DUO performs tasks in the field of education, examination, civic integration and child care on the instruction of the Minister of Education, Culture and Science and the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, among others. For most of these tasks, DUO is the controller on behalf of these Ministers.
It is important to us that our services are transparent, personal and reliable. In order to help you in the best way possible, we need your personal details. We use these details to perform our legal tasks. DUO processes your personal details prudently and in accordance with prevailing legislation. We comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which replaced the Personal Data Protection Act (Wbp) on 25 May 2018.
This privacy statement applies to all our customers as well as the users of our website. New developments may result in changes in this statement. The most recent version of the privacy statement can always be found on our website.
What we do with your personal details
1. Why we process your personal details
Below, we set out the purposes for which we process your personal details and what they are. The purposes are:
- the funding of educational institutions
- the granting of student finance, allowances for school fees, lifelong learning credit and civic integration loans
- the collection of course fees and student debts
- the recognition of diplomas and the management of the diploma register
- organising school, state, civic integration and Wft examinations
- collecting and managing educational data in various registrations
- enriching educational data into information products
- acting as the National Europass Centre in the Netherlands
- collecting and managing data in the child care registers
- the management of the European register of professional qualifications
- offering functionalities of the DUO website and the Mijn DUO portal
- maintaining contact with customers and interested parties, including communication via social media
2. The personal details we process
In order to perform the aforementioned tasks properly, we process the following categories of personal details:
- personal details of yourself and any partners and children, such as name, address, place of residence, telephone number and email address
- education-related details, for instance about educational institutions and diploma details
- financial details such as the amount of your allowance and your account number
- identification details such as your citizen service number and education number
- details about your contacts with DUO, for instance contact by email
- account details for Mijn DUO such as your username
- technical details such as IP address and click and surf behaviour
3. How we obtain your personal details
You provide us with personal details when you submit an application. DUO has a legal duty to check your details for correctness, for instance with the tax authorities or municipal authorities.
DUO also receives personal details from other organisations. It depends on the task performed what kind of data DUO receives.. There is always a legal basis for receiving personal details.
Disclosure of your details to third parties
DUO only discloses personal details to other organisations if this is required for the fulfilment of a legal or public task.
We disclose your personal details to third parties such as the Dutch Inspectorate of Education, the Dutch tax authorities and the police. Other organisations may also ask DUO for data in line with their own legal task. Organisations such as the municipal department for Social Affairs and Employment, the Dutch tax authorities and the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) may, for instance, check if someone is entitled to social assistance benefit or child benefit. The public prosecutor may also ask us to provide data for a criminal investigation.
DUO will always ensure that a request complies with the relevant laws.
How long we retain your details
DUO will never keep your personal data longer than permitted by law. We remove your personal details when they are no longer needed for the purposes listed above.
Monitoring and combating fraud
DUO carries out checks in order to prevent and combat fraud and misuse. DUO checks the correctness of the data you provide by comparing them to data from for instance the Dutch tax authorities, the local authorities and educational establishments.
Web analysis (cookies)
DUO uses cookies and web statistics. You can read why we do this below. Cookies are subject to 2 laws:
-
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
DUO.nl uses cookies for research purposes and web statistics to understand how visitors use the website. This information helps us to improve the quality of our digital services, for instance by supplementing information or making our services more user-friendly. DUO has taken measures to limit ways of identifying visitors to our website as much as possible.
DUO.nl only uses the collected data to improve the website. You can block the installation of cookies by adjusting the privacy settings of your browser. Some functions of our website may not work properly when you disable cookies. For instance, without cookies you will not be able to chat with one of our employees.
The data we collect are kept under our own management. We only provide personal details to third parties in case of a criminal investigation.
-
Dutch Telecommunications Act
Generally speaking, websites must ask visitors for permission to install cookies on their browser. The Dutch Cookie Act makes an exception for cookies that are not privacy-sensitive, such as cookies that record visitor numbers.
Websites do not need permission from visitors for cookies that involve no or little violation of privacy. These are often cookies that help a website to function better, for example analytical cookies. One of the reasons the DUO website uses analytical cookies is to record visitor statistics, giving more information about the way the website functions. Analytical cookies have hardly any privacy consequences.
Your rights
1. Access and correction
If you have an account at Mijn DUO, you can access most of your own personal data. Additionally, by virtue of your right to access, you can submit a request to find out which personal data DUO processes.
The right of correction gives you the possibility to correct or supplement incorrect or incomplete details. In some cases it is possible to have certain personal details removed.
If you want to submit a request, you can use one of the following model letters.
When you submit a request on behalf of somebody else, we need a copy of an authorisation or a document that proves statutory representation such as a passport or judgment.
You can send your request to the following address.
Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs
Attn. Privacy Officer
Kempkensberg 12, kamer verdieping 8 N
Postbus 30155
9700 LG Groningen.
Within one month after having received your request, we will send you a written response.
2. Complaints
It is possible that you are not satisfied with the way in which DUO processes your personal details. If, for instance, you think DUO does not deal with your personal details carefully, or if you are not satisfied with our response you can lodge a complaint. If Please use the complaint form on our website. You can also submit your complaint to the Dutch Data Protection Authority.
If you are not satisfied with a formal decision by DUO, you can lodge an objection.
What you can do yourself
We recommend that you handle your personal details carefully and confidentially and that you do not share your login details and personal details. We advise you not to exchange personal details with us when using social media. If you receive information from DUO that is not intended for you, please notify DUO immediately so that we can conduct an internal investigation and take the necessary measures. You can contact us on meldpuntdatalekken@duo.nl.
Data Protection Officer
DUO has appointed an independent, internal supervisor. This Data Protection Officer ensures that DUO processes personal data in accordance with the law.
Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs
Attn. Data Protection Officer
Kempkensberg 12, kamer N-847
Postbus 30155
9700 LG Groningen
Mail: fg@duo.nl
This privacy statement was most recently changed on 27 September 2019.