Privacy Policy - Kennington Removals

Effective date: This Privacy Policy applies to all Kennington Removals customers in the area and explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect personal data in connection with our removal and related services.

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

1. Who We Are

Kennington Removals provides home and business removal services, including packing support, item transportation, storage coordination, and related logistics. For the purposes of data protection law, we act as the data controller for the personal data we collect and use about our customers, prospective customers, suppliers, and other contacts.

We only collect and process personal data where there is a valid legal basis to do so and where it is necessary for the operation of our services, compliance with legal obligations, or our legitimate business interests.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect the following categories of personal data, depending on the service you request and how you interact with us:

Identity data: name, title, and, where relevant, business name.
Contact data: address, email address, telephone number, and any preferred communication details.
Service information: moving dates, property access details, inventory information, special handling requirements, and service preferences.
Payment data: billing details, payment status, and transaction records. We do not normally store full card details where a secure payment processor is used.
Communication data: enquiries, complaints, quotes, notes from calls or messages, and correspondence relating to your booking.
Technical data: limited information such as device type, browser details, and usage data if you interact with our digital systems or forms.
Legal and compliance data: records required for accounting, tax, insurance, or dispute resolution purposes.

We may also process special category data only in limited circumstances and only where necessary. For example, if you voluntarily provide information about access needs, health-related requirements, or other sensitive circumstances relevant to your move, we will handle it with extra care and only for the purpose for which it was provided.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

to provide quotes and assess your moving requirements;
to plan, organise, and deliver removal services;
to communicate with you about bookings, schedules, and service changes;
to process payments and issue invoices;
to manage customer service enquiries and complaints;
to maintain business and financial records;
to meet legal, regulatory, tax, and insurance obligations;
to improve our services, operations, and customer experience;
to prevent fraud, misuse, and security incidents.

We will only use your personal data when we have a lawful basis to do so.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process your data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotes at your request, arranging moving services, handling payments, and fulfilling our obligations under the service agreement.

Legal Obligation

We may process your data where we must comply with legal requirements, such as tax, accounting, insurance, record-keeping, or responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process your data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include service improvement, business administration, security, fraud prevention, and internal record management.

Consent

In some situations, we rely on your consent, for example where you voluntarily provide optional sensitive information or agree to non-essential communications. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

5. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to operate our business and provide services to you. These third parties act either as independent controllers or as processors acting on our instructions.

Processors we may use include:

payment processing providers;
accounting and bookkeeping service providers;
customer relationship management and booking software providers;
email, messaging, and communications service providers;
IT support, cloud hosting, and data storage providers;
insurance providers and claims handlers;
professional advisers such as lawyers, auditors, or consultants where required;
subcontracted removal or logistics partners assisting with your move.

We only share the minimum amount of data needed for the relevant purpose and ensure, where required, that processors are bound by appropriate data processing agreements. These agreements require them to protect your personal data, act only on our instructions, and comply with applicable data protection laws.

We may also disclose data where necessary to protect our rights, respond to lawful requests, prevent fraud, or protect the safety of our customers, staff, or the public.

6. International Transfers

Where service providers store or process data outside the UK, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as standard contractual clauses, adequacy regulations, or equivalent protections permitted under data protection law.

7. Retention of Personal Data

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and for any additional period required by law or for legitimate business reasons. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason for holding it.

Customer booking and service records: typically retained for the duration of the relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Financial and tax records: retained for the period required by applicable accounting and tax laws.
Complaints, disputes, and insurance records: kept for as long as needed to resolve the matter and for any related limitation period.
Marketing preferences and consent records: retained until you withdraw consent or object, and for a short period thereafter for compliance purposes.

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

8. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and limited access to personal data on a need-to-know basis.

While no system is completely secure, we continuously review our security practices to help safeguard your information.

9. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to conditions and exemptions, but we will always assess requests carefully and respond appropriately.

Right of access: you can ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure: you can request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restrict processing: you can ask us to limit how we use your data in certain cases.
Right to data portability: you may ask for certain data in a structured, machine-readable format.
Right to object: you may object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we may need to verify your identity before responding. We aim to respond within one month, unless the request is complex or numerous.

10. Children???s Data

Our services are not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidentally included in service arrangements and necessary for the household move. Where children???s data is involved, we will only process it where lawful and necessary.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or data processing practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated to you.

12. How We Handle Complaints

If you have concerns about how your personal data is handled, we encourage you to raise them so we can review the issue and respond appropriately. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner???s Office (ICO) if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed.

13. Summary of Key Points

This policy explains how Kennington Removals collects and uses customer data in the area, the lawful bases we rely on, the processors we may use, how long we keep data, and the rights available to you under GDPR. We are committed to processing personal data fairly, securely, and only for legitimate purposes connected to our services.

By using our services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

This document is intended to provide a clear and practical explanation of our data protection practices for all Kennington Removals customers in area.