Privacy Policy

Gardeners Norwood Green Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Norwood Green collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data relating to customers in the Norwood Green area. It is intended to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This notice applies to all Gardeners Norwood Green customers and prospective customers in our service area, regardless of how you contact us or use our gardening services.

Who we are and scope of this policy

Gardeners Norwood Green provides gardening and related maintenance services to residential and commercial customers in and around Norwood Green. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Norwood Green is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. This means we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data.

This policy applies to personal data we collect from individual customers, prospective customers, and people who make enquiries about our services, whether by phone, in person, by post, through online searches, or other communication channels.

Personal data we collect

We collect and process personal data that is necessary for us to provide our services, run our business, and meet our legal obligations. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, address, property location, and general area where the service is to be provided. We may also collect preferred methods of contact, such as post or other communication channels you choose to share with us.

Service and contract information, such as details of the gardening services you request, visit dates and times, access instructions for your property where relevant, records of quotations and contracts, notes about your preferences, and information about your garden or outdoor spaces that we need to carry out our work.

Payment and transaction data, such as records of payments made, services purchased, and related invoicing information. We do not store full card details if you pay using a card, as these are handled securely by our payment processors.

Communication data, such as correspondence between you and Gardeners Norwood Green, including enquiries, feedback, complaints, and any other information you voluntarily provide when you contact us.

Technical and usage data, where applicable, such as basic information about how you found our services, general website usage statistics if you visit our site, and information used to improve our customer experience. This may include IP address and device information where technically necessary and lawful.

Lawful bases for processing your personal data

We will only process your personal data when we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Contractual necessity: We process your personal data to enter into and perform a contract with you, for example to provide gardening services, arrange appointments, prepare quotations, and manage your bookings and payments.

Legitimate interests: We process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This may include managing our relationship with you, keeping records of services provided, improving our services, ensuring site security, and handling customer enquiries and complaints.

Legal obligations: We process certain personal data to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, such as tax, accounting, and record-keeping obligations.

Consent: In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of optional marketing communications. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

How we use your personal data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

To provide and manage services: Including responding to enquiries, preparing and delivering quotations, scheduling and carrying out gardening work, managing customer accounts, and processing payments.

To communicate with you: Including confirming bookings, updating you about work on your property, responding to queries or complaints, and sending important information about your services or changes to our terms and policies.

To operate and improve our business: Including internal record keeping, staff training, quality control, developing new services, and understanding how customers use our services so we can enhance our offerings.

To meet legal and regulatory requirements: Including maintaining financial records, handling insurance and health and safety matters, and responding to lawful requests from authorities where required.

Data sharing and processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes set out in this policy and where we have a lawful basis to do so.

These third parties may include:

Service providers acting as data processors who support our business operations, such as IT and hosting providers, payment processors, and companies that help us manage bookings, invoicing, or customer communications.

Professional advisers, such as accountants, auditors, and insurers, where necessary for the operation and protection of our business and where they are bound by confidentiality obligations.

Public authorities, regulators, law enforcement bodies, or courts, where we are legally required to disclose personal data or where such disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

Whenever we use data processors, we ensure they only process your personal data on our instructions, provide appropriate security measures, and are bound by written data processing agreements.

Data retention and storage

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

The length of time we retain data will vary depending on the type of information and the purpose of processing. In general, we apply the following principles:

Customer and service records are typically retained for as long as you are an active customer and for a period after the end of our relationship, to respond to any queries, manage potential legal claims, and comply with tax and accounting rules.

Financial and transaction data is kept for the minimum period required by law, which is often a number of years following the end of the relevant financial year.

Enquiry data from prospective customers is retained for a reasonable period to follow up on your request and track our business performance, unless you request that we delete it sooner where we are able to do so lawfully.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will either securely delete or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with an identifiable individual.

International transfers

In some cases, the service providers we use may store or access your personal data from countries outside the United Kingdom. Where such transfers occur, we take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place so that your personal data is protected to a standard that is essentially equivalent to UK data protection law. This may include using standard contractual clauses or relying on adequacy regulations where applicable.

How we protect your personal data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction, or damage. These measures include restricting access to personal data to staff and service providers who need it, using secure storage methods, and implementing policies and procedures to manage data protection risks.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data processed by Gardeners Norwood Green. These rights may be subject to certain conditions and legal exemptions, but we will always respond to any request you make in accordance with applicable law.

Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation that we process your personal data and to obtain a copy of that data, along with information about how we use it.

Right to rectification: You have the right to request that we correct or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

Right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you may have the right to request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or where you withdraw consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.

Right to restriction of processing: You may have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, for example while we verify the accuracy of the data or consider an objection you have raised.

Right to object: You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will stop processing your data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests or where processing is required for legal claims.

Right to data portability: In certain cases where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, you may have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format and to request that we transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you may withdraw your consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed. We encourage you to contact us first so we can try to resolve any concerns directly.

Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or how we process personal data. Any changes will be made available through our usual communication channels. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how Gardeners Norwood Green protects your personal data.