Privacy Policy

Gardeners Highgate Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Highgate collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our customers within our service area. It also describes your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. By using Gardeners Highgate services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Highgate customers in our operating area who use our gardening and related services, make enquiries, or otherwise interact with us, whether in person, by post, online or through any other communication method. It covers personal data collected from residential and commercial customers, prospective customers and any individuals who contact us about our services.

Data Controller

For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Highgate is the data controller in respect of the personal data we collect and process about you. 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 law.

Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is relevant and necessary for the provision and management of our services. The categories of data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, and any other contact information you choose to provide.

Service and property information, such as details about your garden or outdoor space, access instructions, property type, preferred service times and records of services provided.

Communication records, such as notes of phone conversations, and other correspondence between you and Gardeners Highgate relating to quotations, bookings, feedback and complaints.

Transactional information, such as details of services purchased, service dates, and payment-related records provided to us as part of invoicing and payment processing activities. We do not store full payment card details.

Technical and usage information, where applicable, such as information provided when you visit any online presence we operate, including basic device details and interaction logs to help us manage and improve our services.

How We Collect Your Personal Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quote, book a service, make a payment, provide feedback or otherwise communicate with us. We may also collect personal data when we visit your property for the purpose of providing our services or assessing service requirements.

In some cases, we may receive personal data about you from third parties, for example where another person contacts us on your behalf to arrange services for your property, or where information is provided through referral or recommendation.

Lawful Basis for Processing

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

Contract: We process personal data where necessary to enter into and perform a contract for gardening or related services with you, including dealing with quotations, bookings, service delivery, invoicing and customer support.

Legal obligation: We may process personal data where necessary to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, such as record-keeping, tax and accounting requirements or responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate interests: We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include managing our relationship with you, improving our services, maintaining security and preventing fraud or misuse.

Consent: In limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent as the lawful basis, for example for certain types of optional communications or where consent is specifically required by law. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage our gardening and related services, including preparing quotations, planning and delivering services, and managing ongoing maintenance arrangements.

To communicate with you about your enquiries, bookings, service updates, changes to our terms or policies, and other information relevant to the services you receive.

To manage billing and payments, including preparing invoices, processing payments through third party payment processors, and handling any billing queries.

To maintain our records and internal administration, including scheduling, job records, staff allocation and quality monitoring.

To improve, maintain and develop our business and services, such as reviewing feedback, evaluating service performance and considering new offerings within the Gardeners Highgate area.

To protect our business, staff and customers, including verifying identity where appropriate, handling disputes or complaints and exercising or defending legal claims.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. However, we may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes described above and in accordance with data protection law.

We may use data processors to carry out certain processing activities on our behalf. These processors may include:

Payment processing providers that handle payments and related financial transactions for our services.

IT and cloud service providers that supply hosting, storage, scheduling or communication tools we use to operate our business.

Professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers who assist us in meeting our legal and regulatory obligations.

We ensure that any processors acting on our behalf are subject to appropriate contractual obligations to keep your personal data secure and to process it only in accordance with our instructions and applicable law.

We may also share personal data where required by law, for example with public authorities, regulators or law enforcement, or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

International Transfers

Where any of our service providers or systems are located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, or involve the transfer of personal data to another country, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include the use of standard contractual clauses or other lawful transfer mechanisms to protect your personal data in accordance with data protection law.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of providing services, maintaining records, meeting legal, accounting or reporting obligations and resolving disputes.

In general, customer and service records are kept for the duration of our relationship with you and for a reasonable period afterwards in accordance with applicable limitation periods and legal requirements. Financial records are typically retained for the period required by tax and accounting laws.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will take reasonable steps to delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with you.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those who have a business need to know and ensuring that staff and service providers are subject to confidentiality obligations.

While we strive to protect your personal data, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure. We therefore cannot guarantee absolute security but are committed to reviewing and improving our safeguards on an ongoing basis.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have certain rights in relation to your personal data processed by Gardeners Highgate. These rights may be subject to conditions and lawful exemptions and include:

Right of access: You can request confirmation as to whether we process your personal data and obtain a copy of that data, together with certain information about how we process it.

Right to rectification: You can request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data about you be corrected or updated.

Right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you can request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer necessary 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 of processing: You can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in specific situations, for example while we verify the accuracy of the data or consider an objection you have raised.

Right to object: You can object to processing based on our legitimate interests where you believe your rights and freedoms outweigh those interests. We will then stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds or the processing is required in relation to legal claims.

Right to data portability: In certain situations, you can request that we provide you or a third party with a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

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, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

Exercising Your Rights

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or have questions about how we handle your personal data, you can contact Gardeners Highgate using your usual communication method with us. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request to ensure that we do not disclose personal data to anyone who is not entitled to receive it.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority if you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can seek to resolve any concerns.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law, our services or our data processing practices. Any updates will be effective when published in this Privacy Policy. We recommend that you review this page periodically to keep informed about how Gardeners Highgate protects your personal data.