Gardeners Fitzrovia Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Fitzrovia collects, uses, discloses and safeguards personal data of its customers and prospective customers located in the Fitzrovia area and surrounding neighbourhoods. It is intended to be transparent and to meet the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and any applicable data protection laws.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Fitzrovia customers, including residential and commercial clients, and to anyone who contacts us to inquire about or request our gardening and related services within our service area.

Who We Are as Data Controller

For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Fitzrovia is the data controller. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used in connection with the services we provide, such as gardening, landscaping, garden maintenance and related activities.

Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the personal data that we need to deliver and manage our services effectively. The types of personal data we may collect include the following.

Contact and identification data. This can include your name, title, property or business address, billing address, and details of any person you nominate as a contact for work at the property.

Communication data. This includes the content of communications you send to us, for example when you request a quote, make a booking, ask a question, or provide feedback about our services.

Service and contract data. This includes details of the services you request or receive from us, job notes, dates and times of visits, photographs of the garden or outdoor area if needed to plan or evidence work, and details of any specific instructions or preferences you provide.

Payment and transaction data. We may process information related to payments and invoices for our services, such as the amount paid, date of payment, and method of payment. We do not store full bank card details when payment is processed through third party payment providers.

Technical and usage data. When you visit any online pages or platforms we manage, we may collect limited technical data such as the date, time and duration of your visit, the pages viewed, and basic device information. We use this to help improve our services and understand interest in our business.

Additional data you choose to provide. You may provide additional information relevant to your garden or property, such as access instructions, health and safety concerns, or whether any vulnerable individuals may be affected by the work we carry out.

Lawful Bases for Processing Your Data

We process your personal data only when we have a valid lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the context, the lawful bases we rely on include the following.

Performance of a contract. We use your personal data to take steps at your request before entering into a contract and to perform our contract with you. This covers activities such as responding to inquiries, preparing and sending quotations, scheduling and carrying out gardening work, and managing your bookings and payments.

Legitimate interests. We may process your data when this is necessary for our legitimate business interests or those of a third party, and when these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include managing and improving our services, keeping business records, handling customer queries, training staff, and promoting similar services to existing customers in a proportionate way.

Compliance with legal obligations. We process certain data when necessary to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, such as accounting, tax and record keeping requirements, and to respond to lawful requests from authorities.

Consent. Where required by law, we will obtain your consent before sending certain types of direct marketing communications or before using your data for specific optional purposes. When we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes.

To provide our gardening and related services, including arranging site visits, carrying out work, and managing ongoing maintenance schedules.

To communicate with you about quotes, bookings, changes to appointments, service updates and queries you raise.

To manage billing, payments, invoices and accounts, including debt prevention and recovery where necessary.

To plan and improve our services, for example by analysing service history and feedback to understand which services are most in demand.

To maintain accurate records of our work for professional, operational and legal reasons.

To protect the security and integrity of our premises, staff, customers and systems, for example by recording essential access information for properties we visit.

To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including responding to formal requests or legal claims.

Sharing Your Personal Data and Use of Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your data with carefully selected third parties where this is necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

Service providers and processors. We may use external service providers to help us run our business, such as payment processors, bookkeeping and accounting services, customer relationship tools, cloud storage providers, and providers of communication and scheduling systems. These third parties act as data processors and may only process your personal data on our documented instructions and for the purposes we specify.

Professional advisers. We may share data with professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, auditors or legal advisers where this is necessary to obtain professional advice or manage risks.

Authorities and legal obligations. We may disclose your data to law enforcement agencies, regulators or other authorities if required by law or if disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

Any third party receiving your personal data will be required to protect it and process it in accordance with applicable data protection law.

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.

Customer and service records, including contracts, invoices and key correspondence, are typically kept for a number of years after completion of the last service in order to comply with tax and accounting obligations, manage any potential disputes, and maintain service history for returning clients.

Information used only for marketing or newsletter style updates will be retained until you object or withdraw your consent, or until we determine that it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

When data is no longer needed, it will be securely deleted, anonymised or otherwise removed from our active systems, subject to any backup or archival retention that may be required for a limited period.

Where and How We Store Your Data

Your personal data is stored in a combination of secure digital systems and, where necessary, physical records. We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure passwords, limited access to staff on a need to know basis, and reasonable security practices when working on site.

Your Data Protection Rights

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

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

Right to rectification. You have the right to request that any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you is corrected or updated.

Right to erasure. In some circumstances, you may have the right to request that we delete your personal data, for example where you believe it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and we have no legal reason to continue processing it.

Right to restriction. You may request that we restrict the way in which we use your data in certain situations, for example while we are considering a request to rectify or erase it.

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 request that we transfer it to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data when it is based on our legitimate interests, including profiling on that basis. You also have the right to object at any time to your data being used for direct marketing, in which case we will stop such processing.

Rights related to consent. Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you can withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.

We will respond to requests to exercise your rights in accordance with legal time limits and may ask for reasonable information to verify your identity before responding.

Privacy of Children

Our services are not targeted at children and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children as customers. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child without appropriate authorisation, we will take steps to delete it where appropriate.

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 changes in the law. Any updates will apply from the date they are published. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we protect your personal data.