Privacy Policy - Crystalpalace Cleaners

Crystalpalace Cleaners is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect personal information relating to our customers, including individuals who use our cleaning services in the local area. This policy applies to all Crystalpalace Cleaners customers in area.

We process personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We encourage you to read this policy carefully so that you understand what data we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have in relation to it.

1. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you interact with us and which services you request. The information we collect may include:

• Identity details: your name, title, and any relevant account or booking identifiers.
• Contact details: address, email address, and telephone number.
• Service details: information about your property, cleaning preferences, service history, appointment notes, and instructions relevant to carrying out our services.
• Payment information: billing details and payment status records. We do not normally store full card details if payments are processed by a third-party payment provider.
• Communication records: emails, messages, complaints, feedback, and notes from conversations with you.
• Technical and usage data: limited information collected when you interact with our digital systems, such as timestamps, device information, and service log records, where applicable.

We may also collect special category data only where it is necessary and lawful to do so, for example if you voluntarily provide information about access needs, allergies, or health-related considerations that affect how we deliver cleaning services. We only process this type of data where a lawful condition under data protection law applies.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• to provide, manage, and deliver cleaning services;
• to confirm bookings, arrange visits, and respond to customer requests;
• to issue invoices, process payments, and maintain accounting records;
• to communicate service updates, changes, or important notices;
• to handle complaints, disputes, refunds, and service follow-up;
• to maintain records for internal administration and quality assurance;
• to comply with legal and regulatory obligations;
• to protect against fraud, misuse, or security incidents;
• to improve our services and customer experience.

We only use your personal data where the law allows us to do so. Our use of your data will always be limited to what is necessary for the relevant purpose.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal data. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on one or more of the following bases:

Contract

We process your personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes managing your booking, delivering cleaning services, processing payments, and communicating about the service you requested.

Legal Obligation

We may process certain data to comply with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting, insurance, and record-keeping requirements, or where we are required to respond to lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process your data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include improving our operations, maintaining service quality, preventing fraud, and managing customer communications. When relying on legitimate interests, we ensure that the processing is proportionate and that appropriate safeguards are in place.

Consent

In limited cases, we may ask for your consent to process certain types of data or to send optional communications. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

4. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share it with trusted third parties where necessary to run our business and provide our services. These third parties act either as data processors or independent controllers, depending on the context.

Examples of processors we may use include:

• Payment processors: to securely handle card or online payments;
• IT and cloud service providers: to store data, support scheduling systems, or maintain our business software;
• Communication service providers: to facilitate email or messaging services;
• Accounting and invoicing providers: to manage financial records;
• Customer management tools: to organise bookings, service notes, and customer records.

Where we use processors, they are required to process personal data only on our instructions, to keep it secure, and to comply with applicable data protection laws. We ensure that appropriate contracts are in place with those processors.

We may also disclose personal data where necessary to legal advisers, insurers, regulatory bodies, or law enforcement authorities, but only where this is required or permitted by law.

5. International Transfers

If any of our service providers store or process data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or equivalent protective measures designed to keep your data safe and compliant with applicable law.

6. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, and to meet legal, accounting, or reporting obligations. Retention periods depend on the type of information and the reason we hold it.

In general:

• customer service records are retained for the period needed to manage the relationship and any follow-up matters;
• billing and transaction records are kept for the time required under tax and accounting law;
• complaint and dispute records may be kept longer where needed to resolve issues or defend legal claims;
• data collected with consent is kept until consent is withdrawn or the data is no longer required.

When data is no longer needed, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.

7. Your Rights

You have several rights under data protection law in relation to your personal data. These rights may apply depending on the circumstances and the legal basis for processing.

• Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Right to erasure: in certain cases, you can ask us to delete your personal data.
• Right to restriction: you can ask us to limit how we use your data in specific situations.
• Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
• Right to data portability: in certain cases, you can request a copy of your data in a structured, commonly used format.
• Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

Important: some rights may be limited where we need to keep information for legal reasons, to establish or defend legal claims, or where the law permits us to retain it.

8. Security of Your Data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and regular review of our data handling practices. While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we work hard to protect your information.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults or for customers acting on behalf of a household. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is provided by an adult customer and is necessary for service delivery. If we become aware that we have collected data without a proper basis, we will take steps to delete it where appropriate.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or operational needs. Any updated version will replace the previous one when published or made available to customers. We encourage you to review this policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we use your information.

11. Summary of Our Approach

Crystalpalace Cleaners only collects personal data that is necessary to provide and manage cleaning services, communicate with customers, meet legal obligations, and improve our business operations. We process data on lawful bases including contract, legal obligation, legitimate interests, and, where needed, consent. We retain data only for as long as necessary, use trusted processors under strict controls, and respect your rights under data protection law.

By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and how your personal data is handled.