Privacy Policy - Cleaners Kingstonuponthames

This Privacy Policy explains how Cleaners Kingstonuponthames collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all Cleaners Kingstonuponthames customers in the Kingston upon Thames area, including anyone who requests a quote, books a cleaning service, communicates with us, or otherwise uses our services. We are committed to handling personal information in a lawful, fair, and transparent way in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who This Policy Applies To

This policy applies to customers, prospective customers, household members, tenants, landlords, property managers, and any other individuals whose personal data we process in connection with our cleaning services. It also applies to visitors who submit enquiries or otherwise interact with our service arrangements in the Kingston upon Thames area.

By using our services or providing personal data to us, you acknowledge that your data may be processed as described in this policy.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the personal data that is necessary to provide our services, manage our business, and meet legal obligations. Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect the following types of information:

Identity details such as name, title, and, where relevant, property or household details.
Contact details such as address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details such as cleaning preferences, booking dates, service instructions, access notes, and customer requests.
Payment and billing information such as payment status, invoices, and transaction records.
Communication records including messages, feedback, complaints, and notes from customer support interactions.
Technical data such as limited website or device information if you contact us through digital channels, where applicable.
Special category data only where strictly necessary and only if you choose to provide it, for example, if you share information needed to support access arrangements or health-related considerations affecting service delivery.

We do not intentionally collect unnecessary personal data. Please avoid sharing information that is not relevant to the cleaning service.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for legitimate business and service-related purposes, including:

to provide cleaning services and manage bookings;
to respond to enquiries and customer requests;
to arrange access to properties and carry out work safely and efficiently;
to process payments, issue invoices, and maintain accounting records;
to communicate service updates, reminders, or changes;
to handle complaints, disputes, and customer care matters;
to comply with legal, regulatory, tax, and insurance obligations;
to improve our services, internal processes, and customer experience;
to defend or establish legal claims where necessary.

Cleaners Kingstonuponthames only uses personal data for the purposes for which it was collected, unless we reasonably determine that a compatible purpose applies or another lawful basis exists.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under the UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process personal data. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on one or more of the following:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes taking bookings, delivering cleaning services, managing appointments, and issuing invoices.

Legal Obligation

We may process personal data where necessary to comply with laws and regulations, including tax, accounting, insurance, and record-keeping obligations.

Legitimate Interests

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

Consent

Where required, we rely on your consent. For example, if we need to process optional information that is not necessary for service delivery, we will ask for clear permission. You may withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties that support the delivery and administration of our services. These third parties act as processors when they process data on our behalf, under our instructions, and only for agreed purposes.

Examples of processors may include:

payment service providers;
booking or scheduling systems;
IT and cloud storage providers;
accounting and invoicing tools;
customer communications platforms;
professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers.

We may also disclose personal data to independent controllers where required, for example to HMRC, regulators, law enforcement agencies, courts, or other authorities when legally required or permitted.

We do not sell personal data. If data is shared externally, we take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate safeguards, confidentiality, and lawful processing.

6. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including to satisfy legal, accounting, insurance, and operational requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the reason it was collected.

Customer and booking records are typically retained for the duration of the service relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Financial and invoicing records are retained for as long as required by law and standard accounting practice.
Communication records may be retained for a shorter or longer period depending on their relevance to service delivery, disputes, or legal claims.
Complaint or incident records may be kept longer where needed to demonstrate compliance or manage risk.

When data is no longer needed, we securely delete, anonymise, or otherwise dispose of it in a safe manner.

7. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, limited authorisation, and staff awareness practices. While no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, we work to maintain a level of security that is appropriate to the risks involved.

We also take care to ensure that personal data is shared only with people who need it for legitimate business purposes.

8. Your Rights Under GDPR

As a data subject, you have rights over your personal data. Subject to applicable legal conditions and exceptions, you may have the following rights:

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 restriction – to ask us to limit how we process your data in certain situations.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to certain other processing activities.
Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format and request its transfer where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

In addition, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you believe your rights have been infringed or your data has been handled improperly.

9. International Transfers

Where any processor or service provider stores or accesses data outside the UK, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or equivalent protective measures, where relevant.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are directed to adults and households. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidentally provided by a customer for service-related reasons. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child without proper justification, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data-handling practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers in Kingston upon Thames to review this policy periodically.

12. Summary of Our Commitment

At Cleaners Kingstonuponthames, we value privacy and handle personal data responsibly. We collect only what we need, use it for clear and lawful purposes, share it only with appropriate processors or authorities when necessary, and retain it only as long as required. We respect your rights and aim to ensure that all personal information is managed with care, confidentiality, and compliance.

This policy applies to all Cleaners Kingstonuponthames customers in the area.