Gardeners Northumberland Heath Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Northumberland Heath collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to customers in the Northumberland Heath area. It also sets out your rights under UK data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Northumberland Heath customers in the area, whether you contact us online, by post, or in person.

Who we are and scope of this policy

Gardeners Northumberland Heath is a gardening and grounds maintenance service provider operating in the Northumberland Heath area. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Northumberland Heath is the controller of the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we decide why and how your personal data is processed.

This Privacy Policy applies to personal data processed about individual customers and prospective customers located in the Northumberland Heath area, including private household customers and small business clients who deal with us directly as individuals.

Personal data we collect

We collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you interact with us and which services you use. The main categories of personal data we collect are:

Identification and contact details: name, address, property location, billing address, and basic contact details such as your preferred method of contact.

Service and contract information: details of the gardening services you request, site notes relating to your garden or property, appointment history, quotes, invoices, payment records, and any instructions you give us relating to the work.

Communication data: information you provide when you contact us, such as questions, feedback, complaints, and any correspondence relating to bookings or services.

Payment details: limited payment-related information such as payment method and confirmation that payment has been made. If you pay electronically, certain details may be processed by our payment service providers as separate data processors.

Technical and usage data: if you visit our online services, we may collect limited technical information such as device information, browser type, and general usage data generated by your use of our site. This is used for basic analytics and service improvement.

How we collect your data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quote, make a booking, or ask a question; when you agree to or sign a contract for gardening services; and when you communicate with us during or after service delivery.

We may also obtain data about your property or garden from publicly available sources, such as mapping or property information services, where this is needed to provide quotes, plan work, or assess access and safety.

Lawful bases for processing

We will only use your personal data when we have a lawful basis to do so under data protection law. The main lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract: We process your personal data to enter into and perform a contract with you, including providing quotes, scheduling work, carrying out gardening services, issuing invoices, and managing payments.

Legal obligation: We may process your data where needed to comply with legal obligations, such as maintaining accounting records and complying with tax and regulatory requirements.

Legitimate interests: We rely on our legitimate interests to process your data for certain purposes, provided these interests are not overridden by your rights. These purposes may include managing our relationship with you, improving our services, handling enquiries and complaints, and keeping basic records of past work carried out at a property.

Consent: In limited cases, we may ask for your consent, for example where we send you certain forms of direct marketing or optional communications. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data to provide and manage gardening and maintenance services, including arranging site visits, planning and carrying out the work, and communicating with you before, during, and after the service.

We also use your data to prepare and send quotes and invoices, record payments and handle any issues relating to billing, manage our customer records and service history so that we can understand previous work carried out and plan future work, and respond to enquiries, feedback, requests for information, or complaints.

Where permitted by law, we may use your details to send you information about services that are similar to those you have already received from us, or that we believe may be relevant to your property or garden. You can ask us to stop sending such communications at any time.

Data sharing and processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your data with trusted third parties who act as processors on our behalf, meaning they process personal data strictly according to our instructions and only for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

These processors may include payment service providers that process payments and issue confirmations, accounting or bookkeeping service providers that assist us with financial records and compliance, and IT and hosting providers that supply and support our systems, email, and data storage.

Where we use processors, we ensure there are appropriate data processing agreements in place that require them to keep your data secure, use it only as instructed by us, and comply with applicable data protection laws.

In some cases, we may need to share data with professional advisers such as accountants, with insurers in connection with claims, or with public authorities and regulators if required by law or where necessary to protect our rights, our customers, or the safety of others.

Data retention

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

Customer and contract records are generally retained for a period that allows us to respond to queries about past work and to comply with tax and accounting obligations. Communications relating to enquiries and quotes that do not result in a service may be kept for a shorter period, unless you become a customer later.

When we no longer need personal data, we will securely delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked to you.

International transfers

Where we use service providers located outside the United Kingdom, your personal data may be transferred to and processed in other countries. If this occurs, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as using service providers in countries with an adequacy decision or incorporating standard contractual clauses or equivalent protections required by data protection law.

How we protect your data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, alteration, or disclosure. These measures include restricting access to personal data to those who need it for their role, using secure storage and systems for electronic data, keeping paper records in secure locations, and maintaining policies and procedures designed to safeguard the information we hold.

Your data protection rights

As a customer in the Northumberland Heath area, you have a number of rights under data protection law in relation to your personal data. These include:

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

Right to rectification: You have the right to ask us to correct or complete personal data that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you may ask us to 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 there is no other lawful basis for processing.

Right to restriction: You may request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, such as while we check the accuracy of data or assess an objection you have raised.

Right to object: You have the right to object to processing that is based on our legitimate interests, including direct marketing. We will stop processing your data for these purposes unless we have compelling legitimate grounds or need to continue for legal reasons.

Right to data portability: In some cases, you may request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or that we transmit it directly to another controller where this is technically feasible and based on consent or contract.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority if you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data. In the United Kingdom, this is typically the Information Commissioner.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, how we process personal data, or legal requirements. Any updates will apply from the date they are published. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information as a customer of Gardeners Northumberland Heath.