Privacy Policy - Gardeners Freezywater

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Freezywater collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing gardening services. It applies to all Gardeners Freezywater customers in the area, including prospective customers, current customers, and anyone who contacts us about our services. We are committed to handling personal information in a lawful, fair, and transparent way in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By using our services, requesting a quote, making an enquiry, or otherwise interacting with Gardeners Freezywater, you acknowledge the practices described in this policy.

1. Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is relevant and necessary for operating our gardening services, managing bookings, and meeting legal or administrative obligations. The information we may collect includes:

Identity details such as your name and, where needed, business name.
Contact details such as address, email address, telephone number, and preferred communication method.
Service details including the type of gardening work requested, property access instructions, appointment dates, service preferences, and notes about the job.
Billing and payment information such as invoicing details, transaction references, and payment status. We do not store more payment information than is necessary for administration.
Technical and usage data where applicable, such as records of how you interact with our communications or service records generated through digital systems.
Correspondence including messages, complaints, feedback, and service requests.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless you choose to provide it and it is relevant to the service, such as information about access needs. Where such information is shared, we treat it with extra care and only use it where lawful and necessary.

2. How We Use Your Data

Gardeners Freezywater uses personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotes, arrange visits, and deliver gardening services.
To manage customer accounts, scheduling, and service updates.
To process payments, issue invoices, and maintain records.
To respond to enquiries, complaints, and customer support requests.
To improve our service quality, operational planning, and customer experience.
To comply with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations.
To maintain security, prevent misuse, and protect our business and customers.

We will only use your personal data for the purpose for which it was collected unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another compatible purpose. If we need to use it for an unrelated purpose, we will explain the legal basis and where necessary seek further permission.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. Gardeners Freezywater relies on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process data when it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform a contract with you. This includes arranging gardening work, managing bookings, and handling service-related communication.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain information to meet legal and regulatory requirements, such as tax records, invoice records, and business accounting obligations.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include managing customer records, improving our services, preventing fraud, and maintaining internal administration. We always consider whether the processing is proportionate and appropriate.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example where you choose to receive certain optional communications or provide sensitive information that is not otherwise required. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

4. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties when necessary to run our business and deliver services. These third parties act as processors or independent controllers depending on the service they provide. We only share the minimum information needed and require appropriate data protection safeguards.

Examples of processors may include:

Booking and administration software providers used to manage appointments, records, and customer communication.
Payment processors used to handle transactions securely.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers used to support invoicing, tax, and financial records.
IT and cloud storage providers used to store and protect business data.
Communication service providers used to send emails, messages, or service updates.

We may also disclose data where required by law, court order, or lawful request from a public authority. If our business structure changes, personal data may be transferred as part of that change, subject to the same privacy protections.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes described in this policy, or as required by law. Retention periods depend on the type of information and the reason it was collected.

Customer service records are generally kept for as long as needed to manage the relationship and resolve queries.
Financial and tax records are retained for the period required by law and accounting rules.
Correspondence and complaint records may be kept for a reasonable period to help resolve disputes and improve service.
Enquiry details may be retained for a limited time where no contract is formed, unless you ask us to delete them sooner and we are not required to keep them.

When data is no longer needed, we will securely delete, anonymise, or destroy it. Storage limitation is an important part of our data protection approach, and we review retained data periodically to ensure it remains necessary.

6. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These may include access controls, secure storage, password protection, and limiting access to data on a need-to-know basis. While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to reduce risk and handle information responsibly.

7. Your Rights Under GDPR

You have a number of rights regarding your personal data. Subject to legal limits and verification of identity, you may have the right to:

Access the personal data we hold about you.
Rectification of inaccurate or incomplete information.
Erasure of your data in certain circumstances.
Restriction of processing in certain situations.
Object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Data portability where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means.
Withdraw consent at any time where consent is the basis for processing.

You may also have the right to raise a concern with the relevant data protection authority if you believe your rights have been infringed. Exercising your rights will not normally affect the services we provide, but it may limit certain operations where data is necessary to complete a request or comply with law.

8. Automated Decision-Making

Gardeners Freezywater does not use automated decision-making or profiling in a way that produces legal or similarly significant effects on customers. If this changes in the future, we will update this policy and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

9. Children's Data

Our services are intended for adults responsible for arranging property and garden services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is incidental to a service request and provided by an adult customer. If we become aware that we have collected data inappropriately, we will take steps to remove it where required.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in legal requirements, service delivery, or data handling practices. Any revised version will continue to apply to all Gardeners Freezywater customers in the area. The most current policy should always be considered the applicable version.

11. Our Commitment

We believe privacy should be simple, transparent, and respectful. Gardeners Freezywater only collects what is needed, uses it for clear purposes, and keeps it no longer than necessary. We aim to maintain lawfulness, fairness, transparency, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, and confidentiality in everything we do.

By keeping this policy clear and practical, we hope customers can understand how their information is managed when using our gardening services. If you choose to use Gardeners Freezywater, your personal data will be handled in line with this policy and the law.