Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place so that your information remains protected to the standard required by law. Such safeguards may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and business customers acting on behalf of premises. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received such data without a lawful basis, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

10. 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. The most current version will apply to the processing of your personal data. We encourage you to review this policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we protect your information.

11. Summary of Key Points

In summary, Marylebone Carpet Cleaners collects only the personal data needed to provide services, manage communication, and meet legal obligations. We process data on lawful bases such as contract, legal obligation, legitimate interests, and consent where appropriate. We retain data only as long as necessary, use processors under strict controls, and respect your rights under data protection law.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Marylebone Carpet Cleaners customers in the area.