We always process personal data for a specific reason. The legal term for such a reason is a ‘legal ground’. Below, you can read about the lawful grounds on which and for what purposes PostNL Pakketten Belgium processes your personal data.
1. The contract you have concluded with PostNL Pakketten Belgium
You have signed an agreement with PostNL Pakketten Belgium for services we provide, such as delivering consumer goods to recipients. To execute this agreement, PostNL Pakketten Belgium may need to process certain personal data. This applies to the purposes and processing below.
1.1 To deliver parcels (including all inclusive services)
In order to provide and perform our services properly, we may process your personal data to send parcels and to inform you and the customer about the status of the delivery. We process personal data of both the sender of the parcel and its recipient. We do this according to the contract you enter into with us for sending parcels. We will process personal data such as:
- Name and address, company name, business address, correspondence address, name of contact person(s)
- E-mail addresses, fax number
- Telephone and/or mobile phone numbers
- VAT number, customer number
- Bank account number
- Track & Trace number
- Document number of the parcel
- Signature
We will retain your personal data for as long as you have a PostNL account (and therefore an agreement).
1.2 To offer you a PostNL account
When you create a PostNL account as a consumer or recipient, we provide services that make sending mail and parcels even easier, as well as tailored services. For example, we offer an overview of sent and received parcels, and you can set delivery preferences. You can also use our services with third parties through a PostNL account. In this case, data from your PostNL account is retrieved, for example, to automatically fill in your address information when placing an order in a webshop. By accepting the account terms, you enter into an agreement with us. In doing so, we process personal data such as, among others:
- name, address and residence
- email address
- date of birth (optional)
- salutation (optional)
- phone number (optional)
- which services you use and how often
- your delivery preferences
- how many packages you receive
- whether you were home at the time we came by
- information about your usage
- account ID
If you, as a business customer, enter into an agreement with PostNL Parcels Belgium for services such as delivering consumer goods to recipients, a PostNL account will be created on the Business Portal. This is the web self-service environment where business customers can manage and view shipment and service-related matters. In doing so, we process personal data such as:
- Personal address, company name, business address, correspondence address, name of contact person(s)
- Email addresses, fax number
- Telephone and/or mobile numbers
- VAT number, customer number
- Account ID
Potential business customers who send fewer than 5,000 parcels per year can create their own free PostNL account on the Business Portal through our website. To speed up and simplify this process, our AI agent assists in creating it by collecting information needed for registration. The AI agent can ask you questions and receive your answers.
Although our AI agent operates automatically, you can choose at any time to share the information with us through another channel (via a form or through a dedicated PostNL employee). The AI agent is designed to assist you, not to replace you.
All data you provide through the AI agent is processed in accordance with our Privacy Statement. The AI agent only processes data that is necessary for creating a business account and does so in a safe and compliant manner.
Although we strive for error-free processing, the AI agent may sometimes provide inaccurate or incomplete information. Always verify important details yourself and contact support if in doubt.
1.3 To show you relevant advertisements
To show you relevant advertisements, we use cookies, pixels, and similar techniques. You can read more about this in our cookie statement. It also explains how to set and disable your preferences for cookies, pixels, and other techniques.
2. The legitimate interest of PostNL Pakketten Belgium
For some processing of personal data, PostNL Pakketten Belgium has what is known as a ‘legitimate interest’. PostNL Pakketten Belgium's interest in providing the logistics service is important in these cases. This legitimate interest can only be achieved if your personal data is processed. You can always object to this, as explained below under “What are your privacy rights?”. We process data for the following purposes:
2.1 To deliver parcels to you
We need your personal data to deliver parcels to you, or if you collect parcels from a PostNL collection point. This includes details for track & trace. We also send you messages to let you know where your parcel is and when we will deliver it. Your personal data is provided by the sender of the parcel, such as an online shop. In doing so, we may process the following personal data about you:
We do not store this personal data longer than necessary and for a maximum of 13 months after the service has been provided.
In certain cases (if the sender of the package has opted for this), we may ask you to show ID. We record then manually the last three digits of the document number of your ID (not the national register number). We do this to prevent fraud and to show that the service has been carried out correctly and to the right person.
2.2 To improve and optimise our services and get to know you better
To improve our internal processes and business operations, we process data anonymously wherever possible. However, we do sometimes process personal data in this context, for example to improve pages on our website, resolve the causes of complaints, improve our logistics processes, develop new products, or produce analyses and reports for business customers, such as online shops. These analyses and reports never contain names or addresses, but only information about large groups of users. For example, the number of parcels we have delivered in a specific postcode area.
To get to know you better and provide recommendations about our services, we process data from your account and regarding your account activity, such as setting a delivery preference.
