Privacy statement

Who we are

Buurtmaat is a private app for your village or neighbourhood. Buurtmaat is a service of AnchorWorks B.V., Binnendelta 11M, 1261 WZ Blaricum, the Netherlands. Our Chamber of Commerce (KvK) number is 42013298.

A municipality, welfare organisation, housing association, village council, neighbourhood council or residents' association takes Buurtmaat for one or more communities. In this statement we call that organisation the customer.

This statement applies to everyone who uses Buurtmaat: residents, neighbourhood buddies, ambassadors, moderators, editors and administrators. It also applies to contact persons of customers, to anyone who requests a demo through our website and to residents who send us a message through the postcode check.

We comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Dutch GDPR Implementation Act (Uitvoeringswet AVG). You can ask questions about privacy at info@buurtmaat.nl.

Who is responsible for your data

AnchorWorks B.V. is the controller for Buurtmaat's account, payment and log data. We decide how the app works, which data it needs and how long we keep it.

You yourself share what you post, such as posts, comments and photos, with the other members of your village or neighbourhood. You are responsible for that yourself.

The customer uses Buurtmaat for its own communities. Administrators, editors and moderators of the customer or from the village or neighbourhood only see the data that belongs to their role. If the customer uses data for its own purpose, such as sending the letters with access codes or posting official messages, the customer is itself responsible for that.

If the customer posts messages through an integration with its own system, such as a municipality app or its website, the customer is responsible for those messages. Buurtmaat only takes over the text, the photos and a link to the original.

What data we keep about you

We only keep what is needed to make Buurtmaat work. As a member, that is:

• your name and your email address
• the language you choose for Buurtmaat
• your home address in the community, which we link through the code from the letter
• your profile photo, if you add one yourself
• your knowledge and skills and what you like to help with, if you fill these in yourself
• your year of birth: only the year, never your date of birth
• when you became a member and when you agreed to the house rules
• your roles, for example neighbourhood buddy, ambassador or moderator, and who gave you that role
• your settings for email and push notifications, and whether neighbours may send you a message from the member list
• your notifications in the app, such as a comment on something you posted or a booking, and whether you have seen them
• what you post: posts, comments, help requests, tips for a professional, listings (with an asking price if you sell something), items in the sharing cupboard, activities, photos, your sign-ups for activities and call-outs, and your vote in a poll
• your bookings in the sharing cupboard, and other people's bookings for your items
• your private messages, about a help request or from the member list
• automatic translations of what you or others posted, and the language the original was written in
• reports you make about posts or profiles
• decisions by a moderator or AnchorWorks about what you posted: what it said, the decision and the reason
• who you have blocked yourself, and since when
• if you have a role with two-step verification: the data needed for that

Data we don't ask for

We don't ask for your date of birth, your phone number or a password. Buurtmaat is for people aged 16 and over. That is why we only ask for your year of birth when you sign up. Other members never see it.

Don't put sensitive data in Buurtmaat, such as information about your health. It isn't needed to ask for or give help. Also don't say that your house is empty.

Addresses and access codes

Only real residents may take part. That is why the residential addresses of the community are in Buurtmaat. They come from the Dutch Addresses and Buildings Register (Basisregistratie Adressen en Gebouwen, BAG). No names are stored with an address.

Every address gets a personal code. It is sent to the address by letter. We only store the code in unreadable form. With the code from the letter, at most five people from the same address can take part. After that, a member can invite a housemate.

Why we use your data

We only use your data for these purposes. Each purpose is followed by its legal basis under the GDPR.

• Your account, your membership and what you post: to provide Buurtmaat to you. Legal basis: performance of the contract (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).
• Your year of birth: to check that you are 16 or older. Legal basis: performance of the contract. We also count members per age group for the report to the customer. It only contains numbers; we don't show a group of fewer than ten people, so that nobody can be recognised. Legal basis: legitimate interest. We also use it to decide whether you, as a member aged 16 or 17, may offer an odd job on the market yourself.
• Emails and push notifications, such as urgent messages and the weekly summary: to let you know what is happening in your village or neighbourhood. Legal basis: performance of the contract. You turn them on or off yourself.
• Moderation and reports: to keep Buurtmaat safe and pleasant. Legal basis: legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
• Automatic checking of what you post publicly: to stop threats, scams and other serious content before your neighbours see it. Legal basis: legitimate interest.
• Automatic translation of what members write, including private messages: so that neighbours can read each other in their own language. Legal basis: performance of the contract and legitimate interest. You can object to this via info@buurtmaat.nl.
• Security and logs: to protect your account and to detect and stop misuse. Legal basis: legitimate interest.
• Error reports: to fix errors in the app quickly. Legal basis: legitimate interest.
• Invoices to customers: to have the customer pay and for our accounts. Legal basis: performance of the contract and a legal obligation (the statutory tax retention obligation).
• Demo requests: to answer your request. Legal basis: legitimate interest.
• Requests from residents through the postcode check: to answer your message and to look, together with you, for a party that can start Buurtmaat. Legal basis: legitimate interest.
• Visitor statistics for the website: to see how the website is used and how people become members, so that we can improve it. Legal basis: legitimate interest.

