Storage Highams Park Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Storage Highams Park collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to its customers and prospective customers in the surrounding area. It also explains your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. By using our storage services or contacting us about 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 Highams Park customers and prospective customers in the area who contact us, request a quote, make a booking, sign a contract, access our premises, or otherwise interact with us. It covers data collected in person, by telephone, through online enquiry forms, by post, and through any other usual business communication channels that we operate.
Data Controller
Storage Highams Park is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. As data controller, we decide how and why your personal data is processed and are responsible for ensuring that such processing complies with applicable data protection law.
Personal Data We Collect
We may collect and process the following categories of personal data about you, depending on how you interact with us and which services you use:
Identification and contact details: name, postal address, billing address, contact address, and details relating to your identity such as date of birth and customer reference numbers.
Communication details: email address, communication preferences, and the content of communications you send to us or that we send to you, including enquiries, complaints and feedback.
Contract and payment information: records of storage unit bookings, rental agreements, contract start and end dates, prices, payment status, invoices, and basic payment-related information necessary to process and reconcile payments. We do not store full card details when payment is taken via secure payment processors.
Access and security data: vehicle registration numbers used to access the site, access control records, and CCTV images captured on or around our premises to protect property, customers and staff.
Technical and usage data: information generated when you access our online pages or digital forms, such as device information, approximate location based on device or network settings, and log data. This is used to operate and secure our online services and to understand how they are used.
Marketing and preferences: records of whether you have consented to receive marketing from us, your communication preferences and interactions with marketing communications.
How We Collect Your Data
We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us, request a quote, enter into a storage agreement, visit our premises, or correspond with us by any means. We may also collect data from third parties where this is necessary for our contract with you or where permitted by law, such as credit reference agencies for identity or verification checks, or payment providers when you make payments to us.
Lawful Bases for Processing
We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the context, we may rely on the following lawful bases:
Contract: we process personal data to take steps at your request before entering into a contract and to perform a storage or related services contract with you. This includes processing data to manage bookings, set up accounts, provide storage units, manage access control, process payments, and provide customer support.
Legal obligation: we process data where required to comply with our legal obligations, such as tax, accounting, anti-fraud, security, and health and safety obligations, and to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.
Legitimate interests: we process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Our legitimate interests include managing and improving our storage services, maintaining the security of our premises, preventing and detecting crime, managing customer relationships, and protecting our property and business.
Consent: we may rely on your consent for specific processing activities, such as sending certain forms of direct marketing communications where consent is required by law. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time.
How We Use Your Personal Data
We may use your personal data for the following purposes:
To respond to enquiries, provide quotes, and advise you about our storage services.
To set up and manage your account, administer storage agreements, allocate storage units and maintain accurate records of your use of our services.
To process payments, manage billing and accounting, and handle queries about charges or invoices.
To manage access to our premises, including maintaining access logs and using CCTV for security, crime prevention, and health and safety.
To communicate with you about your contract, including notices, service updates, changes to terms, or important information relating to your storage unit or our facilities.
To send marketing communications about our services where we are permitted to do so by law and in line with your communication preferences.
To manage and improve our operations, train staff, handle complaints, resolve disputes, and maintain accurate business records.
To comply with legal and regulatory requirements and to cooperate with law enforcement or regulatory authorities where necessary.
Data Sharing and Processors
We may share your personal data with third parties where this is necessary and lawful. These third parties may act as data processors on our behalf or as separate data controllers, depending on the circumstances.
We may use data processors to provide services such as payment processing, accounting, secure data hosting, IT support, access control systems, CCTV system maintenance, and customer relationship management tools. These processors are contractually required to process personal data only on our instructions, to keep it secure, and to comply with data protection law.
We may also share personal data with professional advisers, such as accountants or legal advisers, and with public authorities or law enforcement agencies where required by law or where necessary to protect our rights, property, or the safety of our staff and customers.
We do not sell your personal data to third parties.
International Transfers
Where we use service providers or systems that involve transferring personal data outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. This may include using countries that have been recognised as providing an adequate level of data protection or implementing standard contractual clauses and other lawful transfer mechanisms.
Data Retention
We keep personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including for satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
In general, we retain contract and billing records for a period determined by applicable tax and accounting rules following the end of your relationship with us. CCTV footage and access logs are retained for shorter periods, typically only as long as needed for security, investigation, and safety purposes, unless a longer retention period is required in connection with an incident or legal claim.
When personal data is no longer required, it is securely deleted, anonymised, or otherwise disposed of in accordance with our data retention policies and applicable law.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These may be subject to certain conditions and limitations, but we will always respond to any request you make in line with the law.
Right of access: you have the right to obtain confirmation as to whether we process your personal data and, if so, to receive a copy of the data and other information about how it is used.
Right to rectification: you have the right to request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data about you is corrected or completed.
Right to erasure: in certain circumstances, you may request that we delete your personal data, for example where the data is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected, or where you withdraw consent and there is no other lawful basis for processing.
Right to restriction: you may request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, such as while we verify the accuracy of the data or assess an objection you have raised.
Right to data portability: in some cases, you have the right to receive the personal data you provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format and to transmit that data to another controller where technically feasible.
Right to object: you have the right to object at any time to processing of your personal data that is based on our legitimate interests, including profiling based on those interests. 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. You also have an absolute right to object to direct marketing.
Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on consent to process your personal data, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing before consent was withdrawn.
Security of Your Data
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures include access controls, secure storage, staff training, and regular review of our security procedures. While we take reasonable steps to protect your data, no system is completely secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, how we process personal data, or legal requirements. Any updated version will be made available through our usual communication channels, and the updated policy will apply from the date it is published.
Contact and Complaints
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, or if you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, you can contact us using our usual correspondence channels. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe that your personal data has been processed in a way that does not comply with data protection law.
