PostNL Privacy Statement

If you send a letter or parcel, you enter into an agreement with us. To perform that agreement, we process personal data of you as the sender.

In the case of letters, it concerns personal data such as:

• email address (for confirmation only)
• means of payment

In the case of parcels and registered mail, it concerns personal data such as:

• email address (for confirmation, shipping label and track & trace information)
• name, address and place of residence (for the shipping label)
• means of payment

You can send letters and parcels by dropping them off at a PostNL point. A PostNL point may be in a shop or another location. This shop or location will then process your personal data on our instructions. We make agreements about such processing in contracts.

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary.

When you create a PostNL account, we provide services that make sending mail and parcels even easier, as well as customised services. For example, we provide an overview of parcels sent and received, and you can set delivery preferences. With a PostNL account, you can also use our services with third parties. For this purpose, data are retrieved from your PostNL account. For example, for automatically completing your address details when you place an order in a webshop. By accepting the account terms and conditions, you enter into an agreement with us. For this purpose, we process personal data such as: 

• name, address and place of residence 
• email address 
• date of birth (optional))
• title (optional)
• telephone number (optional)
• which services you use and how often  
• your delivery preferences
• the number of parcels received
• whether you were at home when we came by  
• data about your use
• account ID
• photo of a letter or a mailbox parcel (‘My Mail’)

We will retain your personal data as long as you have a PostNL account (and therefore an agreement with us). The photo of your letter or mailbox parcel (‘My Mail’) will be stored for a maximum of 14 days.

When you buy a shipping label or digital stamp online, you enter into an agreement with us. To perform that agreement, we process personal data such as:

• name, address and place of residence 
• email address 
• payment details 

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary.

When you order something in our webshop, e.g. stamps, we need your data. For this purpose, we process personal data such as:

• name
• address
• telephone number
• email address
• IP address

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary.

If you use our forwarding service, you enter into an agreement with us under which we will temporarily deliver your mail at a different address. For this purpose, we process personal data such as:  

• name 
• address (old and new) 
• title
• place of residence (old and new) 
• postcode (old and new) 
• email address 
• date of birth (optional)
• telephone number (optional)
• payment details 

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary.

If you use our removal service, you enter into an agreement with us under which we deliver your mail at a new address. For this purpose, we process personal data such as:  

• name (including birth name or additional last name) 
• address (old and new) 
• title
• place of residence (old and new) 
• postcode (old and new) 
• email address 
• telephone number 
• date of birth (optional)
• effective date/removal date 

You can also hoose to have us pass on your new address to companies and organisations selected by you. For example, to:

• service providers
• grid operators
• municipality
• pension funds
• insurance companies
• charities

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary.

If you use our surviving dependants service, you enter into an agreement with us under which we will deliver the mail of a deceased person at a different address. For this purpose, we process personal data such as:

• name 
• title
• relation to the deceased
• address, postcode and town/city to which the mail is to be sent
• email address
• date of birth
• telephone number
• digital copy or photograph of the death certificate

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary. The data of deceased persons are not personal data.

We may deliver mail or parcels to you that contain alcohol. Or you may pick them up at a PostNL point. We will only hand over your mail or parcel to you if you show a valid identity document proving you are old enough. We can also leave your mail or parcel with the neighbours or a housemate, if they can provide proof of identity and are old enough.

The deliverer asks for a signature for receipt. This way, we can also show the sender that we performed this check. Depending on the situation and the service purchased by the sender, we process the following personal data:

• date of birth 
• signature 

We do not retain these data any longer than necessary. 

For example, for keeping our customer records, or filing a tax return. In order to comply with laws and regulations, we may need to transfer personal data to government institutions or supervisory authorities. This may be necessary for a particular situation. Before sharing these data, we check the powers of these institutions. 

For this purpose, we process personal data such as:

• name, address and place of residence 
• barcode number of your letter or parcel 
• account details 
• bank account number 
• credit card information 
• IP address 
• Chamber of Commerce information 

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary.

If you give your consent, we can customise our website and app with information that is of interest to you, or make certain recommendations to you. For these additional functionalities, we process personal data such as:  

• the device used (mobile, tablet or computer) 
• operating system
• details regarding your visit to the site or use of the app
• your PostNL account details
• your account activity
• your account ID or your PostNL customer number
• your location (when looking for a PostNL point)
• your cookie settings and information we collect by placing cookies

You can read more about cookies in our cookie statement, where you can also learn how to set your cookie preferences.

We use cookies and similar technologies to show you relevant ads. You can read more about this in our cookie statement, where you can also learn how to set your cookie preferences and other technologies.

