Privacy Policy - Ilford Cleaner

This Privacy Policy explains how Ilford Cleaner collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data belonging to its customers and prospective customers in the Ilford area. It applies to all Ilford Cleaner customers in the area, including anyone who makes an enquiry, requests a quote, books a service, receives a service, or otherwise interacts with us in connection with our cleaning services.

1. Who We Are

Ilford Cleaner provides domestic and commercial cleaning services. In delivering those services, we act as a data controller for the personal data we determine the purposes and means of processing. This means we are responsible for ensuring that personal data is handled lawfully, fairly, and transparently in accordance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We only collect information that is relevant and necessary for our services, business operations, and legal obligations. The categories of data we may collect include:

Identity data: name, title, and any relevant business or household contact details.
Contact data: address, email address, and telephone number.
Service data: booking details, service preferences, cleaning instructions, property access arrangements, and records of services provided.
Payment data: payment status, billing records, and transaction references. We do not store full card details if payment is processed by a third-party payment provider.
Communication data: messages, requests, complaints, feedback, and correspondence relating to our services.
Technical data: limited device or usage information if you interact with us electronically, such as IP address or browser information, where necessary for security and service improvement.
Special category data: we do not generally seek to collect sensitive personal data. However, if such information is volunteered by you and is relevant to service delivery, it will only be processed where lawful to do so and with appropriate safeguards.

We may collect data directly from you, from your employer or property manager where a service is arranged on your behalf, or from third parties involved in the delivery of our services, such as payment processors or scheduling platforms.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

to provide, manage, and complete cleaning services;
to handle quotations, bookings, changes, cancellations, and customer support;
to process payments and maintain financial records;
to communicate with customers about appointments, service updates, and service-related issues;
to maintain internal records, quality control, and service history;
to comply with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations;
to prevent fraud, misuse, and unauthorized access;
to improve our operations, customer experience, and service standards.

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which it was collected, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another compatible purpose. If we need to use your data in a significantly different way, we will explain the legal basis for doing so where required.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis to process personal data. Ilford Cleaner relies on the following lawful bases, depending on the activity involved:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes arranging quotes, confirming bookings, delivering cleaning services, and managing payments.

Legal Obligation

We process data where necessary to comply with legal obligations, including tax rules, accounting requirements, recordkeeping duties, and lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include managing customer relationships, maintaining service quality, preventing fraud, securing our systems, and improving our business operations. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we carefully consider the impact on your privacy.

Consent

In limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example where it is required for certain marketing activities or for specific optional processing. Where consent is used, you have the right to withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Retention of Personal Data

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and to meet any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. The retention period depends on the type of information and the reason it was collected.

Customer and service records: retained for the duration of the customer relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards to support follow-up, disputes, and service history.
Financial records: retained for the period required by law for tax and accounting purposes.
Communication records: retained as long as needed to resolve queries, complaints, or service issues.
Marketing preferences: retained until you opt out or the data is no longer needed.

When personal data is no longer required, it will be securely deleted, anonymised, or otherwise disposed of in a safe and appropriate manner.

6. Processors and Third Parties

We may share personal data with trusted third-party processors who help us operate our business and provide services. These processors only act on our instructions and are required to protect your data under appropriate contractual and legal obligations.

Examples of processors and service providers may include:

payment processing providers;
booking and scheduling systems;
email and communication platforms;
IT support, data storage, and cloud service providers;
accounting, bookkeeping, and tax service providers;
professional advisers, such as legal or compliance advisers, where necessary.

We may also disclose personal data where required by law, to enforce our rights, to protect our customers or staff, or in connection with a legal claim. We do not sell your personal data.

7. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, limited access permissions, staff training, and review of third-party security practices. While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we work to maintain a level of protection that is appropriate to the nature of the data we process.

8. International Transfers

If any service provider processes personal data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that suitable safeguards are in place to protect the data in accordance with applicable law. These safeguards may include adequacy regulations or approved contractual protections.

9. Your Rights

As a data subject, you have certain rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to legal conditions and exceptions, these rights may include:

Right of access: to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure: to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction: to request limitation of processing in certain situations.
Right to object: to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to data portability: to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you are unhappy with how your personal data is handled. We encourage you to raise any privacy concerns with us first so they can be reviewed promptly.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidental to providing a service requested by an adult customer. If we become aware that we have collected personal data inappropriately, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, our services, or our data handling practices. Any updated version will apply from the time it is published. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their personal data is processed.

Effective principle: by using Ilford Cleaner’s services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed as described in this Privacy Policy, subject always to your rights under data protection law.