London Waste Removals Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how London Waste Removals collects, uses, stores and shares personal data relating to our customers and prospective customers. It applies to all London Waste Removals customers and service users within our London service area, including individuals, businesses, landlords, letting agents and other organisations who engage us to provide waste removal, clearance or related services.
Who we are and scope of this policy
London Waste Removals provides waste collection, rubbish clearance and related services within London. For the purposes of applicable data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, London Waste Removals is the data controller of the personal information described in this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy applies to personal data we collect from you when you contact us, request a quote, make a booking, receive services from us, interact with our website or social media, or otherwise communicate with us in the course of our business. It does not apply to information about companies or organisations that does not identify an individual.
Personal data we collect
We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:
Identification and contact details: name, address, service address, email address, telephone number and other contact details you provide when contacting us or booking services.
Service and booking information: details of the services you request or receive, descriptions of waste to be collected, dates and times of collections, access instructions, photographs you choose to send us to describe items or waste, and notes relating to your booking.
Payment and transaction data: payment method details (such as partial card details handled securely via our payment processor), billing address, and records of transactions, invoices, refunds and account balances.
Communications data: records of emails, messages, phone calls and other communications with you, including enquiries, complaints, feedback and reviews you submit directly to us.
Technical and usage data: limited technical information about your use of our website or online services, such as IP address, browser type, device information and approximate location, where this is necessary for security, analytics or to provide the service you request.
Marketing preferences: your choices about receiving marketing communications from us and records of your consent, subscription or opt-out decisions.
How we collect personal data
We usually collect personal data directly from you when you contact us by phone, email, online forms, messaging services or social media, when you book a collection, or when you interact with our website.
We may also receive personal data from third parties such as business partners, letting agents, commercial clients or online platforms who refer work to us or book services on your behalf. In these cases we will treat your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Lawful bases for processing your data
We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis to do so under data protection law. The main lawful bases we rely on are:
Contract: to take steps at your request before entering into a contract and to perform our contract with you, for example to provide waste removal services, arrange collections, manage bookings and process payments.
Legal obligation: to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including record keeping, tax obligations, waste transfer documentation, duty of care records and responding to lawful requests from authorities.
Legitimate interests: to pursue our legitimate business interests, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. These include managing our operations, improving our services, preventing fraud, ensuring site and vehicle security, handling customer queries, and conducting limited direct marketing to existing customers.
Consent: where we rely on your consent, for example for certain types of marketing communications or where consent is required for specific optional services. You may withdraw your consent at any time, which will not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.
How we use your personal data
We may use your personal data for the following purposes:
To provide our services: setting up and managing your bookings, planning routes, collecting waste, issuing invoices, taking and confirming payment, and providing customer support related to your collections.
To manage our relationship with you: responding to your enquiries, requesting feedback, notifying you about changes to our services, policies or terms, and dealing with complaints or disputes.
To operate our business: internal administration, record keeping, reporting, auditing, quality control, training, and development of new or improved services.
To ensure safety and compliance: complying with health and safety responsibilities, waste management regulations, and our legal obligations relating to transfer notes, records and reporting.
To send marketing communications: contacting you about similar services or offers where we are permitted to do so by law. You can opt out of marketing at any time as described below.
To protect our rights: preventing and detecting fraud or misuse, enforcing our terms and conditions, and handling legal claims, complaints or regulatory investigations.
Data sharing and processors
We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes described above. These may include:
Service providers and processors: companies that provide services to us, such as payment processors, IT and cloud hosting providers, booking and scheduling tools, email and communications platforms, and professional advisers. These organisations are required to process your data only on our instructions and to protect it appropriately.
Regulators and authorities: government bodies, regulators, law enforcement agencies and local authorities where we are required or permitted by law to disclose personal data, for example in connection with waste transfer documentation, regulatory inspections or legal proceedings.
Business partners and referrers: in some cases we may receive or share limited personal data with introducers, letting agents, facility managers or commercial partners solely for the purpose of fulfilling your booking or managing an ongoing service relationship.
If we were to restructure or sell part of our business, personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to appropriate safeguards.
International transfers
Some of our service providers may process personal data outside the United Kingdom. Where this occurs, we take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as using service providers in countries that the UK government has recognised as providing an adequate level of protection, or putting in place standard contractual clauses or other approved safeguards to protect your information.
Data retention and storage
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including to meet any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. In general, we keep core booking, invoicing and transaction records for a period required by tax and company law, usually up to seven years after the end of the financial year in which the transaction took place.
Customer account details, communication records and service history may be kept for a reasonable period after your last interaction with us so that we can respond to queries, manage any disputes and maintain continuity if you return as a customer.
When we no longer need personal data, we will delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with you.
How we protect your information
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access. These measures include access controls, secure storage, staff training and the use of reputable service providers who implement suitable security standards. While we take reasonable steps to protect your data, no transmission or storage system can be guaranteed as completely secure.
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:
Right of access: to obtain confirmation about whether we process your personal data and to receive a copy of that data, together with certain information about how we use it.
Right to rectification: to have inaccurate or incomplete personal data corrected or updated.
Right to erasure: to request that we delete your personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it, for example where you have withdrawn consent and there is no other lawful basis, or where the data is no longer needed for the original purpose.
Right to restriction: to ask us to suspend the use of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example while we check the accuracy of data or consider an objection you have raised.
Right to data portability: to receive certain personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.
Right to object: to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including profiling, and to object at any time to the use of your personal data for direct marketing.
Rights relating to automated decision-making: we do not carry out solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you.
You can exercise your rights by contacting us using the details provided on our website or through your usual contact method with London Waste Removals. We may need to verify your identity before responding. We aim to respond within one month, or within any extended period permitted by law where requests are complex or numerous.
Marketing communications
We may use your contact details to send you information about services that are similar to those you have already received from us, where the law allows us to do so. You can opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by following the instructions in the communication or by contacting us directly. Opting out of marketing will not affect the provision of our services or the communications we send that are necessary for your bookings or our legal obligations.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or service offerings. When we make significant changes we will take reasonable steps to notify you, such as by updating the version on our website or informing you during your next interaction with us. Continued use of our services after an update will be treated as acceptance of the updated policy.
Contact and complaints
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, or if you wish to exercise your data protection rights, you can contact us using the contact details published on the London Waste Removals website or through your usual correspondence channels.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection supervisory authority. We encourage you to contact us first so that we have the opportunity to address your concerns before you approach the authority.
