Introduction
At Domestic Appliance Guard, your privacy is not just an obligation, but a commitment. In today's digital age, we recognise the importance of maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of your personal data. This Privacy Policy serves as a testament to our unwavering dedication to protecting your privacy. Herein, we'll detail how we handle, store, and use your personal information, always prioritising transparency and trust. As you navigate our offerings and interact with our services, we want you to feel both informed and secure.
Who We Are
Domestic Appliance Guard is a nationwide service provider situated in England, specialising in boiler, home emergency, kitchen appliance cover, repair, and maintenance services. Our commitment to excellence ensures the consistent performance and longevity of these critical components of your home. Our main office can be found at Streate Place, St Peters Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH1 2LT. Should you have any queries regarding your privacy or data, don't hesitate to contact us at support@domesticapplianceguard.com or give us a ring at 0800 678 5271.
What Information We Collect
At Domestic Appliance Guard, our services require us to collect specific data to ensure we can provide and personalise our offerings. The categories of data we collect are:
• Contact Data: This includes details like your name, address, email address, phone number, and other similar contact details.
• Financial Data: This encompasses information related to payments such as bank account and card details.
• Technical Data: We may collect details about the devices you use to interact with us, including IP addresses, device types, browser types, and other technical specifications.
• Usage Data: This involves data about how you use our services, which services you've chosen, frequency of service requests, and other related behavioural data.
• Marketing and Communications Data: Information regarding your preferences in receiving marketing materials from us and our third-party partners, as well as your communication preferences.
We also collect, use and share aggregated data, such as statistical or demographic data, for any purpose. Aggregated data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data by law as it does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature.
We are committed to managing this data with utmost care, ensuring its security and using it in ways that respect your privacy.
How We Collect Your Information
At Domestic Appliance Guard, we utilise a mix of methods to gather your data to ensure the efficient delivery of our services:
1. Direct Interactions: The majority of the data we collect comes directly from you. This happens when you:
• Sign up for our services.
• Make a payment.
• Request customer support or provide feedback.
• Fill in forms on our website.
• Participate in our promotions, surveys, or marketing campaigns.
2. Automated Technologies: As you interact with our website or mobile applications, we may automatically collect technical data about your device, browsing actions and patterns. We gather this data through cookies, server logs, and other similar technologies.
3. Third Parties: On occasion, we receive data about you from third parties, which include:
• Payment processors, when they confirm the payment you made for our services.
• Technical service providers that help us optimise and maintain our online platforms.
• Marketing agencies, analytics providers, and search information providers.
• Feedback and survey response providers, especially after you've availed of our services.
We always ensure that the channels through which we collect your data uphold the highest standards of data protection and privacy.
Why We Collect Your Information
Understanding your needs and preferences is paramount for Domestic Appliance Guard. Here's why we collect and process your personal data:
1. Service Provision: We gather your data to:
• Process and manage your orders for our boiler, home emergency, kitchen appliance cover, repair, and maintenance services.
• Address and resolve any issues or complaints related to our services.
• Provide you with customer support and manage service-related enquiries.
2. Business Operations and Improvements: Your data aids us in:
• Enhancing, personalising, and expanding our service offerings.
• Conducting business reporting and analysis to identify areas of growth and improvement.
• Making decisions about ways to innovate and adapt to the market.
3. Communication: We use your data to:
• Send you service-related announcements, reminders, or notifications.
• Share information about our new products, offers, and promotions, provided you've given your consent for such marketing communications.
• Request feedback and conduct surveys to improve our service delivery.
4. Legal and Regulatory Obligations: Your data is essential for us to:
• Comply with legal, regulatory, and auditing requirements.
• Ensure we're meeting our obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR.
• Protect our business interests and uphold our terms of service.
Every piece of information we gather is with a clear purpose, ensuring that we deliver value and maintain the trust you place in us.
How We Use Your Information
At Domestic Appliance Guard, the data we collect serves several integral functions:
1. Service Delivery: Your information enables us to:
• Fulfil our contract with you, including processing orders, managing your account, and delivering our range of services.
• Communicate effectively with you about any service updates, changes, or disruptions.
2. Payment Processing: We use your financial data to:
• Process payments for the services you've availed.
• Handle refunds or manage disputes, when necessary.
