What do we use your personal data for?

Registering your company is a statutory responsibility of KVK, laid down in the Business Register Act.

This data includes:

• your name;
• address details;
• gender;
• date of birth;
• place and country of birth;
• citizen service number (BSN);
• email address;
• telephone number.

What we use this data for

If you register a company in the Business Register, we process some of your and your company’s data as part of our statutory responsibilities.

Your company, like all Dutch companies, must be registered in the Business Register. On the basis of your registration, you will be given a KVK number. This number is your unique entrepreneur ID, so that other entrepreneurs can check who they are dealing with and what business they can contact you for. Management of the Business Register is the statutory responsibility of KVK.

Some of the personal data in the Business Register is made public and provided to third parties upon request. More information can be found under the heading For providing data from the Business Register.

The Business Register contains the business addresses of companies and the private addresses of officers. The business address is public: it is the place where a company conducts its business, unless the business address is shielded upon request. The private address of officers is not public, except for the private address of the keeper of books and records. Besides officers, the UBOs of companies and other legal entities are also listed.

The Business Register is a public register. Management of the Business Register is the statutory responsibility of KVK. The register is intended for entrepreneurs wishing to find other entrepreneurs: to know whether the company with which they do business exists, to find new customers, or to get to know the market. This stimulates the economy.

This concerns the following data:

• your name;
• date of birth;
• place of birth;
• business name (name of your company);
• your company’s address details;
• legal form;
• email address;
• telephone number.

What we use this data for

The vast majority of the data from the Business Register is used for public services. All public authorities, such as municipalities, provinces, and water boards, make use of the Business Register in carrying out their tasks. In addition, KVK provides data from the Business Register to private parties, in return for payment. See With which third parties does KVK share my personal data? for more information. These parties use this data for compliance purposes, legal certainty, or market analysis.

Recipients of data from the Business Register must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation and the Telecommunications Act when using your data. This means that they cannot use your data for marketing or other purposes unconditionally. In almost all cases, anyone who uses your data must inform you that they are doing so.

KVK keeps a so-called ‘Non-Mailing Indicator’ and also provides it to persons or companies requesting your data. If you activate this Non-Mailing Indicator, all recipients of Business Register data are informed that you do not want to receive unsolicited post or an unsolicited visit to your home. Recipients of data from the Business Register must comply with this requirement.

If you are confronted with unwanted marketing on the basis of Business Register data, you can lodge a complaint with the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) for direct marketing by email, or the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP), for direct marketing by post or telephone, or any other unwanted use of your data.

European legislation obliges the Netherlands to have, manage, and register in a central place information on the Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs) of companies and other legal entities incorporated in the Netherlands (hereinafter the 'UBO register'*). The UBO register is part of the Business Register.

The law stipulates which details of a UBO are registered (Commercial Registers Act 2007, article 15a). To give some examples:

• Name
• BSN (citizen service number, or fiscal identifcation number)
• Month and year of birth
• Date of birth
• Place of birth and nation of birth
• Nationality
• Nation of residence
• Residential address
• Type and size of the economic stake of the UBO
• Copies of documents that pertain to the details mentioned above. 

A number of these details are only accessible to a limited group, defined by law. This concerns in any case the BSN, fiscal identification number, date, place, and nation of birth, the residential address and the document copies.

* See www.uboregistertrusts.nl/privacy (in Dutch) for information on the processing of personal data for the purposes of the UBO register trusts and equivalent legal constructions.

For example, when you call or email us with a question. This is part of our statutory duty to provide information and advice to entrepreneurs.

This concerns the following data:

• identification data;
• questions that you have asked;
• contact history (when there was contact, with which department, via which channel);
• information from a submitted complaint;
• email correspondence;
• contact details of your social media accounts (if we want to answer a question you have asked via social media).

What we use this data for

• To be able to answer questions you have asked, we register the original question, any clarifications, and the subsequent actions taken. We can also serve you better if we know what interactions have taken place earlier. If we have arranged an appointment with you, we will also record this.
• In the event of a complaint or complex question, information about the content is kept in order to ensure that your question is answered correctly. We also use this data to learn and to improve our service.
• We respond to questions and other expressions on social media.

To provide you with the best possible service, KVK continuously improves its products and services. For example, because we want to know what you think about our products and services and what can be improved next time. Your cooperation is always based on consent.

This concerns the following data:

• identification data;
• questions that you have asked;
• contact history (when there was contact, with which department, via which channel);
• information from a submitted complaint;
• email address;
• email correspondence;
• contact details of your social media accounts.

We record the content of the contact you have had with us, for example, by recording telephone calls and chats. We also store and read cookies when visiting the website. More information can be found on our cookie page.

What we use this data for

• To better understand who uses our products, when they do so, and how often. With this information, we can make improvements so that our products better meet the needs of entrepreneurs.
• To gain a better understanding of our customer groups, which helps us to better identify who is relevant to our products.
• To measure and evaluate customer satisfaction by means of customer satisfaction surveys by email, to determine which of our services and products are valued and which ones need improvement.

This concerns the following data:

• name of the entrepreneur;
• email address;
• telephone number;
• date of birth;
• gender;
• postal address and postcode of the company.

What we use this data for

• We would like to keep you informed about our products and services.
• If we do so by email, we always ask for your consent (opt-in).
• For example, you can register for our newsletter and emails.
• To make emails as relevant for you as possible, we ask you a few questions to get to know you better. We also link your KVK data, your favourite topics, and your preferences to your newsletter profile, so that we do not send you information on topics that do not interest you.
• Every email and newsletter you receive contains an option to unsubscribe.
• In some cases, we also approach you by post or telephone, for example to invite you to a seminar or event or to draw your attention to products or services that you have expressed an interest in.
• Whenever we approach you by post or telephone, we give you the option to opt out of this means of contact.
• We analyse your data to understand the needs of entrepreneurs and to tailor our services as much as possible.

Good to know

We will not use your email address for marketing purposes unless you have given us your consent. You can stop marketing by email, post, or telephone at any time using the method indicated in the communication. This information relates only to KVK’s own marketing. Third parties sometimes use data from the Business Register for marketing purposes. See the heading For providing data from the Business Register for more details.

This concerns the following data:

• identification data (name, address, date of birth, etc.);
• identity documents;
• photos and camera recordings.

What we use this data for

• Visitors at the office or at an event organised by KVK will only be allowed access after registration, and should report to and identify themselves at the reception.
• Security cameras are situated at every KVK entrance, filming visitors.

This concerns the following data:

• IP address;
• details of visits to our websites (times of visits, pages viewed, keywords);
• devices used (PC, laptop, smartphone, tablet);
• personal data processed in cookies.

What we use this data for

• Your IP address is processed by default when visiting websites. KVK uses the IP address solely to allow you to participate in surveys (for example, testing a new website) and to participate in events.
• By monitoring visits to and use of the website, we can improve your user experience by making it easy to navigate between pages and, on the basis of your search behaviour, to better tailor the information displayed to your needs.
• By making sure that the website responds to the device used, all content (text, photos, video) is displayed in optimal form.
• In addition to your browsing behaviour on our website, cookies help customise the information provided. Cookies can also be used to store your personal preferences.

KVK places different types of cookies on your computer. Cookies are small text files placed on your computer by websites when you visit the site. Placing cookies may involve processing personal data if the information contained in a cookie can be traced back to a person, such as by using your IP address. We place cookies to make the website works properly, to carry out statistical analyses, and to be of better assistance to you.

For more information about the cookies we place, see our cookie page.