Privacy Policy - Gardeners Surrey Quays

Gardeners Surrey Quays is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner. This Privacy Policy explains how personal data is collected, used, stored, shared, and protected when you use our gardening services. It applies to all Gardeners Surrey Quays customers in the area, including prospective customers, existing customers, and anyone who communicates with us regarding our services.

1. Who We Are

This policy applies to the gardening services operated under the name Gardeners Surrey Quays. For the purposes of data protection law, we act as the data controller for the personal data we process in connection with our services. This means we determine why and how your personal data is used.

We are committed to ensuring that your personal data is processed in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process different types of personal data depending on the nature of the services you request or use. The information we collect may include:

Identity data such as your name and title.
Contact data such as your address, email address, and telephone number.
Service-related data such as service preferences, booking details, property notes, access instructions, and information relevant to garden maintenance or landscaping work.
Payment data such as payment status, billing records, and transaction details.
Communication data such as correspondence, enquiries, complaints, and feedback.
Technical data such as limited information collected through our digital systems, where applicable, for security and operational purposes.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is necessary and you provide it voluntarily, or unless it is required for a specific lawful reason. If any such information is shared with us, it will be handled with extra care and only where permitted by law.

3. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data only when necessary and for legitimate business purposes connected to our gardening services. This may include:

Providing quotes and managing bookings.
Delivering gardening, maintenance, planting, pruning, turfing, clearance, or related services.
Communicating with you about appointments, service updates, and job completion.
Managing invoices, payments, and account administration.
Handling enquiries, feedback, and complaints.
Improving our services, processes, and customer experience.
Meeting legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, and insurance obligations.
Protecting our business, staff, and customers from fraud, misuse, or security risks.

We will always aim to use your data in a way that is proportionate, necessary, and consistent with the reason it was collected.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal data. The lawful bases we rely on may include:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes preparing quotations, arranging services, completing work, and managing payments.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. Examples include managing our business operations, improving our services, maintaining security, and responding to customer enquiries.

Legal Obligation

We may process your personal data where we need to comply with legal obligations, including tax, accounting, health and safety, or record-keeping requirements.

Consent

In limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, particularly for certain forms of marketing or optional communications. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

5. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share it only where necessary and appropriate for the operation of our services, legal compliance, or business administration. In some cases, we use third-party service providers acting as processors on our behalf. These may include:

IT and cloud service providers that store or secure customer records.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers that assist with invoices, financial records, and tax compliance.
Payment service providers that process transactions.
Communication tools and administrative systems used for scheduling, correspondence, or customer management.

All processors are required to handle personal data securely and only in accordance with our instructions and data protection law. Where data is shared with independent third parties, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place.

6. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and to meet our legal and operational requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the purpose for which it is used.

Customer service records are retained for the period needed to manage the service relationship and follow-up matters.
Financial and invoicing records are retained for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Communication records may be retained for a reasonable time to help resolve disputes, manage complaints, or maintain accurate service history.

When personal data is no longer required, we will take appropriate steps to delete, anonymise, or securely archive it.

7. Data Security

We use reasonable 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, limited staff access, and appropriate administrative procedures.

Although no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we take data security seriously and regularly review our practices to reduce risk.

8. Your Rights

As a data subject under GDPR, you have important rights in relation to your personal data. These include:

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 request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restrict processing – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to data portability – to request a copy of 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, you may withdraw it at any time.

You may also have the right to challenge decisions made solely by automated means, although we do not normally use automated decision-making in our service operations.

9. How We Handle Requests

If you wish to exercise your rights, we will respond in line with data protection law and within the required timescales. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request. In some cases, we may not be able to comply fully if legal exemptions apply, but we will explain our position clearly.

We encourage customers to keep their personal details accurate and up to date so that our records remain reliable.

10. International Transfers

Where personal data is transferred outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place and that the transfer complies with applicable data protection requirements. This may include approved contractual protections or transfers to countries with adequate legal protections.

11. Marketing Preferences

We may occasionally send service-related updates or information that is relevant to your relationship with us. Where required, we will obtain your consent before sending marketing communications. You can opt out of non-essential marketing at any time. We will always respect your preferences.

12. Children's Data

Our services are intended for adult customers and property-related service arrangements. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If we become aware that such data has been collected unintentionally, we will take appropriate steps to delete it where required.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services, or legal obligations. Any updates will be effective when published in the revised version. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically to stay informed.

14. Summary of Key Points

Gardeners Surrey Quays collects only the data needed to provide and manage gardening services, handle billing, maintain records, and meet legal obligations. We rely on lawful bases such as contract, legitimate interests, legal obligation, and, in some cases, consent. We retain data only as long as necessary, use processors under appropriate safeguards, and respect your rights under GDPR.

This policy applies to all Gardeners Surrey Quays customers in the area.

By using our services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed as described in this Privacy Policy.