Privacy Policy
Hammersmith Removals Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Hammersmith Removals collects, uses, shares and protects your personal data when you use our removal and related services. It applies to all Hammersmith Removals customers in our service area, including individuals, households and business clients who contact us, request a quote, make a booking or otherwise interact with us.
Who We Are and Scope of This Policy
Hammersmith Removals is a removals and relocation service provider operating in the local area. For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the EU General Data Protection Regulation, Hammersmith Removals acts as the data controller in relation to the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we decide how and why your personal data is processed.
This Privacy Policy covers all processing of personal data carried out by Hammersmith Removals in connection with our services, website, customer support, marketing activities, and any other interactions you may have with us as a customer, prospective customer or business contact.
Personal Data We Collect
We collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you interact with us. The categories of personal data we may collect include the following.
Identity and contact details. This may include your name, title, correspondence address, collection and delivery addresses, and preferred contact details such as postal address and any other information you provide for communication purposes.
Service and booking information. This includes details about your removal or relocation requirements, inventory lists you provide, property access details, dates and times of moves, information about any special handling needs, and records of our communications and agreements with you.
Payment and transaction data. We may process information related to payments and invoices, such as amounts paid, payment method type, partial card or account identifiers where applicable, and records necessary for accounting and tax purposes. We do not store full payment card details if payment is processed through a secure third party.
Communication records. When you contact us by telephone, online forms, post or other channels, we may keep a record of your correspondence, enquiries, feedback, complaints and any other information you choose to provide.
Technical and usage data. If you visit our website, we may collect limited technical information such as your device type, approximate location, pages visited and basic analytics data. This helps us understand how our website is used and improve our services. Any use of cookies or similar technologies will be limited to what is necessary and lawful.
Lawful Bases for Processing Your Data
We only process your personal data when we have a valid legal basis to do so. Depending on the context, we may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases under the GDPR.
Performance of a contract. We process your personal data when it is necessary to provide our removal services, give you a quote, manage your booking, carry out the move, communicate with you about your service, and handle payments and billing.
Legal obligations. We may process and retain certain data to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, such as tax, accounting, health and safety, insurance and consumer protection requirements.
Legitimate interests. We may process your personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and interests do not override those interests. This can include managing and improving our services, responding to enquiries, preventing fraud, ensuring security of our operations, and keeping records of past moves for reference and dispute resolution.
Consent. In some cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of marketing communications or optional services. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing that took place before you withdrew consent.
How We Use Your Personal Data
We use your personal data for the following purposes in line with the lawful bases described above.
To provide removal services. We use your identity, contact and service details to arrange surveys, provide quotations, confirm bookings, plan routes, carry out moves, and deliver your belongings to the correct addresses.
To manage our relationship with you. This includes responding to enquiries, sending service confirmations and updates, handling complaints, processing cancellations or changes, and maintaining customer service records.
To process payments and accounting. We use payment and transaction details to issue invoices, receive payments, manage refunds where applicable, and maintain financial records for lawful accounting and tax purposes.
To improve our services. We may analyse aggregated, minimised and where possible anonymised data to help us understand customer needs, improve our operations, enhance safety and plan resources.
To send limited marketing communications. Where permitted by law or with your consent where required, we may send you information about our services that we believe may be relevant to you. You can opt out of marketing at any time.
To protect our business and prevent misuse. We may use your information to verify identity where appropriate, detect and prevent fraud or abuse, and handle claims or disputes relating to our services.
Data Sharing and Processors
We do not sell your personal data. We only share it when necessary and in line with this Privacy Policy.
Service providers. We may share personal data with carefully selected third party processors who provide services on our behalf, such as payment processors, accounting support, IT and system administration services, website hosting, secure document storage, insurance providers and external drivers or subcontractors assisting with a move. These processors are only permitted to process your data in accordance with our instructions and must implement appropriate security measures.
Professional advisers. We may share data with professional advisers, including lawyers, accountants and insurers, where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or for compliance and advisory purposes.
Authorities and legal requirements. We may disclose personal data when required to do so by law, regulation or court order, or to cooperate with law enforcement or regulatory authorities, provided such disclosure is lawful and proportionate.
International transfers. If any of our service providers are located outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that your data is afforded an equivalent level of protection, such as using standard contractual clauses or other recognised safeguards.
Data Retention
We keep your personal data for as long as is reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements.
Customer and booking records. As a general rule, we may retain core customer and booking information for a number of years after the completion of your removal service. This allows us to respond to queries about past work, manage any potential claims or disputes, and comply with legal retention obligations.
Financial and transaction data. We retain invoices, payment records and related financial documentation for the period required by law for tax and accounting purposes.
Marketing data. If you have agreed to receive marketing communications, we may retain your contact details for this purpose until you opt out or withdraw consent, or until we determine that the information is no longer required. Once data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exemptions.
Right of access. You have the right to request confirmation about whether we process your personal data and, if so, to request a copy of that data along with information about how it is used.
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 request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or where you have withdrawn consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.
Right to restriction of processing. You may ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, such as while we verify its accuracy or consider an objection you have raised.
Right to object. You have the right to object to processing that is based on our legitimate interests, including profiling based on those interests. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds which override your interests, rights and freedoms or where processing is required for legal claims. You also have an absolute right to object to direct marketing at any time.
Right to data portability. Where processing is based on consent or the performance of a contract and carried out by automated means, you may have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to request that we transfer it to another controller, where technically feasible.
Right to withdraw consent. Where we rely on your consent to process your data, you can withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before withdrawal.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you are concerned about how we process your personal data. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can attempt to resolve your concerns directly.
Security of Your Data
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, accidental loss, alteration or disclosure. These measures include restricting access to personal data to employees and service providers who need to know it for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, using secure systems and following data minimisation principles wherever possible.
Updates to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or data protection practices. Any changes will take effect when the revised policy is made available. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we handle your personal data as a Hammersmith Removals customer in our service area.
