Storage West Hendon Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Storage West Hendon collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to its customers and prospective customers in the Storage West Hendon service area. It is intended to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.
Scope of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to all Storage West Hendon customers, former customers, and prospective customers in our operating area, including individuals acting on behalf of businesses who enquire about or use our storage services. It covers personal data collected in person at our facilities, over the phone, by post, and through any online forms or digital tools we operate.
Personal Data We Collect
We collect and process different types of personal data depending on your relationship with us and how you use our services. The main categories of data we may collect include:
Identification data such as full name, title, date of birth, and identification document details where required for security or legal purposes.
Contact data such as billing address, storage unit address details, correspondence address, and information about your preferred contact methods.
Account and contract data such as customer reference numbers, contract start and end dates, storage unit details, payment history, and records of your communications with us.
Financial and payment data such as limited card or bank details processed via secure payment processors, payment authorisations, and records of invoices and receipts. We do not store full card details where this is not necessary.
Security and access data such as CCTV footage at our premises, gate access logs, visit records, and information required to confirm your identity when interacting with us.
Technical and usage data such as information about how you interact with our online tools or digital forms, including device and browser details where collected, and information entered into online contact or enquiry forms.
How We Collect Personal Data
We may collect your personal data directly from you when you enquire about our services, request a quote, sign a storage agreement, make a payment, visit our facilities, or contact us with a query or complaint.
We may also collect personal data indirectly from authorised third parties such as payment processors, credit reference agencies where legally permitted and relevant, fraud prevention services, and business partners referring you to our services.
In some cases we may generate personal data ourselves, such as creating internal identifiers, notes of communications, and access or security logs.
Lawful Basis for Processing
We will only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the specific activity, the lawful basis may be:
Performance of a contract, where processing is necessary to provide our storage services, manage your account, take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or handle your enquiries about our services.
Compliance with a legal obligation, where we must process personal data to meet legal or regulatory requirements, such as tax, accounting, anti fraud, crime prevention, or law enforcement requests.
Legitimate interests, where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests or those of a third party, and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Examples include securing our premises and property, improving our services, managing business operations, and preventing misuse of our facilities.
Consent, where we rely on your specific, informed consent for certain activities, such as optional marketing communications. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time using the contact methods we provide.
How We Use Personal Data
We use personal data for the following purposes:
To provide and manage storage services, including setting up your account, allocating and managing storage units, processing payments, and handling renewals or terminations.
To communicate with you about your account, bookings, payments, security matters, service updates, or any queries or complaints you raise.
To maintain the security and safety of our premises, customers, and staff, including through the use of CCTV, access control systems, and incident reporting.
To manage our business operations, including internal administration, record keeping, financial management, service improvement, staff training, and quality control.
To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, respond to lawful requests from authorities, and exercise or defend legal claims.
To send you information about our services and related offers where permitted by law, and subject to your right to object or opt out of marketing communications.
Data Sharing and Processors
We may share your personal data with carefully selected third parties where necessary and lawful. These third parties may act as data processors on our behalf or as separate controllers, depending on their role.
Data processors are third parties who process personal data strictly in accordance with our instructions and for our purposes. Examples include payment processing providers, secure document storage and destruction companies, IT support and hosting providers, CCTV system providers, and professional advisers engaged to support our operations.
Where third parties act as independent controllers, such as public authorities, law enforcement agencies, insurers, and some professional advisers, they will determine how they use your personal data in line with their own legal obligations and privacy information.
Whenever we use processors, we put in place written agreements requiring them to protect your personal data, keep it confidential, and process it only for the purposes we specify.
Data Retention
We keep personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, to meet our contractual and legal obligations, and to protect our legitimate interests.
In determining appropriate retention periods, we consider the type of data, the amount and sensitivity of the data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process it, legal and regulatory requirements, and applicable limitation periods for legal claims.
Customer account and contract records are generally retained for a period after the end of your relationship with us, to comply with accounting and tax obligations, resolve potential disputes, and address any follow up queries. CCTV and access logs are usually kept for shorter periods, unless required longer for the investigation of specific incidents or to comply with legal requirements.
When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with you.
International Transfers
Where we or our data processors transfer personal data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include the use of standard contractual clauses or other mechanisms approved by data protection authorities, as well as technical and organisational measures designed to protect your data.
Data Security
We take the security of personal data seriously and implement technical and organisational measures designed to protect it against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage. Measures may include access controls, staff training, secure storage systems, encryption in transit or at rest where appropriate, and regular review of our security arrangements.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to certain conditions and exemptions. They include:
Right of access, which allows you to request confirmation of whether we hold personal data about you and to receive a copy of that data, together with information about how we process it.
Right to rectification, which allows you to request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data be corrected or updated.
Right to erasure, sometimes known as the right to be forgotten, which allows you to request deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and there is no legal reason for us to continue processing it.
Right to restriction of processing, which allows you to request that we limit how we use your data in certain circumstances, such as while we are assessing a request for rectification or objection.
Right to data portability, which allows you in some cases to receive the personal data you provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to request that we transfer it directly to another controller where technically feasible.
Right to object, which allows you to object to certain types of processing, including processing based on our legitimate interests and processing for direct marketing.
Where we rely on consent as a lawful basis, you also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
Exercising Your Rights and Complaints
If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, or if you have any questions or concerns about how we process your personal data, you can contact us using the contact methods published on our website or at our premises. We may need to verify your identity before responding to certain requests.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority in the United Kingdom if you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data. We would, however, encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve your concerns directly.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, our processing activities, or legal requirements. The latest version will always be available at our premises or through our usual customer communication channels. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we use and protect your personal data.