We may also contact you to ask for your views on our services and products. For example, we may ask you to take part in one of our customer (satisfaction) surveys. We do this in various ways, such as by email. Sometimes we engage a third party to carry this out.
To improve our services, we may process the following personal data:
- Name and address
- Shipment number
- Track & trace-code
- E-mail address
- Information in your PostNL account (e.g. your delivery preference)
- Account activity
We do not store this personal data longer than necessary and for a maximum of one year after the service has been provided.
2.3 To keep in touch with you and/or to deal with a complaint
To keep in touch with you, we will process your personal data. For example, when you contact us at customer service. We use this data to deal with your question or complaint so that we can help you faster. We will process personal data that you provide to us, such as:
- Name and address
- Your question or complaint
- Telephone and/or mobile phone numbers
- Tracking number of your question or complaint, as known by our customer service
- E-mail address
- Social media identifiers
- Messages and/or e-mails you have sent us
If you have a PostNL account and give us your consent, we will use your account details to assist you.
If you have a complaint about the delivery of a parcel, we need to be able to handle it properly. To do this, we may need to share the details of your complaint and your personal data with other parties. For example, with subcontractors we work with, or with the delivery driver concerned. This may include personal data such as:
- Name
- Adress
- Details of the complaint
You can contact us via various channels, such as chat, email or telephone. A telephone conversation with our customer service may be recorded for training and analysis purposes. We use this recording of the call to improve our customer service and services. You will be informed in advance when the phone call will be recorded. A recorded telephone conversation will be stored for a maximum of 60 days.
We record some telephone calls with business customers. This is the case when we are making payment arrangements. At the start of the call, we will ask if you have any objections to this. We use these recordings and transcripts to record the agreements made in our systems. This is always done by a member of staff. We retain the recorded telephone calls for a maximum of 60 days.
To help you as effectively as possible, our customer service team is assisted by a digital colleague: the chatbot Daan. When you choose to chat or call, Daan will ask you a few questions. This allows our colleagues to get straight to work on your query. We store your answers, the chat history and the personal data you provide with our customer service team. This gives us an overview of the questions you have asked us at that moment and/or in the past. Without this personal data, we cannot contact you or answer your query. If you speak only to our digital assistant Daan, we will retain this data for a maximum of 6 months. If Daan connects you to a member of staff, we will retain the data for a maximum of 5 years. If you send a private message via Facebook or X, we will retain it for 3 months.
We do not store this personal data longer than necessary for processing your message/complaint.
2.4 To prevent abuse and fraud
We process your personal data to prevent and combat abuse and fraud in the (logistics) processes of PostNL Pakketten Belgium. We do this using your personal data that we already have. We analyse, investigate and take measures when necessary. In doing so, we process all personal data that may be necessary for this purpose.
We do not store this personal data longer than necessary. This may vary from case to case.
2.5 To carry out internal business processes
To carry out internal business processes, we also process your personal data. We process that data to ensure the successful functioning of our internal business operations. For example, billing, general management and asset management. We also process your personal data for finance and accounting, archiving and insurance, legal and business advice and dispute resolution. We will process personal data such as:
- Name and address
- E-mail address
- Telephone and/or mobile phone numbers
- Business/corporate information
- Other information that may be relevant in a legal dispute
We store this personal data no longer than strictly necessary and for a maximum of one year after the service has been provided, unless laws and regulations require us to comply with a longer retention period.
2.6 For customer relationship management and marketing
For relationship management and marketing purposes, we will process your personal data. We use data to send you suitable offers and newsletters if you are already a customer of PostNL Pakketten Belgium. We will also use your personal data to develop, carry out and analyse market research and marketing strategies. We will process personal data such as:
- Name and address
- Number of parcels shipped
- E-mail address
- Delivery preferences
- IP address
We do not store this personal data longer than necessary and for a maximum of one year after the service has been provided.
2.7 To meet you at our business facilities
We welcome visitors at our head office and other business locations. We will then record your details so that we can issue you with a personal access pass. This allows us to keep track of who is in the building. In doing so, we process personal data such as:
- The company you work for
- The person you have an appointment with
We keep this data for two weeks.
2.8 To ensure the safe and proper functioning of our website and app, and to improve them
We use cookies and similar technologies to collect information to ensure the PostNL website and app function properly and securely, and to analyse and improve their use. These are functional and analytical cookies with little to no impact on your privacy. Among other things, we track how our website is used, what is searched for most frequently and what is clicked on. To do this, we collect your anonymised IP address, information about which browser you use and what type of device you use (mobile, tablet or computer), and whether you are logged in with your PostNL account in the app or on the website. In our Cookie Policy, we explain what types of cookies we use and why, and how you can change your cookie settings.
