Gardeners Haggerston Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Haggerston collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our customers and potential customers in our service area. It also outlines the legal bases we rely on under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the EU General Data Protection Regulation, where applicable, as well as your rights in relation to your personal data.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Haggerston customers and individuals who make enquiries about our gardening services within our operating area, whether contact is made in person, by post or through any online or digital means that we control.

Who we are and scope of this policy

Gardeners Haggerston is a gardening services provider operating in the local Haggerston area and surrounding neighbourhoods. In the context of the General Data Protection Regulation, Gardeners Haggerston is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. As data controller, we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data.

This policy covers personal data we collect from customers, prospective customers, and anyone who communicates with us in relation to our services, including household gardening, maintenance, landscaping and related activities.

Personal data we collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data when you interact with Gardeners Haggerston or use our services:

Identification and contact details: This can include your name, address, property location details, and any other contact information you choose to provide, such as social media identifiers or online messaging identifiers that you use to contact us.

Service and contract information: This includes details about the gardening services you request or receive, such as descriptions of the work, visit schedules, access instructions for your property where applicable, and records of quotes, invoices and payments.

Communication records: When you contact us or we contact you, we may keep a record of the correspondence, notes of conversations, and any information you provide in those communications.

Usage and interaction data: If you interact with any website, form or digital platform under our control, we may collect limited technical data such as the date and time of your interaction and the pages or forms used. Where cookies or similar technologies are used, this will be in accordance with applicable law and corresponding notices provided to you.

Financial transaction data: We may process information about payments you make for our services, such as the amount, date and method of payment. We do not store full payment card details when payments are processed through secure third party payment processors.

How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us, request a quote, enter into an agreement for gardening services, or otherwise communicate with us. This may be done face to face, by post or through online and digital channels that we operate.

We may also receive personal data indirectly where another individual arranges services at your property or provides your details as a contact person. When this happens, we expect that person to have your permission to share your information with us.

Lawful bases for processing

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

Contract: We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to provide gardening services, arrange visits, issue quotes, and manage billing and payments.

Legitimate interests: We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and these are not overridden by your rights and interests. This can include managing our relationship with you, improving our services, keeping appropriate business records and responding to your enquiries.

Legal obligations: We process certain personal data to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, such as record keeping, tax and accounting obligations, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Consent: In limited situations we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of optional direct marketing. Where we rely on consent, you are free to withdraw it at any time, and this will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before it was withdrawn.

How we use your personal data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

To provide gardening services requested by you, including arranging appointments, planning work at your property and carrying out the agreed tasks.

To prepare and send quotes, confirm bookings, issue invoices and handle payments and refunds.

To communicate with you about your enquiries, our services, changes to our terms or policies, or relevant service updates that may affect you.

To maintain our business and administrative records, including information needed for accounting, tax, and internal reporting.

To manage and improve our services, for example by analysing typical service requests in our area, reviewing feedback, and ensuring our operations run safely and efficiently.

To meet any legal or regulatory obligations that apply to Gardeners Haggerston.

Data sharing and processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with third parties only where necessary and in accordance with the GDPR:

Service providers and processors: We may use carefully selected third party providers to support our operations, such as providers of payment processing, accounting or bookkeeping services, customer management tools, digital storage, or communication platforms. These third parties act as data processors and only process your personal data on our documented instructions. They are required to protect your data and use it only for the services they provide to us.

Professional advisers: We may share personal data with professional advisers, such as accountants or legal advisers, where necessary for the services they provide to us.

Authorities and legal requirements: We may disclose personal data where required to do so by law, regulation or court order, or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

If we engage new processors or change existing ones, we will ensure that appropriate data protection terms are in place in line with the GDPR.

International transfers

If any of our service providers or processors are located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place before any personal data is transferred. These safeguards may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other legally recognised mechanisms designed to protect your data.

Data retention

We keep 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 requirements. The exact retention period will depend on the nature of the information and the context in which it is processed.

Customer and service records related to gardening work carried out at your property are generally kept for a period that allows us to manage ongoing services, handle any queries or disputes and meet our legal obligations. Financial and transaction records may be retained for longer periods where required by tax and accounting laws.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with you.

Security of your personal data

We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those who need it for their work, using secure methods to store and transmit data where appropriate, and periodically reviewing our practices.

While we take care to protect your personal data, no method of transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You are encouraged to take care when sharing personal data with us and to avoid sending highly sensitive information through unsecured channels.

Your data protection rights

Under the GDPR, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to certain conditions and exceptions, but we will respect them to the extent required by law.

Access: You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you and information about how we process it.

Rectification: You have the right to ask us to correct or complete personal data that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.

Erasure: You have the right to request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or where you withdraw consent and there is no other lawful basis for processing.

Restriction: You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, such as when you contest its accuracy or object to our processing.

Objection: You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including profiling based on those interests. We will stop processing your data unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue or the processing is required for legal claims.

Data portability: Where processing is based on consent or contract and 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 request that we transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.

Where we rely on consent for certain processing activities, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

How to exercise your rights

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, please contact us using your usual contact method for Gardeners Haggerston. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request, to protect your privacy and security.

We aim to respond to all legitimate requests within the time limits set by data protection law. There is normally no fee for exercising your rights, although we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act on a request that is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.

Right to lodge a complaint

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, we encourage you to contact us in the first instance so that we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe that your rights under data protection law have been infringed.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, applicable laws or data protection practices. Any changes will take effect when the updated policy is made available. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.