Privacy statement

DUO processes the following categories of personal details:

• personal details such as name, address, place of residence, telephone number and email address
• relationship details such as name and address of your parents, partner(s), children and (legal) representatives
• residential details for the Check on students living away from home 
• 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 
• technical details such as IP address 
• special categories of details such as your nationality, residence status, and information about your health and criminal history. This is done only when there is a specific legal basis for it.

The purposes for which we process your personal details are:

• the funding of educational institutions
• the granting of student finance, allowances for school fees, lifelong learning credit and civic integration loans
• implementing subsidy schemes as part of teacher policy
• verifying the legitimacy of granted allocations
• the collection of course fees, public transport costs 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
• 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
• providing education data to various partners in the education chain
• conducting research for policy development
• reporting to the Minister and the House of Representatives on the effects of existing policies and the development of future policies
• reporting for parliamentary questions
• developing databases for publication on Open Education Data.

• 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.

DUO ensures reliable, proper and careful handling of personal details.

• Personal details are treated confidentially, meaning DUO ensures that only individuals with the appropiate authorization and confidentiality obligations can process your details.
• Personal details are adequately secured, following the guidelines and standards of the Dutch government for information security.
• DUO establishes agreements on security measures with external parties and verifies compliance with these agreements. 

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.

DUO only discloses personal details to other organisations if this is required for the fulfilment of a legal or public task. DUO will always ensure that a request complies with the relevant laws.

• We disclose your personal details to third parties such as the Dutch Inspectorate of Education, the educational institutions, the Dutch tax authorities, Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the municipalities, the Central Judicial Collection Agency (CJIB) and research institutions designated by the Minister.
• 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 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.
• DUO carries out checks in order to prevent and combat fraud and misuse.

Check on students living away from home

If you receive a grant for living away from home, DUO verifies your registration details with the municipality. We also conduct home visits based on a random sample. DUO does not use an individual's profile. Decisions are not automated but are always made by a staff member. DUO uses various categories of personal details for the check living away from home:

• Citizen Service Number
• residential situation
• educational information
• residential details for conducting home visits
• when home visits occur, details of parents and cohabitants, such as name and residential address.

We do not retain your personal details longer dan necessary. Based on the retention periods specified in the selection list of the Archival Act, we keep your details for an additional 5 years after your relationship with us has ended.
Your personal details will not be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area. 

• 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 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.

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.

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.

• 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.