NS & NS International apps

When you use any of our apps, the data we use will always include your device's screen resolution and operating system, your IP address, your station search history and keys for identifying the device. In addition, you can also choose to enable location data, discounts entered, various notifications and push messages and your device's camera.

You can link our apps to your Mijn NS, Mijn NS Zakelijk and/or Mijn NS International account. If you do so, we will use your contact data, travel history, ticket data, e-ticket, accompanying transaction data and travel balance in the app.

You can link the NS App and NS Lab App to your OV-chipkaart. In that case, your most recent check-in/check-out will be used to guide you on your journey.

You can also send us feedback via the NS App ('So? How's your trip?') When you send feedback, you can choose to share your check-in/check-out data and location data. 

When you report a problem and/or bug in the NS International App, you can leave your e-mail address and choose to send technical data as well. This technical data consists of your Mijn NS International account, your app history (past 30 minutes), information about reservations saved in the International App (without your name and/or e-mail address), your operating system, and keys we can use to identify your device.

If you are an NS-Business Card holder from NS Zakelijk, we will use your business contact data if possible.

The basis for processing your data is: consent.

If you consent to the use of your personal data, we will use your data in the NS app, the NS Lab app, and the NS International app. With these apps, we can provide you with travel information, send push notifications about delays and changes to your planned journey, put you in contact with NS Customer Services or the Expertise Centre, send you digital NS International tickets and provide station information.

You can also use the NS app to view your travel balance, travel history, and transaction overview or send feedback to NS. In the NS app, you can consent to sharing your location along with the feedback provided, and you can consent to sharing your check-in/check-out data when the app is active on your telephone. In that case, we will send you a push notification with an invitation to provide feedback at a suitable moment during or after your journey. In the NS app, you can also consent to linking your feedback to the times at which you pass through the gates at the departure and arrival stations using an e-ticket. This helps us link your feedback to a specific train journey, so we can address any issues as accurately as possible.Finally, you can also give the NS app permission to use your GPS location and/or WiFi signal to determine whether you are on the train. This involves comparing the GPS location and speed of your device with the GPS location and speed of the train. Sharing your WiFi signal lets the NS app determine which WiFi routers are close to your phone. NS cannot use this information to find out who you are, but we can use it to determine that someone with the NS app installed on a device is on a train. Location or device data is not stored and NS cannot identify who is using the NS app. We use this information to give you a warm welcome on the train, to give you up-to-date travel information, and to determine crowd levels on the train. The WiFi detection feature only works on Android devices. After logging in, you can change your notification preferences if you wish to be notified when you check in and out. You can also give the app permission to switch on background location services, which lets us notify you when you forget to check out. Your check-in and check-out data is used for this purpose.

You can also give the application access to your smartphone's camera and photo gallery. The camera is only used for the feature 'Scan your OV-chipkaart automatically', to upload an avatar to Mijn NS, and/or to add a photo of your favourite location. Photos are only stored in the app, and will only be used for that application, with the exception of the photos uploaded to the Mijn NS environment. When the app automatically scans your OV-chipkaart, we will only detect the text on the card, and will not store photos in the app or upload them to the server.

We use the NS Lab App to test new functionalities that we would like to add to the other apps.You can disconnect Mijn NS, Mijn NS Zakelijk or Mijn NS International from the app or delete your OV-chipkaart data from the app at any time. By doing so, you withdraw your consent to the use of your data for the app in question.

When you grant permission for the NS Perronwijzer App to use your location data, the app will only use your location to determine the nearest station so that we can give you a more appropriate travel recommendation. You can withdraw your permission at any time in the NS Perronwijzer App. You will then have to select the station yourself when using the NS Perronwijzer App.

If, when reporting a problem and/or bug in the NS International App, you consent to the use of your e-mail and any (indirectly traceable) technical data, NS will only use the data to solve your problem. After you revoke your consent, NS will no longer use your data for the problem and/or bug reported by you.

The basis for processing is: legitimate interest.

The NS apps use various tracking SDKs (software development kits), such as Google Analytics, Instabug, Firebase, and Firebase Crashlytics. An SDK is a part of the app's source code. The SDK is used to analyse how the app is used. We analyse the duration of visits, the app usage frequency, the order in which you visit pages, OS versions, language settings, and time zones to optimise the app and solve bugs and errors. We use this information to optimise the apps and analyse issues. The information we collect with SDKs helps us to make our apps more user-friendly. We collect this information with Google Analytics SDK, Google Analytics Firebase SDK, and Firebase Crashlytics. Through the use of IP-address anonymisation, the data collected by these SDKs cannot be used to identify individual users.

When you plan a trip in the NS Reisplanner, we use the location data of your starting point and destination. You can consent to sharing your location in the app or in your Internet browser. In that case, the app can use your location to determine your starting point and/or destination.  We store any location data linked to trip advice for three weeks, so that we can continue to improve the quality of your trip advice. Location data is kept separate from other identifiable data.

The NS International app uses information about your reservations to assist you in the event of a disruption and/or delay. This may include an alternative route suggestion or the option of cancelling or rescheduling your journey. The app will only send a push notification for disruptions if you have granted permission via the mobile operating system. Push notifications can be deactivated in the app at any time.

We contract third parties to provide IT 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.

If you no longer wish to use an NS app, you can remove the app from your account, delete your account, or delete the app and all data saved. We will then no longer use your data to use the app. We will store your IP address for 30 days for the security of our apps. We use this information for purposes such as preventing attacks and blocking large numbers of requests from a specific IP address. We use server-side logging to improve the performance of our apps and detect errors. This means that we log activity on our servers and store these logs for 30 days. Logs may contain personal data, for example relating to the purchase of an e-ticket. App configuration settings such as OS type and language preferences are saved on your device in order to offer a consistent user experience. App configuration settings are stored locally on your device until the app is deleted. Push notifications sent by the NS App or NS Lab App are stored for 30 days before being automatically deleted. We store push notifications for 30 days to improve the performance of our apps and detect errors.

App configuration settings such as OS type and language preferences are saved on your device in order to offer a consistent user experience. App configuration settings are stored locally on your device until the app is deleted. Push notifications sent by the NS App or NS Lab App are stored for 30 days before being automatically deleted. We store push notifications for 30 days to improve the performance of our apps and detect errors.

Your data and preferences will be automatically deleted from the feedback function of the NS App 18 months after you last sent feedback. We store your feedback for 6 months to predict the extent to which we meet the performance indicators we report to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. Back-ups of the feedback data are stored for one year after the six-month retention period. After this period, feedback is made unidentifiable where possible. You may, however, enter identifiable information in the free text field that cannot be filtered out. We regard all feedback as containing directly or indirectly identifiable personal data at all times. We store this data for five years for statistical purposes only, including historical trend analysis.

We will store your e-mail and technical data shared when reporting an issue and/or bug in the NS International App for no more than 30 days.  Naturally, this data will be deleted sooner if your report is deleted before this time or if you revoke your consent.

NS stores your location data and the fact that you are on a particular train in such a way that it cannot be used to identify you.