Privacy Policy - Man With Van Croydon

This Privacy Policy explains how Man With Van Croydon collects, uses, shares, stores, and protects personal data relating to our customers, prospective customers, and anyone who communicates with us in connection with our moving and transport services. This policy applies to all Man With Van Croydon customers in the Croydon area and surrounding local service area. We are committed to handling personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and all other applicable privacy laws.

We aim to be clear and transparent about what information we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and what rights individuals have in relation to their information.

1. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process personal data when you request a quote, make a booking, enquire about our services, or otherwise interact with us. The categories of information we may collect include:

Identity details: name, title, and any relevant business or household name.
Contact details: email address, telephone number, and address details connected with the service.
Service information: collection and delivery addresses, moving dates, property access details, item inventories, and instructions related to the removal or transport service.
Payment and billing information: transaction records, payment status, invoicing details, and limited payment-related information necessary to process charges or issue receipts.
Communication records: emails, messages, call notes, booking confirmations, complaints, and service updates.
Technical and usage data: basic website or device information, if you interact with our digital channels, such as IP address, browser type, and usage patterns.
Special category data: we do not normally request or intend to collect special category data. However, such information may be incidentally disclosed by you in the course of arranging a move, for example if access requirements reveal health or mobility considerations. Where this occurs, we will only process it where a lawful condition applies and where necessary to provide the service safely and appropriately.

2. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

to provide quotes and manage bookings;
to plan and deliver moving, loading, unloading, and transport services;
to communicate with you before, during, and after a move;
to process payments, refunds, and invoicing;
to keep records of services provided;
to handle complaints, disputes, or insurance-related matters;
to maintain business records and meet legal, tax, and accounting obligations;
to improve our services, operational efficiency, and customer experience;
to protect against fraud, misuse, or security incidents;
to comply with lawful requests and regulatory requirements.

We only use personal data where we have a valid legal basis and where the use is fair, necessary, and proportionate.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we must identify a lawful basis for processing personal data. Depending on the activity, we rely on one or more of the following bases:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotes requested by you, managing bookings, arranging collection and delivery, and communicating essential service information.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This can include maintaining operational records, improving service quality, preventing fraud, and responding to customer enquiries or service issues. Where required, we carry out a balancing test to ensure your interests are protected.

Legal Obligation

We may process personal data when necessary to comply with legal obligations, including tax, accounting, regulatory, and record-keeping requirements.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where specific optional data is collected for a particular purpose. When consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.

Vital Interests and Public Interest

These bases are unlikely to apply in most routine moving services, but may be relied upon in exceptional circumstances where necessary to protect someone’s vital interests or where processing is required for legal or public interest reasons.

4. Sharing Personal Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties when necessary to operate our business and deliver services. Where these third parties act on our instructions and process personal data on our behalf, they are our processors. We ensure that processors are subject to appropriate contractual obligations and security safeguards.

Examples of processors or service providers may include:

IT and cloud service providers: for secure storage, email, and data management;
payment processors: to handle card or online payments securely;
accounting and bookkeeping providers: to support financial administration;
customer communications tools: for booking confirmations, reminders, and service messages;
professional advisers: such as legal, insurance, or tax advisers where necessary;
subcontracted service partners: where required to complete a move safely and efficiently.

We may also disclose personal data where required by law, court order, regulator request, or to prevent fraud, protect rights, or respond to an emergency. We do not sell personal data.

5. International Data Transfers

Where any processor or service provider stores or accesses data outside the United Kingdom, we will take appropriate safeguards to protect the information. These safeguards may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or equivalent approved measures. We only transfer data when we are satisfied that an adequate level of protection is maintained.

6. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, insurance, and reporting requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason for holding it.

Customer and booking records: retained for a period necessary to manage the service, resolve issues, and maintain business records.
Financial and tax records: retained for the period required by law and accounting obligations.
Complaints and claims: retained for as long as needed to investigate and resolve the matter, and for any limitation period that may apply.
Technical records: retained for a limited period consistent with security, troubleshooting, and service improvement needs.

When data is no longer required, we will securely delete, anonymise, or otherwise dispose of it in a safe manner.

7. Data Security

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

While we work hard to protect personal data, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If a data breach occurs that affects your rights and freedoms, we will respond in line with applicable legal obligations.

8. Your Rights

Depending on the circumstances and the legal basis for processing, you may have the following rights under data protection law:

Right of access: to request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and to obtain a copy of it;
Right to rectification: to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data;
Right to erasure: to request deletion of data in certain situations;
Right to restrict processing: to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances;
Right to object: to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing;
Right to data portability: to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format where applicable;
Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time;
Right not to be subject to solely automated decisions: where applicable, you have rights relating to automated decision-making and profiling.

Please note that some rights may be limited where we need to keep data to comply with legal obligations or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and business customers arranging removals or transport services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children for marketing or service purposes. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected such information, we will take appropriate steps to delete it unless there is a lawful reason to retain it.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or privacy practices. Any changes will take effect when published in the revised version. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how we protect personal data.

11. Our Commitment to Privacy

At Man With Van Croydon, we treat privacy as an important part of our service. We process personal data only where necessary, keep it secure, and respect the rights of every individual whose data we handle. This policy applies to all Man With Van Croydon customers in the area, and it is designed to ensure our practices remain lawful, fair, and transparent. By using our services, you acknowledge that personal data may be processed as described in this Privacy Policy, in line with applicable data protection law.