Privacy Policy - Twickenham Cleaner

This Privacy Policy explains how Twickenham Cleaner collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing cleaning services to customers in the Twickenham area. It applies to all Twickenham Cleaner customers in the area, including prospective customers, current customers, and former customers whose information we retain for lawful business purposes.

We are committed to handling personal data in a way that is lawful, fair, transparent, and consistent with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and applicable data protection laws. This policy describes what information we collect, the reasons we use it, the legal bases that allow us to process it, how long we keep it, who may process it on our behalf, and what rights individuals have in relation to their data.

1. Information We Collect

We collect only the personal data necessary to provide our services, manage our business, and meet our legal obligations. The types of information we may collect include:

Identity details such as your name and, where relevant, the name of a business or household contact.
Contact details such as your email address, telephone number, and service address.
Service information such as booking preferences, service instructions, access notes, and cleaning requirements.
Payment information such as transaction records, invoice details, and payment confirmation. We do not intentionally store full card details where payment processing is handled securely by a third party.
Communication records including emails, messages, complaints, feedback, and notes relating to customer service interactions.
Technical data such as basic website or device-related information if you contact us through online channels, where applicable.
Operational records such as appointment history, service completion notes, and record of any follow-up actions.

We generally collect this information directly from you when you make an enquiry, request a quote, book a service, complete a form, or communicate with us. In some cases, we may receive information from another person acting on your behalf, such as a family member, landlord, tenant, or property manager.

2. How We Use Personal Data

Twickenham Cleaner uses personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
To schedule, deliver, and manage cleaning services.
To confirm appointments, service changes, and access arrangements.
To process payments, issue invoices, and maintain financial records.
To handle complaints, service issues, and customer support requests.
To maintain internal records and improve service quality.
To comply with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations.
To protect against fraud, misuse, or security incidents.

We only use personal data for purposes that are compatible with those described in this policy, unless we have a lawful reason to use it differently or we have informed you accordingly.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for each processing activity. We rely on one or more of the following bases:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes managing bookings, providing cleaning services, issuing invoices, and handling related customer requests.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal 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 maintaining business records, responding to service issues, improving our operations, preventing fraud, and ensuring the safety and security of our business and customers.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain information to comply with legal obligations, including tax, accounting, insurance, and record-keeping requirements.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example where you have agreed to receive certain types of optional communications. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

4. Sharing and Processors

We do not sell personal data. However, we may share information with trusted third parties who act as data processors on our behalf or as independent data controllers where required by law. These may include:

Payment processors that securely handle card or electronic payment transactions.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers that support invoicing, tax, and financial record management.
IT and cloud service providers that store or support business systems, email, and data backups.
Scheduling or communication tools used to manage appointments and customer correspondence.
Professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers where necessary.
Public authorities where disclosure is required by law or necessary to protect legal rights.

All processors are selected carefully and are expected to handle data securely, use it only on our instructions, and comply with appropriate data protection obligations. Where information is transferred outside the UK, we take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including meeting legal, accounting, and reporting obligations. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason it is held.

Customer and booking records are generally retained for the period needed to manage the service relationship and resolve any related issues.
Invoice and payment records are kept for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Communication records may be retained for a reasonable period to support customer service, dispute resolution, and quality assurance.
Inactive or outdated information is reviewed periodically and securely deleted or anonymised when no longer needed.

When data is no longer required, we take appropriate steps to delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked to an identifiable individual.

6. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to help protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, restricted permissions, staff awareness, and the use of reputable service providers. While no system is completely secure, we work to reduce risks and to address any incident promptly and responsibly.

7. Your Rights

Depending on the circumstances and the legal basis for processing, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

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 data.
Right to erasure – to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests, subject to legal conditions.
Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we may need to verify your identity before responding. We aim to deal with requests within the time limits required by law.

8. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adult customers and property-related contacts. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidentally included in service-related communications and only where necessary and appropriate. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child in error, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal obligations, or operational requirements. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their data is handled.

10. Summary of Our Commitment

Twickenham Cleaner is committed to processing personal data responsibly, only collecting what is needed, using it for clear and lawful purposes, keeping it secure, and retaining it only for as long as necessary. We aim to respect privacy at every stage of our service relationship and to uphold the rights of every customer in the Twickenham area.

Privacy is important to us, and we will continue to take appropriate steps to ensure our data practices remain lawful, transparent, and proportionate.