Train travel with GPS

To use Train Travel with GPS, you need an OV-chipkaart and an NS Flex season ticket. You must also download the NS Lab app and give the app, including Train Travel with GPS, the required permissions (such as access to location data). Personal data is processed in order to make train travel with GPS possible. 

If you use an OV-chipkaart with an NS Flex season ticket to travel, you can also use the NS Lab app, which works with GPS data from your smartphone, to travel in all trains in the Netherlands for which you could use your OV-chipkaart. In other words, you can travel by train without having to check in and out with your OV-chipkaart. We need some of your personal data to make train travel with GPS possible. This includes your first name and surname, travel details and location details.  

When travelling with the NS Lab app with the option 'train travel with GPS' enabled, you can give permission for the app to start collecting the data required for train travel with GPS, such as your location data, as soon as you reach a station’s geofence ( the virtual boundary of a real location, in this case stations and train tracks in the Netherlands ). Your data are collected to determine your location correctly and efficiently and are then sent to Translink's back office, so that Translink can register and price the train journey you have made. 

Train travel with GPS is deactivated as soon as the app establishes that you have left the station (not by train) or after you end or the app (automatically) ends the train journey. Your personal data will be processed for no more than 20 minutes after you leave the geofenced area.

If you go to, pass by or stay within the geofence of a station and do not use or switch on the NS Lab app and train travel with GPS, no personal data will be processed. 

We use your personal data to allow you to travel based on GPS data using the NS Lab app. We also use these data to have your ticket checked by the conductor.  

The basis for data processing is: performance of a contract 

We only process the data that you provide to us to use the NS Lab app to be able to use train journeys with GPS and insofar as these are necessary to enter into an agreement for train travel with GPS with you and to perform said agreement by enabling you to travel by train with NS. If you do not want to provide us with any personal data, you cannot use Train Travel with GPS. You can always choose to travel with a different or non-personal travel product. 

When you travel with the NS Lab app and use the Train Travel with GPS option, we will pass on certain data to Translink. Translink provides this service to NS and several data streams run through Translink’s back office. 

Some NS Customer Service activities are outsourced to a party based in the Netherlands and Suriname. We have made agreements with this party to implement the standard provisions required by the European Commission.

We also use IT services provided by third parties. These third parties process our data solely for our own internal use, and for no other purpose. We have made agreements about the processing of personal data with these parties, pertaining to how this information is secured and stored, for instance.

NS does not keep your data longer than necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and never longer than legally permitted. If you travel with the NS Lab app and use Train Travel with GPS, we keep your personal data for up to 18 months after you make a trip. Translink will store your location data for 4 months.