Who can see your data

Buurtmaat has no adverts and no likes. We don't sell your data and we don't build profiles of you for advertising.

• Members of your village or neighbourhood see your name, your street without house number, and your photo and your knowledge and skills if you have added them. They also see what you post.
• People from other communities see nothing of you. Only if the administrator shares the market and you post a listing across the whole municipality do they see that listing and the comments on it, with your name and your village or neighbourhood, without street and without photo.
• In a poll, nobody sees how you voted. Everyone only sees the result.
• If you join a call-out, only the person who posted it sees your name. Others see how many people are joining.
• Only you and the other person can read a private message, not even moderators. If one of you reports a private message, the moderator only sees that one message. From the member list, only a member of your own village or neighbourhood can send you a private message, and only if you have that switched on.
• In the sharing cupboard, everyone can see when something is on loan, but not to whom. The owner sees who wants to borrow it and when.
• Moderators from your village or neighbourhood see reported content. Whoever reports something stays anonymous, including to the moderator.
• If you block another resident, they are not told and don't see who blocked them. You no longer see each other's content, and the notifications in the app about what the other person did disappear, except the reminder to return something you borrowed. Official messages from the organisation and urgent warnings stay visible.
• If the automatic check finds something, the moderators of your village or neighbourhood and, if it waits too long, AnchorWorks staff see that content, with your name. That way they can decide whether it stays hidden. They also see earlier decisions about what you posted.
• The neighbourhood buddy, the moderator and the administrator follow the help requests in your community and can change their status. They don't see private messages.
• Ambassadors and the administrator see per street how many addresses are already taking part. Ambassadors also see per address whether it takes part, without names, so they can invite neighbours.
• The customer's administrator sees the name, email address and address of the members in their own communities. In the area insights, the administrator only sees numbers, never who did what.
• AnchorWorks staff can see customers, communities and their members in platform management. They only do this for management, support and safety. What they do is recorded.

Automatic checking of what you post

Before others see a post, poll, help request, listing, activity, item in the sharing cupboard or comment, a language model checks it automatically. This is how we stop threats, scams and other inappropriate content. We don't check private messages and photos.

The language model only receives the title and the text. We don't send your name, your address or your village or neighbourhood with it. If there is something personal in the text itself, the language model does see that.

If the language model finds something, for example a threat, advertising or someone else's address or phone number, or if it is unsure, others don't see your text until a moderator has looked at it. You do see it, marked, and you see why. You hear the outcome through your notifications in the app. The language model can at most hide something temporarily: a moderator or AnchorWorks decides whether something stays hidden. It never blocks an account.

If the check only hides something later, because the language model couldn't be reached when you posted, you get a notification in the app, and a push notification if you have those switched on.

The language model runs at a provider chosen by AnchorWorks. A data processing agreement has been concluded with that provider, and it does not use your text to train its model. If the provider is outside the EEA, the safeguards described below under ‘Companies that work for us’ apply.

We only keep what the language model found, such as ‘scam’, and not its explanation. That disappears together with what you posted. We do keep the moderator's decision for longer: see below under how long we keep your data.

Automatic translation

Buurtmaat works in ten languages. You choose your language when you sign up or under More › Profile. What members write is only translated automatically if your village or neighbourhood has the translation package. If someone writes in a language other than Dutch, Buurtmaat makes a Dutch translation of it once. If you read Buurtmaat in another language, you can tap Translate; you can also have a conversation translated. A translation is always marked as automatically translated, and you can always see the original.