We need personal data from you to deliver mail and parcels to you, or if you pick up mail or parcels at a PostNL point. This includes data for track & trace. We will also send you messages to let you know where your letter or parcel is and when we will deliver it. Your personal data come from the sender of the letter or the parcel. For example, a webshop or someone who sends you a card. For this purpose, we may process the following personal data of you:

• name, address and place of residence 
• title
• track & trace code  
• signature (when you have to sign for a parcel or letter)  
• email address 
• telephone number  
• CCTV footage (at parcel machines) 

We do not retain the data any longer than necessary.

We may ask you to show an ID. The barcode or QR code will be scanned by the desk staff. After that, we will manually record:

• The type of ID

• The document number of your ID (not your citizen service number)

We process this information to prevent fraud and to demonstrate that the service has been carried out. We do not make a full copy of your ID.

We process some data because this is required by law. For example, we are obliged to check the age of the recipient when we deliver alcohol. See also the purpose ‘To deliver mail and parcels to you for which identification is required’ under the legal basis ‘Our legal obligation’.

To deliver your parcels as accurately as possible and to keep you informed, we link parcels to your PostNL account. We always try to link a parcel to the account of the person for whom the parcel is intended.

In some cases, a parcel may also become visible in the account of another resident at the same address. This only happens when the name and address details sufficiently match and the parcel cannot be clearly linked to another specific account at that address.

To link parcel information, we only use name, address, email, and telephone details provided by the sender or already known to us through your account.

If you do not want your parcels to be visible in someone else’s account at your address, or if you do not want to see parcels of other household members in your account, you can object to this processing.

More information about how matching works and how you can submit an objection can be found here. 

Opening undeliverable letters

Sometimes a letter is undeliverable, for example because it does not contain an (existing) address or a return address. In such an exceptional situation, we are allowed to open the letter. In doing so, we hope to find out the address of the addressee or the sender. We have a dedicated department for this purpose. Its employees have signed a statement saying that they will keep the contents confidential and comply with our rules of conduct. They also provided a Certificate of Good Conduct when they joined our company. If they find an (return) address, we will deliver the letter with an accompanying letter explaining why we opened it.

We process personal data of you when you contact us through our customer service or social media. We then process personal data that you provide to us, such as:  

• name, address and place of residence 
• contents of your query or complaint 
• telephone number 
• customer service number of your query or complaint 
• email address
• messages and emails you have sent to us 
• social media identifiers 
• bank account number

If you have a PostNL account and give us your consent, we will use your account details to help you.

If you have a complaint about the delivery of a letter or parcel, we have to be able to handle it properly. For this purpose, it may be necessary for us to share the contents of the complaint and your personal data with other parties. For example, with subcontractors with whom we work, or with the relevant deliverer. This may include personal data such as:

• name
• address details
• contents of the complaint

You can contact us through various channels, such as chat, email or telephone. We may record telephone calls with our customer service to train our employees and analyse information. A recorded telephone call is retained for a maximum period of 60 days.

Some telephone calls with business customers are recorded by us. This is the case when we record payment agreements. At the beginning of the conversation, we will ask you if you have any objections to such recording. We will use these recordings and transcripts to record the agreements in our systems. This is always done by an employee. The recorded telephone calls are retained for a maximum period of 60 days.

To offer you the best possible help, our customer service department is assisted by a digital colleague: chatbot Daan. When you choose to chat or call, Daan will ask some questions. This will enable one of our colleagues to work on your query immediately. We will store your answers, the chats and your personal data with the customer service department. This gives us an overview of the questions you asked us at that time and/or in the past. Without these personal data, we are unable to contact you and answer your question. If you only speak to our digital colleague Daan, we will retain these data for a maximum period of 6 months. If Daan puts you through to an employee, we will retain the data for a maximum period of 5 years. If you send a private message via Facebook or X, we will retain that message for a period of 3 months.

Any refund requested by you via chatbot Daan will go through an automated process. We do this to help you better and faster. The data you have entered are checked for accuracy and automatically checked against certain criteria. The decision of whether you will get a refund is made on the basis of the data you have entered and the data we have about your purchase. You will always receive an answer about whether or not you get a refund. You have the right to submit this automatic decision to an employee and to receive an explanation. You can also let us know what you think of the decision and, if desired, object to it. Please read What are your privacy rights? and Do you have any questions about privacy?

To improve our internal processes and business operations, we process data anonymously as much as possible. This may sometimes involve processing of personal data, for example to improve pages on our website, to resolve causes of complaints, to improve our logistics processes, to develop new products, or to make analyses and reports for business customers, such as webshops. These analyses and reports never contain names and addresses, but only information about large groups of users. For example, the number of parcels we have delivered in a particular postcode area.

