Maintaining customer relationships

For the purposes of maintaining our relationship with you, and to offer you personalised promotions for example, we use information such as your contact details, transaction data, travel behaviour, contact history with NS, customer profile (analysis of, for example, whether you are likely to terminate your season ticket soon), open/click behaviour in e-mails and on the website (only under the conditions described in our Cookie policy and inferred preferences (such as leisure activities if you have specified this). The personal data you have provided to NS are linked to you as an NS customer and not to an NS product or service you have purchased.

Have you received or requested an NS-Business Card from NS Zakelijk? In that case, we will use your business contact details if possible.

We use your data to maintain our relationship with you, for example by providing you with the best possible information about our products and by optimising the products and services you purchase from NS. NS has a justified interest in doing so. We also maintain a relationship with you through marketing promotions, the NS Spoordeelwinkel, cookies and by sending newsletters in the post and by e-mail. These data are processed on the grounds of permission.

The principle for processing the information is: justified interest.

E-mail marketing and marketing by  post

We are keen to maintain our relationship with you. If we do this for marketing related to passenger growth and passenger allocation, we have a (commercial) interest in using certain inferred travel information. We call these travel data “maandtellers”. “Maandtellers” are data on travel frequency, time since most recent journey, travel during peak/off-peak hours, preferred routes, preferred stations, OV-fiets, storage on account, and travel yield. We use this information for analyses to identify trends and to adjust our products accordingly. By linking this information with individual travel information, we can achieve better business results and improve customer satisfaction. For the analyses, we use aggregated or anonymous data as much as possible. The information we use only tells us about your travel behaviour. We cannot use the information to “follow” you. If you do not wish to receive information about promotions derived from your OV chipkaart usage, then click on unsubscribe.

We strictly comply with legislation regarding e-mail advertising. We will not send you any advertisements or promotions without your permission if you have never given us your email address for our online services. If you have done that at some point, we are not obliged to ask for permission, but we are required to offer a simple option to unsubscribe. NS always does this. If you are not one of our customers but would still like to receive messages, you can sign up for them on one of the NS websites.

If you would rather not receive any information or promotions, then you can unsubscribe:

• For e-mail: by logging in to Mijn NS or Mijn NS Zakelijk, or by clicking on unsubscribe at the bottom of the message
• For post and telephone calls from NS, you can use 'Data and preferences' in Mijn NS or the  NS Customer Service.
• For e-mail from NS International: via the unsubscribe option at the bottom of the message

We do our best to process your choice to unsubscribe as quickly as possible. However, processing your choice to unsubscribe may take some time; it is possible that you will still receive commercial messages from NS in the meantime.

Functional email policy

We send you messages that are not for advertising purposes without your permission, for example messages regarding the purchase, management, change or termination of NS products or about your booking with NS International, such as changes or disasters. If the situation allows, NS may just as well decide to offer you the option to unsubscribe.

We comply with the codes of conduct regarding personalised advertising  from the Data Driven Marketing Association (DDMA).

Research

Based on the customer relationship, we may send you occasional e-mails inviting you to share your opinions and experiences with NS to improve our products and services. NS will use your profile details to provide you with the best possible information. You can cancel this service at any time via a link in the e-mail or your own login account for Mijn NS. 

Service notifications

Based on the customer relationship, NS will send you service notifications with important travel information, such as delays, maintenance work and crowded trains. NS will use your profile details to provide you with the best possible information. You can cancel this service at any time via a link in the e-mail or your own login account for Mijn NS. 

The basis for processing is: permission

Use of travel data for personalisation in communication

NS only uses your travel data to personalise messages and for research, if you have granted permission for this purpose. In the online Mijn NS environment, you can use 'Data and preferences' to easily select which messages you wish to receive digitally from NS, and which data may be used for this purpose, so the messages can better accommodate your preferences and your journey. You can view and edit your communications preferences at any time.

The “Maandtellers” described above are data on travel frequency, time since most recent journey, travel during peak/off-peak hours, preferred routes, preferred stations, OV-fiets, storage on account, and travel yield. If NS links these data to your personal data, we can make you personalised offers. If you grant permission, NS may use your travel data to present you with personalised offers. In that case, we will draw up profiles based on your personal data and travel data. In the online Mijn NS environment, you can use 'Data and preferences' to easily select which messages you wish to receive digitally from NS, and which data may be used for this purpose, so the messages can better accommodate you and your journey. You can view and edit your communications preferences at any time.

Service messages from carriers

If you have given permission, then we will send your details to other carriers so that they can send you service messages.

Cookies

For the use of cookies and similar technologies by NS, please see the cookie statement.

Partners we work with often ask whether they may offer you, as a customer of NS, interesting promotions. For example, discounts to travel, theatre tickets or books. We do not give these third parties information, neither do we sell it to them. But since we do not want our customers to miss interesting promotions, we may pass them onto you ourselves.

We also give your information to national and international carriers for the purposes of sending service messages. We have made agreements about the processing of personal data with these parties, pertaining to how this information is secured and stored, for instance.

We contract third parties to provide IT and marketing services. These third parties process our data solely for our own internal use, and for no other purpose. We have made agreements with these parties pertaining to the processing of personal data.

We are authorised to provide your personal data to parties outside the European Economic Community under certain circumstances. In that event, we will take suitable measures with these parties, for example by agreeing to the standard provisions required by the European Commission.

We store information that we have used for analyses for no more than 48 months from the last time we had contact with the customer concerned. We also store information used for personalised promotions for no more than 48 months. When you withdraw from commercial messages or object to the use of your personal information, we will delete all information that we use for maintaining our relationship as quickly as possible.