Privacy Policy - Bulls Cross Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Bulls Cross Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data belonging to our customers, prospective customers, and other individuals who interact with us. It applies to all Bulls Cross Carpet Cleaners customers in our service area, including anyone who requests a quotation, books a cleaning service, receives a visit from our team, or communicates with us in connection with our services.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and other applicable privacy laws. This policy is designed to help you understand what information we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, who may process it on our behalf, and what rights you have over your information.

1. Information We Collect

We collect only the personal data that is relevant and necessary for providing carpet cleaning services, managing our customer relationships, and meeting our legal obligations. The types of information we may collect include:

Identity information: your name, title, and any relevant household or business contact details.
Contact information: address, phone number, and email address.
Service information: details about the property, areas to be cleaned, stain or fabric concerns, access instructions, and service preferences.
Payment information: billing details and payment status. We do not intentionally store full card details where payments are handled by secure payment providers.
Communication records: emails, messages, call notes, complaints, feedback, and booking correspondence.
Technical information: limited information such as device or browser data if you interact with our digital systems, where applicable.
Special category data: in normal circumstances we do not require sensitive personal data. However, if you voluntarily provide information relevant to access needs, health, or vulnerability to help us deliver a safe service, we will only process it where necessary and with appropriate safeguards.

We usually collect personal data directly from you. In some cases, we may receive information from third parties such as property managers, letting agents, landlords, insurers, or payment processors where this is necessary for arranging or delivering the service.

2. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data only for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes. These purposes may include:

providing carpet cleaning and related cleaning services;
managing bookings, quotations, and service delivery;
confirming appointments and responding to enquiries;
issuing invoices, recording payments, and handling refunds where applicable;
maintaining service records and improving the quality of our work;
dealing with complaints, disputes, or claims;
meeting legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations;
protecting our business, staff, and customers from fraud or misuse;
sending service-related communications that are necessary to fulfil our obligations.

We will not use your personal data for purposes that are incompatible with the reasons it was collected unless we have a lawful basis to do so and, where required, your permission.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. Depending on the context, we rely on one or more of the following:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes taking bookings, confirming service details, carrying out the cleaning work, and managing related billing.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain data to comply with legal obligations, including tax rules, accounting requirements, consumer law, and any lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include maintaining business records, improving our services, preventing fraud, and managing complaints. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we assess the impact on your privacy and apply safeguards.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, particularly for optional communications or processing sensitive information that is not otherwise necessary. If we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

4. Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share information only where necessary and proportionate for the purposes described in this policy. This may include sharing with trusted processors or third parties that support our business operations.

Examples of processors and service providers may include:

payment processing providers;
booking, scheduling, and administration software providers;
accountants, bookkeepers, and tax advisers;
IT and cloud storage providers;
customer communication and email service providers;
professional advisers, insurers, or legal advisers where necessary;
subcontractors or specialist service partners engaged to fulfil a booked service, where applicable.

Where a third party acts as a processor, it will only process personal data on our instructions and must keep it secure and confidential. We take steps to ensure that any processor used by Bulls Cross Carpet Cleaners provides appropriate technical and organisational measures for data protection.

We may also disclose personal data if required by law, court order, or regulatory requirement, or if necessary to protect our rights, property, staff, customers, or the public.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including for service administration, legal compliance, accounting, and dispute resolution. The retention period depends on the type of data and the reason for processing.

Customer and booking records: retained for a reasonable period to manage services, follow-up issues, and business administration.
Invoices and financial records: retained for the period required by tax and accounting laws.
Complaint or claim records: retained for as long as needed to resolve the matter and defend legal claims.
Inactive enquiries: retained only as long as needed to handle the enquiry and any follow-up, unless another lawful basis applies.

When personal data is no longer needed, it will be deleted, anonymised, or securely destroyed. In some cases, we may retain limited data for longer if required to comply with legal obligations or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

6. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access restrictions, secure storage, confidentiality controls, password protection, and staff training.

Although we work hard to safeguard your information, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If we become aware of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will take appropriate steps in line with legal requirements.

7. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights are not absolute and may be subject to certain conditions or exemptions. Your rights may include:

Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure: in certain circumstances, you can ask us to delete your personal data.
Right to restriction: you can ask us to limit the way we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to data portability: where applicable, you can request that we provide certain data in a structured format.
Right to withdraw consent: if processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we will respond in accordance with applicable law. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.

8. International Transfers

Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we will only do so where appropriate safeguards are in place and the transfer complies with applicable data protection law. These safeguards may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults or those acting on behalf of a household or business. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is incidental to providing a service and necessary for the specific request. If we become aware that we have collected such information without an appropriate basis, we will take steps to delete it.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal obligations, or operational requirements. The latest version will apply to your use of our services and any personal data we process. We encourage you to review this policy periodically so that you remain informed about how your data is handled.

By using Bulls Cross Carpet Cleaners’ services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. This policy is intended to provide clear and lawful information about our data practices for all customers in our area.