Privacy Policy - Cleaners Westminster

This Privacy Policy explains how Cleaners Westminster collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all Cleaners Westminster customers in the area, including prospective customers, current customers, and anyone who contacts us about our cleaning services. We are committed to handling personal information in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By using our services, requesting a quotation, making an enquiry, or otherwise interacting with Cleaners Westminster, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed as described in this policy. This policy is intended to help you understand what data we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, who may process it on our behalf, and what rights you have.

1. Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is necessary for providing and improving our services, communicating with you, meeting legal obligations, and administering our business. The types of data we may collect include:

Identity information, such as your name and, where relevant, company name.
Contact information, such as your address, email address, and telephone number.
Service information, such as the type of cleaning service requested, appointment details, access instructions, and service preferences.
Billing and payment information, such as payment records and transaction details. We do not intentionally store full card details unless necessary through secure payment systems.
Communication records, such as emails, messages, call notes, complaints, feedback, and customer support history.
Technical data, such as limited website usage data, device information, and IP address where applicable.
Legal and compliance data, such as records needed for accounting, tax, insurance, or dispute resolution.

We may also collect information you choose to provide voluntarily, for example when you give special instructions about your property or cleaning requirements. Please avoid sharing unnecessary sensitive information unless it is directly relevant to the service.

2. How We Use Personal Data

Cleaners Westminster uses personal data for the following purposes:

To provide cleaning services and manage bookings.
To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
To communicate about appointments, changes, service updates, and customer support.
To process payments, manage invoices, and maintain financial records.
To improve service quality, train staff, and handle complaints or claims.
To comply with legal, regulatory, tax, and accounting requirements.
To protect our business, prevent fraud, and maintain security.

We use personal data only for purposes that are compatible with the reason it was originally collected, unless we are required or permitted by law to use it differently.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

We process personal data only where we have a lawful basis under UK GDPR. Depending on the context, the lawful bases we rely on may include:

Contract

We process your data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes managing bookings, delivering cleaning services, handling payments, and communicating service-related updates.

Legal Obligation

We may process certain data where required to comply with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting, insurance, health and safety, or record-keeping rules.

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 service improvement, fraud prevention, customer support, and business administration.

Consent

In some cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain marketing communications or non-essential cookies where applicable. Where consent is used, you can withdraw it at any time.

Vital Interests

In rare cases, we may process data to protect someone’s vital interests, such as in an emergency.

4. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties only when necessary and only for legitimate business purposes. Where we use third-party service providers, they act as processors on our behalf and are required to handle data securely and in accordance with our instructions.

Examples of processors may include:

IT and cloud hosting providers.
Payment processing services.
Accounting and invoicing software providers.
Customer communication and email service providers.
Booking or scheduling system providers.
Professional advisers, such as accountants or insurers, where necessary.

We may also disclose data where required by law, by a court order, or to protect our rights, property, staff, customers, or business operations. We do not sell personal data.

Where a processor handles data on our behalf, we use appropriate contractual safeguards and require them to implement reasonable technical and organisational security measures. Personal data is never shared more widely than necessary.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including meeting legal, accounting, tax, and dispute-resolution requirements. Retention periods vary depending on the type of data and the purpose for processing.

Customer service and booking records are generally retained for the duration of the service relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Financial and tax records are kept for the period required by law.
Communications and complaints may be retained for as long as needed to resolve the matter and defend legal claims.
Marketing data is retained until you opt out or until it is no longer needed.

When personal data is no longer required, we securely delete, anonymise, or archive it in line with our retention practices.

6. Data Security

We take the security of personal data seriously and use appropriate measures to protect it against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, loss, or destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and careful selection of service providers.

However, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will respond in line with applicable law and take appropriate steps to reduce harm.

7. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights regarding your personal data. These may 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 data.
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 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 we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

In some circumstances, these rights may be limited by law. We will explain any refusal or limitation where applicable. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with how your data is handled.

8. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and business customers arranging cleaning services. We do not knowingly collect data from children except where it is incidental and necessary for service administration, such as access or household arrangements provided by an adult customer.

9. International Transfers

Where any service provider processes data outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place as required by data protection law. These safeguards may include adequacy regulations, approved contractual clauses, or equivalent protective measures.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data processing practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers in Westminster to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their data is handled.

11. Contact and Further Information

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, your personal data, or your rights, you may raise them through the usual customer communication channels used by Cleaners Westminster. We will review privacy requests carefully and respond in accordance with applicable law.

Summary of commitment: Cleaners Westminster processes personal data lawfully, uses it only for clear service and compliance purposes, retains it for no longer than necessary, and respects your rights to access, correct, delete, or object to processing where the law allows.