Privacy Policy - Cleaner Highbury

This Privacy Policy explains how Cleaner Highbury collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing cleaning services. It applies to all Cleaner Highbury customers in the area, including any person who requests a quote, books a service, receives a service, or otherwise interacts with us in connection with our cleaning work. We are committed to processing personal data in a fair, lawful, and transparent way in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Identity details such as name and title.
Contact details such as address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details such as cleaning preferences, booking history, service instructions, property access notes, and relevant scheduling information.
Billing and transaction details such as payment status, invoice records, and service history.
Communication records such as messages, complaints, feedback, and any other correspondence.
Technical information that may be collected from our systems, such as device or browsing data if you interact with digital booking or enquiry tools.

We only collect information that is necessary for operating our services, managing our customer relationships, meeting legal obligations, and improving service quality. We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is strictly necessary and lawfully permitted.

2. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotes, schedule appointments, and deliver cleaning services.
To manage customer accounts, bookings, cancellations, and amendments.
To process payments, issue invoices, and maintain financial records.
To communicate with customers about service arrangements, queries, and service updates.
To record service preferences and property-specific instructions.
To handle complaints, resolve disputes, and improve service standards.
To comply with legal, regulatory, accounting, and tax requirements.
To protect our business, staff, customers, and property from fraud, misuse, or security incidents.

Cleaner Highbury uses personal data only to the extent required for these legitimate operational purposes or where another lawful basis applies.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

We process personal data under one or more lawful bases set out in the UK GDPR:

Contract: where processing is needed to provide a quote, enter into a service agreement, or perform cleaning services.
Legal obligation: where we must retain or disclose information to meet tax, accounting, insurance, or regulatory duties.
Legitimate interests: where processing is necessary for running and improving our business, managing customer relationships, keeping records, and protecting our services, provided these interests do not override your rights and freedoms.
Consent: where we rely on your permission for specific optional activities, such as certain types of marketing or non-essential communications, if applicable.

Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

4. Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties that help us operate our business. These parties act as processors or independent controllers depending on the nature of the service they provide.

Examples of processors may include:

Payment service providers that process card or online payments.
Accounting, bookkeeping, and invoicing providers.
IT and cloud storage providers used to host, secure, or back up business records.
Scheduling, communication, or customer management software providers.
Professional advisers such as accountants, auditors, lawyers, or insurers, where necessary.

We require processors to handle personal data securely, to use it only for authorised purposes, and to comply with applicable data protection laws. We do not sell personal data. We may also disclose information where required by law, court order, regulatory request, or to protect the rights, safety, and property of Cleaner Highbury, our staff, customers, or others.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, and reporting requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of data and the reason for processing.

Customer and booking records are generally retained for the duration of the service relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards for administration, dispute resolution, and business records.
Financial and tax records are retained for the period required by law.
Communications and complaints may be retained for as long as needed to resolve issues and maintain service records.
Security or incident records may be kept longer where necessary to investigate or prevent future incidents.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.

6. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, restricted permissions, and staff confidentiality requirements. While no system is completely secure, we take data protection seriously and work to reduce risks where possible.

7. Your Rights

Under data protection law, 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 information.
Right to erasure to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restrict processing to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object to processing based on legitimate interests, including certain forms of 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.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal exceptions. If you exercise a right, we may need to verify your identity before responding.

8. International Transfers

Where personal data is transferred outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect it in accordance with data protection law. This may include the use of approved contractual protections or transfers to countries with an adequate level of protection.

9. Cookies and Similar Technologies

If we use online tools that rely on cookies or similar technologies, these may be used to support basic functionality, improve performance, or analyse usage. Where required, we will provide appropriate notice and obtain consent for non-essential cookies. You can control cookie settings through your browser or device preferences.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or operational practices. Any 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 personal data is handled.

Summary of Our Commitment

Cleaner Highbury is committed to processing personal data lawfully, securely, and transparently. We collect only the information needed to deliver our cleaning services, retain it only for as long as necessary, share it only with trusted processors or where required by law, and respect your rights under data protection legislation.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Cleaner Highbury customers in the area.