Privacy Policy - Sutton Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Sutton Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing cleaning services. It applies to all Sutton Cleaners customers in the area, including residential and commercial clients, prospective customers, and anyone who communicates with us in relation to our services. We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

Sutton Cleaners is the data controller for the personal data we collect and process in connection with our services. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used for the purposes described in this Policy. We take our responsibilities seriously and aim to process only the data we need to deliver our services effectively and responsibly.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect the following categories of personal data depending on how you interact with us and the services you request:

Identity data, such as your name and title.
Contact data, such as your address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details, such as cleaning preferences, access instructions, scheduling information, and property notes relevant to the service.
Payment data, such as billing details and payment status. We do not normally store full card information where payments are handled by secure third-party providers.
Communication data, such as messages, complaints, queries, feedback, and service-related correspondence.
Technical and usage data, if you visit any digital services we may operate, such as IP address, browser type, and device information.

We may also process limited data about access arrangements, special instructions, or other information you choose to share with us in order to deliver the service safely and efficiently. Where such information is provided, we will only use it for the purpose for which it was supplied and will treat it with appropriate care.

3. How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you:

request a quote or book a cleaning service;
communicate with us by phone, email, message, or written correspondence;
complete forms or provide service instructions;
make a payment or request an invoice;
submit feedback, raise a concern, or make a complaint.

We may also receive data from third parties where necessary to provide the service, such as payment processors, referral partners, property managers, or another person acting on your behalf. Where this occurs, we will only use the information for legitimate service-related purposes.

4. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data only where we have a valid lawful basis and where it is necessary for our business operations. Typical uses include:

providing and managing cleaning services;
confirming appointments and service details;
issuing quotes, invoices, and receipts;
responding to enquiries and customer requests;
maintaining records of work carried out;
handling complaints, disputes, or service issues;
improving our services, training, and internal processes;
meeting legal, tax, and regulatory obligations.

We do not use personal data for purposes that are incompatible with the reason it was collected unless we have a lawful basis to do so and, where required, we notify you.

5. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process personal data. Depending on the situation, Sutton Cleaners relies on one or more of the following bases:

Performance of a Contract

We process your data when it is necessary to provide the services you have requested, such as managing bookings, carrying out cleaning work, and handling payments.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is reasonably necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include service administration, customer support, record-keeping, fraud prevention, and internal quality control. We always consider the impact on your privacy before relying on this basis.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain data where required to comply with legal obligations, including accounting, tax, and record-keeping requirements.

Consent

In some limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example if we need to process optional information that is not required to deliver the service. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

We do not sell personal data.

6. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties, known as processors, who act on our instructions and help us provide our services. These processors may include:

payment processing providers;
booking or scheduling software providers;
IT and cloud storage providers;
email and communication service providers;
accounting and bookkeeping service providers;
professional advisers such as insurers, auditors, or legal advisers, where necessary.

We ensure that processors are subject to appropriate contractual safeguards and are only allowed to use your data for the specified purpose. They are required to keep your data secure and to comply with applicable data protection laws.

We may also disclose personal data where required by law, regulation, court order, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Sutton Cleaners, our customers, staff, or the public.

7. International Transfers

Where any processor or service provider is located outside the UK, we will take steps to ensure that any transfer of personal data is protected by appropriate safeguards. These may include standard contractual clauses, adequacy regulations, or equivalent legally recognised measures.

8. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason it is held.

Customer and service records are usually kept for the duration of the customer relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Financial and tax-related records are retained for the period required by law.
Communications and complaint records may be retained for as long as needed to resolve issues and maintain evidence of service history.

When data is no longer needed, we will delete, anonymise, or securely dispose of it. We review retention regularly to ensure that data is not kept longer than necessary.

9. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, password protection, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and restricted access to records. While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we work to maintain a level of security appropriate to the nature of the data we process.

10. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These include:

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 data.
Right to erasure – to ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restrict processing – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to make a complaint to the relevant data protection authority if you believe your rights have not been respected. We encourage you to raise any concerns with us first so we can address them promptly and fairly.

11. Children’s Data

Our services are generally intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidentally provided in the course of providing a service, such as household information. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child inappropriately, we will take steps to delete it where legally required and appropriate.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data handling practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it is published. We recommend reviewing this Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we use personal data.

13. Summary of Key Principles

Sutton Cleaners is committed to processing personal data lawfully, transparently, and securely. We collect only the data needed to deliver cleaning services, use it for defined purposes, share it only with appropriate processors or where legally required, and keep it only for as long as necessary. We respect your rights and aim to ensure that all Sutton Cleaners customers in the area receive a clear and responsible approach to data protection.

This Privacy Policy is designed to provide clear information about our data practices and your rights.