Gardeners Shadwell Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Shadwell collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our customers in the local 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 Shadwell customers in our service area, including prospective, current and former customers who use or enquire about our gardening and related services.

Who we are and scope of this policy

Gardeners Shadwell is a local gardening service provider offering garden maintenance, landscaping and related services. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Shadwell is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy, because we decide how and why your personal data is processed. This Privacy Policy applies whenever you contact us, request a quote, receive our services or otherwise interact with us as a customer in the area we serve.

Personal data we collect

We collect and process personal data that is necessary to provide our services, manage our relationship with you and operate our business. This may include:

Identification and contact details, such as your full name, postal address, service address, and any other contact details you choose to provide to us when making an enquiry or booking a service.

Service and contract information, such as details of the gardening or landscaping services requested, property type, access instructions, photographs you provide of your garden for quotation purposes, service dates, frequency of visits and records of work carried out.

Communication records, such as details of enquiries, complaints, feedback and any other correspondence between you and Gardeners Shadwell, including notes made by our staff when we speak with you.

Payment and transaction information, such as records of services you have paid for, charges, payment status and invoices. If you pay electronically, your payment details will be processed by our chosen payment service provider. We do not store full card details.

Website and usage information, where relevant, such as basic technical information about how you access our online content, including device type, approximate location and browsing activity, in order to understand how customers use our online information and to improve our services.

How we collect your data

We may collect your personal data in the following ways:

Directly from you, for example when you contact us to request a quote, make a booking, ask a question, provide feedback or otherwise engage our services.

Through our service delivery, for example when our gardeners attend your property, record details of the work performed or update your service history.

From third parties, where lawful and relevant, for example where someone refers you to us or provides your details to enable us to carry out work at a property you occupy or own.

Automatically, when you access any of our online content, where basic technical information may be collected to help us understand interest in our services and to maintain website security.

Lawful basis for processing your data

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

Contract: We process your data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, such as providing a quotation, confirming a booking, carrying out gardening services, issuing invoices and managing your account.

Legitimate interests: We process your data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This includes managing our customer relationships, scheduling and planning work, maintaining service quality, keeping basic records of your service history, and protecting our business and customers.

Legal obligation: We process your data where we are required to do so by law, such as retaining certain financial records for tax, accounting or regulatory purposes.

Consent: In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example if you ask us to keep your details for future contact beyond what is necessary for providing services, or if you ask to receive optional updates about our services. Where we rely on consent, you are free to withdraw it at any time.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries, provide quotations and assess how best to deliver our services to your property.

To schedule, manage and deliver gardening and related services, including arranging access to your property and recording details of work carried out.

To manage our relationship with you as a customer, including handling queries, complaints, feedback and service updates.

To issue invoices, process payments, manage any refunds and keep appropriate financial records.

To maintain and improve our services, including analysing how customers use our services and considering feedback to develop our offering.

To protect our business, staff and customers, including preventing fraud and resolving disputes.

To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including tax and accounting requirements.

Data retention and storage

We keep your personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and to meet any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. In general:

Basic customer and service records are retained for a period after the end of our relationship, so that we can respond to queries about past work and to meet our legal obligations.

Financial and transaction records are retained for the period required by law for tax and accounting purposes.

Communication records are retained for as long as needed to manage any ongoing issues, and for a reasonable period afterwards in case of queries or disputes.

Where we no longer need your personal data for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and we are not required by law to retain it, we will delete or anonymise it securely.

Data processors and sharing your data

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors only process your data in accordance with our instructions and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. They include:

Providers of IT and administrative services who help us manage our customer records, scheduling, document storage and communication systems.

Payment service providers and financial services that process payments and help us manage invoices and accounts, subject to appropriate security and confidentiality measures.

Professional advisers, such as accountants, where necessary for audit, tax or legal compliance.

We may also need to share your personal data with third parties acting as independent data controllers in limited circumstances, for example with law enforcement or regulatory bodies where we are legally required to do so, or where it is necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others. We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

International transfers

Where any of our data processors are located outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, or use sub-processors in those regions, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that your personal data is afforded a level of protection that is essentially equivalent to that under UK data protection law. This may include using standard contractual clauses or other safeguards approved by relevant authorities.

How we protect your data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, destruction or alteration. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those staff and processors who need it to perform their duties, storing data securely and reviewing our data protection practices from time to time. While we take reasonable steps to protect your data, no system can be completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your data protection rights

As a customer of Gardeners Shadwell in our service area, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data under data protection law. These include:

Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation of whether we hold your personal data and to receive a copy of that data, together with certain information about how we use it.

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

Right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you have the right to ask us to delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected and we have no legal obligation to retain it.

Right to restriction of processing: You may have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example while we are investigating a concern you have raised about its accuracy.

Right to data portability: In certain cases, you may request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and transfer it to another controller where technically feasible.

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

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

Exercising your rights and complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or raise a concern about how we handle your personal data, you can contact Gardeners Shadwell using the contact details provided on our public materials. We will respond to your request or complaint in accordance with applicable data protection laws. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, how we process personal data, or to comply with legal requirements. Any updated version will apply to all Gardeners Shadwell customers in our service area from the date it is published. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we protect your personal data.