Gardeners Seven Sisters Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Seven Sisters collects, uses and protects the personal data of all customers within our service area. It is intended to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation and applicable UK data protection laws. By using our gardening and related services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Seven Sisters customers in our service area, including individuals and businesses that request, purchase or receive our gardening or maintenance services. It covers personal data collected directly from you, generated during the provision of our services, or obtained from third parties where lawful.

Data Controller

Gardeners Seven Sisters is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. As data controller, we decide how and why your personal data is processed and are responsible for ensuring that such processing complies with data protection law.

Types of Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process personal data that is necessary for the delivery of our services and for the operation of our business. This may include the following categories:

Identification and contact details such as name, postal address, billing address, and any other contact details you choose to provide.

Service and contract information such as details of your garden or outdoor space, records of services requested and provided, visit dates and times, and service-related notes.

Payment and billing information such as details necessary to process invoices and confirm payment. Where we use third-party payment processors, we generally do not store full payment card information ourselves.

Communication records such as emails, written correspondence, messages or notes from phone conversations related to quotes, bookings, complaints, or feedback.

Technical and usage data, where applicable, such as basic information about how you use our website or online booking tools, including device and browser information, and log data.

Marketing preferences such as your choices about receiving service updates, offers or newsletters from us.

How We Collect Your Personal Data

We may collect personal data from you when you contact us to request a quote, make a booking, enter into a contract for services, pay an invoice, provide feedback, or otherwise communicate with us. We may also collect data when you use our website or online tools. In some cases, we may receive data from third parties, such as payment processors or service partners, where this is necessary and lawful.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the specific processing activity, we may rely on the following lawful bases:

Contractual necessity: We process personal data to prepare a quote, enter into and perform a contract for gardening or related services, manage bookings, deliver services, and handle invoicing and payments.

Legitimate interests: We may process personal data to manage our business operations, improve our services, respond to enquiries, maintain records, prevent fraud, and ensure the security of our staff and customers. When relying on legitimate interests, we balance our interests against your rights and freedoms.

Legal obligation: We process certain personal data to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including tax, accounting and other statutory obligations.

Consent: In situations where consent is required by law, such as certain types of direct marketing communications, we will ask for your clear and specific consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

To provide and manage gardening and related services, including quotes, bookings, scheduling and on-site work.

To communicate with you about services, appointments, changes, delays, or important updates.

To issue invoices, process payments, and manage accounts and financial records.

To respond to queries, requests, complaints or disputes and to provide customer support.

To maintain internal records for business administration, planning and quality control.

To send you information about our services, offers or updates, where permitted by law and in line with your marketing preferences.

To comply with applicable laws and to cooperate with lawful requests from regulators or authorities where required.

Data Sharing and Processors

We may share your personal data with third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors are engaged only for specific purposes and are required to process personal data in accordance with our instructions and applicable data protection law. Examples of such processors may include:

Providers of invoicing, accounting or payment processing services.

IT and hosting providers that support our systems, website, or data storage.

Communication service providers that enable us to send service-related messages or permitted marketing communications.

We may also share personal data with professional advisers, such as accountants or legal advisers, where this is necessary and lawful. In some situations, we may be required to share personal data with public authorities, regulators or law enforcement where legally obliged to do so.

International Transfers

Where we use processors or 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 in accordance with data protection law. This may include the use of standard contractual clauses or other approved mechanisms.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. The retention period may vary depending on the type of data and the context of processing. For example:

Service and contract records are typically kept for the duration of our relationship with you and for a period afterwards to handle queries, disputes or legal claims.

Financial and invoicing records are retained for the period required by tax and accounting laws.

Marketing-related data is retained while you remain subscribed or until you object or withdraw consent, after which we will keep only minimal information necessary to record your preference.

When personal data is no longer required, we will take reasonable steps to delete or anonymise it securely.

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 may include restricted access to personal data, secure storage, and measures to keep our systems and records protected. While we strive to protect your data, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and you provide personal data at your own risk.

Your Data Protection Rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exemptions under data protection law. These rights include:

Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and to receive a copy of that data, together with certain information about how it is used.

Right to rectification: You have the right to request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data is corrected or updated.

Right to erasure: In some circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected or where you withdraw consent and no other lawful basis applies.

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

Right to data portability: Where processing is based on consent or 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 transmit it to another controller.

Right to object: You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including profiling, and to object to direct marketing at any time.

Rights in relation to automated decision-making: You have rights in relation to decisions based solely on automated processing, where such decisions have legal or similarly significant effects, although we do not typically use such processes in the provision of our services.

Exercising Your Rights

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, you may contact us and clearly state which right you wish to exercise and provide sufficient information for us to identify you. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request. We aim to respond within the timeframes required by law and will explain if we need more time or are unable to comply due to legal reasons.

Complaints

If you are concerned about how we handle your personal data, we encourage you to contact us so that we can attempt to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority in your jurisdiction if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services or legal obligations. Any updates will take effect when the revised version is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data as a Gardeners Seven Sisters customer in our service area.