Gardeners Somers Town Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Somers Town collects, uses, stores, shares and protects personal information about customers in the Somers Town area. It also explains your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Somers Town customers and prospective customers located in the Somers Town area, regardless of how you contact us or use our services.

Who We Are and Scope of This Policy

Gardeners Somers Town provides gardening and related services to customers in the Somers Town area. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Somers Town is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used and are responsible for ensuring it is handled in compliance with applicable laws.

This policy covers personal data relating to private individuals who request or use our services, including residential and small business customers in the Somers Town area.

Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data when you contact us, request a quote or use our services:

Identification and contact information, such as your name, postal address, and general contact details needed to communicate with you and provide our services.

Service and property details, such as descriptions of your garden or outdoor space, access instructions, and any preferences or notes relevant to the work we carry out.

Contract and billing information, such as records of services ordered, prices, invoices, payment status and payment method type. We do not store full payment card details.

Communication records, including information you provide by phone or in writing, such as enquiries, feedback, complaints and notes relating to your services.

Technical and usage information, where applicable, such as basic information about how you interact with any online pages or forms we may use, including the time and date of contact, and any information automatically collected for security or performance purposes.

How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you request a quote, make a booking, agree a contract or communicate with us about our services.

We may also generate data about you in the course of providing services, for example records of work performed at your property and dates of visits.

In limited cases we may receive information from third parties, such as recommendations from existing customers or basic contact details provided by online platforms that you use to find local services.

Lawful Basis for Using Your Data

We only use your personal data where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. The main lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract. We process your personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to provide gardening services, arrange appointments, issue quotes and invoices, and manage ongoing service relationships.

Legal obligation. We process certain information where required to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, such as record keeping for tax and accounting purposes.

Legitimate interests. We process personal data for our legitimate business interests, provided these are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This includes managing our customer relationships, improving our services, maintaining security, and handling customer enquiries and complaints.

Consent. Where required by law, we may rely on your consent for specific activities, such as certain types of optional marketing. When we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide gardening and related services, including assessing your requirements, preparing quotes, scheduling visits, carrying out agreed work and managing follow up services.

To manage customer accounts, including issuing invoices, processing payments via our chosen payment providers and keeping records of work carried out.

To communicate with you, including responding to enquiries, confirming bookings or changes, requesting feedback and resolving any issues or complaints.

To manage and improve our operations, including monitoring service quality, training staff, planning workloads and developing our services in the Somers Town area.

To comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including maintaining appropriate business and financial records and cooperating with lawful requests from authorities.

To send you service related information and, where permitted, limited marketing messages about services that may be of interest to you in the Somers Town area. You can opt out of marketing messages at any time.

Data Sharing and Use of Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where this is necessary for the purposes described in this policy or where we are legally required to do so.

These third parties may act as data processors, handling personal data only on our instructions. They can include:

Payment service providers who process payments on our behalf.

Accountants or professional advisers who assist with financial records and legal obligations.

IT and administration service providers who support our booking, communication or records systems.

In all cases where we use processors, we ensure there is a written agreement requiring them to protect your data, use it only for the agreed purposes and comply with data protection law.

We may also share personal data with authorities or regulators where required by law or where necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

Customer and service records are generally kept for a period that allows us to manage ongoing services, respond to queries and demonstrate our work where needed. Financial and invoice information is kept for the period required by applicable tax and accounting laws.

When personal data is no longer required, we will delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked to an identifiable individual.

International Transfers

Where we use service providers or systems that store or process data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as standard contractual clauses or equivalent protections, to maintain an adequate level of data protection.

How We Protect Your Data

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access.

These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff training, and reasonable efforts to ensure that any third parties who process data on our behalf also maintain appropriate security standards.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data. These rights apply to all Gardeners Somers Town customers in the Somers Town area, subject to certain legal limitations and exemptions.

Right of access. You can request information about whether we hold personal data about you and obtain a copy of that data.

Right to rectification. You can ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

Right to erasure. In certain circumstances, you can ask us to delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected and we have no legal reason to keep it.

Right to restrict processing. You can ask us to restrict how we use your personal data in certain situations, for example while we are considering a request to rectify or erase your data.

Right to data portability. Where we process your personal data based on your consent or a contract and by automated means, you can request that we provide it in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format, or transfer it to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to object. You can object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests, including any direct marketing. We will stop processing your data for these purposes unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests or where processing is necessary for legal claims.

Right to withdraw consent. Where we rely on your consent for processing, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or how we process personal data. The updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.