The same language model as for the automatic check makes the translation. It only receives the text, never your name, your account, your address, your village or neighbourhood, your photo or the time. Before the text leaves us, we replace what we recognise as personal data with a placeholder: email addresses, phone numbers, IBANs, postcodes, a street with house number, citizen service numbers (BSN) and the names of members of your village or neighbourhood. After the translation we put them back. If the text still seems to contain personal data after the replacement, we don't translate that text.

What we can't recognise, such as the name of someone who isn't a member or a description of a person, may still go to the language model. So don't put sensitive data about others in what you write.

Private messages can also be translated, if the other person turns that on in the conversation. With a report, moderators always see a translation, so that they can judge what it says.

The provider of the language model does not use your text to train its model. If it is outside the EEA, the safeguards under ‘Companies that work for us’ apply. We keep a translation as long as the original; if the original disappears, the translation disappears too.

Other people's data

• If you invite a housemate, we keep that person's email address. The invitation expires after 14 days. Once it has been used or has expired, we delete it.
• A neighbourhood buddy can post a help request for a neighbour without an account. In that case we only keep that neighbour's first name. Only do this if your neighbour agrees.
• If you request a demo through our website, we keep your name, your organisation, the type of organisation, your email address and your message. AnchorWorks staff receive your request by email. We keep the request for 12 months.
• If you send us a message as a resident through the postcode check, we keep your name, your email address, your postcode and your message. AnchorWorks staff receive your message by email. We keep it for 12 months. If you only check your postcode, we store nothing.
• For customers we keep the name and email address of the contact person, the email address and address for invoices and, if available, the Chamber of Commerce (KvK) and VAT numbers.

Logging in and cookies

You log in with a link we send by email. There is no password. A link works for fifteen minutes and only once; the welcome link for an account an administrator creates for you works for seven days. We only store the link in unreadable form. Moderators, editors and administrators also use two-step verification.

Buurtmaat only uses cookies that are needed to log in, to keep the app secure and to remember the language you choose. You stay logged in for 30 days. We don't use tracking, marketing or analytics cookies and don't load scripts from other parties. Our visitor statistics also work without cookies. That is why we don't need to ask your permission for cookies.

If you request a login link, your browser briefly remembers which page you wanted to open. We erase that as soon as you have logged in with the link.

Visitor statistics

To see how the website is used, we count visits with Matomo. Matomo runs on AnchorWorks' own server in the Netherlands. So the data doesn't go to Google or an advertising company. Matomo doesn't set cookies.

We only count the website, the quote portal, the page with the introduction video and the screens for logging in, signing up or accepting an invitation. We don't count what you do in the app of your village or neighbourhood.

Matomo also receives your IP address, but only stores it shortened. We remove codes and tokens from links in letters and emails from the address before it goes to Matomo. We don't link the statistics to your account. If 'Do Not Track' is switched on in your browser, we don't count you.

Matomo records:

• which of those pages are viewed and from which website a visitor came
• clicks on links to other websites, an email address or WhatsApp
• a few steps: sending a demo request, viewing or accepting a quote, requesting a login link, signing up, accepting an invitation and how far the introduction video is watched
• technical data, such as browser, operating system, screen size and language

Companies that work for us

For some tasks we bring in other companies. They may only use your data for that task.

These parties work within the European Economic Area (EEA), except possibly the provider of the language model for the automatic check and for translation. If that provider is outside the EEA, we only pass on your text with appropriate safeguards: an adequacy decision of the European Commission, such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or the standard contractual clauses of the European Commission. Data processing agreements have been concluded with these parties where required.

• Hosting of the app and the database (VPS): NetCup, Germany.
• Email, such as login links, urgent messages and the weekly summary: DuoCircle, EU.
• Error reports: Sentry. Error reports from the app first go to our own server. That way your browser doesn't connect to Sentry. By default we don't send personal data such as your IP address. Sentry processes the reports in the EU.
• Push notifications: the push service of your browser or phone. It only receives the title, a short text and a link to the app. The content of a private message is never included.
• Payments: Mollie, the Netherlands. Only customers pay their invoices online through Mollie.
• Accounting: we record invoices to customers in our accounting system (ERPNext).
• Automatic checking and translation of what you post: a language model provider. It only receives the text, not who wrote it; for translation, without the personal data we recognise.

