Gardeners Barbican Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Barbican collects, uses, stores and shares personal data about its customers. It applies to all Gardeners Barbican customers in our service area, including prospective, current and former customers who use or enquire about our gardening services.

Gardeners Barbican is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and applicable data protection laws.

Data controller

For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Barbican is the data controller of the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means that we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data.

Personal data we collect

We collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you interact with us and the services we provide. This may include:

Identification and contact details: name, postal address, service address, billing address, and any other contact information you provide to us, such as online contact identifiers.

Service and contract information: records of the gardening services you request or receive, service visit notes, quotations, bookings, invoices, payment records and contract details.

Communication data: information contained in messages, enquiries and feedback you send to us, as well as our responses, including the date, time and nature of the communication.

Usage and preference data: information about the type of garden you have, your preferences for services, products or visit times, and any instructions you provide to us that are relevant to the performance of our services.

Technical data: when you visit our website, limited technical information may be collected via your browser, such as your internet protocol address, device type, browser type and version, and basic usage information. We do not attempt to identify you from this information unless required to do so by law or for security purposes.

We generally do not collect special categories of personal data such as health information, except where this is relevant and you choose to provide it, for example to inform us of accessibility needs for site visits. In those limited cases, we will only process such data with your explicit consent or where otherwise lawfully permitted.

How we collect your data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us, request a quote, book a service, enter into a contract with us, pay for services, or communicate with us in any way.

We may also collect data indirectly from third parties where this is necessary for our services and lawful, for example where a property manager or landlord provides your contact details so we can carry out gardening work at a property you occupy. When this occurs, we will process your data in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Lawful bases for processing

We only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. The main lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract: to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, and to perform our contract with you. This includes providing quotations, scheduling and delivering services, invoicing and handling payments.

Legal obligation: to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including tax, accounting and record-keeping obligations, and to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate interests: to pursue our legitimate business interests, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This may include managing our customer relationships, improving our services, handling enquiries, protecting our business and preventing fraud.

Consent: where you have given clear consent for specific processing activities, such as certain types of direct marketing that require consent, or the processing of special categories of data. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage our gardening services, including arranging site visits, carrying out work, managing bookings and responding to your requests.

To issue quotations, manage contracts and process payments, including billing and accounting.

To communicate with you about your enquiries, bookings, service updates, changes to terms, and similar service-related matters.

To manage our customer records, analyse service usage and improve our services and customer experience.

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including maintaining appropriate records.

To protect our rights, property and safety, and those of our customers and others, which may include verifying identity, preventing or detecting fraud and handling potential disputes.

Data sharing and processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with third parties where this is necessary and lawful, including:

Service providers acting as data processors who provide services to us, such as payment processing, accounting, secure data storage, appointment scheduling systems or information technology support. These providers are only permitted to process your personal data on our documented instructions and must protect it in accordance with data protection law and appropriate contractual safeguards.

Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers, such as accountants or legal advisers, where necessary for the services they provide to us.

Public authorities, regulators, law enforcement bodies or courts, when we are legally required to share data or when it is necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

In all cases, we limit the personal data shared to what is strictly necessary for the relevant purpose and take steps to ensure it is protected.

International transfers

Where our service providers or their systems are located outside the United Kingdom, your personal data may be transferred internationally. In such cases, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as the use of standard contractual clauses recognised under data protection law or ensuring that the destination country has an adequacy decision, so that your personal data remains protected.

Data retention

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

In general, we retain customer records and associated data for the duration of our relationship with you and for a reasonable period thereafter, typically up to six years after the end of the relationship, in line with legal limitation periods and accounting obligations. In some cases, different retention periods may apply, for example for health and safety records or where legal proceedings are ongoing or anticipated.

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

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, these include:

Right of access: you can request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and obtain a copy of that data, together with information about how it is used.

Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct or complete personal data that is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to erasure: in certain circumstances, you can request that we delete your personal data, for example where 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 of processing: you can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, for example while we verify its accuracy or consider an objection you have raised.

Right to data portability: in certain circumstances, you can request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and that it be transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to object: you can object to processing carried out on the basis of our legitimate interests, including profiling related to those interests. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or where processing is required for legal claims.

Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew consent.

Exercising your rights and complaints

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 Barbican using the usual communication channels you use for our services.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns first, and we encourage you to contact us in the first instance so we can try to resolve any issues.

Security of your data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access. These measures include limiting access to personal data to staff and processors who need it to perform their duties and who are subject to confidentiality obligations, as well as using appropriate security technologies and procedures.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services or legal obligations. The updated version will apply from the date it is published. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we handle your personal data.