Your privacy

On this page

    The National Ombudsman processes personal data for the exercise of its statutory tasks and for the management of its business. We consider it important to handle your personal data with due care and confidentiality.

    We process your personal data in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect on 25 May 2018.

    Use of personal data

    If you file a complaint with us, we will ask you for your personal data. We need these data to handle your complaint. We cannot handle your complaint if you do not provide us with your personal data.

    We may furthermore use your personal data for analysis and anonymised examples or quotes for inquiries carried out by the Ombudsman on its own initiative. In the case of such initiated inquiries, we may contact you for a more detailed explanation or for another form of cooperation.

    Additionally, we process your personal data for service tasks, for example if you wish to receive a brochure or publication from us. We also process your personal data if, for example, you apply for a position with the National Ombudsman. We only use your personal data for the purpose for which they were provided by you.

    Sharing personal data

    To handle your complaint, the National Ombudsman may share information, including personal data, with institutions or government authorities involved in your complaint. We therefore recommend that you only send us information which we need to handle your complaint. When in doubt, please contact us by phone.

    If your complaint has not yet been handled by the government authority in question, we may forward your complaint to said authority. If you rather not have us forward your complaint, please let us know. We will then first contact you.

    We do not exchange personal data with other authorities with respect to service tasks. We never use your personal data for commercial purposes or for purposes other than those for which they were provided.

    We conclude data processing agreements with those organisations that process your data on behalf of the National Ombudsman. However, the National Ombudsman remains responsible for the processing of your personal data.

    The retention of personal data

    The National Ombudsman does not store your personal data longer than necessary, or longer than prescribed by law. The Public Records Act 1995 establishes the retention periods. The so-called selection lists keep a record of which information the National Ombudsman destroys or permanently retains over time.

    If you apply for a position with the National Ombudsman and this was rejected, your personal data will be destroyed one month after the rejection. We may ask your consent to hold your personal data for a maximum of one year.

    If there is no statutory retention period in place, we will not retain the data longer than necessary for the provision of the service.

    Your right to privacy

    You have a number of rights at your disposal if the National Ombudsman makes use of your personal data:

    • Right to be informed: you have the right to know why your personal data are needed, what happens with them and how long they will be kept.
    • Right of access: you have the right to access your personal data known to us.
    • Right of rectification: You have the right to request us to complete or correct your personal data when the personal data we hold about you is incorrect.
      It is not possible to request for facts, opinions and conclusions to be corrected with which you disagree after the complaint has been dealt with. You may, however, expect from us that we add your written opinion to your file.
    • Right to restriction of processing: you have the right to request us to temporarily refrain from processing your personal data, for example when you have objected against the processing of your personal data and you are awaiting a response.
    • Right of objection: you have the right to object against the processing of your personal data because of personal circumstances. Objection is only possible if the processing of your personal data takes place in the exercise of a public duty or if the National Ombudsman deems to have a legitimate interest in the processing of your personal data.
    • Right to erasure and the right to be forgotten: if you have given your consent to process your personal data, this also means that you have the right to have these personal data erased again. Please note: this right does not apply to any complaints filed by you, as the processing of personal data during the handling of a complaint is based on a legal duty and not on consent.

    If you intend to exercise one of the abovementioned privacy rights, you may submit a request in writing or per e-mail. You send your request to:

    National Ombudsman
    Attn. the Data Protection Officer
    P.O. Box 93122
    2509 AC The Hague The Netherlands

    You may also use the following e-mail address: avg@nationaleombudsman.nl

    We strive to process your request within four weeks after receipt of the relevant request. If needed, we will ask you for further information.

    Restriction of your privacy rights

    Your rights are restricted if your request relates to a complaint that has been filed by you. The processing of personal data during the handling of a complaint is namely based on a legal duty.

    Do you have a complaint about the use of your personal data?

    If you have a complaint about the use of your personal data by the National Ombudsman, you can contact us by sending us an e-mail to avg@nationaleombudsman.nl. You may also file a complaint with us.

    If we fail to resolve the matter satisfactorily, you can file a complaint with the Dutch DPA. The Dutch DPA monitors the use of personal data.

    Data Protection Officer

    The National Ombudsman has a Data Protection Officer, who sees to it that we process personal data in accordance with the law. The Data Protection Officer is registered with the Dutch DPA and can be contacted via e-mail: avg@nationaleombudsman.nl.

    Online parties

    We handle all personal information provided to us confidentially. If our website redirects you to other websites, such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, those parties’ regulations on privacy and personal data then apply. We therefore recommend you to also read their provisions on privacy.

    Anonymising data 

    The National Ombudsman publishes its reports on this website. These reports are anonymised to the extent that cases can no longer be traced back to an individual person. If you are of the opinion that this has not been done with sufficient care in your case, please send an e-mail to the Data Protection Officer: avg@nationaleombudsman.nl.

    Cookies

    This website makes use of cookies. Cookies help us provide you with a better website and enable us to monitor the visits to the website. We do not use cookies to access your computer or any information about you individually. The data cannot therefore be traced back to any particular computer or person. For more information, please check our cookie policy.

    Amendments

    We reserve the right to amend both this privacy statement and our cookie policy. This page will always have the most up-to-date version of our privacy statement.