Privacy Policy - Harringay Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Harringay Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data in connection with the services we provide. It applies to all Harringay Cleaners customers in the area, including anyone who requests a quote, books a service, receives a service, communicates with us, or otherwise interacts with us. We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By using our services, you acknowledge that your personal information may be processed as described in this policy. We review our data practices regularly to ensure that they remain proportionate, secure, and appropriate for the services we provide.

1. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the personal data that is necessary to provide cleaning services, manage customer relationships, and comply with legal obligations. Depending on the nature of your interaction with us, we may collect the following categories of data:

Identity information such as your name and, where relevant, a business name.
Contact details such as address details and communication preferences.
Service information such as booking details, service type, instructions, and property access arrangements.
Payment-related information necessary to process transactions, issue invoices, and maintain records.
Communication records including messages, complaints, feedback, and service notes.
Technical and usage data if you communicate with us electronically, such as device or message metadata.

We generally do not seek to collect special category data unless it is strictly necessary and you choose to provide it. If you voluntarily share such information, we will only process it where a lawful basis applies and where additional safeguards are in place.

2. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for specific and limited purposes connected to our services. These purposes include:

providing quotes and responding to service requests;
managing bookings, attendance, and service delivery;
processing payments and maintaining accounting records;
communicating with customers about services, changes, or follow-up matters;
handling complaints, queries, and service quality issues;
meeting legal, tax, insurance, and regulatory requirements;
protecting our business, staff, customers, and property from fraud, misuse, or security incidents.

We do not use customer data for unrelated purposes without first confirming that such use is lawful and compatible with the original purpose of collection.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

We process personal data only where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. The main lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract

We process data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes managing your booking, delivering cleaning services, invoicing, and dealing with service changes.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include managing customer relationships, improving service quality, maintaining records, preventing fraud, and protecting our operations. We ensure that any legitimate interests processing is limited and proportionate.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain data where required to comply with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting, employment, health and safety, or regulatory requirements.

Consent

In limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example where processing is not covered by another lawful basis. If we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time, although this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

4. Retention of Personal Data

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including for the fulfilment of legal, accounting, and reporting requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of data and why it is held.

Customer and booking records are generally retained for as long as needed to manage the service relationship and any follow-up matters.
Financial records are retained for the period required by law for tax and accounting purposes.
Communication records may be retained for a reasonable period to resolve disputes, monitor service quality, and improve customer care.
Security-related data may be retained for a short period unless needed for incident investigation or legal purposes.

When data is no longer required, we take appropriate steps to securely delete, anonymise, or otherwise dispose of it.

5. Processors and Data Sharing

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors are only allowed to process data in accordance with our instructions and for the purposes we specify. They are required to apply appropriate security and confidentiality measures.

Examples of processors and recipients may include:

Payment service providers that help process transactions securely.
Accounting or bookkeeping providers that support financial administration.
Scheduling, communication, or record-keeping tools used to manage bookings and service operations.
IT and cloud service providers that store or support our business systems.
Professional advisers such as insurers, auditors, or legal advisers where necessary.
Public authorities or other parties where disclosure is required by law.

We do not sell personal data. If data is transferred outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect it in accordance with applicable data protection law.

6. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction, or misuse. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, confidentiality obligations, and limiting data access to people who need it for legitimate business purposes.

Although we take data security seriously, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If a data incident occurs, we will assess it promptly and take appropriate action in line with our legal obligations.

7. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you may have several rights in relation to your personal data. These rights are not absolute and may depend on the circumstances of the request.

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 information.
Right to erasure – in certain circumstances, you may ask us to delete your data.
Right to restriction – you may request that we limit how we use your data in certain cases.
Right to object – you may object to processing based on legitimate interests.
Right to data portability – you may request a copy of certain data in a structured, commonly used format.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection authority if you believe your data has been handled improperly. We encourage you to raise any concerns with us first so that we can address them promptly.

8. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and household or business customers. We do not knowingly collect personal data directly from children except where it is unavoidably provided in the course of service delivery and only when appropriate and lawful.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data handling practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it is published or communicated. We recommend reviewing this policy periodically to stay informed about how your data is processed.

10. Summary of Our Commitment

Harringay Cleaners is committed to respecting your privacy and processing personal data responsibly. We only collect what we need, use it for clear and lawful purposes, retain it for appropriate periods, and share it only with carefully selected processors or where required by law. We aim to ensure that all Harringay Cleaners customers in the area can rely on a service that is professional, transparent, and respectful of their data rights.

We value trust, confidentiality, and compliance in every service we provide. If you have concerns about how your information is used, your rights under data protection law remain available to you, and we will do our best to uphold them fairly and promptly.