Privacy Policy - Ealing Cleaner

This Privacy Policy explains how Ealing Cleaner collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing cleaning services. It applies to all Ealing Cleaner customers in the area, including individuals, households, landlords, tenants, and businesses who use our services. We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent way in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By using our services, you acknowledge that we may process personal data as described in this policy. We only process information that is necessary for legitimate business, operational, legal, and service-related purposes.

1. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the data needed to manage customer enquiries, bookings, service delivery, payments, and customer support. The information we may collect includes:

Identity information such as your name, title, and any company or household name you provide.
Contact details such as your address, phone number, and email address.
Service information including property access instructions, cleaning preferences, and service history.
Payment-related information such as billing details and transaction records. We do not store full card details unless explicitly required by a secure payment provider.
Communication records such as emails, messages, complaints, or feedback.
Technical data if you interact with our online systems, including basic device or browser information and usage logs, where applicable.
Special category data only where necessary and only if you voluntarily provide it, for example allergy-related cleaning instructions or access needs. We process this carefully and only when needed to fulfil a service or safety requirement.

We do not intentionally collect unnecessary sensitive information. If such information is shared with us, it will be handled with appropriate safeguards and only for a specific and lawful purpose.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data to provide reliable services and to meet our legal and operational obligations. The main purposes include:

responding to enquiries and providing quotations;
managing bookings and scheduling cleaning visits;
delivering cleaning services at the correct address and time;
processing invoices, payments, and refunds;
maintaining customer records and service history;
handling complaints, claims, and customer support matters;
meeting legal, tax, accounting, and insurance obligations;
improving our service quality and internal operations;
preventing fraud, misuse, or unauthorised access;
sending service-related updates and administrative messages.

We do not use your personal data for unrelated purposes without a valid legal basis. Where possible, we minimise the information processed and keep it relevant to the service relationship.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. Depending on the situation, Ealing Cleaner may rely on one or more of the following bases:

Contract

We process data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes taking bookings, delivering cleaning services, issuing invoices, and managing customer accounts.

Legal Obligation

We may process data where required to comply with legal duties, such as tax records, accounting obligations, insurance requirements, or regulatory requests.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include managing operations, responding to enquiries, improving service quality, maintaining records, and preventing fraud. When using legitimate interests, we consider whether the processing is necessary and proportionate.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, especially where processing is optional and not required for a contract or legal obligation. If consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing that took place before withdrawal.

Vital Interests and Public Task

These bases are unlikely to apply in normal cleaning service operations, but may be used in exceptional circumstances if necessary to protect someone’s safety or where required by law.

4. Retention of Personal Data

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, and to satisfy legal, contractual, and business requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of data and the reason we hold it.

Customer and service records are generally kept for the duration of the relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Financial and tax records are retained for the period required by law and standard accounting practices.
Complaints, claims, and dispute records may be kept longer where needed to defend or establish legal rights.
Communication records are retained only as long as necessary to manage the issue or service concern.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete, anonymise, or archive it in line with our retention practices. We do not keep data indefinitely.

5. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties, but only when necessary and only under appropriate safeguards. These third parties may act as processors or independent controllers depending on the service they provide.

Examples of processors may include:

IT and hosting providers that store or support our systems and data;
payment service providers that process card or electronic payments;
accounting and bookkeeping providers that help manage financial records;
email or communication service providers that assist with customer correspondence;
customer management or scheduling tools used to organise bookings and service delivery;
professional advisers such as lawyers, insurers, auditors, or tax advisers where necessary.

We require processors to act only on our instructions, keep data secure, and comply with applicable data protection obligations. We do not sell your personal data.

We may also disclose data if required by law, court order, regulatory request, or to protect our rights, property, customers, or staff.

6. Data Security

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

Although no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we work to reduce risk and protect your information at all times. Where a personal data breach occurs and the law requires it, we will take the necessary steps, including notification to the relevant authority and affected individuals.

7. Your Rights

As a data subject, you have rights under UK data protection law. Subject to legal limits and exemptions, these rights may include:

Right of access – to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification – to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure – to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction – to ask us to limit processing in certain situations.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
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 also have the right to raise concerns about how your data is handled. If you believe your data protection rights have been infringed, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) or another relevant supervisory authority.

8. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where necessary in connection with a household service and with appropriate authority from an adult customer or guardian. If we become aware that we have collected data improperly, we will take steps to delete it.

9. International Transfers

If any processor or service provider stores or accesses personal data outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect the data in line with UK GDPR requirements. These safeguards may include approved contractual protections and transfer assessments where necessary.

10. 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. When we make significant changes, we will take reasonable steps to ensure the updated version is made available and applied appropriately. The latest version will always govern how we process personal data from the date it becomes effective.

11. Summary of Our Commitment

Ealing Cleaner is committed to respecting your privacy, limiting data collection to what is necessary, and processing personal data fairly and securely. We only use personal data where we have a lawful basis, retain it for appropriate periods, share it only with trusted processors when needed, and support your rights under data protection law. This policy applies to all Ealing Cleaner customers in area and is intended to ensure transparent and responsible data handling.