Privacy Policy

Medway and Kent Removals, 47 Knight Templar Way, Rochester, Kent, ME2 2ZE. Telephone: 01634 570 000. Email: info@medwaykentremovals.co.uk

1. Who We Are and How to Contact Us

Medway and Kent Removals is a professional removal and relocation company based at 47 Knight Templar Way, Rochester, Kent, ME2 2ZE. We are the data controller for all personal information you provide to us, which means we are responsible for deciding how and why your personal data is used.

For all data protection matters, including subject access requests, requests to delete your data, or questions about how we use your information, please contact us by:

• Email: info@medwaykentremovals.co.uk (subject line: Data Protection Enquiry)
• Post: Data Protection, Medway and Kent Removals, 47 Knight Templar Way, Rochester, Kent, ME2 2ZE
• Telephone: 01634 570 000

We aim to acknowledge all data protection enquiries within 5 working days and to resolve them within one calendar month. If your request is particularly complex, we may extend this period by a further two months, in which case we will inform you of the reason for the delay.

2. The Personal Data We Collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect and process the following categories of personal data. We only collect personal data that is necessary for the purposes described in this policy.

2.1 Personal data you provide to us directly

• Identity data: Your first name, last name and, where relevant, any preferred form of address.
• Contact data: Your email address, telephone number or numbers, and your home or business postal address. For removal bookings, this will include your current address (moving from) and your new address (moving to).
• Removal service data: Information about your proposed move, including the type of service required, the size and type of property, your preferred or confirmed moving date, any special items requiring attention (such as pianos, safes or large furniture), any access challenges at either address, and any other details you share with us that are relevant to your removal.
• Financial data: Bank account details or payment card details where these are required to process a deposit or final payment for a booked removal. We do not store full card details ourselves. Card payments are processed via a secure third-party payment processor.
• Communications data: The content of any emails, messages, online enquiry forms, letters or phone call notes relating to your enquiry or booking.
• Feedback and review data: Any feedback, review content or complaint information you provide to us following a removal.

2.2 Personal data collected automatically when you visit our website

• Technical data: Your IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and device type.
• Usage data: Information about how you use our website, including the pages you visit, the links you click, the time you spend on each page, your referring URL (the page you came from before arriving at our site), and search terms used to find our website.
• Cookie and tracking data: Data collected via cookies, pixels, tags and similar tracking technologies placed on your device when you visit our website. See Section 9 of this policy for full details of our cookie use.

2.3 Personal data received from third parties

• Advertising platforms: Where you have engaged with one of our online advertisements on platforms such as Google Ads or Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and have provided consent for your data to be shared, we may receive limited data from those platforms to help us understand how effective our advertising is and to contact you about our services.
• Referral data: Occasionally a customer, estate agent or other third party may refer you to us and share your contact details. We will always treat such data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

3. How We Collect Your Personal Data

We collect personal data through the following means:

• Direct contact: When you fill in our online quote request form, call us on 01634 570 000, send us an email, or contact us through any other means, you are providing personal data directly to us. This is the primary way we collect data about potential and existing customers.
• Automated website technologies: When you visit medwaykentremovals.co.uk, our web server and analytics tools automatically collect technical and usage data about your visit. This data is used to improve our website and to understand how visitors find and use it.
• Cookies and tracking technologies: Our website uses cookies and similar technologies as described in Section 9 of this policy. Some of these require your consent before they are activated.
• Third-party platforms: We may receive data from advertising platforms and analytics providers as described above.

4. How and Why We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data when the law permits us to do so. UK GDPR requires that we have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. The lawful bases we rely on are as follows:

4.1 Performance of a contract

Where you have booked a removal service with us, we process your personal data to perform our contractual obligations to you. This includes using your contact details to confirm your booking and communicate with you about your move, using your address details to plan and carry out the removal, and using your payment details to process any deposits or balances due.

4.2 Legitimate interests

We process certain personal data on the basis of legitimate interests, where our interests in running our business effectively are not overridden by your rights and interests. We rely on legitimate interests for: responding to enquiries from people who have not yet booked a service, improving our website and service quality, ensuring the security of our business and preventing fraud, and sending service-related follow-up communications such as review requests after a completed removal.

4.3 Compliance with legal obligations

We are required by law to maintain certain records for specified periods. In particular, financial records including payment information are retained for 7 years in accordance with HMRC requirements. We process personal data to the extent necessary to comply with these legal obligations.

4.4 Consent

Where we rely on consent as the lawful basis for processing, we will obtain your explicit consent before processing. This applies particularly to: the placement of non-essential cookies on your device, and the sending of marketing communications where you are not an existing or recent customer of ours. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before the withdrawal.

