Privacy statement

This statement provides general information about the processing of personal data by Rijkswaterstaat and about the possibilities available to you for exercising your rights with regard to personal data.

Responsible for processing

The Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW) is the controller as defined in the General Data Protection Regulation, and as such is responsible for the processing of your personal data as described in this privacy statement. This Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management has issued a mandate to the Director General of Rijkswaterstaat with regard to a proportion of its tasks, as described in the Appointment Resolution Director General Rijkswaterstaat 2013. The responsibility for the processing of personal data (data controlling) for the implementation of these tasks has been placed with Rijkswaterstaat.

Contrary to the provisions of the GDPR, pursuant to the Dutch Police Data Act (Wpg), the employer is considered the controller. The Wpg applies to the processing of personal data in the event of enforcement tasks by special investigating officers (boas) of Rijkswaterstaat. On behalf of the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, the RWS Director General of Rijkswaterstaat is the employer of special investigating officers.

Contact information

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management has its offices at Rijnstraat 8 in 2515 XP, The Hague. Correspondence address: P.O. Box 20906, 2500 EX, The Hague.

Data Protection Officer

Rijkswaterstaat has a Data Protection Officer (DPO). You can contact the DPO via email.

Which data are processed by Rijkswaterstaat?

Rijkswaterstaat processes various categories of personal data. ‘Personal data’ refers to all information that can be directly or indirectly derived to an individual person.

Personal data are processed among others in the performance of our statutory task or a public interest task. For a more detailed explanation of the underlying principles visit the website of the Data Protection Authority.

Rijkswaterstaat has chosen to draw up a specific privacy statement for each processing activity. These statements for example contain information about which personal data we process, why we process those data, on the basis of what principle and for how long we store the personal data.

These privacy statements are only available in Dutch. If you would prefer to read the information in another language, you may use translation software to translate the text. This will grant you simple access to the specific information relevant to you.

For more information about the specific forms of special data processing performed by Rijkswaterstaat, consult the main page on privacy.

It is not the intention of Rijkswaterstaat to collect special and/or sensitive personal data, for example personal data relating to religion, political preference, medical data or data relating to crime and criminal justice. Precisely which personal data are processed will depend on the specific process in question.

Personal data of children below the age of 16 years

It is also not the intention of Rijkswaterstaat to collect data relating to people below the age of 16 years, unless Rijkswaterstaat has permission to do so from the parents or guardian. We are however unable to check whether a person visiting our media channels is over the age of 16 years. We therefore advise parents to remain aware of the online behaviour of their children. This will considerably reduce the risk that data relating to children will be collected without the parents’ permission.

If you are convinced that we have collected personal data regarding a minor without your permission, please contact us via the contact form. The information in question will then be erased.

Sharing personal data

Rijkswaterstaat regularly collaborates with other parties. In that connection we are sometimes required to provide these parties with personal data. For example contractors, research agencies and other government authorities. We have entered into agreements with these parties regarding the careful and secure processing of personal data.

For more specific information about the processing of personal data by Rijkswaterstaat, please visit the page Specific privacy statements.

Sharing personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA)

If we share personal data with parties outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we do so fully in line in the applicable requirements laid down in the General Data Protection Regulation and other relevant legislation and regulations.

For more information about the sharing and/or passing on of information to other organisations or outside the EEA, please consult the page Specific privacy statements.

Microsoft Corporation

Products from Microsoft Office are used for much of our processing. Microsoft is based in the United States. The passing on of personal data to this party is based on provisions from model contracts approved by the European Commission.

For more information on this subject, please complete the contact form with a request for information about ‘international sharing of personal data’.

Your rights with regard to personal data

Under the GDPR, you have a number of rights in respect of the processing of your personal data. You have the following rights:

• The right to information
• The right to transparency
• The right to rectification
• The right to erasure (right to be forgotten)
• The right to restriction of processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to objection
• The right to automated individual decision-making

For further information about the conditions that apply to exercising your rights, visit the website of the Data Protection Authority.

Under the Wpg, you have a number of rights regarding the processing of your personal data in the framework of enforcement by special investigating officers of Rijkswaterstaat. You have the following rights:

• The right to information
• The right to transparency
• The right to rectification and erasure
• The right to automated individual decision-making

For further information about the conditions that apply to exercising your rights, visit the website of the Data Protection Authority.

You can submit a request or question via our contact form.

What information do we need?

In order to correctly and rapidly deal with your request, please submit a copy of your identity document (ID document) together with your request. In the submitted copy you must redact the passport photograph, the line of numbers at the bottom of the passport, the passport number and your citizen service number (BSN). We ask you do this in order to protect your privacy.

You can also make use of the ‘CopyID’ app to make a secure copy of your ID document. For more information on this app, please visit website of the Government of the Netherlands.

If you do not wish to submit a copy of your identity document but do wish to enforce your rights, you are welcome to visit us at one of our offices across the country.

Response time by Rijkswaterstaat

Rijkswaterstaat will make every effort to respond to your request as quickly as possible. Under all circumstances within one month. In the case of a request relating to the Wpg, you will receive our response within a maximum of four weeks. For complex or large requests, the handling time may be longer. In these cases, the maximum handling time is three months from the moment we receive your request. For the Wpg, the maximum handling time is six weeks. We will duly inform you if the extended handling times apply to your request.

How we secure personal data

Rijkswaterstaat takes the protection of your personal data seriously. We take appropriate measures to prevent exploitation, loss, unauthorised access, unintended publication and unlawful amendment.

Rijkswaterstaat operates in accordance with the Government Information Security Baseline (BIO). The BIO is an information security framework for national government. The primary role of the BIO is to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability.

Who should you contact if you have any questions or complaints?

Questions about the processing of personal data

If you have questions about the processing of your personal data or about this privacy statement, please contact us via the general contact page.

Complaints about the processing of personal data

If you have a complaint about the way in which Rijkswaterstaat has handled your personal data, please submit your complaint in writing to the data protection officer via email.

Dissatisfied with the response to your complaint

If you are dissatisfied with our response to your complaint, or if we have failed to respond to your complaint within 4 weeks, you can submit a complaint to the Data Protection Authority.

If your complaint relates to a decision by Rijkswaterstaat to a request to exercise your rights under the GDPR, you must first submit an objection to Rijkswaterstaat. You can also contact Rijkswaterstaat if you wish to submit a complaint on any other grounds.

This statement was most recently updated on September 8th, 2025.