Waste Collection Barnet Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Waste Collection Barnet collects, uses, stores and shares personal data in connection with the waste and recycling services we provide. It applies to all Waste Collection Barnet customers in our service area, including residents, businesses and other organisations who use our collection services, contact us or interact with us in any way.

We are committed to complying with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. We process your personal data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner and only for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes.

Data Controller

The data controller responsible for your personal data is Waste Collection Barnet. This means we determine how and why your personal data is processed. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, you can contact us using the details provided on our main service communications and customer correspondence.

Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is necessary to deliver and manage our waste collection and related services. Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Identification and contact details such as your name, title, address, email address, telephone number and preferred contact method.

Service and account information such as your property type, service address, collection schedule, bin allocation, service history, customer reference or account number and information about specific requests or complaints.

Payment and billing information such as billing address, payment status, invoice details, records of payments made and any correspondence relating to charges or refunds. If you pay electronically, limited payment method details may be processed by our payment processors. We do not store full card details.

Communication records such as emails, letters, phone call notes, online forms, service requests, feedback and complaint records.

Operational and technical data such as records of collections, route optimisation details that relate to your property, time and date of service, access notes for your property and information you provide regarding assisted collections or special collection needs.

Website and digital interaction data such as technical information about your device, IP address, browser type, date and time of access and pages visited, where this is necessary for security, service improvement or to support online service requests.

Special category data is only collected in very limited circumstances, for example where you voluntarily provide health related information to support an assisted collection service. We only process this type of data when strictly necessary and with appropriate safeguards.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We process your personal data under one or more of the following lawful bases:

Contract performance. We need to process your personal data to enter into, administer and fulfil our contract to provide waste collection and related services to you. This includes arranging collections, handling service queries, managing your account and communicating with you about changes or issues affecting your service.

Legal obligation. We may process personal data to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, such as environmental regulations, public health requirements, waste reporting duties, tax, accounting and audit obligations and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate interests. We may process your personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests or those of a third party, and where your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This includes managing our operations efficiently, improving our services, preventing fraud and misuse, ensuring the security of our systems and property and handling customer queries and complaints.

Consent. In some cases, we rely on your consent, for example for certain types of optional communications or where we process special category data to support tailored services. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

To provide, manage and improve our waste collection, recycling and related services, including arranging collections, managing routes and ensuring continuity of service.

To create and manage customer records and accounts, process payments, issue invoices, handle direct debits and manage any related billing queries.

To communicate with you about your service, including notices of collection changes, service disruptions, safety information, requests for information and responses to your enquiries or complaints.

To plan and optimise our operational activities, including scheduling collections, improving service efficiency and monitoring service performance.

To meet legal, regulatory and reporting obligations, including record keeping, responding to statutory requests and cooperating with competent authorities where required by law.

To maintain the security and integrity of our systems, prevent and detect fraud or misuse of our services and protect our personnel, contractors and the public.

To analyse service performance, identify trends and develop improvements to our services and customer experience. Where possible, we use aggregated or de identified data for these purposes.

Data Sharing and Processors

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

Service providers and processors. We use third party companies to help us deliver our services, for example waste collection contractors, IT and systems providers, hosting and data storage providers, payment processors, customer service support, printing and mail distribution providers and professional advisers such as auditors and legal advisers. These parties only process your personal data on our instructions and are required to keep it secure and confidential.

Public bodies and authorities. Where required or permitted by law, we may share personal data with local authorities, regulators, law enforcement agencies, courts and other public bodies. This may occur in situations such as investigating illegal dumping, addressing health and safety concerns or complying with statutory notices.

Business transfers. In the event of a reorganisation, restructuring or transfer of part of our services, we may need to transfer relevant customer data to another organisation that continues the provision of waste collection services, subject to appropriate safeguards.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

International Data Transfers

Where any of our service providers are located outside the United Kingdom or where data is stored on servers in another country, we take steps to ensure that your personal data is afforded an equivalent level of protection. This may include using countries that the UK government has deemed to provide an adequate level of protection or entering into approved data protection clauses or other safeguards.

Data Retention

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

In practice this means that:

Customer and service records are generally retained for as long as you are a customer and for a defined period after services end, to answer queries, handle complaints and meet legal or accounting requirements.

Billing and financial records are kept for the periods required by tax, accounting and audit laws.

Communication records are kept for a period that allows us to manage our relationship with you effectively and to demonstrate how we have handled service issues.

Where data is no longer needed, we securely delete, anonymise or otherwise dispose of it in a safe manner.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, and subject to certain conditions and exemptions, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

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 that we hold about you.

Right to erasure. You can request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected or where you withdraw consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.

Right to restriction. You can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, such as while we investigate a concern you have raised about accuracy or our use of your data.

Right to object. You can object to processing based on our legitimate interests in certain circumstances. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms or we need the data for legal claims.

Right to data portability. Where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, you may have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to transmit it to another controller.

Where we rely on your consent to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before you withdraw.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed. We encourage you to contact us first so we can address any concerns directly.

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 access controls, staff training, secure storage, system security practices and regular review of our procedures. While we strive to protect your data, no system can be completely secure, and you should take care when providing personal data, particularly over public networks.

Updates to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations or data protection practices. The most recent version will always apply to how we handle your personal data. You should review this page periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.