Privacy Policy for Waste Disposal Richmond upon Thames

This Privacy Policy explains how Waste Disposal Richmond upon Thames collects, uses, stores and shares personal data relating to our customers within the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is designed to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This Policy applies to all Waste Disposal Richmond upon Thames customers in the area, including individuals, households, landlords, businesses and other organisations that use our waste disposal, recycling or related services.

Who we are and scope of this Policy

Waste Disposal Richmond upon Thames is a waste management service provider operating within the Richmond upon Thames area. In relation to the personal data described in this Privacy Policy, we act as the data controller. This means we decide how and why your personal data is processed. This Privacy Policy applies whenever you interact with us as a customer or potential customer, including when you request a quote, make a booking, use our services, contact us by phone or email, or otherwise provide us with your personal data.

Personal data we collect

We collect and process different categories of personal data depending on how you engage with us. The main types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details: name, title, address of the property or premises where services are provided, billing address, email address, telephone number and any other contact details you choose to provide.

Service and account information: details of the services you request or receive, such as type of waste disposal service, collection dates and times, service frequency, access instructions for the premises, bin or container details, photographs you provide in connection with quotes or service quality issues, and records of correspondence about your account.

Billing and payment details: payment method, partial payment card details where required to process a transaction, bank details if you pay by transfer, invoice history, amounts due and paid, and relevant tax or accounting information. We do not store full card details if payment is processed through a secure payment processor.

Communication and enquiry data: records of your enquiries, complaints, feedback, call notes, email communications and any other information you voluntarily provide when you contact us or complete a form, survey or review.

Technical and usage information: limited technical information about how you access our online forms or communication channels, such as IP address, device type and basic usage logs, to support security, troubleshooting and service improvement.

How we collect your data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us by phone, email or online form, request a quote, make a booking, enter into a service contract, pay an invoice or submit a complaint or enquiry. We may also receive personal data from third parties where this is necessary to provide our services, such as landlords, managing agents, local businesses or public authorities who ask us to provide services to a particular address. Where you provide personal data about other individuals, such as tenants or staff contacts, you should ensure that they are aware of this Privacy Policy.

Lawful bases for processing

We process your personal data only when we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the context, the lawful bases we rely on include:

Contract: We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to provide waste disposal services, manage bookings, issue invoices, take payment and respond to your service requests.

Legal obligation: We may process data where we are required to comply with legal or regulatory obligations, such as tax and accounting rules, waste management regulations, health and safety duties or responding to requests from public authorities where legally permitted.

Legitimate interests: We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and these are not overridden by your rights. This includes managing and improving our services, maintaining accurate records, preventing fraud or abuse, recovering debts, handling complaints, training staff and ensuring the security of our operations.

Consent: In limited cases we may rely on your consent, for example if you choose to receive certain types of marketing communications. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time by contacting us using the details set out in this Privacy Policy.

How we use your personal data

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

To provide and manage waste disposal and related services, including arranging collections, managing routes and schedules, accessing your premises where authorised, and handling service issues.

To create and maintain customer records, manage contracts, issue quotes and invoices, process payments and carry out credit control and debt recovery where necessary.

To respond to enquiries, complaints and feedback and to communicate with you about your services, including service updates, changes to terms or important operational information.

To comply with applicable laws and regulations, including waste management, environmental, tax, accounting and health and safety requirements.

To protect our business and customers, including preventing and detecting fraud or misuse of our services, securing our systems and ensuring safe and lawful operation of our services.

To analyse and improve our operations, assess service performance, plan resources and train our staff, using aggregated or anonymised data where possible.

Data sharing and processors

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. These third parties act either as data processors on our behalf or as independent controllers.

Data processors: We may use service providers to support our operations, such as payment processors, IT and hosting providers, routing and scheduling software providers, customer service tools, accountants and professional advisers. These processors are only permitted to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and are required to keep it secure.

Other recipients: We may share data with public authorities, regulators, law enforcement agencies or courts where required by law or where necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others. We may also share relevant customer information with landlords, property managers or businesses who have engaged us to provide services to specific premises, where this is necessary to deliver and manage those services.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

International transfers

Where we use service providers or systems located outside the United Kingdom, your personal data may be transferred internationally. In such cases we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as using countries that have been recognised as providing an adequate level of protection or implementing standard contractual clauses or equivalent protections, in order to ensure that your data remains protected in line with data protection laws.

Retention of your personal data

We keep your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or to meet legal, accounting or regulatory requirements. The length of time we keep data will vary depending on the type of information and the context of our relationship with you.

Customer and service records are typically retained for a period necessary to manage our relationship with you and for a reasonable period afterwards to handle any queries, disputes or legal claims. Financial and transaction records are usually kept for at least the minimum period required by tax and accounting laws. When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it.

Your data protection rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights under data protection law in relation to your personal data. These include:

Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and to receive a copy of that data, along with certain additional information.

Right to rectification: You have the right to ask us to correct or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

Right to erasure: In some circumstances you may have the right to ask us to delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or where you withdraw consent and we have no other lawful basis to continue processing.

Right to restriction: You may request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, such as while we are verifying the accuracy of data you believe is incorrect.

Right to object: You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including profiling related to those interests. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms or where processing is required for legal claims.

Right to data portability: Where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, you may be entitled to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to request that we transmit it to another controller, where technically feasible.

You also have the right to withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent as our lawful basis, without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal. In addition, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office if you are concerned about how your data is being handled.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, our data protection practices or wish to exercise any of your rights, you can contact us using the contact details provided on our customer communications and service documents. Please provide enough information to allow us to identify you and respond to your request.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations or data protection practices. Any changes will apply to all Waste Disposal Richmond upon Thames customers in the area from the date the updated Policy is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.