Privacy Policy

Gardeners Harlington Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Harlington collects, uses, stores, and protects the personal data of its customers and prospective customers in the Harlington area. It also describes the rights you have under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. By using our gardening and related services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope and Data Controller

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Harlington customers, and individuals who contact us about our services, within the Harlington area. Gardeners Harlington is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. As data controller, we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data and are responsible for ensuring that such processing is carried out in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Types of Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process different categories of personal data depending on how you interact with us and which services you use. The main categories of data we may collect include:

Identification and contact information: This includes your full name, postal address, property location for service visits, and other basic contact details that you choose to provide so that we can communicate with you and deliver our services.

Service and contract information: This includes details about the gardening or maintenance services you request or receive, such as the type of service, frequency, special instructions, quotations, invoices, and payment status.

Communication records: This includes information you provide when you contact us, make an enquiry, request a quotation, provide feedback, or raise a complaint. It may include notes of telephone conversations, and copies of written correspondence you send to us.

Payment related information: We may receive limited payment related details such as transaction references, amounts paid, and payment dates in order to confirm that payments have been made. We do not store full card details or bank account numbers where payments are processed by external payment providers.

Technical and usage information: When you visit our website, basic technical data may be collected such as the date and time of access and information about how you navigate our site. This is used to maintain and improve the website and user experience.

How We Collect Your Personal Data

We typically collect personal data directly from you when you contact us, request or receive services, or communicate with us. This can be by phone, in person, through our website, or in writing. We may also obtain personal data indirectly where it is provided by someone acting on your behalf, for example if a family member, tenant, landlord, or letting agent arranges services at your property and provides your details.

Lawful Bases for Processing

Gardeners Harlington processes personal data only where there is a lawful basis to do so under data protection law. The main lawful bases we rely upon are:

Performance of a contract: We process your personal data where this is necessary to enter into a contract with you or to perform an existing contract, for example to provide gardening services at your property, to arrange appointments, and to manage billing and payments.

Legitimate interests: We process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This may include managing and developing our services, keeping appropriate records, responding to enquiries or complaints, and ensuring the security of our systems and staff.

Legal obligation: In some cases we must process personal data to comply with legal obligations, such as record keeping, tax, or accounting requirements.

Consent: Where required by law, or where no other lawful basis applies, we may rely on your consent to process specific personal data for particular purposes. You are free to withdraw your consent at any time, which will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Purposes for Which We Use Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage gardening and related services at your property, including planning visits, carrying out work, and following up as needed.

To prepare and issue quotations, estimates, invoices, and receipts, and to manage the financial aspects of our services, including payment processing and debt recovery where necessary.

To communicate with you about your enquiries, bookings, contracts, service updates, cancellations, and customer support requests.

To manage our customer records, maintain accurate service histories, and improve our services based on feedback and usage information.

To maintain the security of our staff, customers, and business operations, including verifying information where reasonably required.

To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and requests from authorised public authorities.

Sharing Personal Data with Processors and Other Recipients

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with third parties where this is necessary and lawful, as set out below.

Service providers and processors: We may engage trusted third party service providers to act as data processors on our behalf. These may include providers of payment processing, accounting and bookkeeping services, information technology support, data storage, and customer management tools. Such processors are only permitted to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and are required to implement appropriate security measures.

Professional advisers and authorities: Where necessary, we may share personal data with professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers and with public authorities or law enforcement agencies if required by law or in order to protect our rights or the rights of others.

Other third parties: In limited circumstances, for example if we are involved in a business restructuring, transfer, or similar event, your personal data may be disclosed to third parties involved in that process, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections and compliance with data protection law.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and to meet any legal, accounting, or reporting obligations. We consider the nature and sensitivity of the data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes of processing, and applicable legal requirements when determining retention periods.

Customer and contract records are generally kept for a period that allows us to maintain service histories, respond to queries or complaints, and demonstrate that we have fulfilled our obligations. Financial and invoicing records are kept for the minimum periods required by tax and accounting laws. Once personal data is no longer required, it will be securely deleted, anonymised, or otherwise removed from our active systems.

International Transfers

Where we use service providers that are located outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, or that store data in other countries, we take steps to ensure that your personal data is afforded an adequate level of protection. This may include using standard data protection clauses or ensuring that transfers take place to jurisdictions that have been recognised as providing an adequate level of protection by relevant authorities.

Data Security

We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those staff and service providers who need it for legitimate purposes, using secure methods of storing and transmitting data where appropriate, and regularly reviewing our data protection arrangements.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights apply subject to certain conditions and exemptions.

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

Right to rectification: You have the right to request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you is corrected or updated.

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 necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or where you withdraw consent and there is no other lawful 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 specific 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 the data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests and rights or where processing is required for legal claims.

Right to data portability: Where processing is based on consent or on a contract and is carried out by automated means, you may have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine readable format and to 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 that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

Exercising Your Rights and Complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights in relation to Gardeners Harlington, you can contact us using the usual contact details you use for our services. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request and will respond within the time limits set by data protection law.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe that your personal data has been processed in a way that does not comply with applicable law. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve any concerns directly.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services, or legal obligations. Any revised version will apply to all Gardeners Harlington customers and prospective customers in the Harlington area from the date it is made available. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we handle your personal data.