Man and Van Swiss Cottage Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Man and Van Swiss Cottage collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to individuals who use our man and van, removals and associated services in the Swiss Cottage area and surrounding locations. It also describes your rights under applicable data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Man and Van Swiss Cottage customers and prospective customers in our service area, as well as individuals who contact us with enquiries or provide information on behalf of a business or organisation.

Data Controller

For the purposes of data protection law, Man and Van Swiss Cottage is the data controller of the personal data we collect and process in connection with our services. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used and are responsible for ensuring that it is handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process different categories of personal data depending on how you interact with us and which services you use. The main types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, title, postal address, service address, billing address, and other contact details you choose to provide.

Communication details, including the information you provide when you contact us, request a quote, make a booking, or correspond with us by any means.

Service and booking information, such as the date and time of your move or collection, pick-up and drop-off locations, access details for properties, parking information and any specific instructions you provide for the safe handling of your items.

Billing and payment information, which may include information necessary to process payments and prevent fraud. We do not retain full payment card information when processed through secure third-party payment providers.

Usage and technical information relating to your use of our website or online booking forms, which may include device information, browser type, basic analytics or similar data when you visit our digital services. This may be collected using cookies or similar technologies, where applicable law permits this and where you have provided consent where required.

Job application and contractor information, such as CV details and references, where individuals apply to work with or for Man and Van Swiss Cottage.

Lawful Bases for Processing

We will only process your personal data where we have a valid lawful basis to do so under data protection law. Depending on the situation, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract. We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to provide man and van or removals services, manage bookings, issue invoices and handle related communications.

Legal obligation. We may process certain personal data to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including bookkeeping, tax and accounting obligations, as well as to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate interests. We process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests or those of a third party, and these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This includes activities such as managing our business operations, improving our services, preventing fraud, protecting our property and ensuring the safety of our staff and customers.

Consent. In limited cases, we will rely on your consent, for example for certain types of marketing communications or specific optional uses of cookies or similar technologies, where this is legally required. You can withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before it was withdrawn.

How We Use Personal Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

To provide and manage our services, including handling enquiries and quotations, confirming bookings, planning routes, carrying out removals and transport services, and communicating with you about your booking.

To manage customer accounts, including sending booking confirmations, amendments, receipts, invoices and other administrative messages related to your use of our services.

To improve our services and operations, including monitoring the quality of our service, training staff, analysing service usage and developing new offerings.

To handle customer support and complaints, including investigating and responding to issues or disputes, and maintaining appropriate records.

To comply with legal, regulatory and risk management obligations, including financial record keeping, responding to lawful requests from authorities and supporting the detection and prevention of fraud and crime.

To send marketing communications, where permitted by law or where you have provided consent. You can opt out of marketing communications at any time.

Data Sharing and Processors

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where this is necessary for the purposes described above, where we have a lawful basis and appropriate safeguards in place. These third parties may include:

Service providers acting as data processors who support our operations, such as IT hosting and maintenance providers, booking and scheduling systems, secure payment processors, accounting and invoicing systems and customer relationship management tools.

Professional advisers, such as accountants, legal advisers and auditors, who assist us in running our business and meeting our legal obligations.

Insurance providers and claims handlers, where necessary in connection with an incident, loss or damage related to a service we have provided.

Delivery partners or subcontractors, where we use carefully selected partners to assist in the delivery of our services, and where they need access to relevant customer details to perform their role.

Public authorities, regulators or law enforcement bodies, where we are required to do so by law or where disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, property or the safety of our staff, customers or others.

Where we use third-party processors, they are only permitted to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions, for the purposes specified by us, and subject to appropriate confidentiality and security obligations.

International Transfers

As a general rule, we aim to store and process personal data within the UK or European Economic Area. Where it is necessary to transfer personal data to countries outside this area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as adequacy regulations or standard contractual clauses, to protect your data in accordance with applicable law.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including to provide our services, meet legal, accounting or reporting requirements and resolve disputes.

In deciding how long to keep personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process it and whether those purposes can be achieved by other means, as well as applicable legal requirements and guidance.

In practice this means that booking and service records are typically retained for a number of years after your last interaction with us, to comply with legal and tax requirements and to manage any potential claims. Information that is no longer required will be securely deleted, anonymised or archived, in line with our data retention practices.

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 staff and contractors who have a business need to know it, implementing suitable security controls on our systems and training staff on data protection responsibilities.

While we take reasonable steps to keep your data secure, no system or transmission of information via the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You are responsible for taking appropriate steps to protect your own information, such as keeping any login details secure if you use online services.

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 the following rights:

Right of access. You can request confirmation as to whether we process your personal data and obtain a copy of that data, along with certain 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. You can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, for example while we are verifying its accuracy or considering an objection you have raised.

Right to object. You can object to the processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis or where we use your data for direct marketing. We will stop processing your data unless we have compelling legitimate grounds not to, or where it is needed for legal claims.

Right to data portability. In certain cases, you can ask to receive the personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to have that data transmitted to another controller, where technically feasible.

Where we process personal data on the basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Complaints and Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, or if you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, you can contact us using the details provided on our website or in your booking documentation.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection authority if you are unhappy with how we have used your data. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve your concerns directly.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or for other operational reasons. Any changes will take effect when the updated version is made available. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.