Privacy Policy - Pimlico Cleaners

Effective Date: This Privacy Policy explains how Pimlico Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all Pimlico Cleaners customers in the area, including individuals who request, book, receive, or enquire about our cleaning services.

1. Introduction

Pimlico Cleaners is committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner. We respect the privacy of our customers and take data protection seriously. This Privacy Policy is designed to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By using our services, making an enquiry, or interacting with us in connection with our cleaning services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed in accordance with this policy.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Identity data: name, title, and any information needed to identify you.
Contact data: address, email address, telephone number, and service location details.
Service data: booking details, cleaning preferences, instructions, service history, and communications about appointments.
Payment data: transaction details and payment confirmation information. We do not necessarily store full card details if payments are processed by a third-party provider.
Technical data: IP address, browser type, device information, and usage data if you interact with our digital systems.
Correspondence data: messages, complaints, feedback, and records of communication.

We usually collect personal data directly from you when you complete a booking, request a quotation, contact us, or provide instructions for cleaning services. In some cases, we may receive data from third parties acting on your behalf, such as property managers, landlords, or family members, where appropriate and lawful.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data only where we have a valid legal basis and only for legitimate purposes connected with our business. These purposes include:

providing cleaning services and managing bookings;
processing payments and managing invoices;
responding to enquiries, feedback, and complaints;
maintaining service records and customer preferences;
ensuring health, safety, and service quality;
meeting legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations;
preventing fraud, misuse, or unlawful activity;
improving our operations, customer experience, and internal administration.

We will not use your personal data for purposes that are incompatible with the reasons for which it was collected, unless we are required or permitted to do so by law.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes managing bookings, delivering cleaning services, processing payments, and handling service-related communications.

Legal Obligation

We may process data where necessary to comply with legal duties, including tax, accounting, record-keeping, and other regulatory requirements.

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 customer relationships, improving services, maintaining security, and preventing fraud.

Consent

In limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example where it is required for certain optional communications or specific types of data use. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

5. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors or independent controllers, but only where necessary and lawful. These parties are required to protect your data and use it only for agreed purposes.

Examples of processors may include:

payment service providers;
booking, scheduling, or customer management systems;
IT and cloud storage providers;
accounting and invoicing service providers;
professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers;
maintenance or support providers who help operate our systems.

We may also disclose data where required by law, court order, regulatory request, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Pimlico Cleaners, our customers, employees, or the public.

Where processors act on our behalf, we ensure that appropriate data processing agreements are in place and that they provide sufficient guarantees for security and compliance. We do not sell your personal data.

6. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying legal, accounting, insurance, and reporting requirements.

Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the reason it was collected. For example:

booking and service records may be kept for a reasonable period to manage customer history and service issues;
financial and transaction records may be retained for the period required by tax and accounting law;
correspondence and complaint records may be retained to resolve disputes and maintain accurate records;
data collected on the basis of consent may be kept until consent is withdrawn, unless another lawful basis applies.

When personal data is no longer required, we will delete, anonymise, or securely archive it in accordance with our retention practices.

7. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against accidental loss, unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, password protection, and limited access to information on a need-to-know basis.

While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we regularly review our procedures and take reasonable steps to safeguard the information we hold.

8. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may apply in full or in part depending on the circumstances and the legal basis for processing.

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

If you exercise any of these rights, we may need to verify your identity before responding. We will respond within the time limits required by law.

9. Automated Decision-Making

Pimlico Cleaners does not normally use automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. If this changes, we will update this policy and provide the relevant information required by law.

10. International Transfers

If any of our processors or service providers are located outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data. These safeguards may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

11. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary in connection with a customer’s household, property, or service instructions, and only where such processing is lawful and appropriate.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal obligations, or operational requirements. Any revised version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically.

13. Summary of Key Points

Pimlico Cleaners collects only the personal data needed to provide and manage services.
We process data on the basis of contract, legal obligation, legitimate interests, and consent where appropriate.
Data may be shared with trusted processors such as payment, IT, and accounting providers.
We retain personal data only for as long as necessary and then securely delete or anonymise it.
You have rights over your personal data, including access, correction, deletion, objection, and restriction.

This Privacy Policy is intended to ensure transparency and compliance while respecting your privacy. If you have concerns about how your personal data is handled, you are entitled to raise them under applicable data protection law.

Pimlico Cleaners confirms that this policy applies to all customers in the area.