Gardeners Merton Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Merton collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to its customers within the Gardeners Merton service area. It also explains the lawful bases for processing under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act, how long data is kept, and the rights you have over your information.
Scope of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to all individual customers and prospective customers of Gardeners Merton located in the Gardeners Merton service area. It applies when you contact us, request a quote, enter into a contract for services, visit our website or otherwise interact with Gardeners Merton in relation to our gardening and related services.
Personal Data We Collect
We may collect and process the following categories of personal data about you:
Identification and contact details such as your full name, home or business address, billing address, and your preferred contact details such as email address or postal address that you choose to share with us.
Service and property information such as details about your garden or outdoor space, access instructions you voluntarily provide, photographs or notes relating to the condition of the garden where necessary for quoting or service delivery, and records of services provided or requested.
Contract and transaction data such as records of quotes, contracts, invoices, payments, service dates, and correspondence relating to bookings, cancellations, complaints or queries.
Communication data such as your messages, feedback or complaints, and any responses we provide, including notes of conversations where relevant to our services.
Technical data such as basic information about how you interact with our website or online forms, including device type, approximate location data based on IP address, and cookies where you have consented to their use.
How We Collect Your Data
We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us by post, through our website, by message, or in person at your property. We may also collect data as we provide services to you, for example when we record what work has been carried out or take photographs of your garden to document the work, where this is necessary and proportionate.
In some cases, we may receive your contact details from third parties where you have asked them to refer you to us, such as local recommendation services or existing customers, and where they have your permission to share this information.
Purposes and Lawful Bases for Processing
Gardeners Merton processes your personal data only where there is a lawful basis under data protection law. The main purposes and legal bases are:
To provide quotes and deliver gardening services. We use your identification, contact, property and service information to give you an estimate, schedule visits, access your property as agreed, and complete the services. The lawful basis is the performance of a contract or taking steps at your request before entering into a contract.
To manage our relationship with you. This includes handling enquiries, updating you about scheduled work, managing complaints or disputes, and keeping basic records. The lawful basis is the performance of a contract and our legitimate interest in running and protecting our business and services.
To process payments and maintain financial records. We process transaction data to issue invoices, confirm payments and maintain accounts. The lawful bases are the performance of a contract and compliance with legal obligations relating to financial and tax records.
To improve and manage our services. We may use aggregated or anonymised information derived from customer data to understand demand, plan resources and improve our services. Where personal data is used, the lawful basis is our legitimate interests in operating and developing our business, balanced against your rights and freedoms.
To send you service related messages. We may contact you with important information about confirmed services, changes to appointments, health and safety matters, or changes to this Privacy Policy. The lawful basis is the performance of a contract and our legitimate interests in providing reliable and safe services.
Marketing communications. Where we send you direct marketing, such as news about new services or seasonal offers, we will only do so in compliance with data protection and electronic communications rules. The lawful basis will be your consent where required, or our legitimate interests where permitted and you have not opted out.
Data Sharing and Processors
Gardeners Merton may share your personal data with selected third parties where necessary and proportionate for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. These third parties act either as independent controllers or as processors on our behalf.
Service providers. We may engage trusted suppliers to provide functions such as accounting support, payment processing, cloud data storage, customer administration tools, and website hosting. Where they act as processors, they only process your personal data in accordance with our written instructions and are required to apply appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it.
Professional advisers. We may share information with accountants, lawyers or insurance providers where this is necessary to obtain professional advice, manage legal claims, or comply with legal responsibilities. These parties act as independent controllers of the data they receive.
Authorities and regulators. In some circumstances we may be legally obliged to share certain information with public authorities, regulators, law enforcement or courts. This will be limited to what is strictly required under law.
We do not sell your personal data and we do not share it with third parties for their own independent marketing purposes.
International Transfers
If any of our service providers are located outside the United Kingdom, we will take steps to ensure that an adequate level of protection is applied to your personal data. This may include using service providers in countries that have been recognised as providing an adequate level of data protection or putting in place appropriate contractual safeguards in line with data protection law.
Data Retention
Gardeners Merton will keep your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including any period required to meet legal, accounting or reporting obligations.
Customer and contract records are generally kept for up to seven years after the end of the relationship to comply with tax and accounting rules and to manage any potential legal claims. Service notes and photographs linked to a particular job may be retained for a shorter period where appropriate, unless required as part of the contract or for legal reasons.
Where we no longer need personal data, we will securely delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with an identifiable individual.
How We Protect Your Data
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures include restricting access to personal data to those who need it for their role, using secure storage systems, and ensuring that our processors provide suitable guarantees of security.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights apply subject to certain conditions and exemptions.
Right of access. You have the right to request confirmation that we process your personal data and to obtain a copy of that data, together with certain additional information.
Right to rectification. You have the right to ask us to correct personal data that is inaccurate or incomplete.
Right to erasure. In some circumstances, you may have the right to request that we delete your personal data, 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. You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, such as where you contest the accuracy of the data or object to the processing.
Right to object. You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including profiling based on those interests, and to object at any time to your data being used for direct marketing.
Right to data portability. Where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, you may have the right to receive the personal data you provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to request that it be transmitted to another controller, where technically feasible.
Right to withdraw consent. Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.
Exercising Your Rights and Complaints
If you wish to exercise any of your rights or have questions or concerns about how Gardeners Merton handles your personal data, you can contact us using the details provided in our customer communications or service documentation.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority for data protection if you believe your rights have been infringed. We encourage you to contact Gardeners Merton first so that we can seek to resolve your concerns directly.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
Gardeners Merton may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or how we handle personal data. Any updates will apply from the date they are published. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.