Specifically, we use your personal data to:

• Respond to your removal enquiry and provide a detailed, accurate quote
• Confirm and manage your removal booking
• Plan and execute your removal service, including route planning and crew allocation
• Process payments for deposits and final balances
• Send you booking confirmations, pre-move information and post-move follow-up communications
• Send you marketing communications about our removal services where you have consented or where we have a legitimate interest as an existing customer
• Analyse how our website is used in order to improve it and improve our service offering
• Detect and prevent fraud and other unlawful activities
• Maintain business records as required by law
• Respond to complaints and resolve disputes

5. Marketing Communications

We may send you marketing communications about our removal and relocation services, seasonal offers and related information in the following circumstances:

• Where you are an existing or recent customer and have not opted out of marketing communications. Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), we have a legitimate interest in sending service-related marketing to existing customers.
• Where you have submitted an enquiry to us and have not opted out.
• Where you have given us explicit consent to receive marketing communications.

You have the right to opt out of marketing communications at any time. You can do this by:

• Clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any marketing email we send
• Emailing info@medwaykentremovals.co.uk with the subject line "Unsubscribe from marketing"
• Calling us on 01634 570 000 and asking to be removed from our marketing list
• Writing to us at 47 Knight Templar Way, Rochester, Kent, ME2 2ZE

Once we receive your opt-out request, we will process it promptly and within no more than 10 working days. Opting out of marketing will not affect your ability to use our services or our ability to send you service-related communications such as booking confirmations.

6. Sharing Your Personal Data

We do not sell, rent, trade or otherwise transfer your personal data to third parties for their own marketing purposes. We will only share your personal data with third parties in the following circumstances:

• Service providers and data processors: We work with carefully selected third-party companies that provide services on our behalf, such as website hosting, email delivery, payment processing, customer relationship management software, and website analytics. These companies process your data only on our instructions and are bound by data processing agreements that require them to maintain the security and confidentiality of your data and to use it only for the purposes we specify.
• Analytics and advertising platforms: We use tools such as Google Analytics to understand how our website is used. These tools may receive technical data about your visit. We use Google Ads and Meta advertising platforms and these platforms may receive limited data to help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising. These platforms have their own privacy policies governing how they use this data.
• Professional advisers: We may share relevant information with our solicitors, accountants, auditors, insurers and other professional advisers where necessary to obtain advice, to comply with our legal obligations, or to manage a dispute.
• Regulatory and government bodies: We may share information with HMRC, the Information Commissioner's Office, law enforcement agencies or other government bodies where we are required to do so by law, court order or regulatory requirement.
• Business transfer: In the event that we sell or transfer all or part of our business to another party, your personal data may be transferred to that party as part of the transaction. We would ensure that the receiving party is bound to treat your data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

7. International Data Transfers

The United Kingdom maintains its own data protection standards through UK GDPR. We do not routinely transfer your personal data to countries outside the United Kingdom. Where any transfer does occur, for example if we use a service provider whose servers are based outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data to the same standard required by UK law. These safeguards may include the use of the UK's International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA), standard contractual clauses approved by the UK Information Commissioner's Office, or adequacy decisions recognising that the recipient country provides equivalent data protection standards.

8. How Long We Retain Your Data

We retain personal data for only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, subject to any longer retention periods required by law. Our standard retention periods are:

• Enquiry data where no booking is made: We retain contact details and enquiry information for 12 months from the date of the enquiry. After this period, the data is securely deleted unless you have agreed to remain on our marketing list.
• Customer booking and removal data: We retain all data relating to completed removal bookings for 7 years from the date of the removal. This is required to comply with our legal obligations, particularly for tax and accounting purposes under HMRC rules.
• Financial records including payment data: We retain financial records for 7 years from the end of the relevant financial year, in accordance with HMRC requirements.
• Marketing communications and consent records: Where we send marketing communications on the basis of consent, we retain records of your consent until you withdraw it. Where we send marketing on the basis of legitimate interests, we retain your details until you opt out.
• Website analytics data: The retention period for website analytics data is determined by the settings of our analytics provider, typically up to 26 months.
• Complaints and disputes: Where a complaint or dispute arises in relation to a removal, we retain all relevant records for at least 6 years from the date of resolution to protect our legal position.

At the end of each applicable retention period, personal data is securely deleted or anonymised. Anonymised data (from which no individual can be identified) may be retained indefinitely for statistical and business analysis purposes.

9. Our Use of Cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your computer, tablet or smartphone when you visit a website. Cookies help websites to function correctly and to remember your preferences, and they help website owners to understand how their website is being used.

