Privacy Policy

ServiceMaster Limited (Trading as ServiceMaster Clean, Furniture Medic, Merry Maids, TruGreen and Rosemary Bookkeeping) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

ServiceMaster Limited registered number 1250088 registered office ServiceMaster House, The Whittle Estate, Cambridge Road, Whetstone, Leicester LE8 6LH is the data controller and responsible for your personal data (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy policy).

Please note that many ServiceMaster cleaning services businesses are owned and operated by franchise businesses who are independent business people. This privacy notice does not apply to franchise businesses of ServiceMaster, or to websites operated by franchise businesses. Please refer to the privacy notices issued by such franchise businesses for information on their practices with respect to personal data. We will let you know which ServiceMaster franchise business will be the controller for your data when you purchase a product or service with us. ServiceMaster Limited is the controller and responsible for this website.

This policy (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you (including the personal data of the owners of franchise businesses) , or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

This privacy policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them.

We have appointed a data privacy coordinator who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data privacy coordinator using the details set out below.

Our websites are not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

  1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE

Contact details

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact our data privacy coordinator in the following ways:

Full name of legal entity: ServiceMaster Limited

Email address: privacy@servicemaster.co.uk

Postal address: ServiceMaster House, The Whittle Estate, Cambridge Road, Whetstone, Leicester LE8 6LH

Telephone number: 0116 275 9000

Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated on 9th November 2018. Historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-party links

Our websites may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave one of our websites, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

  1. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

  • Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, data of birth, gender and photograph
  • Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers
  • Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of goods and services you have purchased from us
  • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access our websites
  • Profile Data includes your username and password, orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our websites and services
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences
  • Criminal Records includes DBS checks
  • Credit Checks includes credit reference agency checks and Companies House directorship checks

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 in law as this data will 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. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, and genetic and biometric data). We do collect health information and information about criminal convictions and offences for prospective owners of franchise businesses and employees we do this because of the nature of the services that we and our franchise businesses provide.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services or to appoint you as a franchise business). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us or we may not be able to enter a franchise agreement with you but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

  1. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail, by Live Chat or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you register to use our site, apply to become a ServiceMaster franchise business, enquire about ServiceMaster’s products or services, search for and/or subscribe to our service and when you report a problem with our site or service.
  • Automated technologies or interactions.With regard to each of your visits to our site we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources.We will receive personal data about you from various third parties as set out below:
    • Technical Data from the following parties:
      • Analytics providers
      • Advertising networks
      • Search information providers.
    • Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services
    • Identity and Contact Data from data brokers or aggregators
    • Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register
  1. USES MADE OF THE INFORMATION

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform the contract (including a franchise agreement) we are about to enter into or have entered into with you
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests
  • Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

Please see the Glossary at the end of this privacy policy to find out more about the types of lawful basis that we will rely on to process your personal data.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data although we will get your consent before sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Purpose/Activity Type of data Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
To register you as a prospective new franchise business or potential new customer  or employee (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Financial

(d) Marketing and Communications

(a) Performance of a contract with you

(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to explore your suitability as a franchise business or customer or employee)

To assess your suitability as a franchise business or employee (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Financial

(d) Criminal Records

(e) Credit Checks

(a) Performance of a contract with you

(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to explore your suitability as a franchise business or customer or employee)

To process and deliver your application to become a franchise business or employee  or to process and deliver your order for  goods and services to you including:

(a) Manage payments, fees and charges

(b) Collect and recover money owed to us

(a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Financial

(d) Transaction

(e) Marketing and Communications

(a) Performance of a contract with you

(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us)

To manage our relationship with you which will include:

(a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy

(b) asking you to leave a review or take a survey

(a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Profile

(d) Marketing and Communications

(a) Performance of a contract with you

(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

(c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our services)

To enable you to partake in a prize draw, competition or complete a survey (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Profile

(d) Usage

(e) Marketing and Communications

(a) Performance of a contract with you

(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our services, to develop them and grow our business)

To administer and protect our business and our websites (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Technical

(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise)

(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Profile

(d) Usage

(e) Marketing and Communications

(f) Technical

Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our goods and services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To use data analytics to improve our websites, goods and services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences (a) Technical

(b) Usage

Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our goods and services, to keep our websites updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods and services that may be of interest to you (a) Identity

(b) Contact

(c) Technical

(d) Usage

(e) Profile

(f) Marketing and Communications

Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our goods and services and grow our business)

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. Please contact us by email using the contact details provided above if you would like to change your marketing preferences or unsubscribe from marketing communications from us.

Promotional offers from us

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased products and services from us and you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Third-party marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at any time, you can contact us on marketing@servicemaster.co.uk.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, warranty registration, product/service experience or other transactions.

Cookies

Our websites use cookies to distinguish you from other users of our websites. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our websites and also allows us to improve our site.

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our websites may become inaccessible or not function properly.

Please note that hibu (UK) Limited have a pixel on our websites which enables cookies to be dropped onto your machine. These cookies may be used to target you on third party websites within the network. Should you wish to find out more information about behavioural targeting please following this link: www.youronlinechoices.com, and this will allow you to opt-out of being targeted for any behavioural advertising by any member of the Internet Advertising Bureau, including hibu (UK) Limited.

For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie Policy.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

  1. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table above:

  • External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary
  • Specific third parties such as other franchise businesses who may act as joint controllers or processors of your personal data
  • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

  1. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

  1. DATA SECURITY AND WHERE WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers or those servers of select third parties. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

  1. DATA RETENTION

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us.

In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

  1. YOUR RIGHTS

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data:

  • Request access to your personal data
  • Request correction of your personal data
  • Request erasure of your personal data
  • Object to processing of your personal data
  • Request restriction of processing your personal data
  • Request transfer of your personal data
  • Right to withdraw consent.

Further information in relation to these rights is set out in the Glossary below. If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us using the contact details provided above.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Complaints

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

  1. GLOSSARY

Our websites

www.merrymaids.co.uk

www.merrymaidsfranchise.co.uk

www.trugreen.co.uk

www.trugreenfranchise.co.uk

www.servicemasterclean.co.uk

www.servicemastercleanfranchise.co.uk

www.furnituremedic.co.uk

www.servicemasterofficecleaning.co.uk

www.rosemarybooks.co.uk

www.rosemaryfranchise.co.uk

www.restorationresponse.co.uk

www.safebyservicemaster.co.uk

www.servicemaster.co.uk

www.servicemasterportal.co.uk

 

Lawful basis

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.

Third parties

External Third Parties

  • Service providers who provide IT and system administration services including Live Chat.
  • Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance , accounting, payroll, pensions, HR ,private health and opticians services.
  • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
  • Business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you;
  • Advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others. We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to our advertisers, but we will provide them with Aggregated Data about our users (for example, we may inform them that 500 men aged under 30 have clicked on their advertisement on any given day). We may also use such Aggregated Data to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target (for example, women in SW1). We may make use of the personal data we have collected from you to enable us to comply with our advertisers’ wishes by displaying their advertisement to that target audience;
  • Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site;
  • Credit reference agencies for the purpose of assessing your credit score where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you;
  • DBS checking services for the purposes of assessing your suitability to become a franchise business or an employee where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you.

 

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

  • If you want us to establish the data’s accuracy.
  • Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
  • Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
  • You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.