NetherlandsWorldwide

Privacy

You can contact us in various ways. When you do so you share personal data with us. We will use that personal data only for the purpose for which you have shared it.

How we use your data

If you ask us a question using our contact form you share personal data with us. We will use your data in order to respond to your question. Your question will be answered by our own staff. We will not share your data with other parties.

We store the following personal data:

  • email address
  • telephone number (not a mandatory field)

We store your data for 12 months for quality improvement purposes.

If you call our contact centre you share personal data with us. We will use your data in order to respond to your question. Your question will be answered by our own staff. We will not share your data with other parties.

We record the phone calls for quality improvement purposes. We store these recordings for 12 months. If we’re going to offer you specific assistance after the phone call, we will keep your information for as long as is necessary for that assistance.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs measures and analyses how visitors use the Travel App. This enables us to improve the user experience. Your details will be recorded anonymously. We do not save any personal data.

Data that we store includes:

  • type of mobile phone
  • operating system version
  • network address (so we can see in which country the user is based)
  • data that allows us to determine the number of unique users

We do not combine this information with any other sources or use it to determine who you are.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will delete your personal data after one year. We only store general statistics, such as visitor numbers, for a longer period.

Via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Service you can sign up to receive messages in the event of a crisis situation and travel advisory updates. You can also register with the embassy via the Information Service.

What personal data

If you sign up to the Information Service you provide your email address and mobile phone number. You can also fill in the following information:

  • your name as it appears in your passport
  • your date of birth
  • an alternative phone number
  • the names and dates of birth of travel companions/family members
  • the name, email address and telephone number of your emergency contact
  • the period of your stay
  • the address you are staying at

Travel companions

If you fill in the details of the people you are travelling with, let them know. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will assume that they have given you permission to share their personal data. 

What we do with your data

We store the data you share with the Information Service for the following purposes:

  • To send you the following messages:
    1. email updates about travel advisories.
    2. emails or text messages in the event of a crisis or potential crisis situation
    3. emails with information from the embassy, for example about embassy events or consular services
  • If there is a crisis situation and your emergency contact calls the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we can tell them whether you are in the country according to our records.
  • To optimise the crisis plans of all embassies. For example, we take into account the number of Dutch people who have signed up to the Information Service for a particular country.

We do not combine the information we save with any other sources or use it to determine who you are. We also do not share your details with others, except if your emergency contact calls us.

Unsubscribing from the Information Service

If you unsubscribe from the Information Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will delete all the details you filled in. We only store general statistics for a longer period.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the use of the personal data that you share via the contact form, in telephone calls with the contact centre, in the Travel App (Reisapp) and via the Information Service. For more information see the general privacy statement.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs privacy statement

If you have any questions or comments about privacy on NetherlandsWorldwide, contact the data protection officer via fg@minbuza.nl.

If you want to find out more about privacy or you have a complaint about how NetherlandsWorldwide deals with your privacy, contact the Data Protection Authority.

Visit the website of the Data Protection Authority