Gardeners Botany Bay Customer Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Botany Bay collects, uses, stores and protects personal data of its customers in the local service area. It applies to all Gardeners Botany Bay customers in the area, including prospective customers, current customers and past customers whose data we still hold. We are committed to handling your personal data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and applicable data protection laws.

Data Controller

Gardeners Botany Bay is the data controller for the personal data we collect and process about you. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used in connection with our services.

Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process personal data that is necessary to provide our gardening and related services, manage our relationship with you and run our business. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details: name, postal address, service address, and other basic contact details necessary for communication and service delivery.

Service and contract details: information about the gardening or maintenance services you request or receive, records of our visits, quotations, invoices, and payment-related records that identify you as our customer.

Communication records: information you provide when you contact us, including queries, feedback, and correspondence relating to services, quotations, bookings or complaints.

Usage and interaction data: basic information about how you interact with our communications, such as responses to appointment confirmations or service reminders.

We do not intentionally collect or require special categories of personal data such as health data, and we ask you not to provide such information unless it is strictly necessary in relation to the services you request and you choose to share it with us.

How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request information or services, when you engage us to carry out gardening work, when you enter into or accept a quote or contract, or when you communicate with us by any means. We may also collect personal data from publicly available sources where this is necessary to confirm address details or to protect our legitimate interests, and from third parties where you have given permission for your data to be shared with us for the purpose of obtaining our services.

Purposes and Lawful Bases for Processing

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

Performance of a contract: We use your personal data to provide gardening and related services, to prepare and issue quotations, to schedule and carry out visits, to manage your account, and to handle billing and payments. This processing is necessary to enter into and fulfil our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.

Legitimate interests: We may process your personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include managing customer relationships, improving our services, maintaining accurate records, recovering unpaid fees, preventing or detecting misuse of our services, and ensuring the security of our operations.

Legal obligations: We process certain data to comply with legal requirements, such as maintaining financial and tax records and cooperating with lawful requests from public authorities.

Consent: In some cases we rely on your consent to process personal data, particularly for certain forms of direct marketing that are not based on our legitimate interests. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing that took place before the withdrawal.

How We Use Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide, manage and improve our gardening services and related offerings.

To prepare and manage quotations, bookings, contracts and service schedules.

To communicate with you about services, appointments, changes, queries and feedback.

To manage payments, invoicing, accounting and financial reporting.

To handle complaints, resolve disputes and enforce our contractual rights.

To comply with legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business.

We do not sell your personal data.

Sharing Your Personal Data

We may share your personal data with carefully selected third parties where this is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and where a lawful basis exists. These parties may include:

Service providers and processors: third parties that provide services to us, such as IT support, data storage, customer management tools, accounting services, payment processing, and document management. These third parties act as data processors on our behalf and may only process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and for the purposes we specify.

Professional advisers: such as accountants, insurers and legal advisers, where this is necessary for the management of our business, for financial reporting, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Public authorities: where we are required to do so by law, regulation or court order, or where disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

When we use data processors, we ensure appropriate data processing agreements are in place that require them to protect your data in line with GDPR requirements.

International Data Transfers

Where possible, we aim to keep your personal data within the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area. If we use service providers that process data outside these jurisdictions, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as standard contractual clauses or other measures recognised under data protection law, to protect your personal data.

Retention of Personal Data

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, to comply with legal obligations, and to resolve disputes or enforce our agreements. Retention periods may differ depending on the type of data and the context in which it was collected.

Customer and contract records: we typically retain core customer and contract information for the duration of our relationship with you and for a period after the end of the relationship in line with limitation periods for legal claims and bookkeeping requirements.

Financial records: invoices, payment records and associated financial documents are generally retained for the period required by tax and accounting laws.

Correspondence and service notes: we retain relevant correspondence and service-related notes for as long as they are needed to manage our relationship with you, address queries, or handle potential disputes, subject to legal and regulatory requirements.

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

Your Data Protection Rights

You have a number of rights under data protection law in relation to your personal data. Subject to certain conditions and exceptions, you may have the right to:

Access: request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

Rectification: request correction of inaccurate personal data and completion of incomplete data.

Erasure: request that we delete your personal data where there is no longer a lawful basis for us to retain it, for example when it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or where you withdraw consent and there is no other legal ground for processing.

Restriction: request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example while we check the accuracy of the data or review an objection you have raised.

Objection: object to processing that is based on our legitimate interests, including direct marketing. We will stop processing your data for direct marketing purposes immediately upon objection.

Data portability: request that we provide you with certain personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or that we transmit it to another controller where technically feasible and where the processing is based on consent or the performance of a contract.

Where we rely on consent to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.

Security of Your Data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those who need it for legitimate business purposes and requiring our processors to implement suitable security controls. While we take reasonable steps to safeguard your data, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or how we handle personal data. Any changes will apply from the date the updated version is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.