Privacy Policy - Gardeners Cubitt Town

Gardeners Cubitt Town is committed to protecting the privacy of all customers in the Cubitt Town area. This Privacy Policy explains how personal data is collected, used, stored, shared, and protected when you use our gardening and related services. It applies to all Gardeners Cubitt Town customers in the area, including prospective customers, current customers, and anyone who contacts us about an enquiry or booking.

1. Information We Collect

We only collect personal data that is necessary to provide and manage our services properly. The information we may collect includes:

Identity details such as your name and, where relevant, the name of a business or property manager.
Contact details such as address, phone number, and email address.
Service information such as the type of gardening work requested, property access notes, preferred appointment times, and service history.
Payment-related information such as billing records and payment confirmations. We do not store full card details when payments are processed by secure third-party providers.
Communication records such as messages, call notes, complaints, and feedback.
Website or device data if you interact with our digital systems, including basic technical information such as IP address, browser type, and usage patterns, where applicable.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is genuinely necessary and you have provided it voluntarily, or unless another lawful reason applies under data protection law.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data only for clear and legitimate business purposes. These may include:

Responding to enquiries and providing quotes.
Scheduling, delivering, and managing gardening services.
Processing payments, refunds, and invoices.
Keeping internal records of work completed and customer preferences.
Managing customer support, complaints, and follow-up communication.
Meeting legal, tax, accounting, and insurance obligations.
Improving our services, training staff, and maintaining service quality.

We always aim to use data in a way that is fair, transparent, and proportionate. We do not sell your personal data.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under the UK GDPR and GDPR principles, we rely on one or more of the following lawful bases to process your personal data:

Contract

We process your data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes preparing quotes, arranging visits, carrying out gardening work, and handling payment arrangements.

Legal Obligation

Some information must be retained or processed to comply with legal requirements, including accounting, tax, insurance, and record-keeping obligations.

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 managing service quality, preventing fraud, maintaining records, and improving operations.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain marketing communications or optional uses of data. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

4. Sharing Your Data with Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties that help us operate our services. These third parties act as processors when they handle data on our behalf and under our instructions. Examples may include:

Payment processors that securely handle transactions.
IT and cloud service providers that store or maintain business systems.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers who assist with financial records and tax compliance.
Communication service providers that support email, messaging, or phone systems.
Professional advisers such as legal or insurance advisers where needed.

Where processors are used, we require them to protect personal data, act only on our instructions, and apply appropriate security measures. We may also disclose data where required by law, to protect rights, or in connection with a business transfer.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy. Retention periods depend on the type of data and the reason it was collected. In general:

Customer and service records are retained for the period needed to manage the relationship and handle any follow-up issues.
Financial and tax records are retained for the period required by law.
Correspondence and support records are retained for a reasonable period to deal with queries, evidence service history, or resolve disputes.
Consent-based marketing records are kept until you withdraw consent or request removal, subject to legal requirements.

When data is no longer needed, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.

6. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff training, and data minimisation practices. While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to keep your information protected to a high standard.

7. Your Rights

You have rights under data protection law in relation to your personal data. Subject to legal limits, 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 restriction - to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object - to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to data portability - to request transfer of certain data to you or another provider, where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent - where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority if you believe your data rights have not been respected. We encourage you to raise any concerns so we can address them promptly and fairly.

8. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary for a service arrangement and provided by an adult responsible for that arrangement. If we become aware that data has been collected inappropriately, we will take steps to delete it where appropriate.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in legal requirements, business practices, or service operations. Any revised version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their data is used.

10. Fair Processing Commitment

Gardeners Cubitt Town is committed to handling personal data with care, fairness, and accountability. We only collect what we need, we keep it no longer than necessary, and we use trusted processors under appropriate safeguards. Our approach is designed to respect privacy while allowing us to provide reliable gardening services throughout the Cubitt Town area.

This policy is intended to provide clear information about our privacy practices and to support compliance with applicable data protection laws.