Storage Hither Green Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Storage Hither Green collects, uses, stores, and protects the personal data of its customers and prospective customers in the local area. It also sets out the rights you have under applicable data protection laws, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. By using our services, contacting us, or visiting our site or premises, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.
Scope of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to all Storage Hither Green customers, prospective customers, and relevant contacts in our service area. It covers personal data collected through our premises, website, forms, correspondence, calls, and any other interactions you may have with us in connection with storage services or related enquiries.
Personal Data We Collect
We may collect and process the following categories of personal data when you enquire about or use our storage services:
Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, and other basic identifying information you provide when booking or enquiring about a unit.
Account and contract information, such as unit number, rental start and end dates, billing history, payment status, and communications about your account.
Payment and transaction details, such as information necessary to process payments and refunds. Full card details are typically processed by a secure payment provider and not stored by us.
Security and access information, such as records relating to unit access, key or fob allocation, and, where in use, CCTV footage on or around our premises, to help keep the site secure.
Communication data, such as emails, letters, and notes of telephone conversations with you, including any queries, complaints, or feedback.
Marketing preferences, including whether you have consented to receive information about offers, updates, or new services, and how you prefer us to contact you.
How We Collect Your Data
We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us, request a quote, sign a storage agreement, make payments, or update your details. We may also collect data through our premises and systems, such as access logs or CCTV where installed, in order to manage security and your contract. In some cases, we may receive information about you from third parties involved in your move or business arrangements, but only where it is lawful to do so and relevant to providing our services.
Lawful Bases for Processing
We process your personal data only where we have a valid legal basis under data protection law. Depending on the context, we rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:
Contract: We use your data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to set up your storage unit, manage your account, collect payments, communicate with you about your booking, or respond to your requests.
Legal obligation: We may process your data where required to comply with legal or regulatory obligations, such as tax, accounting, fraud prevention, or health and safety requirements.
Legitimate interests: We may process your data where it is necessary to pursue our legitimate business interests, provided these are not overridden by your rights and interests. This can include activities such as maintaining the security of our site, preventing non-payment or misuse, managing and improving our services, and keeping basic records of past customers.
Consent: In some situations, we rely on your consent, for example to send you certain marketing communications that you choose to receive. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
How We Use Your Personal Data
We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:
To provide and manage storage services, including setting up and administering your account, handling your unit access, processing payments, and providing customer support.
To communicate with you about your contract, including reminders, notices, changes to terms, and operational updates that may affect your storage unit or payments.
To maintain safety and security on our premises, including monitoring and investigating security incidents, managing access, and protecting our property and that of our customers.
To manage our business operations, including internal administration, record keeping, accounting, reporting, and service improvement.
To comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including responding to lawful requests from authorities or law enforcement where necessary and proportionate.
To send you carefully considered marketing about our services where we are permitted to do so, and to record your marketing preferences.
Data Retention
We keep your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and to meet any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. In general, we will retain core customer account and contract records for a period after your storage agreement has ended, to resolve any disputes, respond to queries, and comply with legal obligations. CCTV footage, if used, is normally retained for a shorter period, unless required for the investigation of a specific incident. When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it.
Data Processors and Third Parties
We may use carefully selected third party service providers to help deliver our services and run our business. These third parties may act as data processors on our behalf, and may include payment processing providers, IT and cloud service providers, accounting or administrative support, and security and maintenance contractors for our site or systems.
Where we use processors, they are only allowed to process your personal data according to our written instructions, must keep it secure, and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes. We take steps to ensure that any third party with access to your data provides sufficient guarantees to protect it in line with data protection laws.
We may also share personal data with professional advisers such as auditors or legal advisers, or with authorities and law enforcement, where disclosure is necessary and lawful. We do not sell your personal data.
International Transfers
Where any of our service providers are located outside the UK or European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place before any personal data is transferred, for example by using standard contractual clauses or other recognised transfer mechanisms, so that your data remains protected to a standard essentially equivalent to that in the UK.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you. These rights may be subject to certain conditions and legal limitations, but we will always respond to any request you make in line with applicable law.
Right of access: You can request confirmation that we process your personal data and ask for a copy of the data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
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 legal basis applies.
Right to restriction: You can request that we restrict our processing of your personal data in specific situations, for example while we are checking its accuracy or considering an objection you have raised.
Right to object: You can object to our processing of your personal data where it is based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing. When you object to direct marketing, we will stop using your data for that purpose.
Right to data portability: Where processing is based on your consent or on a contract and carried out by automated means, you may request to receive your personal data in a commonly used, machine readable format, or have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.
Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on consent to process your data, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.
Exercising Your Rights and Complaints
If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or have questions about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the details provided on our website or at our premises. We may need to verify your identity before responding to certain requests. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your data unlawfully, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority for data protection.
Security of Your Data
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. These measures include restricted access to personal data, secure systems and storage, and policies and training designed to ensure that staff and contractors handle personal data responsibly.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or how we process your personal data. Any updated version will be made available through our usual communication channels. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we protect your data.
