Privacy Policy - Bow Carpetcleaning

This Privacy Policy explains how Bow Carpetcleaning collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related services. It applies to all Bow Carpetcleaning customers in our service area, including individuals who request quotations, book services, receive service visits, or otherwise interact with us in connection with our business.

We are committed to handling personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We aim to be transparent about what information we collect, why we collect it, and the rights available to individuals whose personal data we process.

1. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the information needed to provide our services properly and to manage our business operations. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identity details such as your name.
Contact details such as telephone number, email address, and service address.
Service information such as booking details, cleaning preferences, property access notes, stain or fabric information, and service history.
Billing and payment information such as invoice details, payment status, and transaction records. We do not store card details unless necessary through a secure third-party payment provider.
Communication records including messages, notes of calls, complaints, and feedback.
Technical data where relevant, such as basic website or device usage information if you interact with our digital services.

We normally collect personal data directly from you when you make an enquiry, request a quote, confirm a booking, or communicate with us. In some cases, we may also receive data from third parties acting on your behalf, such as property managers, landlords, letting agents, or other authorised persons.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data only where it is necessary and proportionate for legitimate business and legal purposes. Typical uses include:

Providing quotations and arranging service appointments.
Delivering carpet cleaning and related services.
Communicating about bookings, access arrangements, or service updates.
Processing payments, issuing invoices, and maintaining financial records.
Handling complaints, service issues, and customer support requests.
Improving our services, training staff, and maintaining quality standards.
Meeting legal, accounting, tax, and insurance obligations.
Preventing fraud, misuse, or other unlawful activity.

We do not use your personal data for unrelated purposes without first ensuring that we have a lawful basis to do so.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for each type of processing activity. Bow Carpetcleaning relies on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes managing quotations, bookings, cleaning services, invoices, and customer communications linked to service delivery.

Legal Obligation

We process certain data to comply with legal requirements, such as tax, accounting, consumer law, and record-keeping duties.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include business administration, service improvement, customer support, security, and limited marketing to existing customers where permitted by law.

Consent

Where required, we rely on your consent, for example for certain optional communications or preferences. When we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

We do not process personal data in ways that are incompatible with the reasons it was collected unless a new lawful basis applies.

4. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, and reporting requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason we hold it.

Customer service and booking records are generally kept for a period needed to manage the service relationship and handle follow-up queries.
Financial and invoice records are retained for the period required under tax and accounting law.
Communication records may be kept for a reasonable time to manage disputes, complaints, or service history.
Marketing preferences are kept until you change your preference or withdraw consent, where applicable.

When personal data is no longer required, we take appropriate steps to delete, anonymise, or securely archive it. We do not retain personal data indefinitely.

5. Sharing Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to run our business, deliver services, or meet legal obligations. These parties may act as processors or independent controllers depending on the circumstances.

Examples of processors may include:

IT and cloud storage providers that support secure record management.
Accounting and bookkeeping services that help manage invoices and tax records.
Payment service providers that handle secure transactions.
Communication and scheduling tools used for booking and customer management.
Professional advisers such as legal, insurance, or compliance support where needed.

We require processors to act only on our instructions, protect your data appropriately, and comply with applicable data protection law. We do not sell personal data. If we are required to share information with authorities or regulators, we will do so only where legally necessary.

Where data is transferred or accessed by third parties, we take reasonable steps to ensure confidentiality, security, and data minimisation.

6. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and regular review of our handling practices.

While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to keep your information protected and to reduce risks to a reasonable level.

7. Your Rights

If we process your personal data, you have rights under data protection law. These rights may apply depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis for processing:

Right of access – to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification – to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Right to erasure – to request deletion of your data in certain situations.
Right to restriction – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain cases.
Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

We will respond to rights requests within the time limits required by law. In some cases, legal obligations or legitimate business needs may mean we cannot fully comply with a request, but we will explain the reason where appropriate.

8. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults arranging cleaning services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidentally provided by a customer in the course of arranging access or service delivery. If we become aware that we have collected children’s data unnecessarily, we will take appropriate steps to remove it.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, our services, or how we handle personal data. The updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their data is handled.

10. Summary of Our Commitments

What we promise

We collect only relevant personal data.
We use data for clear and lawful purposes.
We keep data only as long as needed.
We share data only when necessary and with appropriate safeguards.
We respect your legal rights and privacy choices.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Bow Carpetcleaning customers in our area and explains how we protect personal data in line with GDPR principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, confidentiality, and accountability.

By using our services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed as described in this policy and in accordance with applicable data protection law.