Privacy Policy

1. About This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how London Tools Sharpening LTD, trading as London Sharpening Service (“London Sharpening Service”, “we”, “us” or “our”), collects, uses, shares and protects your personal data when you visit our website londonsharpeningservice.co.uk, book our mobile knife sharpening service, contact us or otherwise interact with us.

We provide an on-site knife sharpening and repair service for domestic and commercial customers across London Zones 1 to 6. We only collect the personal data we need to provide that service, run our business and comply with the law.

We process personal data in accordance with the data protection legislation applicable in the United Kingdom, in particular:

the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”), being Regulation (EU) 2016/679 as retained in UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018;
the Data Protection Act 2018; and
the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”), which govern electronic marketing and the use of cookies,

each as amended from time to time, including by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

2. Who We Are

The owner of this website and the controller of your personal data is:

London Tools Sharpening LTD
Trading as London Sharpening Service
Private limited company registered in England and Wales
Company number: 14573808
Registered office: 225 Clapham Road, London SW9 9BE, United Kingdom
Email: info@londonsharpeningservice.co.uk
Telephone: 020 3769 0532

As the controller, we decide why and how your personal data is processed, and we are responsible for complying with data protection law. We are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer. Any question about this Privacy Policy or about how we handle your personal data can be sent to the email address above.

3. The Personal Data We Collect

3.1 Information You Give Us

Identity and contact data: your name, telephone number, email address and the address and postcode where the service is to be carried out, together with any access or parking instructions you provide.
Business data (commercial customers): the name of your business, the name and job title of your contact person, business contact details and invoicing details.
Booking and service data: the date and time of your appointment, the number, type and brand of knives or scissors, any repairs carried out, comments added to your booking and your service history with us.
Payment and transaction data: amount paid, date, payment method and transaction reference. Payment is taken on-site once the service is complete, by card, mobile wallet (Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay) or cash. Card payments are processed by our payment service provider through a secure card terminal; we do not receive or store your full card number or security code.
Communications data: the content of your emails, telephone calls, messages, enquiries, feedback and complaints, including where you contact us through social media or messaging apps.
Marketing preferences: whether you have agreed to, or opted out of, receiving marketing communications from us.

3.2 Information We Collect Automatically

When you use our website, we and our providers may collect technical data such as your IP address, browser type, device information, the pages you visit and how you reached our website, using cookies and similar technologies. Where required by PECR, we will ask for your consent before placing non-essential cookies, such as analytics or advertising cookies. Further details are available in our Cookie Policy.

3.3 Information From Third Parties

We may receive personal data from review platforms (such as Google, Yell or Yelp) when you publish a review of our service, from business customers who give us the details of members of staff as contact persons, and from our payment service provider in relation to your transactions.

We do not collect special categories of personal data (such as information about your health, ethnic origin or religious beliefs). Our services are intended for adults and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

4. How We Use Your Personal Data And Our Legal Bases

Under the UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for each purpose for which we use your personal data. The purposes for which we use your data, and the lawful bases we rely on, are set out below.

4.1 Managing Bookings And Providing Our Service

We use your identity, contact, business and booking data to manage your booking, confirm your appointment, contact you about any changes, travel to your premises, carry out the sharpening and repairs, and keep a record of the service provided.

Legal basis: performance of a contract with you, or taking steps at your request before entering into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR). Where you are the contact person of a business customer, we rely on our legitimate interests in managing our relationship with that business (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR).

4.2 Payments, Invoicing And Accounting

We use your payment and transaction data to take payment, issue receipts and invoices, and keep our accounting and tax records.

Legal basis: performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR) and compliance with our legal obligations under the Companies Act 2006 and tax legislation (Article 6(1)(c) UK GDPR).

4.3 Customer Service, Queries And Complaints

We use your contact, booking and communications data to answer your questions, deal with any issue relating to the work carried out and handle complaints.

Legal basis: performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR) and our legitimate interests in providing good customer service and in establishing, exercising or defending legal claims (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR).

4.4 Service Reminders And Marketing

We may occasionally send you emails or text messages about our services, including reminders when it may be time to have your knives sharpened again.

If you are an existing customer, or you have asked us for a quote, we may send you marketing about our own similar services, as permitted by regulation 22(3) of PECR (the “soft opt-in”). You will be given a simple way to refuse such marketing when we collect your details and in every message we send. Legal basis: our legitimate interests in promoting our services (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR).
In all other cases, we will only send you electronic marketing with your prior consent (Article 6(1)(a) UK GDPR).
If you are a business customer, we may send marketing to your business email address on the basis of our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR).

You can unsubscribe at any time, free of charge, by using the link or instructions included in each message or by emailing us. Your right to object to direct marketing is absolute: once you object, we will stop sending you marketing.

4.5 Feedback And Reviews

After your appointment, we may contact you to ask for feedback or invite you to leave a review. If you publish a review on a third-party platform such as Google, Yell or Yelp, that platform is the controller of the information you publish and its own privacy policy applies. We may reply publicly to reviews.

