Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Student in the Netherlands is operated by Milan Magyar and Andrei. We help international students plan and execute their move to the Netherlands through advisory calls, course materials, and housing search services.

This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, and how we protect it. It applies to all users of our website (studentinthenetherlands.com) and purchasers of our services.

2. Data We Collect

We collect the following categories of personal data:

When you submit a lead or interest form

• Email address
• First name
• Country of origin
• Whether you're interested in housing search assistance
• Traffic source (e.g. Instagram, TikTok, direct)

When you make a purchase

• Email address and name (provided to Stripe at checkout)
• Payment information — processed and stored solely by Stripe; we never see or store your card details
• Stripe session ID and customer ID (stored in our database for order tracking)
• Product purchased and amount paid

When you use our services

• Information you share in group calls or 1-on-1 advisor calls (your university, timeline, city, budget, housing preferences)
• Messages sent via WhatsApp (The Program students), email, or our platform
• Scheduling information for booked calls (date, time, Google Meet link)

Automatically collected data

• Basic website usage analytics (page views, referrer source)
• Browser type and device information
• IP address (used to determine general location for service delivery; not stored long-term)

3. How We Use Your Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

• To deliver the services you purchased — providing course access, scheduling calls, conducting housing searches
• To communicate with you about your order, your move, and relevant updates (including via WhatsApp for The Program students)
• To send you emails related to the service (onboarding, call confirmations, housing updates)
• To enforce contractual obligations, including the housing success fee and associated penalty clauses
• To respond to your enquiries and support requests
• To prevent fraud and ensure secure payment processing
• To improve our services based on aggregated, anonymised usage patterns

We do not sell your personal data. We do not use your data for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

For users in the European Union, we process personal data on the following legal bases:

• Contract performance — processing your order, delivering the service you paid for, and enforcing contractual payment obligations
• Legitimate interests — following up with leads who expressed interest in our services, improving our service quality
• Legal obligation — retaining transaction records as required by applicable tax and accounting laws
• Consent — sending marketing communications (you may withdraw consent at any time)

5. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to operate our platform. Each processes your data under their own privacy policy:

We choose providers that are GDPR-compliant and have standard contractual clauses in place where required.

6. Data Retention

We retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this policy:

• Lead and interest form data: up to 2 years, or until you request deletion
• Purchase records and housing contract documentation: 7 years, as required by Dutch accounting regulations
• Call notes, WhatsApp messages, and service-related communications: for the duration of your active enrolment, then up to 1 year
• Marketing email subscribers: until you unsubscribe

7. Your Rights

Under GDPR, EU residents have the following rights regarding their personal data:

• Right of access — you can request a copy of the data we hold about you
• Right to rectification — you can ask us to correct inaccurate data
• Right to erasure — you can ask us to delete your data (subject to legal retention obligations)
• Right to restriction — you can ask us to limit how we use your data
• Right to data portability — you can request your data in a machine-readable format
• Right to object — you can object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Right to withdraw consent — for any processing based on consent, you can withdraw at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at studentinthenetherlands@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) at autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl.

8. Cookies

Our website uses a small number of cookies necessary for the site to function correctly. We do not currently use advertising cookies or third-party tracking cookies beyond what is described below:

• Session cookies — temporary cookies that expire when you close your browser, used to maintain your session
• Preference cookies — to remember your choices (e.g. language settings)
• Analytics — basic, anonymised traffic analytics to understand which pages are visited. No personal identifiers are tracked.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect the functionality of certain parts of our site.

9. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include encrypted data transmission (HTTPS), access controls on our database, and using trusted cloud providers with their own security certifications.

No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. If you have reason to believe your interaction with us is no longer secure, please contact us immediately.

10. Children's Privacy

Our services are intended for individuals aged 16 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make significant changes, we will notify you by email or by posting a notice on our website. The "last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.

12. Contact Us

For any questions, data requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact: