Privacy Policy

Gardeners Chinatown Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Chinatown collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to customers and prospective customers in our service area. It also sets out your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation and applicable UK data protection laws. By engaging with Gardeners Chinatown, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Chinatown customers and prospective customers in our local service area, including individuals who make enquiries, request quotes, book services or otherwise interact with us. It covers personal data collected through face to face interactions, telephone enquiries, written correspondence, online enquiries and any other communication channels we use to provide our services.

Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process personal data that is necessary for the provision and management of our gardening and related services. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, residential or business address, billing address, and preferred contact details. Service and property details, such as property type, garden layout information you provide, any access instructions, preferred appointment times and notes necessary to perform the agreed work. Communication records, including information provided when you contact us to request a quote, make a booking, provide feedback or make a complaint. Transaction and payment information necessary to process and record payments for services, such as amounts charged, payment method and payment status. Usage data relating to how you interact with our materials or communications, to the extent that such information is necessary for us to understand demand for our services and improve how we operate.

We do not intentionally collect special category data, such as health information, unless it is strictly necessary for a specific purpose and you choose to provide it, for example to inform us of accessibility needs during service delivery. In such rare cases, we will only use this information for the purpose for which it was provided and will apply additional safeguards.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We will only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the context, our lawful bases include:

Contract: We process personal data to enter into and perform a contract with you, including taking steps at your request before entering into a contract. This covers tasks such as providing quotes, confirming bookings, delivering gardening services, and managing payments.

Legitimate interests: We process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that these are not overridden by your rights and interests. This includes managing our customer relationships, scheduling work efficiently, improving our services, keeping appropriate business records, and protecting our business from fraud or misuse.

Legal obligation: We process personal data where necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including tax, accounting and record keeping requirements.

Consent: In certain situations, we may rely on your consent, for example where we send you certain types of marketing communications that are not based on legitimate interests. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time by contacting us.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries, provide quotes and advise you about our services. To set up, manage and fulfil service bookings and ongoing maintenance arrangements. To access your property as agreed, carry out gardening and related services, and communicate with you about work in progress. To manage payments, invoicing and any queries relating to charges. To handle feedback, complaints and disputes, and to provide customer support. To maintain accurate internal records for business administration, tax and accounting. To improve our services, for example by analysing common enquiries and service requests in our local area. To send you service updates and, where permitted, information about related services you may be interested in.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors only process your data in accordance with our written instructions and are required to implement appropriate security measures.

Examples of processors and third party recipients may include:

IT and system support providers that help us operate scheduling, record keeping or communication systems. Payment service providers and financial institutions involved in processing payments and preventing fraud. Professional advisers, such as accountants, to the extent they require access to certain records for regulatory or advisory purposes. Service partners who support service delivery, where necessary for the performance of the contract with you, such as subcontractors assisting with specific gardening tasks.

Where data is shared with such parties, we limit the personal data disclosed to what is strictly necessary for the relevant purpose.

International Data Transfers

If we ever transfer personal data outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data, such as recognised adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses, and that such transfers comply with data protection laws.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. In general:

Customer and service records are kept for the duration of our relationship with you and for a reasonable period thereafter to handle any queries, disputes or legal claims. Transaction and invoicing records are retained for the period required by applicable tax and accounting laws. Enquiry information from prospective customers who do not proceed may be retained for a limited period to allow us to respond to follow up enquiries, after which it will be securely deleted or anonymised.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it in line with our data retention practices.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect the personal data we hold against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures include restricting access to personal data to those who need it for their role and using secure methods to store and dispose of information. While we take reasonable steps to safeguard your data, no system is completely secure, and you should take care when sharing personal information with us.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under the GDPR and applicable UK data protection laws, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, these include:

Right of access: You can request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and obtain a copy of the data we hold about you.

Right to rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate personal data or complete information that is incomplete.

Right to erasure: You can request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances, 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 of processing: You can ask us to restrict how we use your personal data in certain situations, such as while we consider a challenge to its accuracy.

Right to data portability: Where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, you may be able to request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format, or that we transmit it to another controller.

Right to object: You can object at any time to processing of your personal data based on legitimate interests, including profiling. You also have the right to object at any time to direct marketing.

Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent to process your personal data, you can withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before it was withdrawn.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using your usual contact method with Gardeners Chinatown. We may need to verify your identity before acting on your request, and we will respond within the timeframes set out in data protection law.

Complaints and Regulatory Rights

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, we encourage you to contact us in the first instance so we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your relevant data protection supervisory authority in your country or region.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services or legal obligations. The updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we handle personal data for Gardeners Chinatown customers in our area.