3. Customer Assistance: Your contact data allows us to:
• Address any concerns, queries, or complaints you might have.
• Offer tailored assistance and support based on your service usage and preferences.
4. Marketing Initiatives: With your consent, we may:
• Send newsletters, promotional offers, and updates on our services.
• Inform you about any events, workshops, or service expansions.
5. Site and Service Improvements: Your technical and usage data help us to:
• Enhance the functionality and user experience of our website.
• Make informed decisions on service modifications or new offerings.
6. Data Analytics: We often analyse usage data to:
• Understand market trends and customer preferences.
• Develop strategies for business growth and service enhancement.
Every action we take with your data aims to enrich your experience with Domestic Appliance Guard and ensure the utmost security and confidentiality.
Legal Basis for Processing
For Domestic Appliance Guard to collect and use your personal data, we must have a legitimate reason. Our grounds for processing your data include:
1. Consent: At times, we will ask for your consent to process certain types of personal data. For instance, we might seek your agreement before sending you promotional emails or other marketing materials. Remember, you always have the option to withdraw your consent.
2. Fulfilling a Contract: If you purchase a service from us, we need specific information from you to fulfil our end of the agreement. This includes using your contact details to provide the agreed services or your payment details to process transactions.
3. Legitimate Business Interests: Some processing is carried out because it's in our legitimate interests to do so. For instance, we may use your data to improve our services or ensure our website offers the best experience. In these cases, we always balance our interests against your rights and privacy.
4. Compliance with a Legal Obligation: Sometimes, we might be legally required to process personal data. This could be due to regulatory requirements, for tax purposes, or to ensure we're abiding by the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR.
5. Protection of Vital Interests: In rare cases, we might need to process personal data to protect someone's life.
Whenever we process your data, you can be assured it's done on a solid legal foundation, ensuring your rights and privacy are always respected.
Who We Share Your Data With
At Domestic Appliance Guard, our principle is to ensure your data is held with confidentiality and care. However, in some scenarios, sharing your data is necessary for providing our services or for our operational needs. Here's a breakdown of the entities with whom your data might be shared:
1. Trusted Third-party Service Providers: We partner with third-party companies to help us deliver our services effectively. For instance, we might share data with payment processors to facilitate transactions, or with IT service providers to maintain and improve our online platforms.
2. Regulatory Bodies: Sometimes, due to legal obligations, we may need to share specific data with regulatory or governmental entities. This is always done in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR.
3. Business Transactions: If Domestic Appliance Guard ever engages in business deals such as mergers, acquisitions, or asset sales, your data may be transferred to the involved third parties. In such scenarios, you will be notified and assured that your data's confidentiality remains a priority.
4. Marketing Partners: With your explicit consent, we might share certain data with marketing or advertising partners to bring you offers or promotions tailored to your interests.
5. Price Comparison Sites: To provide you with the best deals and options for our services, we might share limited data with trusted price comparison sites.
6. Debt Collection Agencies: In the unfortunate event of unpaid invoices or service charges, your data might be shared with debt collection agencies to manage and resolve the debt.
It's important to note that we ensure every third party we share data with respects your personal information and follows the necessary protocols to protect it.
International Transfers
Presently, Domestic Appliance Guard does not transfer your personal data outside of the UK. We value the security and confidentiality of your information, and all our data processing activities occur within the boundaries of the UK, ensuring that your data enjoys the robust protections provided by UK laws.
However, should there ever be a need for such a transfer in the future, we will take all necessary precautions and measures to ensure your data is treated securely. We will employ methods such as using secure data transfer protocols or ensuring the country or organisation we're transferring data to is recognised by UK authorities as having adequate data protection standards.
By using our services, you understand and agree to this aspect of our data management practice.
How We Protect Your Data
At Domestic Appliance Guard, the security and integrity of your personal data is paramount. We've put in place a host of measures to safeguard your information from any unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. Here's how we ensure the utmost protection:
1. Secure Servers: All the data we collect is hosted on servers with stringent security measures.
2. Data Encryption: We use advanced encryption methods to ensure that your data is safe from prying eyes during transmission and while stored.
3. Routine System Backups: Regular backups ensure that in the unlikely event of a system failure, your data is not lost.
4. Strict Access Controls: Only authorised personnel with a clear need-to-know basis can access your personal data, ensuring its confidentiality.