In order to tailor our services and products to your wishes and needs, we process data from your account and about your account activity, such as setting a delivery preference, so we can determine which products suit you, make recommendations, or send you targeted advertising or information.

We can also contact you to ask your opinion of our services and products. For example, we can ask you to participate in a customer (satisfaction) survey conducted by us. We do this in various ways, for example by sending an email. Sometimes we outsource this to another party.

In order to improve our services, we may process the following personal data:

• name, address and place of residence 
• track & trace code
• the number of parcels received and sent
• whether you are at home at the time of delivery
• details in your PostNL account (e.g. your delivery preference)
• account activity

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary.  

We use personal data to make our website and app work technically, and to offer you certain functionalities and improve them. For this purpose, we process personal data such as:  

• IP address of your PC, mobile or tablet
• details regarding your visit to the website or use of the app:
  • pages and screens viewed on the website or in the app
  • your searches in the app or on the website
  • whether you logged in to the app or on the website using your PostNL account
  • your cookie settings
  • information we collect by placing cookies

In our cookie statement, we explain what types of cookies we use and why, and how you can change your cookie settings.

You can also request additional functionalities on the website and in the app. In some cases, we need your consent to process personal data. See the heading ‘To offer you additional functionalities of our website and PostNL app’.

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary.  

We use personal data to provide you with information and services that we think may be of interest to you. This enables us to tailor our products and services to your wishes. We also use these data to improve our service to you. For this purpose, we process personal data such as:  

• the number of items sent per year 
• the number of items received per year and whether you are at home to accept the parcel 
• PostNL account details 

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary.

We receive visitors at our head office and other locations. On that occasion, we will register your data to give you an access pass. This tells us know who is present in the building. For this purpose, we process personal data such as:  

• name 
• email address 
• the company you work for 
• the person with whom you have an appointment

We retain these data for a period of 2 weeks.

We process personal data to prevent and combat fraud within our (logistics) processes. This concerns personal data that we already have. We use them for analyses and investigations, and take measures when necessary. In the process, we process all personal data required for thispurpose.

We do not retain the personal data any longer than strictly necessary. This may vary from case to case.

We process personal data for proper business operations. Examples include sending invoices, general management, and asset management. By analysing and combining data, we endeavour to continue improving our business processes. We also process personal data for purposes of finance and accounting, archiving and insurance, legal and business advice, and in settling legal conflicts. For this purpose, we process personal data such as:

• name, address and place of residence
• email address
• telephone number
• business details
• other information that may be relevant to a legal dispute 

We will retain these data for as long as necessary. This may vary for each business process.

We use personal data to send you offers and newsletters. And to develop, conduct and analyse market surveys and marketing strategies. For this purpose, we process personal data such as:

• name, address and place of residence
• number of letters or parcels that you send and receive
• email address
• delivery preferences

We do not retain the personal data any longer than necessary.

We engage other parties that perform services or work for us. We call these parties “processors”. They process the data exclusively for us. These parties include, for example:  

• IT service providers 
• research agencies 
• business partners (e.g. a PostNL point)

When we engage third parties, they only work on our instructions. In other words, they do not process the data for their own purposes. We make agreements about such processing in contracts. We also check whether these parties secure the data properly and handle them with due care.

In addition to processors, there are other parties with whom we may share personal data. We only do this when permitted or required by law. These parties include, for example:  

• public authorities (e.g. police or supervisory authorities, to comply with the law)
• insurance companies

You have the right to access the personal data that we process of you. This means that you can request information about these data from us. You can use this information to check whether your data are correct and complete. If necessary, you can modify the data (or have them modified). We will provide you with these personal data, unless an exception applies.

You have the right to modify the personal data that we process of you if they are incorrect or incomplete.

You have the right to have your personal data deleted. We cannot always comply with this request. For example, where we are required by law to retain the data for a certain period of time. Or when we still need the data for the purpose, for example delivering a letter or parcel or receiving a payment for such delivery from you. You can use the right to have your personal data deleted if: 

• we no longer need the data for the original purpose 
• you withdraw your consent for processing the data 
• you object to the use of your data for our legitimate interests 
• we process your data wrongly or incorrectly
• we are required by law to erase your personal data

You have the right to ask us to restrict the use of your personal data. This is possible if:

• you are of the opinion that your personal data are incorrect 
• we process your data wrongly or incorrectly
• you want to have your data retained in order to use them in legal proceeding 
• you have objected to the use of your data for our legitimate interests

You have the right to receive personal data that we have of you in such a way that you can easily give them to another person or organisation. This is only possible if you have personally transferred the personal data to us, and if we process those data automatically, based on your consent or an agreement that you have with us.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data.