Waste Collection Catford Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Waste Collection Catford collects, uses, stores and shares personal data relating to our customers and prospective customers in the Catford area. It also explains your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy applies to all individual customers and business contacts who use, request or enquire about our waste collection and related services within our service area.

Who we are and how to contact us

Waste Collection Catford is a waste and recycling service provider operating in and around Catford. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the data controller in respect of the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the contact details provided on our website or any service correspondence you receive from us.

Personal data we collect

We collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you interact with us and the services you use. This may include:

Identification and contact data: name, title, billing address, service address, email address, telephone numbers and, where relevant, details of authorised contacts on your account.

Service and contract data: information about the waste collection and related services you request or receive from us, such as service dates, service frequency, type of waste, container sizes, special instructions and contract history.

Payment and billing data: payment method, partial card details as processed by our payment processor, bank details where necessary for payments or refunds, invoice records, payment history and outstanding balances.

Communication data: information contained in emails, phone calls, online contact forms and letters that you send to us, including enquiries, feedback, complaints and any follow up correspondence.

Technical and usage data: information collected when you visit our website or interact with our digital communications, such as IP address, browser type, device identifiers, pages visited, time and date of visit and similar diagnostic data. This may be collected using cookies or similar technologies where permitted by law.

Compliance and security data: information we may need to retain for legal, regulatory, insurance and security purposes, such as records of incidents relating to our collections, consent records, opt out records and evidence of identity where required.

How we collect your data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quote, set up a collection, make a payment, create or update an account, communicate with us by phone or email, or complete a form on our website.

We may also receive personal data from third parties, such as payment processors, business partners, publicly available sources, or your employer if they list you as a contact for commercial services.

Lawful bases for processing your data

We only process your personal data when we have a valid legal basis under data protection law. Depending on the situation, we may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Contract: to take steps at your request before entering into a contract and to perform a contract with you. This includes providing waste collection services, managing your account, arranging collections, issuing invoices and processing payments.

Legal obligation: to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, such as accounting, tax, environmental, health and safety and data protection requirements. This may involve retaining records of services and transactions.

Legitimate interests: to pursue our legitimate business interests, provided that your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This can include managing and improving our services, responding to enquiries, preventing fraud, ensuring network and information security, training staff and maintaining appropriate business records.

Consent: where we rely on your consent, for example for certain types of optional marketing communications or for the use of particular cookies where required by law. When we rely on consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time.

How we use your personal data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

To provide and manage waste collection services, including setting up and administering your account, organising collections, managing access instructions, and handling service changes, suspensions or cancellations.

To process payments, issue invoices, manage billing queries, and recover debts where necessary.

To communicate with you about your service, including confirmations, service updates, reminders, important changes to our terms or policies, and responses to your questions or complaints.

To manage our business operations, such as scheduling routes, planning capacity, improving our services, training staff, and maintaining accurate internal records.

To send you information about our services that may be relevant to you, where we are allowed to do so by law or where you have given consent.

To comply with legal, regulatory and insurance requirements, to respond to lawful requests from public authorities, and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Data retention and storage

We keep your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and to meet any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. Retention periods can vary depending on the type of data and the purpose of processing.

In general, we keep account and service records for the duration of your relationship with us and for a reasonable period afterwards, typically up to six years, to handle queries, maintain accurate records for tax and accounting purposes, and to comply with legal obligations. Technical data collected via our website may be kept for shorter periods, unless it is required for security or legal reasons.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete, anonymise or otherwise dispose of it.

Data processors and sharing your information

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors provide services such as payment processing, information technology support, data storage, route scheduling, customer communications and professional advice.

When we use processors, we ensure that there is a written contract in place requiring them to process your personal data only on our instructions, to implement appropriate security measures and to maintain confidentiality.

We may also share personal data with other parties where this is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, to protect our rights or the rights of others, to prevent fraud or misuse of services, or in connection with a business reorganisation. Any such sharing will be limited to what is necessary and lawful.

We do not sell your personal data.

International transfers

Where we use service providers located outside the United Kingdom or where data is stored or accessed from outside the United Kingdom, we take steps to ensure that your personal data is protected in line with applicable data protection laws. This may include using standard contractual clauses or relying on an adequacy decision by the relevant authorities.

How we protect your data

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures may include access controls, encryption, secure storage, staff training and regular review of our security procedures.

While we take reasonable steps to protect your data, no system can be completely secure. You are responsible for keeping any account details or passwords confidential and for notifying us promptly of any suspected misuse.

Your data protection rights

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal data under data protection law. These rights apply to all Waste Collection Catford customers in our service area and include:

Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, together with information about how we use it.

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

Right to erasure: in certain circumstances, you can request that we delete your personal data. This right may be limited where we need to retain data for legal reasons.

Right to restriction: you can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, for example while we are investigating a query you have raised.

Right to data portability: in some cases, you can 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.

Right to object: you can object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including profiling for those purposes, and you can object at any time to the use of your personal data for direct marketing.

Rights in relation to automated decision making: you have rights in relation to decisions based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

You can exercise your rights by contacting us using the details provided in our service correspondence or on our website. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request. There is normally no charge for exercising your rights.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office if you are concerned about how we handle your personal data. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve your concerns.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, in data protection law, or in the way we process personal data. Any updated version will be made available through our usual communication channels and will take effect from the date of publication.

We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.