Privacy Policy - Man With Van West Kensington

This Privacy Policy explains how Man With Van West Kensington collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all Man With Van West Kensington customers in the area, including individuals and businesses who request, receive, or enquire about removal, transport, delivery, packing, loading, or related moving services.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy is intended to help you understand what information we process, why we process it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have.

1. Information We Collect

We collect only the personal data necessary to provide our services, manage customer relationships, and meet legal or regulatory obligations. Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect the following categories of data:

Identity details such as your name, title, and, where relevant, company name.
Contact details such as your address, email address, and phone number.
Service details including pickup and delivery addresses, property access information, moving dates, inventory lists, and special handling instructions.
Payment and billing information such as invoice records, payment status, and transaction references. We do not usually store full card details where payments are handled by secure third-party processors.
Communication records including emails, messages, notes from calls, complaint details, and service feedback.
Technical data such as IP address, device information, browser type, and basic usage data if you interact with our digital systems.
Marketing preferences such as your consent choices and communication preferences.

We generally do not seek to collect special category data. However, if you voluntarily provide information that may reveal sensitive details, such as accessibility needs or health-related moving requirements, we will only process it where necessary and with appropriate safeguards.

2. How We Collect Data

We may collect personal data directly from you when you request a quote, make a booking, confirm a service, submit a payment, communicate with our team, or give feedback. We may also receive data from third parties where this is necessary to perform our services, such as business clients, property managers, insurers, payment providers, or subcontracted service providers working on our behalf.

In limited cases, we may collect data from publicly available sources or professional directories, but only where this is relevant to the services we provide and permitted by law.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotations and manage bookings.
To plan, carry out, and complete moving and transport services.
To communicate with you about service arrangements, changes, and updates.
To process payments, invoices, and refunds where applicable.
To manage complaints, disputes, and customer service requests.
To maintain accurate internal records and service histories.
To improve our services, operations, and customer experience.
To comply with legal, tax, accounting, insurance, and regulatory obligations.
To send marketing communications where allowed and where you have not opted out.

We always aim to ensure that our use of personal data is proportionate and limited to what is necessary for the stated purpose.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for every processing activity. Depending on the context, we rely on one or more of the following bases:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes preparing quotes, confirming bookings, delivering services, and managing related customer communications.

Legal Obligation

We may process data where necessary to comply with legal duties, such as accounting rules, tax requirements, record-keeping obligations, or requests from regulators and law enforcement.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include maintaining records, preventing fraud, ensuring service quality, improving operations, and managing customer enquiries. When relying on legitimate interests, we carefully assess whether the processing is necessary and whether it is balanced against your privacy rights.

Consent

Where required, we rely on your consent, for example for certain forms of marketing communication or the use of optional cookies and similar technologies. You can withdraw consent at any time, although this will not affect any processing already carried out before withdrawal.

5. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data only when necessary and with appropriate safeguards. We do not sell your personal data. Where external parties process data on our behalf, they act as processors and may only use the data according to our instructions.

Examples of processors and service partners may include:

IT and hosting providers that support our systems, storage, and communications.
Payment service providers that handle secure payment processing.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers that help with invoicing, tax, and financial records.
Customer relationship and administration tools that help manage bookings and service records.
Insurance or claims-related service providers where needed for incident handling.
Professional advisers such as lawyers, auditors, or consultants, where necessary.

We may also disclose data to public authorities, courts, or law enforcement where required by law or to protect our rights, property, customers, or staff.

Whenever processors are used, we require them to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data and to process it only for the agreed purpose.

6. International Transfers

If personal data is transferred outside the UK, we ensure that suitable legal safeguards are in place. This may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms. We take steps to ensure that transferred data remains protected to a standard consistent with UK data protection law.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including the need to satisfy legal, accounting, insurance, and operational requirements. Retention periods vary depending on the type of data and the purpose of processing.

In general:

Customer service and booking records are kept for as long as needed to manage the service and any follow-up matters.
Financial and invoice records are kept for the period required by tax and accounting laws.
Complaint and dispute records may be kept longer where necessary to resolve issues or defend legal claims.
Marketing records are kept until you withdraw consent or object, where applicable.

When data is no longer needed, we will securely delete, anonymise, or archive it in accordance with our retention procedures.

8. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, password protection, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and regular review of our data handling practices.

Although we take security seriously, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs and it is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will take the necessary steps required by law.

9. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have certain rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to conditions or exemptions, but we will always respond appropriately and within legal timeframes.

Right of access - you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification - you may ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure - you may request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction - you may ask us to limit how we use your data in certain cases.
Right to object - you may object to processing based on legitimate interests or to direct marketing.
Right to data portability - you may request that certain data be provided in a structured, commonly used format.
Right to withdraw consent - where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

If you believe your data protection rights have been infringed, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

10. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary in connection with a service request made by an adult customer. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child without appropriate authority, we will take steps to delete it unless we are legally required to retain it.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, our services, or our data handling practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their data is handled.

12. Summary of Our Commitment

At Man With Van West Kensington, we respect your privacy and aim to use personal data only when we have a valid reason to do so. We keep data secure, share it responsibly, retain it only for as long as necessary, and support your rights as a data subject. This policy applies to all Man With Van West Kensington customers in the area and is intended to provide clear, transparent information about our data practices.