Privacy Policy

Gardeners Covent Garden Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Covent Garden collects, uses, stores and protects personal data when providing gardening and related services to customers in the Covent Garden area. It also describes your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws, and how you can exercise those rights.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Covent Garden customers and prospective customers located in the Covent Garden area, as well as individuals who contact us to enquire about our services, regardless of the communication channel used.

Data Controller

Gardeners Covent Garden is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. As data controller, we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data and are responsible for ensuring that such processing complies with applicable data protection law.

Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process different categories of personal data depending on your relationship with us and how you interact with our services. The types of data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details such as your name, postal address, service address, billing address, and general contact details.

Service and contract information such as details of the gardening services you request or purchase, frequency of visits, property access instructions, and any preferences you communicate to us about how we provide our services.

Communication records such as information you provide when you contact us, make enquiries, request quotations, give feedback, or make a complaint. This may include the content of your messages and our responses.

Payment and transaction data such as records of payments made to us, amounts, dates, and basic transaction identifiers necessary for accounting and record keeping. We do not store full payment card details when payments are processed by third party payment processors.

Technical and usage data such as information you choose to provide when you interact with our online content or digital tools, including basic device or browser information where it is necessary to provide or secure our services.

Photographs and job records such as images of gardens or outdoor areas we work on, where needed to plan, record or demonstrate completed work, or to provide quotations.

How We Collect Personal Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us, request a quote, make a booking, enter into a contract for services, or communicate with us in any way. We may also collect data when we visit your property to assess or carry out work.

In some cases, we may receive personal data indirectly from third parties, for example from property managers, landlords, or agencies that arrange services on your behalf. Where this occurs, we will treat the data in line with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Lawful Basis for Processing

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

Performance of a contract. We process your data when it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform a contract to provide gardening or related services to you.

Legal obligation. We process certain data to comply with legal obligations, for example relating to tax, accounting, and maintaining business records.

Legitimate interests. We process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include managing our relationship with you, improving our services, protecting our business, and handling complaints or disputes.

Consent. In limited cases, we may rely on your consent to process personal data, for example for certain types of optional communications. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

Purposes for Which We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotations, plan and deliver gardening and related services in the Covent Garden area.

To manage bookings, confirm appointments, and communicate with you about ongoing or upcoming work.

To issue invoices, process payments and maintain accurate financial and transactional records.

To respond to enquiries, handle feedback and manage complaints or disputes.

To manage and improve our services, including scheduling, staff allocation and quality control.

To comply with applicable laws, regulations and requests from regulatory or tax authorities.

To protect our business, property, staff and customers, including the prevention or detection of fraud or other unlawful activities.

Data Sharing and Processors

We may share your personal data with carefully selected third parties where this is necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and where appropriate safeguards are in place.

Service providers and processors. We may share data with companies that provide services on our behalf, such as payment processing, accounting, cloud storage, scheduling, and IT support. These providers act as data processors and are only permitted to process your data in accordance with our instructions and for specified purposes.

Professional advisers. We may share data with professional advisers such as accountants, legal advisers or insurers where necessary to obtain advice, manage risks, or handle legal claims.

Authorities. Where required by law, or where we consider it necessary to protect our legal rights, we may disclose personal data to law enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies or courts.

We do not sell your personal data. We also do not share your personal data with third parties for their independent marketing purposes.

International Transfers

Where our service providers or data storage solutions involve the transfer of personal data outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include using jurisdictions recognised as providing an adequate level of protection, or implementing standard contractual clauses or other legal mechanisms approved for international data transfers.

Data Retention

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

Service and contract records are generally retained for the duration of your relationship with us and for a period afterwards where necessary for legal or business purposes, such as dealing with complaints, queries or potential claims.

Financial and transaction records are retained for the period required by applicable tax and accounting laws.

Where personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked to an identifiable individual.

Your Data Protection Rights

As a data subject, you have several rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exemptions under data protection law.

Right of access. You have the right to request confirmation that we process your personal data and to receive a copy of that data, along with information about how we use it.

Right to rectification. You have the right to request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data be corrected or updated.

Right to erasure. In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that your personal data be deleted, for example when it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected or where you withdraw consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.

Right to restriction. You may request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in specific situations, such as when you contest its accuracy or object to our processing.

Right to object. You have the right to object to processing carried out on the basis of our legitimate interests, on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds or the processing is required for legal claims.

Right to data portability. Where processing is based on consent or contract and is carried out by automated means, you may have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to request that it be transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.

Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Security of Your Personal Data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures are designed to ensure a level of security appropriate to the nature of the data and the risks associated with processing it.

Access to personal data is restricted to staff and service providers who need it for legitimate business purposes and who are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.

Updates to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or other factors. When we make changes, we will revise the effective date and will make the updated Privacy Policy available through our usual communication channels. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we handle personal data.