9.1 Types of cookies we use

• Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are essential for the website to function and cannot be switched off. They do not store any personally identifiable information. They are typically set in response to actions you take such as filling in a form or setting privacy preferences.
• Performance and analytics cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors use our website, such as which pages are visited most often and whether visitors receive error messages. All information collected is aggregated and therefore anonymous. We use Google Analytics to collect this information. These cookies help us improve our website. They require your consent before being placed on your device.
• Marketing and advertising cookies: These cookies are used to show you relevant advertising across the internet. They are placed by advertising platforms such as Google Ads and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and track your visits to our website so that relevant advertisements can be shown to you on other sites. These cookies require your explicit consent before being placed.

9.2 Managing your cookie preferences

When you first visit our website, you will be presented with a cookie consent notice. You can choose which categories of non-essential cookies you accept. You can also manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse or delete cookies. Instructions for the most commonly used browsers are available at the following links: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer. Please note that refusing all cookies may affect the functionality of some parts of our website. For more general information about cookies and how to manage them, visit the Information Commissioner's Office website at ico.org.uk or allaboutcookies.org.

10. Your Rights Under UK GDPR

Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data. Some of these rights are absolute, while others are subject to certain limitations or can be overridden in specific circumstances.

• Right of access (Subject Access Request): You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, along with information about how we use it and who we share it with. We must respond within one calendar month of receiving your request. This right is free of charge unless your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive, in which case we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to comply.
• Right to rectification: If the personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to correct or complete it. We will act on a rectification request promptly and within one calendar month.
• Right to erasure (right to be forgotten): In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete your personal data. This right applies where we no longer need the data for the purpose for which it was collected, where you withdraw consent and there is no other lawful basis for processing, or where the data has been processed unlawfully. This right does not apply where we are required by law to retain the data.
• Right to restriction of processing: In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we restrict how we process your personal data. This means we may continue to store the data but not use it, pending resolution of a dispute or query.
• Right to data portability: Where we process your personal data on the basis of your consent or for the performance of a contract, and where that processing is carried out by automated means, you have the right to receive a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to request that we transfer it directly to another organisation where this is technically feasible.
• Right to object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as the lawful basis. We must stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing that override your interests, rights and freedoms, or unless the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. You have an unconditional right to object to processing for direct marketing purposes.
• Rights related to automated decision-making and profiling: You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) where that decision produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you. We do not currently make any decisions about individuals based solely on automated processing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact details in Section 1 of this policy. We will verify your identity before processing your request to protect against unauthorised access to your personal data. We will not charge for processing your request unless it is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.

11. Security Measures We Take to Protect Your Data

We take the security of your personal data seriously and have implemented a range of appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, loss, alteration, disclosure or destruction. These measures include:

• HTTPS encryption on all pages of our website, protecting data transmitted between your browser and our web server
• Access controls ensuring that personal data can only be accessed by staff members who need it to perform their job functions
• Password protection and secure authentication for all internal systems containing personal data
• Regular review of our security measures and data protection policies
• Staff training on data protection responsibilities and secure data handling
• Secure deletion of personal data at the end of applicable retention periods

Despite these measures, no system for transmitting data over the internet or storing data electronically can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If you have any concerns about the security of your personal data, please contact us immediately using the details in Section 1.

11.1 Personal data breaches

In the event of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, where feasible. Where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to your rights and freedoms, we will also notify you directly without undue delay, providing information about the nature of the breach and the steps we are taking in response.

12. Third-Party Websites and Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, including review platforms, social media sites and partner websites. Clicking on these links and visiting those websites is subject to those websites' own privacy policies, over which we have no control and for which we accept no responsibility. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any third-party website you visit before providing any personal data to it.

13. Children

Our website and services are not directed at or intended for children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from individuals under the age of 16. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal data from a child under 16 without verifiable parental consent, we will take prompt steps to delete that data. If you believe that we may have collected information from a child under 16, please contact us immediately using the details in Section 1.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our business practices, changes to the services we offer, changes to the law, or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. When we make material changes to this policy, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of the page. We may also, where appropriate, notify you of significant changes by email. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your personal data. Your continued use of our website or services after any changes to this policy will constitute your acceptance of the updated policy.

15. How to Complain

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, or if you believe we have not complied with UK data protection law, we would first encourage you to contact us directly so that we can investigate and respond to your concern. Please use the contact details in Section 1. We take all data protection complaints seriously and will respond promptly and thoroughly.

If you are not satisfied with our response, or if you prefer to contact the regulator directly, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is the UK's independent authority for data protection:

• Website: ico.org.uk
• Telephone helpline: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745
• Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

The ICO can investigate complaints and take action against organisations that breach UK data protection law. They can also advise you on your rights and how to exercise them.