Rubbish Removal Merton Customer Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Rubbish Removal Merton collects, uses, stores and shares personal data relating to our customers and prospective customers in the Merton area. It also explains your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This Privacy Policy applies to all Rubbish Removal Merton customers and service users in our operating area, whether you contact us by phone, email, online enquiry, or in person.
Who We Are and How To Contact Us
Rubbish Removal Merton is a waste collection and rubbish removal service operating in the Merton area. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the data controller for the personal information we collect about you in connection with our services. This means we decide what personal data we collect, how we use it and how we store it.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the contact details provided on our main service information or booking materials, clearly marked for the attention of the data protection contact.
Personal Data We Collect
We only collect personal data that we need in order to provide our services, manage our business and meet our legal obligations. The types of personal data we may collect include:
Identification and contact details such as your name, address, postcode, telephone number and email address so that we can respond to enquiries, provide quotes and carry out collections.
Service and booking information such as property access details, preferred collection dates and times, descriptions of waste to be collected and any relevant notes you choose to provide us.
Payment and billing information such as billing name and address, transaction details and records of payments made and amounts due. We do not store full card details where payment is taken via a third party payment processor.
Communication records such as emails, messages and notes from phone calls relating to bookings, queries, complaints, feedback or other interactions with us.
Technical and usage data such as basic information about how you contact us online, including the date and time of enquiries or interactions and the device or browser type, where this is captured by our website or communication tools.
How We Collect Your Data
We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request information, ask for a quote, make a booking, pay for a service, or communicate with us in any other way. This can be by telephone, email, text message, enquiry form or face to face.
We may also receive personal data from third parties when it is necessary for providing our services, for example from letting agents, landlords, business clients or online platforms that pass booking details to us so that we can fulfil a rubbish removal request in the Merton area.
Lawful Basis For Processing
We process your personal data only where the law allows us to do so. The main lawful bases we rely on are:
Performance of a contract where we need to use your personal data to provide you with a quote, respond to a booking request, carry out a collection, issue invoices or otherwise perform our agreement with you.
Legitimate interests where we use your personal data in ways that are necessary for the operation and improvement of our business, and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include using your data to manage our relationship with you, to handle complaints, to keep records of collections or to improve our services.
Legal obligation where we need to process your personal data to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, such as record keeping for tax, accounting and waste disposal regulations.
Consent where we rely on your explicit permission, for example for certain types of optional marketing communications. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time.
How We Use Your Personal Data
We use the personal information we collect for the following purposes:
To respond to enquiries, provide quotes and arrange rubbish removal services in the Merton area.
To manage and complete bookings, including contacting you about access arrangements, changes to collection times or other service related matters.
To process payments, issue invoices, receipts and account statements, and to manage any refunds or disputes.
To maintain accurate records of our services and interactions with customers for operational, regulatory and accounting purposes.
To monitor and improve our services, including analysing feedback, handling complaints and training staff.
To send you service related communications that are necessary for providing our services or are required by law.
Where permitted, to send you occasional information about related services in the Merton area that may be of interest, subject to your marketing preferences.
Sharing Your Personal Data
We will not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties only where necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, or where we are legally required to do so. These third parties may include:
Payment service providers that process your payments securely on our behalf.
IT and communications providers that host or support our systems, email and telephony, so that we can operate our business efficiently.
Accountants or professional advisers who require limited access to records for auditing, tax or legal advice purposes.
Regulators, local authorities or law enforcement bodies where we are required to share information by law or to protect the rights, property or safety of our customers, staff or the public.
Where we use third party service providers as data processors, they are only permitted to process your personal data on our instructions and must keep it secure and confidential.
Data Processors We Use
To run our services effectively, we may use external companies that process personal data on our behalf as data processors. These may include providers of payment processing services, cloud based email services, booking or scheduling tools, and secure document storage. We choose processors that apply appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal data, and we enter into written agreements with them that set out their data protection obligations and limitations.
International Data Transfers
Where any of our service providers or IT systems are located outside the United Kingdom, we take steps to ensure that an adequate level of protection for your personal data is in place. This may include using countries that have been recognised as providing adequate protection, or putting in place standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards approved under data protection law.
Data Retention
We keep your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. The exact retention period can vary depending on the type of data and the reason we hold it.
In general, we retain customer and booking records for a period that allows us to respond to queries, deal with complaints and demonstrate that we have performed our services properly. Financial records are kept for a longer period where this is required by tax and accounting laws. When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you. These rights apply to all Rubbish Removal Merton customers in our operating area, subject to certain legal conditions and exemptions. Your rights include:
The right of access to obtain confirmation of whether we process your personal data and to receive a copy of that data, together with certain information about how we use it.
The right to rectification to request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data be corrected.
The right to erasure, in some circumstances, to ask us to delete your personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it.
The right to restrict processing, in some situations, so that we only store your data but do not otherwise use it.
The right to data portability, where applicable, to receive certain personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format, and to request that we transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.
The right to object to certain types of processing, including direct marketing or processing based on our legitimate interests, where your particular situation justifies it.
Where we rely on your consent, the right to withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before you withdrew it.
How To Exercise Your Rights
If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, or if you have a concern about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the details provided in our general contact information, stating that your request relates to data protection. We may need to request specific information from you to confirm your identity and to ensure your right to access the information or exercise any of your other rights.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office if you are not satisfied with our response. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve your concerns directly.
Security Of Your Personal Data
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures include access controls, secure storage, staff training and procedures for handling data protection incidents. While we work hard to protect your information, no method of transmission or storage can be guaranteed as completely secure.
Changes To This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, our use of personal data or legal requirements. The most current version will always apply to the personal data we hold about you. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.
