Waste Collection Docklands Customer Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Waste Collection Docklands collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our customers in the Docklands area. It also explains your rights under applicable data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the EU General Data Protection Regulation where applicable. This Privacy Policy applies to all Waste Collection Docklands customers within our service area, regardless of how you engage with us.

By using our waste collection and related services, contacting us, or providing your personal data to us, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Who we are and how to contact us

Waste Collection Docklands is the organisation responsible for determining how and why your personal data is processed. For the purposes of data protection law, we act as the data controller in relation to the personal data covered by this Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using our standard customer service contact details as shown on our communications and invoices.

Personal data we collect

We only collect personal data that we need in order to deliver our services, manage our relationship with you and meet our legal obligations. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, service address, email address, telephone number and preferred contact methods.

Account and service information, such as your customer account number, billing details, records of waste collection services provided, service preferences, communication history and information relating to reported issues or complaints.

Payment information, such as your payment method, limited payment card details processed through secure payment systems, bank account details where required for payment processing, and records of payments made.

Usage and interaction data, such as information about how you use our services, when collections are scheduled or altered, and records of your interactions with us by phone, email, online forms or other communication channels.

Technical information, where you access our online services, including your IP address, browser type and basic device information necessary to operate and secure our websites and online tools.

How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data from you when you contact us, request a quote, set up or manage an account, sign a contract, make a payment, use our services, submit a query or complaint, or otherwise interact with us. We may also receive personal data about you from third parties, such as payment providers, business partners or publicly available sources, where this is necessary to provide our services or meet our legal obligations.

Lawful bases for processing your data

We only process your personal data when we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Contract: We process your personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to provide waste collection services, manage your account and handle billing, payments and service communications.

Legal obligation: We process certain data to comply with applicable laws and regulatory requirements, such as record keeping, tax obligations, health and safety requirements, and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate interests: We process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include managing and improving our services, ensuring the security of our systems, preventing fraud, handling customer queries efficiently and maintaining accurate records.

Consent: In limited cases, we may ask for your consent to process personal data for specific purposes, such as certain types of marketing communications. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time by contacting us using our standard contact details.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage waste collection and related services, including setting up and maintaining your account, scheduling collections, responding to your requests and providing customer support.

To manage billing and payments, including issuing invoices, processing payments and dealing with queries about charges.

To communicate with you about your services, including service updates, operational notices, changes to terms, and responses to your enquiries or complaints.

To improve, maintain and secure our services, systems and processes, including monitoring service performance, carrying out analytics and troubleshooting problems.

To meet our legal and regulatory obligations, including maintaining appropriate records, cooperating with competent authorities and enforcing our contractual rights.

To protect our business, our staff and our customers, including preventing and detecting fraud or misuse of our services.

Data sharing and use of processors

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where this is necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and where appropriate safeguards are in place.

We use external service providers acting as data processors to help us deliver our services and operate our business. These processors may include payment processors, billing and accounting providers, IT and cloud hosting providers, customer support tools, communications providers and professional advisers such as auditors. These processors only process your personal data in accordance with our documented instructions, are subject to confidentiality obligations and must implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data.

In some cases, we may share personal data with other controllers where this is required by law or where it is necessary to protect our legitimate interests, such as with regulatory bodies, law enforcement agencies, insurers or legal advisers. Whenever we share your data, we will ensure that we only disclose what is strictly necessary and that such sharing is supported by an appropriate lawful basis.

International data transfers

Where our processors or service providers are located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, or where data is accessed from another country, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data in accordance with data protection law. These safeguards may include the use of standard contractual clauses or other legally recognised transfer mechanisms.

Data retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including to provide our services, meet our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.

In most cases, we keep your customer account information for as long as you have an active relationship with us, and for a reasonable period afterwards to deal with any outstanding matters. Financial and transactional records are typically retained for the period required by tax and accounting rules. After the relevant retention periods have expired, personal data is securely deleted or anonymised so that it can no longer be linked to an identifiable individual.

How we protect your personal data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, alteration, disclosure or destruction. These measures include access controls, secure storage, encryption where appropriate, staff training and regular review of our security procedures. While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we are committed to maintaining a level of security appropriate to the risks presented by the processing of your data.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have various rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exemptions. These rights include:

Right of access: You can request confirmation as to whether we process your personal data and obtain a copy of that data, along with information about how it is used.

Right to rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data held about you.

Right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you can request that we 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 no other lawful basis applies.

Right to restriction: You can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in specific situations, such as while we are verifying the accuracy of the data or considering an objection you have raised.

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

Right to object: You can object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as the lawful basis. 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.

Rights related to consent: Where we process your data based on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you believe that we have not complied with data protection law in our handling of your personal data. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can address your concerns directly.

Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or other factors. When we make changes, we will revise the effective date and, where appropriate, provide you with notice of significant changes. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we handle your personal data.