Privacy Policy

Gardeners Crossness Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Crossness collects, uses, stores, and shares personal data when providing gardening and related services. It applies to all Gardeners Crossness customers within our service area, as well as prospective customers who contact us to enquire about our services.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws.

Data Controller

For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Crossness is the data controller of the personal data we process about you. This means we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data when you use our services or interact with us as a customer or prospective customer.

Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data about you:

Identification and contact details such as your name, postal address, service address, billing address, and any contact preferences you tell us about.

Communication details such as the content of messages you send to us by post or through any contact form, and notes of conversations relating to enquiries, bookings, complaints, or feedback.

Service information such as details of the gardening or related services you request or receive, property type, access instructions you choose to share, photos you provide of your garden or outside areas, and visit history.

Billing and transaction data such as payment status, invoices, records of services provided, and information needed for accounting and tax purposes. We do not store your full payment card details when you make a card payment through a secure payment processor.

Technical data when you visit our online pages, such as your approximate location, browser type, and basic usage data. This may be collected through cookies or similar technologies where permitted by law and your browser settings.

Any other information you voluntarily provide to us that is relevant to the provision of our services, for example accessibility needs or preferences regarding how and when we contact you.

How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quote, make a booking, ask a question, provide feedback, or otherwise interact with us. This may be in person, by phone, through online forms, or by post.

We may also collect personal data generated by us when we record details of services provided, visits made to your property, and our correspondence with you.

In limited cases, we may receive personal data from third parties, for example if someone recommends you and provides your contact details for a quotation, or if we receive confirmation of a payment from a payment processor.

Lawful Bases for Processing

We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the context, we may rely on the following lawful bases:

Performance of a contract. We process your data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, such as when we provide gardening services, arrange visits, manage your account, and communicate with you about the services you have requested.

Legal obligation. We process certain data to comply with legal obligations, including tax, accounting, record keeping, and responding to lawful requests from regulatory or public authorities.

Legitimate interests. We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This includes managing and improving our services, handling customer queries, ensuring site security, and maintaining business records.

Consent. In some cases, we rely on your consent, for example when we send you certain types of marketing communications that are not based on our legitimate interests. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data to provide and manage gardening services, including creating quotations, scheduling visits, carrying out agreed work, and issuing invoices.

We use your data to respond to your enquiries, communications, and requests, and to provide customer support during and after the provision of services.

We maintain records of services provided and transactions for accounting, taxation, and business management purposes.

We use certain data to improve our services, for example by reviewing feedback, assessing demand, and ensuring the quality and safety of our operations.

Where permitted by law, we may use your details to send you information about similar services that we believe may be of interest to you. You can ask us at any time to stop sending you marketing communications.

We may use aggregated or anonymised data that does not identify you personally to analyse trends and manage our business, but this is not personal data.

Sharing Your Personal Data

We may share your personal data with third parties where necessary and lawful for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

Service providers and processors. We may use carefully selected third party providers to help us operate our business, such as IT support providers, secure payment processors, accountants, and companies that provide scheduling or customer management tools. These third parties act as data processors and are required to process your data only on our instructions and with appropriate security measures.

Professional advisers. We may share data with our professional advisers, such as accountants or legal advisers, where this is necessary for legal, accounting, or business management purposes.

Public authorities. We may disclose data where required by law or in response to valid requests from public authorities, regulators, or law enforcement, or to protect our rights or the rights of others.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

International Transfers

Where we use third party processors or tools that involve transferring personal data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as standard contractual clauses or other legally recognised mechanisms, so that your personal data remains protected.

Data Retention

We keep your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Customer and service records are generally retained for a period that allows us to respond to queries and maintain accurate business accounts. Financial records and associated personal data are kept for the period required by tax and accounting laws.

Where your personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with you.

Security of Your Data

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. These measures are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risks involved in our processing of your data.

While we strive to protect your personal data, no system can be completely secure. You are also responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect your own data when communicating with us.

Your Data Protection Rights

As a data subject, you have certain rights in relation to your personal data under data protection law. These rights apply to all Gardeners Crossness customers and prospective customers in our service area, subject to applicable legal conditions and exemptions.

Right of access. You have the right to request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and to request a copy of the data we hold about you.

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

Right to erasure. You may request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances, for example where the data is no longer necessary 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 verify the accuracy of the data or consider an objection you have raised.

Right to object. You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes. If you object to direct marketing, we will stop processing your data for that purpose.

Right to data portability. In certain circumstances, you have the right to receive personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine readable format and to request that we transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.

Where our processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Exercising Your Rights and Complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or have questions about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the details provided on our main customer communication channels. We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve any concerns directly.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. The updated version will apply from the date it is published. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.