Contact via WhatsApp

There is a WhatsApp button on the website. It is there for people who prefer to send us a message. The website itself doesn't load anything from WhatsApp; WhatsApp only opens once you click the button and then 'Open WhatsApp'.

If you contact us via WhatsApp, you use WhatsApp's (Meta's) service. WhatsApp is not a company that works for us. WhatsApp then processes, among other things, your phone number, your profile details and your messages, under WhatsApp's own privacy policy. Prefer not to use WhatsApp? Then email info@buurtmaat.nl.

How long we keep your data

We don't keep data longer than necessary. Every night Buurtmaat automatically deletes what needs to go.

• Login link: fifteen minutes, or shorter if you use it. Welcome link for an account an administrator created: seven days, or until you log in.
• Invitation for a housemate: until it has been used or has expired after 14 days.
• Posts in the feed, with photos, poll and comments: 12 months after posting.
• Listings on the Market: a listing closes after 30 days. 30 days after closing we delete it, with photos and comments.
• Private messages: 12 months after the last message in the conversation. If the poster deletes the help request, the conversations about it disappear immediately.
• Bookings in the sharing cupboard: 12 months after the period of the booking.
• Help requests, items in the sharing cupboard, activities, sign-ups and your knowledge and skills: as long as your account exists, or until you delete them yourself.
• What you delete yourself, you can still restore for 14 days via More › Recently deleted; after that we delete it for good.
• Your account: until you delete it. Your account is then switched off immediately. After 7 days we delete it completely, with everything you posted. In any case this happens within 30 days. Emails waiting to be sent to you and your email address in the security log also disappear then.
• Reports about content: a report about something that is already gone is deleted immediately. A report that has been dealt with is deleted after a year.
• Decisions by a moderator or AnchorWorks about what you posted: 2 years after the decision, with a copy of the title and the text as they were at the time (no photos), even if that content or your account is already gone. That way moderators recognise repeated misuse. If your account has been deleted, it says ‘deleted member’ instead of your name.
• Outcome of the automatic check: only if the language model found something, or if the check still has to happen. It disappears together with what you posted.
• Sent emails: 30 days.
• Sent push notifications: 7 days.
• Notifications in the app: 90 days. If someone deletes their account, the notifications about what that person did disappear too.
• Blocks: until you lift the block or one of you deletes the account.
• Security log, with IP address, browser and email address: 12 months.
• Log of management and moderation actions: as long as the customer uses Buurtmaat, and at most 90 days after the end of the subscription. After an account is deleted, the log only keeps the person's name for what they did as administrator or moderator.
• Demo requests: 12 months.
• Requests from residents through the postcode check: 12 months.
• Visitor statistics: individual visits for 180 days. After that we only keep totals, such as the number of visits per month.
• Invoices and customer data: as long as the law requires.
• Backups: deleted data may still be in an encrypted backup for a while. We keep backups for at most 12 months.
• Messages that came in through an integration: 13 months after arrival. The log of an integration: 90 days.

Security and data breaches

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data. For example:

• all connections to Buurtmaat are encrypted
• logging in without a password, with a link or code that only works once
• two-step verification for moderators, editors and administrators
• we only store access codes, login links and login codes in unreadable form
• we only store keys for integrations with the customer's systems in unreadable form, and every call is logged
• every community is shielded: nobody sees what happens in another community
• we remove location and camera data from photos before they go online
• every management and moderation action is recorded in a log with a reason
• limits on the number of attempts and messages, against misuse
• encrypted backups

Your rights

You have the right to access your data, to have it corrected or to have it deleted. You can also ask us to process less (restriction), object to processing based on legitimate interest and ask for your data in a usable file (portability).

You can arrange a lot yourself in the app. You change your name, photo and knowledge and skills in your profile. You turn your notifications on or off in the settings. Under Private messages you choose whether neighbours may send you a message from the member list. You delete your own posts, help requests, listings, items in the sharing cupboard and activities yourself. And you can delete your account yourself.

For anything else, send a request to info@buurtmaat.nl. We respond within a month. Sometimes we first ask you to show that the request really comes from you.

Changes, questions and complaints

We update this privacy statement when Buurtmaat or the law changes. The latest version is always in the app. In the case of major changes, we let you know in advance.

In the event of a data breach that poses risks to you, we act in accordance with the GDPR. If necessary, we let you know.

Do you have a question or a complaint? Contact us at info@buurtmaat.nl. If we can't resolve it together, you can file a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens).