Gardeners Maryland Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Maryland collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data relating to customers in our service area. It also explains the rights you have under the General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Maryland customers in our operating area and to all individuals who contact or interact with us about our gardening and related services.

Who We Are and Scope of this Policy

Gardeners Maryland provides gardening, landscaping, and related maintenance services to residential and commercial customers. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Maryland is the data controller in relation to the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This Policy applies to all customers, prospective customers, and individuals representing business customers in our service area, as well as to people who make enquiries about our services.

Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Identification and contact details, such as full name, postal address, service address if different, and communication preferences.

Contact and communication details, such as email address supplied by you, and records of communications, including enquiries, quotes, and service-related correspondence.

Service and contract information, such as details of the services requested or provided, property type and garden details relevant to the services, service schedules, and notes relating to our work for you.

Billing and payment information, such as invoices, payment history, and method of payment details where necessary for processing transactions. We do not store full payment card details when third-party payment processors are used.

Technical and usage information, such as basic information about how you interact with our website or online platforms, including date and time of visits and basic device information where collected by necessary cookies or similar technologies.

Feedback and customer support information, such as reviews, complaints, and responses to surveys or service improvement requests that you choose to provide.

How We Collect Personal Data

We collect personal data in the following ways:

Directly from you when you contact us to request a quote, make a booking, enter into a contract for services, or communicate with us by phone, post, or online forms.

During the provision of services at your property, including observations required to plan and deliver the gardening or landscaping services you have requested.

From third parties, where lawful, such as business partners or platforms that refer you to us, or payment processors that confirm payment status.

Automatically through our website or digital tools using essential cookies or similar technologies that help us operate and secure our services, subject to applicable law.

Lawful Bases for Processing Personal Data

We rely on the following lawful bases under data protection law to process your personal data:

Performance of a contract: We process personal data where it is necessary to provide our services, respond to enquiries, prepare quotes, manage bookings, and fulfil our contractual obligations to you.

Compliance with legal obligations: We process personal data where needed to comply with tax, accounting, record-keeping, health and safety, and other legal requirements.

Legitimate interests: We process personal data for purposes that are necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these are not overridden by your rights and interests. These interests include managing our relationship with customers, improving and developing our services, ensuring the security of our systems, preventing fraud, and pursuing or defending legal claims.

Consent: In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of direct marketing or optional communications where consent is required. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage gardening and related services, including scheduling, planning, and delivering services at your property.

To respond to enquiries, provide quotes, and manage bookings and contracts.

To issue invoices, process payments, and manage accounts and financial records.

To communicate with you about services, including service reminders, changes to appointments, and important updates about our terms or this Privacy Policy.

To improve our services, including through customer feedback and analysis of service usage, where permitted by law.

To manage our business operations, including record-keeping, auditing, and reporting.

To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, and to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share personal data with carefully selected third parties who act as data processors on our behalf, or as separate data controllers where required by law. These may include:

Service providers such as information technology support, website hosting, customer relationship management tools, and secure data storage providers.

Payment processors that handle transactions and payment-related services.

Professional advisers such as accountants, lawyers, and insurers where necessary to manage our business and meet legal obligations.

Public authorities and regulators where we are required to share information to comply with legal or regulatory obligations or to protect our rights or the rights of others.

Where we use third-party processors, they are only permitted to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions, for the purposes we specify, and subject to appropriate confidentiality and security obligations.

International Transfers

If personal data is transferred outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area by our service providers, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as standard contractual clauses or equivalent measures, to protect your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or as required or permitted by law. The specific retention period may vary depending on the type of data and the context of our relationship with you.

Customer and contract data, including service records and invoices, are generally retained for a period required to meet our tax, accounting, and legal obligations, and to manage any disputes or claims that may arise.

Enquiry and quotation data for prospective customers are retained for a reasonable period to respond to your queries and follow up on potential services, unless you request earlier deletion where we are able to comply.

Marketing-related data, where based on consent or legitimate interests, is retained until you opt out or object, or until it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

When personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete or anonymise it in accordance with applicable law.

Security of Personal Data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. These measures include access controls, secure storage, and limitations on who can access personal data within our organisation and among our processors. While we take reasonable steps to protect your data, no system can be guaranteed as completely secure.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection laws, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exceptions:

Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and to receive a copy of that data.

Right to rectification: You have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal data and completion of incomplete data.

Right to erasure: You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data where there is no longer a lawful basis for us to keep it.

Right to restriction of processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

Right to data portability: You may have the right to receive personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used format, and to transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to object: You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including profiling, and to object at any time to processing for direct marketing purposes.

Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, you can contact us using the contact methods made available on our website or through our usual customer communication channels. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request.

Complaints and Supervisory Authority

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, we encourage you to contact us first so we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority in your country of residence or place of work, or where you believe an infringement of data protection law has occurred.

Changes 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. When we make changes, we will revise the date of the most recent update at the end of this Policy. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we process and protect your personal data.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Maryland customers and prospective customers within our service area and was last updated on the date shown below.

Last updated: 10 February 2026