PostNL has made its relocation service more privacy-friendly at the insistence of the Consumers' Association. Only if customers explicitly give permission will PostNL still send their data to other parties for offers.
PostNL's relocation service allows consumers who are moving to have their mail forwarded to their new address for several months. In addition, they indicate which companies are allowed to have the new address. PostNL also passed on the new address information without permission to other parties so that they could make '(targeted) offers'.
Unwanted mail
Consumers complained about unexpected and unwanted mail from insurance companies and lotteries, among others. The Consumers' Association therefore asked PostNL back in 2016 to stop secretly passing on address details. PostNL initially refused, but now offers consumers on its website a clear option to agree or not to share their data with third parties.
Call
The Consumers' Association is against the sneaky collection and sharing of data by companies and calls on consumers to report examples. They can do so by emailing their own experiences with companies that use personal data or pass it on to third parties for other purposes than might be expected to datagraaier@consumentenbond.nl. In the Consumer Guide, which appears Feb. 27, the Consumers' Association describes different types of data grabbers.
Handy: block mail
Consumers who do not want to receive addressed advertising mail can block it through postfilter.co.uk.