This processing of personal data is necessary to safeguard PostNL’s legitimate interest in ensuring that the website and app function properly and securely, and in improving them. The impact on your privacy is very minimal. For example, we do want to be able to measure the number of unique visitors to our website, but we do not link the information collected via these cookies to any other information we may hold about you.
We do not retain this personal data for longer than is necessary for reporting purposes, and for a maximum of one year after the service has been provided.
3. The consent you have given
Sometimes we process your personal data when you have given your consent for this. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Under ‘Withdrawing consent’, we explain how you can do this. This does not affect what we have already done with your consent. We process your personal data with your consent for the following purposes:
3.1 Carrying out analyses to improve our services
We also process personal data that we collect using analytical cookies. We only place these cookies if you have given your consent. We use them to track how our website is used (such as how long a visitor spends on which pages and in what order, and which search terms are used in the search bar of our app and website). To carry out analyses and improve our services, we link your browsing behaviour to a unique identifier. We then use this information to continue improving our website and app, particularly their user-friendliness. For example, we can use these cookies to test different versions of our channels. You can read more about how we use them in our Cookie Policy.
3.2 Personalisation within the PostNL environment
We use your personal data to provide you with a more personalised service on our PostNL channels. We only do this if you have given your consent. With your consent, we use cookies to collect information about what you have searched for and clicked on our website, the device you used (mobile, tablet or computer), and whether you are logged in. We then combine this information with other customer data we hold, for example from your PostNL account or from your contact with customer service. This includes information about your location (which PostNL point you use), previous deliveries (how many parcels you send or receive and, for example, whether you are at home to receive them) and your delivery preferences (at home or, for example, at a collection point). This allows us to determine more accurately which information is relevant to you and to show you adverts on our PostNL channels that are of interest to you.
We can also see whether you have clicked on adverts on our website, whether you have opened our emails, and what you have read in them. This enables us to measure the effectiveness of our marketing and helps us to improve our digital marketing. Using information about your search and click behaviour, we can create different groups of users who are similar to one another and share certain common characteristics (such as age or region). This is also known as profiling. These groups are then used to personalise the website and app, thereby providing you with more relevant recommendations and information. You can read more about how personalisation cookies work in our Cookie Policy.
3.3 To show you relevant advertisements customised to your interests
If you have given your consent, we use personal data to show you adverts that may be of interest to you outside the PostNL environment. To do this, we use marketing cookies that track what you have clicked on or searched for, enabling us to inform you about products or services relevant to you on other websites. To ensure that you only see relevant adverts, we may also – but only with your consent – encrypt your email address and telephone number and share them with our advertising partners. These partners can compare this encrypted data with their own encrypted data to find a match, without gaining access to the original personal data. These partners can also use the encrypted information to identify other audiences who may also be interested in our adverts. You can read more about how these marketing cookies work in our Cookie Policy.
3.4 Withdrawing your consent
You can withdraw your consent at any time. This will not affect what we have already done with your consent. Below, under “What are your privacy rights?”, you can read how to withdraw the consent you have given for personalisation and for the encrypted sharing of your personal data.
If this concerns consent to the use of cookies, you can change your cookie preferences at any time. For our website, you can always do this by using this link: Change your cookie settings in our Cookie Policy. For the PostNL app, you can change your cookie preferences as follows:
- Open de app
- Select ‘Account’
- Select ‘App settings’
- Select ‘Privacy settings’
- Adjust your preferences.
Please note that your cookie preferences always apply on a per-device and per-channel basis. If you use both our website and our app, you will need to withdraw your consent separately for each.
4. The statutory duty imposed on PostNL Pakketten Belgium
Sometimes PostNL Pakketten Belgium has a legal obligation to comply with. To comply with this obligation, we have to process personal data. This is the case for the purposes and processing below.
4.1 To deliver parcels where identification is required
To perform our services properly, we will process your personal data. To deliver parcels, we may be legally obliged to identify the recipient so that we can prove to the sender that the parcel was delivered to the correct customer and that the check has taken place. Depending on the service purchased by the sender and the situation, we will process the following personal data:
- Name and address
- Signature
We do not store this personal data longer than necessary and for a maximum of one year after the service has been provided.
4.2 To comply with the law
Sometimes we have to process personal data to comply with the law. For example, the customer records we need to keep or when tax-related or business-related obligations need to be fulfilled. To comply with relevant laws and regulations, we may have to disclose your personal data to government agencies or supervisory authorities. This may happen ad hoc. Before sharing this data, we check the authority of these authorities. We will process the following personal data:
- Name and address
- Shipment number
- Account details
We do not store this personal data for longer than necessary and in accordance with the time limits imposed by law. If there no such provision in place, this period is a maximum of one year after the service has been provided.
