Privacy Policy - Man With A Van Acton

Man With A Van Acton is committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect personal information when you use our services. It applies to all Man With A Van Acton customers in the area, including anyone who requests a quote, books a service, communicates with us, or otherwise interacts with our moving and van services.

This policy is designed to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We encourage you to read it carefully so you understand what personal data we process and your rights in relation to that data.

1. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you interact with us. The data we collect is limited to what is necessary for legitimate business purposes and to provide our services effectively.

Information you provide directly

Identity details such as your name.
Contact details such as your phone number and email address.
Service details such as pickup and drop-off addresses, moving dates, item descriptions, access requirements, and service preferences.
Payment-related information where relevant to complete a transaction or issue an invoice.
Communication records including enquiries, complaints, instructions, and messages exchanged before, during, or after the service.

Information collected automatically

When you contact us digitally or visit our online pages, we may collect limited technical data such as:

Device and browser information.
IP address and approximate location data.
Usage information such as pages viewed, time spent, and interaction patterns.

This information helps us maintain the security and performance of our systems and improve the quality of our services.

2. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data only where permitted by law and only for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes. The main purposes for processing are:

To provide moving, loading, unloading, transportation, and related van services.
To create quotations, confirm bookings, and manage service arrangements.
To communicate with customers about appointments, service updates, and service changes.
To process payments, issue invoices, and maintain financial records.
To respond to enquiries, complaints, and customer support requests.
To improve our services, manage operations, and maintain business records.
To comply with legal obligations, including tax, accounting, insurance, and regulatory requirements.
To protect against fraud, misuse, and unlawful activity.

We do not use personal data for purposes that are incompatible with the original reason for collection unless we have a lawful basis to do so.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a valid lawful basis to process personal data. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process your personal data when it is necessary to perform a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract. This includes preparing quotes, confirming bookings, providing the service, and handling payment or invoicing.

Legal obligation

We process certain data to meet legal obligations, including tax compliance, accounting requirements, insurance recordkeeping, and responding to lawful requests from authorities where required.

Legitimate interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. These interests may include maintaining business records, managing and improving services, preventing fraud, ensuring network and information security, and handling customer communications.

Consent

In some cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where specific optional marketing or non-essential communications are involved. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

4. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to deliver our services, manage our business, or comply with legal obligations. These parties act either as independent controllers or as processors acting on our instructions.

Processors may include:

Payment service providers who handle transactions securely.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers who support financial administration.
IT and cloud service providers who store or process business data securely.
Communication service providers who help us manage messages and service updates.
Administrative support providers who assist with scheduling or record management.

Where we use processors, we require appropriate data processing terms and safeguards to ensure your data is handled securely and only in accordance with our instructions.

We may also disclose data where necessary to:

Comply with legal obligations or lawful requests.
Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
Protect our rights, property, staff, customers, or systems.

We do not sell your personal data.

5. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying legal, accounting, and reporting requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of data and the reason it was processed.

As a general principle:

Customer service and booking records are kept for the period needed to manage the service and resolve any related queries.
Financial and tax records are retained for the period required by applicable law.
Communication records are retained as needed for customer support, dispute handling, and business administration.
Technical logs are kept for security, troubleshooting, and system performance purposes for a limited period.

When data is no longer needed, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.

6. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures are designed to be proportionate to the nature of the data we process and the risks involved.

Security measures may include access controls, secure storage, password protection, limited staff access, and regular review of data handling practices. However, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

7. Your Rights Under GDPR

As a data subject, you have several rights under data protection law. These rights apply subject to certain conditions and legal exceptions.

Your rights include:

The right to be informed about how your data is used.
The right of access to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
The right to rectification to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
The right to erasure in certain circumstances, also known as the right to be forgotten.
The right to restrict processing in certain cases.
The right to data portability for data you provided to us, where applicable.
The right to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
The right to withdraw consent where processing relies on consent.

If you exercise any of these rights, we may need to verify your identity before responding. We will respond within the time limits set by data protection law.

8. International Transfers

If any of our service providers process data outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data in accordance with applicable law. These safeguards may include standard contractual protections or equivalent legal mechanisms.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults arranging moving and transport services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary in the context of a booking and provided by an adult customer. If we become aware that data has been collected inappropriately, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or operational needs. Any updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically to stay informed.

11. Summary of Key Points

This policy explains how Man With A Van Acton collects and uses personal data, the lawful bases we rely on, how long we keep information, the processors we may use, and the rights available to you. We process only the information needed to deliver services, manage customer relationships, and comply with legal duties. All Man With A Van Acton customers in the area are covered by this policy.

We are committed to handling your personal data fairly, lawfully, and transparently.

Important note: This Privacy Policy is intended to provide general information about our data protection practices and should be read alongside any service-specific terms that may apply.