Privacy Policy - Mile End Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Mile End Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing services to customers in the Mile End area. It applies to all Mile End Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including residential and commercial clients, as well as anyone who makes an enquiry, requests a quotation, books a service, or otherwise interacts with us in connection with carpet cleaning and related services.

We are committed to handling personal data in a fair, transparent, and lawful manner in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy sets out what data we collect, why we collect it, the legal bases we rely on, how long we keep it, who may process it on our behalf, and what rights you have in relation to your information.

1. Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is relevant and necessary for the provision of our services, administration, customer support, and legal compliance. Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect the following categories of information:

Identity details such as your name.
Contact details such as your address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details including property access notes, cleaning preferences, service history, and appointment information.
Payment and billing information such as transaction records, invoicing details, and payment confirmation.
Communication records including messages, complaints, quotations, feedback, and correspondence with our team.
Technical information if you contact us through digital channels, such as device and browser information, where relevant to security or service improvement.
Special category data only in rare cases where you voluntarily provide information that may be sensitive, for example to request access arrangements or explain cleaning restrictions related to health or accessibility. We will only process such data where lawful and necessary.

We do not intentionally collect more information than is needed to deliver our services. You should avoid sharing unnecessary personal or sensitive information unless it is relevant to your request.

2. How We Collect Data

We may obtain personal data directly from you when you:

make an enquiry or request a quotation;
book, reschedule, or cancel a service;
communicate with us by phone, email, text, or written message;
provide feedback or raise a complaint;
complete an invoice or payment process;
sign a service agreement or provide access instructions.

We may also receive information from third parties where appropriate, such as payment providers, referral partners, property managers, or authorised representatives acting on your behalf. Where we receive data from another source, we will handle it in accordance with this policy and applicable law.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

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

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to perform a contract with you or take steps at your request before entering into a contract. This includes handling bookings, delivering cleaning services, managing appointments, and issuing invoices.

Legal Obligation

We may process information where required to comply with legal obligations, including accounting, tax, fraud prevention, and record-keeping requirements.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include managing customer relationships, improving services, maintaining internal records, preventing misuse, and handling service-related disputes. When relying on this basis, we consider whether the processing is proportionate and necessary.

Consent

In some situations, we may rely on your consent, particularly where the law requires it or where you choose to provide optional information or agree to specific communications. If consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

Vital Interests and Public Task

These bases are unlikely to apply to our everyday services, but may be relevant in exceptional situations involving safety or legal requirements.

4. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

to provide carpet cleaning and related services;
to schedule and manage appointments;
to prepare quotations and invoices;
to communicate with you about your booking or service;
to handle payment processing and accounting;
to respond to enquiries, complaints, and service issues;
to maintain accurate business records;
to improve customer experience and service quality;
to comply with legal, regulatory, and insurance obligations;
to protect against fraud, abuse, or unlawful activity.

We will 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 reason. If we need to use your data for an unrelated purpose, we will explain the lawful basis and, where needed, seek your consent.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including satisfying legal, accounting, and reporting obligations. The retention period depends on the type of data and why it is held.

Customer service and booking records are generally kept for a reasonable period after the service ends to deal with queries, disputes, or repeat bookings.
Financial and tax records are retained for the period required by law.
Communication records may be kept longer where needed to manage complaints, support claims, or maintain business evidence.
Consent-based information is kept until consent is withdrawn or it is no longer necessary.

When data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you. We review retention periodically to ensure we do not keep personal data for longer than necessary.

6. Processors and Sharing of Data

We may share personal data with trusted third parties that process information on our behalf. These organisations act as processors and are only permitted to use your data according to our instructions and for lawful purposes.

Examples of processors and recipients may include:

Payment service providers that handle transactions securely.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers that assist with tax and financial record-keeping.
Scheduling or administrative software providers that help manage appointments and customer records.
IT and cloud storage providers that support secure data storage and system operation.
Professional advisers such as lawyers, insurers, or auditors where necessary.
Public authorities where disclosure is required by law or for legal proceedings.

We require processors to implement appropriate security measures and to respect the confidentiality of your data. We do not sell personal information. Where data is shared outside the UK or EEA, if applicable, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place in line with data protection law.

7. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and limited data access on a need-to-know basis.

While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to maintain a high standard of protection and regularly review our practices to reduce risk. If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will respond in accordance with legal obligations.

8. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

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 data.
Right to erasure – to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain cases.
Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent.

You also have the right to raise concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe your data has been handled unlawfully. We encourage you to contact us first so we can address any issue promptly and fairly.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and business customers. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is provided incidentally by an adult customer and is necessary for service delivery, for example access arrangements within a household. If we become aware that we have collected data unlawfully, 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 law, 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 to stay informed about how personal data is handled.

11. Scope of This Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Mile End Carpet Cleaners customers in the area and to any person whose personal data we process in connection with our services. By using our services or providing us with your information, you acknowledge that your data may be processed as described above and in accordance with applicable law.

Our approach is based on the principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, and confidentiality. We aim to ensure that your information is handled responsibly and only where needed to deliver a professional service.