Gardeners Chalk Farm Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Chalk Farm collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our customers and prospective customers in our service area. It is intended to meet the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. By engaging with our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all customers and prospective customers of Gardeners Chalk Farm within our operating area, including individuals who contact us to request information, quotations, or gardening services, as well as those who visit our website or interact with us via social media or other communication channels.

Data Controller

Gardeners Chalk Farm is the data controller in respect of the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. As data controller, we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data and are responsible for ensuring that such processing complies with applicable data protection laws.

Types of Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process different categories of personal data depending on how you interact with us and which services you use. This may include the following information:

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

Service and contract information, such as details about your garden or outdoor space, service preferences, work instructions, job history, quotations, invoices, and records of our communications with you.

Payment and transaction information, such as records of payments received and due, payment method details as necessary for processing, and related billing information. We do not store full payment card details when third-party payment processors are used.

Technical and usage data, such as information collected through your use of our website, including device identifiers, browser type, approximate location, and pages visited, where this is collected via cookies or similar technologies.

Marketing and communication preferences, including your preferences in receiving marketing communications from us and your communication choices.

How We Collect Your Data

We collect your personal data in a number of ways:

Directly from you when you contact us by phone, in person, by post, or through online forms to request information, quotations, or services, or when you enter into a service agreement with us.

Through the provision of services when we visit your property, carry out assessments, provide gardening or maintenance services, and maintain records of the work performed.

Automatically when you interact with our website, through cookies and similar technologies that collect technical and usage data, subject to your cookie preferences where applicable.

From third parties where lawful, for example, from payment processors in relation to completed payments, or from online advertising and social media platforms if you respond to our campaigns.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis to do so. The principal lawful bases we rely on are:

Performance of a contract: We process your data where it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform a contract we have with you. This includes providing quotations, scheduling and delivering gardening services, and managing your account.

Legitimate interests: We process certain data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where those interests are not overridden by your rights. This includes managing and improving our services, keeping appropriate business records, responding to enquiries, and sending limited marketing communications to existing customers about similar services, where permitted by law.

Legal obligations: We process your data where necessary to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including tax and accounting requirements, record keeping obligations, and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

Consent: In some situations we rely on your consent, for example for certain types of electronic marketing to non-customers or for non-essential cookies on our website. Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting 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 gardening and related services, including processing enquiries, preparing quotations, scheduling visits, delivering services at your property, and handling follow-up work or queries.

To administer our relationship with you, including maintaining customer records, managing contracts, processing payments, issuing invoices, and collecting and recovering amounts owed to us.

To communicate with you, including responding to your questions or requests, notifying you about changes to our terms or services, and sending information relevant to your existing services.

To manage and improve our business, including monitoring service quality, training staff and contractors, analysing how customers use our services or website, and developing new offerings.

To carry out marketing, including sending information about services that may be of interest to you where we are permitted to do so by law and where you have not opted out of such communications.

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

Data Sharing and Processors

We may share your personal data with third parties where necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and where such sharing is permitted by law. Such recipients may include:

Service providers and data processors who act on our behalf, such as IT and hosting providers, payment processors, accounting and bookkeeping providers, and providers of scheduling or customer management software. These parties are contractually required to process your data only in accordance with our instructions and to implement appropriate security measures.

Professional advisers, such as accountants, auditors or legal advisers, where this is necessary to obtain professional advice or comply with legal obligations.

Public authorities, regulators and law enforcement agencies, where we are required to disclose data under applicable law or in connection with legal proceedings.

We do not sell your personal data. Where any transfer of personal data involves a destination outside the UK or European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with data protection laws.

Data Retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and to meet any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Customer and contract records are typically kept for the duration of your relationship with us and for a period after that, in line with limitation periods for legal claims and statutory retention obligations.

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

Marketing-related data is generally retained until you opt out of receiving marketing communications or until it is no longer needed for the relevant purpose, after which it is deleted or anonymised where possible.

When we no longer need your personal data, we will take steps to delete or anonymise it securely.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those employees, contractors and service providers who have a business need to know it, and ensuring that they are subject to confidentiality obligations.

Your Data Protection Rights

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

Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation as to whether we process your personal data and to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

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

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

Right to restriction of processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, such as while we verify its accuracy or where you object to processing.

Right to data portability: Where processing is based on consent or on a contract and carried out by automated means, you have the right to request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or to request that it be transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to object: You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including profiling based on those interests, and to object at any time to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

Exercising Your Rights and Complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, or if you have any questions or concerns about how we handle your personal data, you can contact Gardeners Chalk Farm using the usual contact details you use for our services. We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed. We invite you to contact us first, so that we can seek to resolve your concerns directly.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or for other operational reasons. Any updated version will be made available through our usual communication channels. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.