Gardeners Hackney Marshes Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Hackney Marshes collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to customers in the Hackney Marshes area. It also explains the rights you have under applicable data protection laws, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Hackney Marshes customers in the surrounding area, including individuals and organisations who contact us, request a quote, book a service or otherwise interact with us in relation to our gardening services.

Who We Are and Scope of this Policy

Gardeners Hackney Marshes provides gardening and related services to customers in and around the Hackney Marshes area. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Hackney Marshes acts as the data controller in relation to the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we decide how and why your personal data is processed. This Privacy Policy covers all personal data we process about our current, former and prospective customers in the Hackney Marshes area, whether you contact us online, by post, or in person.

Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data about you when you interact with Gardeners Hackney Marshes:

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

Communication details such as information contained in emails, letters, messages or other correspondence you send to us, including enquiries, feedback and complaints.

Service information such as details of the gardening services you request or purchase, property type and garden layout descriptions you provide, site access details you share with us, and any photographs or notes you ask us to use to plan or perform the service.

Transaction and billing information such as records of quotes, invoices, payments made, payment methods used and any related accounting information, excluding full payment card details, which are handled securely by our payment processors.

Usage and interaction information such as how you interact with our website or online forms, where applicable, including the time and date of your visit and basic technical information sent by your browser. This may include the use of cookies or similar technologies, where legally permitted and, where required, with your consent.

How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request information, a quote or a booking, when you confirm or amend services, when you make a payment, or when you correspond with us in any way.

We may also receive information about you from third parties where this is necessary to provide our services, for example from online platforms or comparison sites through which you request our services, or from other service providers who refer you to us. In these cases, we only receive the information needed to provide the requested service and we process it in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We will only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the context, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Performance of a contract: We process personal data to prepare quotes, accept bookings, deliver gardening services, manage your account and handle billing and payments. Without this information, we would not be able to provide the services you have requested.

Legitimate interests: We process personal data to manage and improve our business operations, to respond to enquiries, to keep records of work undertaken, to protect our legal rights and to prevent fraud or misuse of our services. When we rely on this basis, we balance our interests against your rights and expectations.

Legal obligations: We process certain personal data to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including tax and accounting rules, health and safety obligations and any lawful requests from authorities.

Consent: In limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of optional marketing or for some non-essential cookies. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time, although this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage our gardening services, including assessing your requirements, planning and performing work at your property, and communicating with you about appointments, access and any changes.

To prepare and send quotes, invoices and payment confirmations, and to keep accurate records of the services you have received.

To respond to your enquiries, feedback or complaints and to provide customer support.

To manage our relationship with you, including updating you about important changes to our terms, services or privacy practices.

To operate, maintain and improve our business, services and website, including measuring service quality and maintaining appropriate records.

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. These third parties act as data processors and process your data on our instructions. They may include:

IT and hosting providers who support our electronic systems and data storage.

Payment service providers who securely process payments and manage related transactions.

Accountants or professional advisers who assist with our financial and legal obligations.

Subcontractors or service partners where we legitimately engage them to help provide gardening services to you, limited to the information they need to perform the work.

Where required by law, we may also share personal data with law enforcement, regulators or other authorities.

We require all processors to handle your personal data securely, keep it confidential and process it only in accordance with our instructions and applicable data protection laws.

International Data Transfers

Where any of our service providers transfer or store personal data outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data. These safeguards may include the use of legally approved standard contractual clauses or reliance on other recognised transfer mechanisms permitted by data protection law.

Data Retention

We keep your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including meeting any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. In particular, we generally retain:

Customer records and service information for the duration of our relationship with you and for a period afterwards where needed to respond to queries, resolve disputes or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Financial and transaction records for the period required by tax and accounting laws.

Where personal data is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, we will take reasonable steps to delete it or anonymise it so that it no longer identifies you.

How We Protect Your Data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures include restricted access to personal data, secure storage and, where appropriate, the use of encryption or other safeguards. While we strive to protect your personal data, no system can be guaranteed as completely secure, and you should take care when providing information to us.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you. These include the right to:

Access your personal data and receive a copy of the information we hold about you, subject to certain exceptions.

Request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

Request deletion of your personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it, subject to legal and contractual obligations.

Object to the processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests and you believe your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms override ours.

Request restriction of processing where you contest the accuracy of the data, the processing is unlawful, or you have objected and the restriction is pending verification.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to another service provider, where technically feasible and where the processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means.

Where we rely on consent, withdraw that consent at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, you can contact us using the usual communication channels you use for our services. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request. We aim to respond within the time limits set by data protection law.

Complaints

If you are concerned about how we process your personal data, you can contact us so we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority in the United Kingdom.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations or how we process personal data. Any changes will take effect when the updated Privacy Policy is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data as a customer of Gardeners Hackney Marshes in the local area.