Legal basis: our legitimate interests in improving our service and maintaining our reputation (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR). You can ask us not to send you feedback requests at any time.

4.6 Photographs Of Our Work

We may photograph knives before and after sharpening or repair to show the quality of our work. We will not publish photographs or videos in which you or members of your staff can be identified without your prior consent (Article 6(1)(a) UK GDPR).

4.7 Website Operation, Security, Analytics And Advertising

We use technical data to operate our website, keep it secure, understand how visitors use it and measure the effectiveness of our advertising.

Legal basis: our legitimate interests in operating a secure and functional website (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR) and, for non-essential cookies and similar technologies, your consent where required by PECR (Article 6(1)(a) UK GDPR).

4.8 Legal And Regulatory Compliance

We may process your personal data where necessary to comply with a legal obligation, respond to requests from public authorities, or establish, exercise or defend legal claims (Articles 6(1)(c) and 6(1)(f) UK GDPR).

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have balanced our interests against your rights and freedoms. You can contact us for more information about this assessment. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

5. Who We Share Your Personal Data With

We only share your personal data where necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, with the following categories of recipients:

Our technicians and staff, only to the extent they need the information to carry out the service or perform their duties.
Service providers acting on our behalf (processors), such as website hosting and maintenance, online booking, email and telephone services, accounting software and IT support. They may only use your personal data in accordance with our instructions and under a written contract that meets the requirements of Article 28 UK GDPR.
Our payment service provider, which processes card and mobile wallet payments and may act as an independent controller for fraud prevention and regulatory purposes.
Analytics and advertising providers, such as Google and Meta, where you have consented to the relevant cookies.
Professional advisers, such as accountants, lawyers and insurers, who are bound by confidentiality obligations and may act as independent controllers.
HMRC, law enforcement agencies, courts and regulators, where we are legally required to disclose information or where disclosure is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
A prospective buyer or successor, in the event of a sale, merger or restructuring of our business, subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.

We never sell your personal data or share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

6. International Transfers

We are based in the United Kingdom and your personal data is primarily processed in the UK. Some of our service providers (for example, providers of email, cloud, analytics or advertising services) may process personal data outside the UK, including in the European Economic Area and the United States.

Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we ensure that the transfer complies with Chapter V of the UK GDPR by relying on UK adequacy regulations (such as those covering the European Economic Area, or the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for certified US organisations) or on appropriate safeguards, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or the International Data Transfer Addendum to the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses. You can contact us for further information about these safeguards.

7. How Long We Keep Your Personal Data

We keep your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet our legal, accounting and reporting obligations:

Customer and booking records: for as long as you remain a customer and for up to three years after your last service, so that we can deal with queries about the work carried out and keep your service history.
Invoices, receipts and accounting records: for six years from the end of the financial year to which they relate, in accordance with HMRC record-keeping requirements and the Companies Act 2006.
Enquiries and quotes that do not lead to a booking: up to 12 months.
Complaints and correspondence relating to a dispute: up to six years after the matter is closed, in line with the limitation periods set by the Limitation Act 1980.
Marketing data: until you unsubscribe or withdraw your consent. We keep a minimal record (such as your email address) on a suppression list to make sure we respect your choice.
Cookies and website data: for the periods set out in our Cookie Policy.

At the end of the applicable retention period, we securely delete or anonymise your personal data.

8. How We Protect Your Personal Data

In accordance with Article 32 UK GDPR, we have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse or alteration. These include an encrypted (SSL/TLS) connection on our website, website security monitoring, access restricted to staff who need the information to perform their duties, confidentiality obligations and written agreements with our service providers.

No transmission of data over the internet is completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the Information Commission (ICO) within 72 hours where required and, where the risk is high, we will inform you without undue delay.

9. Your Rights

Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

Right of access: to obtain confirmation of whether we process your personal data and a copy of it (Article 15).
Right to rectification: to have inaccurate personal data corrected and incomplete data completed (Article 16).
Right to erasure: to have your personal data deleted in certain circumstances, for example where it is no longer necessary, unless we are legally required to keep it (Article 17).
Right to restriction of processing: to ask us to limit the use of your personal data in certain circumstances (Article 18).
Right to data portability: to receive the personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to have it transmitted to another controller, where technically feasible (Article 20).
Right to object: to processing based on our legitimate interests and, at any time and without giving reasons, to the use of your personal data for direct marketing (Article 21).
Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before its withdrawal.

To exercise any of these rights, please email info@londonsharpeningservice.co.uk. We may ask you for information to verify your identity before responding. We will respond without undue delay and in any event within one month of receiving your request (or of receiving the information we need to verify your identity). This period may be extended by up to two further months where requests are complex or numerous, in which case we will inform you within the first month. Exercising your rights is free of charge, although we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act on a request that is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

10. Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your personal data, please contact us first at info@londonsharpeningservice.co.uk so that we can try to resolve the matter. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and respond without undue delay.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK’s independent data protection regulator:

Information Commission (ICO)
Wycliffe House, Water Lane
Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk/

11. Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our services or to the law. The latest version will always be available on this page.

Last updated: 9 October 2026