Gardeners Sidcup Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Sidcup collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our customers and prospective customers. It applies to all Gardeners Sidcup customers and prospective customers in the Sidcup area and surrounding localities where we provide gardening and related services.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Who we are

Gardeners Sidcup is a gardening services provider operating in the Sidcup area. For the purposes of data protection law, we act as the data controller in respect of the personal data we collect and use about you in connection with our services.

Personal data we collect

We collect and process different categories of personal data, depending on how you interact with us. This may include:

Identity and contact details: name, address, service address, billing address, and any contact details you provide to us such as communication channels you choose to use.

Service and contract information: details of the services you request or receive from us, property type and size where relevant to the service, visit dates and times, notes about your service preferences, and records of quotes and contracts.

Payment and billing information: payment method details, invoice records, payment history, and information required for accounting and tax purposes. We do not store full payment card details if processed via third party payment providers.

Communications and correspondence: information contained in messages you send to us or that we send to you, such as service enquiries, feedback, complaints, and any records of calls or messages relevant to our services.

Technical and usage information: basic information about how you interact with our website or online materials where applicable, such as pages visited, time and date of visits, and general device or browser information. This may be collected using cookies or similar technologies where legally permitted.

Marketing preferences: your choices about whether and how you wish to receive marketing communications from us.

How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quote, make a booking, ask a question, or otherwise communicate with us. This may be by phone, online, or in person.

We may also receive personal data from third parties where you have given your permission for your details to be shared with local service providers, or where your details are provided by someone else acting on your behalf, for example a family member or landlord arranging services for your property.

In limited circumstances, we may collect publicly available information relevant to your property if this is necessary to provide an accurate quote or service.

Lawful bases for processing

We process your personal data only where we have a valid legal basis under data protection law. Depending on the circumstances, this may include:

Performance of a contract: where processing is necessary to provide our gardening services, respond to your booking or quote request, manage your account, or take steps at your request before entering into a contract.

Legal obligations: where we need to process your data to comply with legal requirements, such as tax, accounting, record keeping, or responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate interests: where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This may include managing and improving our services, scheduling and coordinating our workforce, handling customer queries, protecting our business, and maintaining accurate business records.

Consent: where we rely on your explicit consent, for example for certain types of direct marketing communications where consent is required. You can withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage our gardening services, including taking bookings, preparing quotes, visiting your property, and tailoring our work to your needs.

To manage payments, invoicing and accounting, and to maintain accurate financial and service records.

To communicate with you about your enquiries, bookings, changes to appointments, service updates, and aftercare.

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

To plan and improve our services, schedule staff and resources, and ensure efficient delivery of services in the Sidcup area.

To send you information about our services that may be of interest to you, where we are permitted to do so by law or where you have given consent. You can opt out of marketing communications at any time.

To comply with legal obligations and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Data sharing and processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with third parties in limited circumstances where necessary and lawful, including:

Service providers acting as data processors who assist us in delivering our services, such as payment processing providers, IT support providers, secure data storage providers, or software platforms used for bookings and scheduling. These providers are only permitted to process your personal data on our instructions and are required to protect it.

Professional advisers such as accountants, auditors or legal advisers, where necessary for our legitimate interests and legal obligations.

Public authorities, regulators, law enforcement agencies or courts, where we are required to do so by law or in order to protect our legal rights.

Any third party to whom we may transfer part of our business or assets, in which case personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction. In such circumstances, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place and that you are informed where required.

International transfers

If we use service providers located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data, such as standard contractual clauses approved by the relevant authorities or equivalent protection mechanisms, and that such transfers comply with data protection law.

Data retention

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

In general, we will keep basic customer and service records for a period that allows us to respond to queries about past work, fulfil our contractual obligations, and comply with tax and accounting rules. The precise retention period will depend on the type of information and the applicable legal requirements.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked to an identifiable person.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These may include:

Right of access: you can request confirmation that we process your personal data and obtain a copy of the personal data we hold about you, together with certain information about how it is used.

Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data that we hold about you.

Right to erasure: in certain circumstances, you can 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 legal basis for processing.

Right to restriction: you can request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, such as while we verify the accuracy of data or consider an objection you have raised.

Right to data portability: where processing is based on consent or on a 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 have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to object: you can object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis, including profiling based on those interests. You also have an absolute right to object at any time to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you may withdraw that consent at any time.

You can exercise your rights by contacting us and providing enough information for us to identify you and respond to your request. We may need to verify your identity before complying with a request. We aim to respond within the time limits set by data protection law.

Security of your personal data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access. These measures include limiting access to personal data to personnel and service providers who need it to perform their duties and who are subject to confidentiality obligations.

Privacy of children

Our services are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data relating to children except where it is necessary to deliver services requested by the responsible adult customer. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child without appropriate consent, we will take steps to delete it.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or data protection practices. The version published on our website or otherwise provided to you will always show the date of the latest update. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we handle your personal data.

How to raise concerns or complaints

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the details provided on our website or in your service documentation.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection supervisory authority. You can contact the authority directly for further information about your rights and how to make a complaint.