5. Regular Security Audits: Our systems undergo periodic security checks and audits to find and rectify any potential vulnerabilities.
6. Ongoing Staff Training: We ensure that our team remains updated about best practices in data protection.
We are continually reviewing and upgrading our security practices in line with technological advancements to make certain your data remains safe with us.
How Long We Retain Your Data
Your personal data is valuable, and we treat it with the respect it deserves. At Domestic Appliance Guard, we keep your data for only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for. This duration includes purposes such as complying with legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
1. Contractual Necessities: For clients with active services, we retain the data for the entirety of our contractual relationship and for a period afterwards, as specified by legal or regulatory obligations.
2. Accounting and Legal Obligations: We hold onto certain data types, like transaction records, to meet specific legal and accounting criteria. Typically, this period extends for six years after the transaction.
3. User Account Information: If you have an account with us, we keep your account details active to facilitate easy renewals or future services unless you request account deletion.
4. Marketing Preferences: For individuals who have opted into marketing communications but are not active clients, we keep your data for a period to ensure we respect your communication preferences.
It's important to note that in some circumstances, we might anonymise your personal data (so it can't be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes. In such cases, we can use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Your Rights Under the UK GDPR
Your privacy is a priority at Domestic Appliance Guard, and you have several rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) when it comes to your personal data:
1. Right to Access: You have the right to request copies of the personal data we hold about you at any time.
2. Right to Rectification: Should you believe that any personal data we hold on you is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to request rectification.
3. Right to Erasure: Under certain circumstances, you can request the deletion of your data from our records.
4. Right to Restrict Processing: If you believe your personal data is not accurate, or if you believe we don’t have a legitimate reason for processing it, you have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your data.
5. Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data we've collected to another organisation, or directly to you.
6. Right to Object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
7. Rights related to Automated Decision Making and Profiling: You have the right to not be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produce significant legal effects.
If you'd like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided. We will respond to your request within one month of receiving it, although this can be extended by two further months if your request is complex or numerous.
Should you not be satisfied with our response or believe our processing of your personal data is not in line with the law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Cookies
At Domestic Appliance Guard, we use cookies on our website to provide you with a seamless experience and to ensure the site functions correctly. These are small files stored on your device that capture certain data about your visit, which helps us enhance our service and understand user behaviour.
1. Functionality Cookies: These enable you to use certain functionalities of our website, like remembering you when you return to our site and saving your preferences.
2. Performance Cookies: These cookies collect information about how you use our website, like which pages you visit frequently. All the information these cookies collect is aggregated and used to improve the user experience.
3. Targeting/Advertising Cookies: These cookies are set by third parties on our website and are used to create a profile based on your browsing habits, so relevant ads can be shown to you on other sites.
You can manage or disable cookies from your browser settings. However, please note that doing so might affect certain functionalities of our website.
For a more detailed explanation on how cookies function and the specific cookies we use, please refer to our Cookie Policy.
Third-Party Links
Our website may contain links to external third-party websites. Please be aware that we at Domestic Appliance Guard are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of these external sites. We recommend you exercise caution and look at the privacy policy of any website you visit through a link on our site. We aim to offer these links for your convenience, but their inclusion does not imply our endorsement of the website or any association with its operators. Always ensure you're familiar with the privacy policies of these third-party sites before sharing any personal data.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to our practices, new services, or changes in legal or regulatory requirements. Whenever we make significant changes, we will inform you through an announcement on our website or by sending an email. To stay updated, we encourage you to regularly review our Privacy Policy.
Your continued use of our services after such updates take effect will signify your acceptance of these changes. If you do not agree to any of the updated terms, you should discontinue using our services.
How to Make a Complaint
We take any complaints regarding your privacy very seriously. If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, please contact us directly at support@domesticapplianceguard.com, or call 0800 678 5271. We will address your concerns and aim to resolve any issues swiftly.
If you're not satisfied with our response, or if you believe our processing of your information does not comply with data protection law, you can make a complaint to the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Contact Information
If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:
Email: support@domesticapplianceguard.com
Phone: 0800 678 5271
Postal Address: Streate Place, St Peters Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH1 2LT.