Waste Collection Swiss Cottage Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice explains how Waste Collection Swiss Cottage collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our waste collection, recycling and associated services. It applies to all Waste Collection Swiss Cottage customers, prospective customers and individuals making enquiries within the Swiss Cottage area.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Who we are and scope of this notice

Waste Collection Swiss Cottage is the controller of the personal data described in this Privacy Notice. This means that we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data in connection with our services.

This notice covers personal data processed about individual household customers, small business customers, visitors to our website, and any person contacting us regarding services in the Swiss Cottage area, whether by phone, email, online form or in person.

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 categories of data we may collect are:

Identification and contact data: name, title, address, email address, telephone number, business name and job title where relevant.

Service and contract data: details about the services you request or receive, service frequency, type and volume of waste collected, property type, access instructions, customer reference numbers, invoices and payment records.

Payment and billing data: billing address, payment method details, information required for processing card payments through our approved payment processors, transaction history and information needed for accounting and tax purposes.

Communication data: information contained in emails, letters, messages, phone call notes, enquiry forms, feedback and complaints, including the date, time and subject of communications.

Technical and usage data: when you visit our website we may collect technical information such as IP address, browser type and version, device identifiers, time zone setting and information about how you use our website and online booking or enquiry tools.

Location and operational data: service addresses, collection routes relevant to your property and records of when collections or site visits are carried out.

In limited cases we may process additional information you choose to provide to us, for example where you tell us about specific access needs or vulnerabilities that could affect safe delivery of our services.

How we collect personal data

We collect personal data from you directly when you contact us to request a quote, make a booking, enter into a contract, make a payment, submit an enquiry, provide feedback or interact with us in any other way.

We may also collect data automatically when you visit our website, through cookies and similar technologies, where this is permitted by law and, where required, subject to your consent.

In some cases we receive personal data from third parties, such as payment processors confirming a payment, business partners referring you to us, or local authorities where they coordinate waste services and provide us with necessary contact and service details.

Lawful bases for processing personal data

We only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on the following legal grounds:

Contract: processing is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to provide waste collection services, manage your account and handle payments and billing.

Legal obligation: processing is necessary to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including record keeping, tax and accounting obligations, health and safety requirements and waste management regulations.

Legitimate interests: processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This includes managing and improving our services, responding to enquiries and complaints, protecting our business, preventing fraud and ensuring network and information security.

Consent: in certain cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for optional marketing communications or certain types of website cookies. Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time.

Purposes for which we use personal data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage waste collection and related services, including setting up and managing your account, scheduling and carrying out collections and processing payments.

To respond to enquiries, provide quotes, give service information and maintain our relationship with you as a customer or prospective customer.

To issue invoices, collect payments, manage debt recovery where necessary and maintain accurate financial and tax records.

To improve our services, monitor performance, plan routes and optimise operations within the Swiss Cottage area.

To send service messages such as changes to collection times, confirmations, reminders, important updates and information about your existing services.

To comply with legal and regulatory requirements and cooperate with competent authorities where legally required.

To protect the security of our systems, prevent fraud and misuse of our services and defend our legal rights.

Data processors and sharing of personal data

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your data with carefully selected third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These service providers are contractually required to process your data only in accordance with our instructions, to keep it secure and to comply with applicable data protection laws.

The types of processors we may use include:

Payment processing providers for handling secure card payments and other transactions.

IT and hosting providers who supply and maintain our business systems, website and data storage.

Customer relationship management and communication service providers who help us manage enquiries, bookings and service notifications.

Professional advisers such as accountants and legal advisers, where they need access to data for the services they provide to us.

We may also share personal data with third parties where required by law, for example with regulatory bodies, law enforcement or courts, or in connection with legal proceedings or the sale or restructuring of our business, subject to appropriate safeguards.

Data retention periods

We retain personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or for as long as we are required to keep it by law.

Customer account and contract data, including contact details, service records and billing information, are generally kept for the duration of the customer relationship and for a period after it ends, typically up to seven years, to comply with legal, tax and accounting obligations and to deal with any potential disputes.

Enquiry records from potential customers who do not proceed with our services are retained for a shorter period, usually up to two years, unless a longer period is required for legal reasons.

Technical and usage data collected via our website is retained for periods appropriate to the purpose of analysis and security monitoring, which are typically shorter, unless longer retention is necessary in the context of security investigations.

When data is no longer required it is securely deleted or anonymised so that it can no longer be linked to an identifiable individual.

International transfers

Where we use processors or service providers located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we take steps to ensure that your personal data is protected to a standard that is essentially equivalent to that in the UK. This may include relying on adequacy regulations, entering into contracts based on approved standard contractual clauses and carrying out risk assessments of the recipient country.

Your data protection rights

If you are a Waste Collection Swiss Cottage customer or individual located in the Swiss Cottage area, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data under data protection law. These include:

The right of access: you can request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and obtain a copy of that data, together with certain information about how we use it.

The right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.

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 legal obligation to retain it.

The right to restriction: you may ask us to restrict the processing of your data in specific situations, for example while we verify its accuracy or where you have objected to our use of your data.

The right to object: you can object to processing that is based on our legitimate interests, including profiling related to those interests. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms or where processing is required for legal claims.

The right to data portability: where processing is based on your consent or on a contract and carried out by automated means, you may request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format, or that we transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.

Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

How to contact us and complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your rights, or if you have questions about this Privacy Notice or how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the details published on our main service information materials or by using the usual contact channels you use for our services.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection supervisory authority if you are concerned about how we process your personal data. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns directly first.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or how we process personal data. When we make significant changes, we will take appropriate steps to inform you. The most current version of this notice will always apply to the personal data we hold about you.