Privacy Policy

Gardeners Osterley Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Osterley collects, uses, shares, and protects personal data belonging to its customers in the Osterley area. It also sets out your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Osterley customers in our service area, whether you contact us online, by post, or in person.

Who We Are And Scope Of This Policy

Gardeners Osterley is a gardening and outdoor maintenance service provider operating in and around the Osterley area. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Osterley is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we decide how and why your personal data is processed, and we are responsible for ensuring it is handled in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner.

Types Of Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that we need to provide our services, manage our business, and comply with legal obligations. The categories of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details such as your name, postal address, service address, and any other address relevant for providing gardening services, as well as your preferred contact details.

Service and contract information such as details of the services you request or receive, appointment dates and times, records of visits, before and after job notes, and any special instructions you provide.

Billing and payment data such as information necessary to issue invoices, record payments, and manage your account status. We do not store full payment card details if you pay by card, although our payment processors may do so in accordance with their own legal obligations.

Communication records such as enquiries, messages, complaints, feedback, and other communications you send to us, as well as notes about our responses and interactions with you.

Technical and usage information when you visit our website or online pages, including basic technical information such as device type, browser type, and general usage data, where this is collected through necessary cookies or similar tools.

How We Collect Your Personal Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quote, book a service, or manage an existing service. This may be done via online forms, written correspondence, or face-to-face discussions. We also collect data as we deliver services, for example by recording the work completed at your property.

We may receive personal data from third parties where it is necessary and lawful to do so, such as from referral partners who introduce you to our services, or from payment processors confirming payment status.

Lawful Bases For Processing Your Data

Under the UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for each purpose for which we process your personal data. Gardeners Osterley relies on the following lawful bases:

Contract: We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into a contract with you or to perform a contract, for example to provide gardening services, schedule appointments, issue invoices, and handle service-related communications.

Legitimate interests: We process some data based on our legitimate interests, provided that these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This includes improving our services, managing our business operations, preventing fraud, and keeping basic records of customers in the Osterley area.

Legal obligation: We process personal data when required to comply with legal or regulatory obligations, such as keeping accounting and tax records or responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

Consent: In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example if we wish to send you certain types of marketing communications that are not otherwise covered by legitimate interests. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

Purposes For Which We Use Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage gardening and related services to you, including confirming bookings, attending your property, and updating you on progress.

To respond to enquiries, requests, and complaints, and to provide customer support.

To issue invoices, process payments, manage debts, and maintain internal financial records.

To maintain accurate records of the services provided in the Osterley area, allowing us to plan staff and resources.

To improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of our services by reviewing service history and customer feedback.

To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and regulatory guidance, including tax and accounting requirements.

Data Processors And Third-Party Recipients

We may share your personal data with third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors only process your data on our documented instructions and are required to keep it secure. Typical processors include:

IT and hosting providers who store our electronic records and help maintain our systems.

Customer management and scheduling tools used to organise appointments and service routes.

Payment processors who handle card or online payments on our behalf.

Professional advisers such as accountants where they need access to limited customer data for financial and regulatory purposes.

We may also share data with third parties acting as independent controllers where required by law or where necessary to protect our rights, such as with law enforcement agencies, regulators, or legal representatives.

We do not sell your personal data. If at any time we intend to engage a new processor or substantially change the way an existing processor handles data, we will ensure that appropriate data protection safeguards are in place.

Data Retention Periods

Gardeners Osterley keeps personal data only for as long as it is needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. We apply the following general retention principles:

Service and contract records are usually retained for the duration of our relationship with you and for a period after the end of the relationship, typically up to six years, in order to manage any queries, complaints, or legal claims, and for tax and accounting purposes.

Basic contact details for potential customers who request a quote but do not proceed may be kept for a limited period to follow up on the enquiry and assess interest in our services, after which they are either deleted or anonymised.

Financial and transaction records are usually retained for periods required by tax and accounting laws.

Technical and usage information is retained for as long as necessary to maintain and secure our online presence and to understand general service usage patterns, after which it is either deleted or anonymised.

When personal data is no longer required, we securely delete or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked to you.

Data Security And International Transfers

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. These measures include controlled access to systems, staff training, secure storage of paper records, and the use of reputable service providers.

If we transfer personal data outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that an adequate level of protection is in place, for example by relying on adequacy regulations or by putting in place appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses. You may request further information about any international transfers that may apply to your data.

Your Data Protection Rights

As a Gardeners Osterley customer in our service area, you have several rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and legal limitations. These include:

The right of access: You can request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and receive a copy of that data.

The right to rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

The right to erasure: In some circumstances, you can ask us to delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected and there is no legal reason for us to keep it.

The right to restrict processing: You can ask us to restrict how we use your data in certain situations, such as while we consider a request to rectify it.

The right to data portability: Where we process your data by automated means and on the basis of consent or contract, you can request that we provide your data in a commonly used format or transfer it to another organisation where this is technically feasible.

The right to object: You can object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including certain types of direct marketing. We will then stop processing your data for that purpose unless we have compelling legitimate grounds which override your interests or we need the data for legal claims.

You also have the right to raise concerns with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe your rights have been infringed. We encourage you to contact us first so 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 services, business operations, or legal obligations. When we make significant changes, we will take reasonable steps to inform our customers, for example by updating the version on our website or by other appropriate means. The most recent version of this Privacy Policy will always apply to the personal data we hold about you.