Hanwell Removals Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Hanwell Removals collects, uses, stores and protects your personal data. It applies to all Hanwell Removals customers and prospective customers within our service area, including anyone who contacts us, requests a quotation, books a move or uses any of our related services.
Who we are and scope of this policy
Hanwell Removals is a removals and related services provider. In the context of the General Data Protection Regulation and applicable UK data protection laws, we act as the data controller for the personal data we collect and process about you in connection with our services.
This Privacy Policy applies to all personal data processed by Hanwell Removals about individuals who are customers, prospective customers, or individuals acting on behalf of business customers in our service area.
Personal data we collect
We may collect and process the following categories of personal data about you:
Identity and contact details, such as your name, title, postal address, property details relevant to the move, and any other contact information you choose to provide.
Communication data, including information contained in enquiries, messages, and any correspondence you send to us or have with our staff.
Service and booking information, such as details of your requested services, collection and delivery addresses, access information for the properties, preferred dates and times, and any instructions you give us about your belongings or the move itself.
Payment and transaction data, including information about the services you purchase from us and records of payments made. We do not store full payment card details; where a card payment is processed, this is done via a secure payment processor.
Usage and technical information, where applicable, such as basic information about how you interact with our website or online quotation tools, including date and time of visits and pages viewed. This information is generally collected using cookies and similar technologies.
Feedback and review information, including any feedback, testimonials or complaints you may provide about our services.
How we collect your personal data
We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us by phone, in writing or online to request information, obtain a quotation or book our services. We also collect personal data from you when you interact with our staff in person, for example during a survey visit or on the day of your move.
We may collect limited personal data from third parties, such as estate agents or commercial partners, where you have given them permission to pass your details to removals companies. In such cases, we only process data that is relevant to providing our services.
Lawful bases for processing personal data
We process your personal data under one or more of the following lawful bases, as defined in the GDPR:
Contract: We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotations, booking and managing your move, handling payments, and communicating with you about your service.
Legal obligation: We process personal data where we are required to do so to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, such as accounting, tax and insurance requirements, and to comply with lawful requests from public authorities.
Legitimate interests: We process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Examples include managing our relationship with you, improving our services, handling complaints and disputes, ensuring the security of our staff and customers, and keeping appropriate business records.
Consent: In limited circumstances, we may rely on your explicit consent, for example for certain types of marketing communications. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
How we use your personal data
We use your personal data to:
Provide quotations, plan and deliver our removals and related services, and respond to your enquiries.
Manage bookings, including confirming dates and times, coordinating our teams, and ensuring that we have the correct access and property details.
Process payments, manage invoices, and maintain accurate financial records.
Communicate with you about your move, including sending service updates, reminders and any necessary follow-up information.
Handle feedback, complaints or claims, and resolve disputes.
Comply with applicable laws, regulations and insurance requirements.
Monitor and improve the quality and effectiveness of our services, including training our staff and reviewing our service delivery.
Data sharing and data processors
We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties. However, we may share your personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors or independent controllers, where this is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
Data processors are third parties who process personal data on our behalf and only in accordance with our instructions. Examples of such data processors may include:
Payment service providers, who process payments and handle card transactions on our behalf.
IT and cloud service providers, who host our systems or provide software and data storage solutions.
Customer management systems and communication tools, where we store customer records and manage our correspondence.
Professional advisers, such as accountants or legal advisers, who may access personal data in the course of providing services to us.
We ensure that all data processors are bound by appropriate data protection obligations and security requirements, and that they only process your personal data as necessary to provide their services to Hanwell Removals.
We may also share personal data with insurance providers, public authorities, regulators, or law enforcement agencies where required by law, where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, or where we have another lawful basis for doing so.
Data retention
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.
Quotations and related enquiry records are typically retained for a limited period to allow us to respond to follow-up questions and to manage our business records. If the quotation does not lead to a booking, we will not keep your data longer than necessary.
Customer and booking records are generally retained for a longer period, so that we can manage our relationship with you, respond to any queries about past services, and comply with tax, accounting and insurance obligations.
In determining appropriate retention periods, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process your data, and whether we can achieve those purposes by other means, as well as legal requirements.
International transfers
Our services are primarily provided within our local service area. Where we use third party service providers that process data in other countries, we take appropriate steps to ensure that your personal data remains protected. This may include using providers located in countries that the relevant authorities have determined provide an adequate level of data protection, or putting in place appropriate safeguards consistent with data protection law.
Data security
We take the security of your personal data seriously. We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data from accidental loss, unauthorised access, use, alteration or disclosure. These measures include limiting access to personal data to staff and service providers who have a legitimate business need to access it and are subject to confidentiality obligations.
While we take reasonable steps to safeguard your personal data, no system can be fully secure. You should take care in how you share personal information with us, particularly by email or other electronic means.
Your data protection rights
Under the GDPR and applicable data protection laws, you have certain rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you. These rights may be subject to specific conditions and legal exemptions. They include:
The right of access: You have the right to request confirmation that we process your personal data and to receive a copy of that data, along with certain information about how we use it.
The right to rectification: You have the right to request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.
The right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you may request that we delete or remove your personal data, for example where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and we have no legal obligation to retain it.
The right to restriction of processing: You may request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, for example while we are verifying its accuracy or assessing an objection you have raised.
The right to object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we are relying on legitimate interests as our lawful basis. We will stop processing your data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms, or where we need to continue processing for legal claims.
The right to data portability: In certain cases, you have the right to receive personal data that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to ask us to transfer that data to another controller where this is technically feasible.
Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does 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 or concerns about how Hanwell Removals processes your personal data, you can contact us using the contact details provided on our website or other official communications.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed. We would, however, welcome the opportunity to address your concerns directly in the first instance.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or for other operational reasons. Any updates will be made available through our usual communication channels. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.