Waste Collection St. John's Wood Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Waste Collection St. John's Wood collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our customers in St. John's Wood. It also explains the rights individuals have under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This Privacy Policy applies to all Waste Collection St. John's Wood customers and prospective customers within our service area in and around St. John's Wood.

Who We Are

Waste Collection St. John's Wood is a waste and recycling collection service operating in the St. John's Wood area. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we decide how and why your personal data is processed.

Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process personal data about customers, potential customers and relevant contacts in connection with the provision of our waste collection services. The personal data we collect may include:

Identification details such as name, title and contact person for business customers. Contact details such as telephone number, mobile number, email address and postal address, including collection address and billing address. Account and service information such as details of your service plan, type and size of bins or containers, collection frequency, access instructions and any special service requirements. Billing and payment information such as invoices, payment history, bank transfer references and partial card details where necessary for payment processing. Communication records such as enquiries, complaints, feedback, correspondence by phone, email or other channels, and notes relating to customer service interactions. Technical and usage data such as IP address, device details, basic usage statistics relating to our website, and information provided via online forms or booking tools. Operational records such as date and time of collections, missed collections, contamination reports and photographs taken by our operatives solely for service or safety documentation purposes.

How We Collect Your Data

We may collect personal data directly from you when you contact us by phone, email or online forms to request a quote, set up a new service, amend your service or make an enquiry. We also collect data when you use our services and in the course of our ongoing relationship with you, including through our customer service team, operations staff and finance team. We may receive information from third parties where this is necessary to provide our services, such as managing agents, landlords, local authorities or commercial partners, but only where they have a lawful basis to share that information with us.

Purposes and Lawful Bases for Processing

We process your personal data only where there is a lawful basis under data protection law. The main purposes for which we use your data and the corresponding lawful bases are:

To provide waste collection and related services to you. This includes setting up your account, scheduling and carrying out collections, handling customer queries and managing operational issues. The lawful basis is performance of a contract or taking steps at your request before entering into a contract. To manage billing, payments and accounting. This includes issuing invoices, processing payments, managing debt recovery and maintaining financial records. The lawful basis is performance of a contract and compliance with legal obligations relating to accounting and taxation. To communicate with you about your service. This includes sending important service updates, changes to terms, operational notices such as changes to collection times, and responses to your requests. The lawful basis is performance of a contract and our legitimate interests in maintaining good customer service and service quality. To improve and manage our operations. This includes monitoring service performance, addressing service quality issues, staff training, planning routes and optimising our collection processes. The lawful basis is our legitimate interests in running and improving an efficient and safe waste collection service. To comply with legal and regulatory obligations. This includes obligations relating to health and safety, environmental regulation, record-keeping and responding to lawful requests from authorities. The lawful basis is compliance with a legal obligation. To send you information about relevant services. Where permitted, we may use your contact details to inform you about related services or upgrades that may be of genuine interest. The lawful basis is our legitimate interests in promoting and developing our business, or consent where required by law. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we always balance those interests against your rights and reasonable expectations to ensure the processing is proportionate and respects your privacy.

Data Retention

We keep your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or to meet legal, accounting or reporting requirements. In general, we apply the following retention guidelines:

Customer account records, contracts and core service data are retained for the duration of our relationship with you and for up to six years after the end of the contract, to address potential queries, claims or legal obligations. Financial and billing records, including invoices and payment records, are retained for at least six years in line with tax and accounting requirements. Communication records and operational notes are retained for a period that reflects the likely need to refer back to previous interactions, normally up to three years after the matter is closed, unless required for longer in connection with a dispute or claim. Technical data used for security, diagnostics or service monitoring is typically retained for shorter periods, generally up to one year, unless a longer period is necessary for security or legal reasons.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked to an identifiable individual.

Data Processors and Sharing Your Information

We may share your personal data with carefully selected third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors are engaged under written contracts that require them to protect your personal data and process it only in accordance with our instructions and applicable data protection laws. Such processors may include:

IT and hosting providers who support our systems, website and data storage. Payment service providers and banks who facilitate payments and refunds. Customer service platforms and communication tools that help us manage enquiries and service notifications. Operational partners who assist with logistics, routing, equipment maintenance or specialist waste streams where needed. Professional advisers such as accountants, auditors or legal advisers where necessary for our legitimate business purposes and to comply with legal obligations.

We may also share personal data with other third parties where required by law, such as regulators, law enforcement, courts or public authorities, or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. We do not sell your personal data. Where data is transferred outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data, such as approved standard contractual clauses or equivalent measures.

Your Data Protection Rights

As an individual whose personal data we process, you have certain rights under data protection law. These include:

The right of access: you can request confirmation of whether we hold your personal data and obtain a copy of that data, along with information about how it is used. The right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data that we hold about you. The 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 and we have no other lawful basis to retain it. The right to restrict processing: you can ask us to restrict the use of your personal data in certain situations, such as while we consider a request to rectify or erase it. The right to object: where we process your personal data based on our legitimate interests or for direct marketing, you can object to that processing. We will then stop processing your data unless we have compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests or it is required for legal claims. The right to data portability: where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, you may request the transfer of your personal data to you or another service provider in a commonly used, machine-readable format.

You also have the right to withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent as the lawful basis for processing. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Exercising Your Rights and Contacting Us

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, or if you have any questions, concerns or complaints about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the contact details provided on our main service information and customer correspondence. We will respond to all valid requests within the timeframes required by law and may ask you to verify your identity before acting on your request, to help protect your privacy and security.

Complaints to the Supervisory Authority

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you are unhappy with how we have handled your data or responded to your request. We would however appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns directly first, so we encourage you to contact us in the first instance.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or how we process personal data. Any significant changes will be communicated where appropriate and the updated version will apply from the date it is published. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data as a customer of Waste Collection St. John's Wood.