Storage Forest Gate Customer Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Storage Forest Gate collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to all Storage Forest Gate customers in the area. It also explains your rights under data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act, and how you can exercise those rights.
By using our storage services, visiting our premises or otherwise interacting with us as a customer, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.
Scope and Data Controller
This Privacy Policy applies to all Storage Forest Gate customers in the area, including individual and business customers who rent units, make enquiries, or use related services on site. Storage Forest Gate is the data controller responsible for deciding how and why your personal data is processed in connection with these services.
Personal Data We Collect
We collect and process different categories of personal data depending on how you interact with us. This may include:
Identity and contact information such as name, postal address, billing address, contact address, identification document details, and any other information you choose to provide in correspondence with us.
Account and contract information such as customer account numbers, unit numbers, contract start and end dates, payment terms, rental history, correspondence about your contract and any notes relevant to providing you with storage services.
Payment and transaction information such as payment method details used to pay for services, billing history, records of invoices, receipts and refunds. We do not store full card details where we use secure payment processors.
Security and access information such as CCTV footage on and around our premises, access log data such as entry and exit times, gate codes or fob identifiers, and records of incidents or accidents on site.
Communication information such as emails, letters or other messages sent to or from us, records of complaints or queries, and records of marketing preferences where you have chosen to receive or not receive certain communications.
Website usage information where applicable, such as basic technical and usage data collected through our online services, including pages visited and forms submitted. We only collect what is necessary to operate and improve our services.
Lawful Bases for Processing
We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis under the UK GDPR. Depending on the purpose, we rely on one or more of the following bases:
Contract: We process your data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, such as when you rent a storage unit, manage your account, take payments or respond to your service requests.
Legal obligation: We process your data where it is necessary to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, such as tax, accounting, health and safety and crime prevention obligations.
Legitimate interests: We process your data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests or those of a third party, and where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This includes managing our premises, ensuring the security and safety of customers and staff, preventing fraud, improving our services and handling customer queries.
Consent: In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain forms of marketing communications. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time, and this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before you withdrew consent.
How We Use Personal Data
We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:
To set up and manage your customer account and storage agreement, including creating and administering your contract, managing your bookings and unit allocations, and communicating with you about your account.
To provide and maintain our storage services, including granting access to the premises, managing access control systems, resolving issues with units or facilities and providing customer support.
To process payments and manage billing, including issuing invoices, collecting payments, processing refunds or chargebacks where applicable and keeping accurate financial records.
To ensure safety and security on site, including monitoring CCTV, managing access logs, investigating incidents or suspicious activity and assisting law enforcement where required by law.
To communicate with you, including responding to enquiries and complaints, sending service updates about your contract or the premises and communicating changes to our terms or this Privacy Policy.
To improve our services and business operations, including monitoring usage patterns, planning capacity, training staff and reviewing customer feedback.
To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including record keeping, responding to lawful requests from public authorities and meeting our obligations in relation to crime prevention and public safety.
Data Processors and Sharing of Personal Data
We may share your personal data with trusted third parties that act as data processors on our behalf. These processors may include:
Payment service providers who process payments and manage card or bank transactions securely.
Security and access control providers who supply and maintain CCTV systems, access control systems, alarms and related technology used on our premises.
Information technology and hosting providers who provide data storage, software applications and technical support required to run our business systems.
Professional advisers such as accountants, auditors, lawyers or insurers who require access to certain records in order to provide professional services to us.
These processors are only permitted to process personal data in accordance with our instructions and for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We require them to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data.
We may also share personal data with public authorities, regulators, law enforcement agencies or courts where required to do so by law or where it is necessary to protect our rights, the rights of our customers or the safety of individuals.
Data Retention
We keep personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.
In determining the appropriate retention periods, we consider the nature and sensitivity of the data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process the data and any applicable legal requirements.
Customer account and contract records are generally kept for a defined period after your contract ends so that we can deal with queries or disputes, meet tax and accounting requirements and demonstrate that we have fulfilled our obligations. CCTV footage and access logs are generally kept for a shorter period unless longer retention is required due to an incident, investigation or legal requirement.
When personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with you.
Data Security
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures include limiting access to personal data to staff and processors who need to know it for their role, using secure systems and applying security procedures on site.
While we take reasonable steps to safeguard personal data, no system can be completely secure. We therefore cannot guarantee absolute security but we work continually to maintain and improve our safeguards.
International Transfers
Where we use service providers or systems located outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that any transfer of personal data is subject to appropriate safeguards required under data protection law. This may include the use of standard contractual clauses or reliance on an adequacy regulation where applicable.
Your Data Protection Rights
As a Storage Forest Gate customer in the area, you have rights under data protection law in relation to your personal data. Depending on the circumstances, these rights may include:
Right of access: You can request confirmation that we process your personal data and obtain a copy of that data, together with certain information about how we use it.
Right to rectification: You can request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.
Right to erasure: In certain situations, you can request that we delete your personal data, 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 request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example while we verify its accuracy or consider an objection you have raised.
Right to object: You can object to processing based on our legitimate interests where you believe your rights and freedoms outweigh our interests. You can also object at any time to the use of your data for direct marketing.
Right to data portability: In certain circumstances, you can request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format, or that we transmit it directly to another controller where this is technically feasible.
Where we rely on consent as a lawful basis, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing before consent was withdrawn.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority for data protection if you are concerned about how we handle your personal data. We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns directly in the first instance.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, changes in data protection law or guidance, or improvements in how we communicate our practices. When we make changes, we will update the date of the policy and make the revised version available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we process personal data.
