Privacy Policy - Cleaners Oho

This Privacy Policy explains how Cleaners Oho collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing cleaning services. It applies to all Cleaners Oho customers in the area, including prospective customers, current customers, and individuals who interact with us in connection with our services. We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, transparent, and secure manner in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

1. Who We Are

Cleaners Oho is a service provider that offers cleaning-related services to residential and commercial customers. In the context of data protection law, we act as the data controller for personal data that we collect and determine the purposes and means of processing. This means we decide why and how your personal information is used for service delivery, administration, compliance, and business operations.

2. Information We Collect

We collect only the personal data necessary to provide and manage our services effectively. Depending on your interaction with us, we may collect the following categories of information:

Identity details such as your name and title.
Contact details such as address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details including property access instructions, cleaning preferences, scheduling information, and service history.
Payment and billing data such as transaction records, invoice details, and payment status.
Communication records including messages, feedback, complaints, and correspondence about our services.
Technical and usage data where applicable, such as limited information gathered from digital systems used to manage bookings or communications.
Special instructions that you voluntarily provide for service delivery, such as areas requiring extra care or access-related notes.

We do not intentionally collect more information than is needed for legitimate service and administrative purposes. Where we receive personal data from third parties, such as a property manager or a person arranging services on your behalf, we will process it in line with this policy.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data to operate our business and deliver services properly. This includes:

providing cleaning services and managing bookings;
confirming appointments and service arrangements;
processing invoices, payments, and account records;
responding to enquiries, complaints, and feedback;
maintaining service quality and customer support;
complying with legal, regulatory, and tax obligations;
protecting our business, customers, staff, and property;
preventing fraud, misuse, or unauthorised access;
improving our internal processes and service delivery.

We process personal data only for specified purposes and do not use it in ways that are incompatible with those purposes.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for each processing activity. Cleaners Oho relies on the following lawful bases where appropriate:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes setting up bookings, delivering cleaning services, managing changes, and processing payments.

Legal Obligation

We may process personal data when required to comply with legal obligations, such as accounting, tax, insurance, or record-keeping requirements.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include managing customer relationships, maintaining security, improving services, handling disputes, and preventing fraud.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, especially where processing is not strictly required for a contract or legal obligation. If we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties that help us operate our services. These parties act as processors or, in some cases, as independent controllers. We only share data where necessary and under appropriate safeguards.

Typical processors and service providers may include:

Payment processors that handle card or electronic payments securely.
Accounting and invoicing providers that support financial administration.
IT and software providers that host systems used for scheduling, record management, or communications.
Communication service providers that help us send service-related messages.
Professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers where needed.
Public authorities when disclosure is required by law or to protect rights, safety, or property.

Where processors handle personal data on our behalf, they are required to process it only on our instructions, keep it secure, and comply with data protection requirements. We do not sell personal data.

6. International Transfers

If any processor or service provider stores or accesses personal data outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms permitted under applicable law.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including service delivery, record-keeping, legal compliance, and dispute resolution. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the reason for processing.

As a general approach:

customer service and booking records are retained for the duration of the relationship and a reasonable period afterward;
financial and tax-related records are retained for the period required by law;
complaints, claims, and dispute records may be kept longer where necessary to protect legal interests;
data no longer needed is securely deleted, anonymised, or archived in accordance with our retention practices.

When personal data is no longer required, we take appropriate steps to ensure it is disposed of securely and permanently where feasible.

8. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from accidental loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and limited data access on a need-to-know basis. While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we continually seek to improve our safeguards.

9. Your Rights

As a data subject under GDPR, you have rights regarding your personal data. Subject to legal limits and exemptions, these may include:

Right of access - to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification - to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure - to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction - to request limited processing in certain cases.
Right to data portability - to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format.
Right to object - to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing, where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent - where processing is based on consent.

You also have the right to raise concerns with a supervisory authority if you believe your data has been handled unlawfully. We encourage you to contact us first so we can address any issue promptly and fairly.

10. Automated Decision-Making

Cleaners Oho does not use personal data for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects on individuals. If this changes in the future, we will provide clear information about how the process works and your rights in relation to it.

11. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is necessary in the course of providing services arranged by a parent, guardian, or responsible adult. Where children’s data is incidentally involved, we apply appropriate safeguards and only process it where lawful and necessary.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or processing practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it is made effective. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their personal data is handled.

13. Our Commitment

At Cleaners Oho, we value privacy and take our responsibilities seriously. We aim to collect only the information we need, use it fairly, retain it for appropriate periods, and protect it with suitable security measures. We also aim to be transparent about our use of processors and the rights available to all individuals whose data we process.

By using Cleaners Oho services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed as described in this Privacy Policy, subject to your rights and applicable law.