1. Responsible person and contact details

We offer an online platform via the websites www.studeersnel.nl and www.studocu.com (hereinafter: the “Website(s)”) where users can exchange study materials (hereinafter: “StuDocu”). We process personal data in the context of this service. We respect your privacy and handle your personal data carefully in accordance with the General Data Privacy Regulation (“GDPR”).

This privacy statement applies to the processing of personal data of all users and visitors of the Websites.

The controller is StudeerSnel B.V. (“StudeerSnel”), located at the Keizersgracht, 1016 GC Amsterdam (registration number of Chamber of Commerce: 56829787). If you have questions about or comments on this privacy statement, please contact privacy@studocu.com.

We may change this privacy statement from time to time. When we publish a modified version, we clearly show this on our websites. On this page you always find the most recent version of our privacy statement.

2. Processing of personal data

Personal data is all information that can directly or indirectly identify you as an individual, including your name, e-mail address and course of study, as well as your social media profile and your IP address.

We process your personal data when you use StuDocu and/or visit our Website(s), for example when you upload documents via our Website(s) without an account or when you register to create an account to make use of different functions of our Website(s). Some personal data are mandatory to provide because they are necessary to offer our services, other data is optional to fill in. You can always change or delete voluntary entered personal data using your own account.

In the following, we explain why we process personal data, what personal data this can be and on what legal basis we do this.

Later in this privacy statement we explain with whom we share your personal data, how long we keep the personal data, what rights you have with regard to your personal data and how you can exercise these rights.

2.1.    Use of website and cookies

When you visit our Website(s), small text files are stored on your computer, smart phone or other device. These files are called “cookies”. For detailed information about the use of cookies and similar techniques, see our cookie statement [link].

We use Google AdSense to serve personalized ads through our website and third-party websites. This service is also used to measure the success of an advertising campaign and to limit the number of times a specific ad is shown to you. The personal data we process from you for this purpose includes:

• Your IP address
• A unique number assigned to you and stored in a cookie (cookie identifier)
• Information about the device you use to visit our website
• Information about your use of our website, such as the pages you visit and the products you purchase

We process your data with Google AdSense based on your consent. You give (or refuse) this consent via the cookie bar. More information about AdSense cookies can be found here. You can change your personalization preferences with Google here.

2.2.   Uploading documents without an account

If you want to upload documents directly without creating an account, we may process your personal data. Your data may, for example, be visible in the title of the document you are uploading, the description of the document and the contents of the document may contain personal data. We want to point out that you can choose to make your uploaded documents anonymous by not giving any recognizable data to these documents. This way, you can change the name of the document and delete names in the document itself.

We process the following personal data from you:

• IP address
• Details about you that may be in the title, description or content of the document

We process this personal data for the following purposes:

1. To give you access to StuDocu;
2. To be able to exchange documents with fellow students;
3. For analysis of the user behavior.

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data for purposes (1) and (2) is the performance of an agreement with you (the use of StuDocu) and a legitimate interest to perform our services properly when you choose to use personal data to be part of the documents you are uploading. The legal basis for purpose (3) is our legitimate interest in making StuDocu work as optimally as possible and to improve StuDocu for users.

2.3.   Creating an account

When you register to create an account, it is necessary to process a number of your personal data. You can register yourself by entering your name and e-mail address and by creating an account and you can register via your social media account. In that case, we process the personal data that is linked to your social media profile, depending on the privacy settings that you use there.

We process the following data for you:

• First and last name
• Automatically generated initials based on your first and last name (for example ‘JD’)
• Account photo or image (optional)
• E-mail address (this is only visible for StudeerSnel, not other users of StuDocu)
• University
• Start date of study
• Field of study
• Facebook or Google+ profile (gender, email, first and last name) (optional)
• IP address

We process this personal data for the following purposes:

1. To allow you to use StuDocu;
2. To recommend StuDocu content that may be of interest to you during the creation of your account, based on the information provided by you during onboarding (such as university);
3. To show your data (if you wish without your name) to other users of StuDocu when they use your documents or when you post a comment;
4. To recommend StuDocu content to you in your account based on your use of StuDocu 

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data for purpose (1) is the performance of an agreement with you (the use of StuDocu). With regard to the purposes (2), (3), and (4), we base ourselves on a legitimate interest to keep you informed of updates via, for example, your dashboard or e-mail, to analyze the usage of Studocu to improve our service for users.

We would like to point out that when you use the services of Facebook or Google+ through StuDocu, these parties also gain access to some of your personal data on our platform. These external parties apply their own terms of use and privacy conditions. We advise you to read these conditions carefully. StudeerSnel is not responsible for this and does not have control over this.

2.4.    Using StuDocu

When you use StuDocu, you can search, upload and download documents and      respond to other users. For this, it is necessary to process certain personal data, which we link to your account.

When you upload documents, you may also process personal data that is part of that document. For example, your data may be visible in the title of the document you are uploading, the description of the document and the content of the document may contain personal data. We would like to point out that you can choose yourself to make your uploaded documents anonymous by not giving any recognizable data to these documents. This way, you can change the name of the document and delete names in the document itself.

Your personal data are visible to other users in a public account on StuDocu. You can choose to anonymously share documents with fellow students. In that case your document will not be shown in your public account.

When you respond to documents and messages from fellow students, your first name is shown, which is visible to other students.

The following personal data is processed when you use StuDocu with your account:

• Number of points earned in the current and previous month
• Numbers of lots
• Number of fellow students that you have helped: your impact level
• Uploaded documents: uploads, upvotes/downvotes and reactions on it from fellow students
• Statistics
• Books that you read and courses you follow
• Reported documents: ‘I cannot open this document;’ ‘The description of this document is wrong; ’This document belongs to another subject or book;’ ‘Otherwise: it is an open text.’
• Payment details, including the amount of compensation you received from us and your
  PayPal account.

We process this personal data for the following purposes:

1. To display your activities in an overview in your account
2. To allow you to use StuDocu
3.      To conduct an automated quality check 
4. To show which documents a user has shared
5. The higher ranking of documents that have been better assessed
6. To collect payments and make payments.

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data for the purposes (1), (2) and (6) is the performance of an agreement with you (the use of StuDocu). For the purposes (3), (4) and (5) we base ourselves on a legitimate interest to offer the user the best possible content.

2.5.   E-mail notifications and marketing emails

We send emails to users who have created an account. It concerns the following types of emails:

• Weekly updates on new documents that have been uploaded to the courses you follow;
• Tips and offers based on your use of  StuDocu about, for example, new study tools;
•      Updates on Business Courses, Inhouse days and other interesting options that you can put on your CV from Tentamentrainingen.nl;
• Updates from our other services, for example exam trainings (tentamentrainingen.nl);
• Updates about new features or important changes on the website, up to 6 times a year.

The following personal data is processed for this:

• Your email address
• First name
• The content you have viewed with your account.
• The courses you follow.

We process this personal data for the following purposes:

1. To inform you about our own services (including the activation of your account, confirmation of your payment, etc.).
2. To send messages with relevant information about updates within the subjects and books you have viewed.
3. To inform you about other services from Tentamentrainingen.nl     .

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data for purpose (1) is our legitimate interest to keep you informed of offers and interesting messages about StuDocu and to send personalized messages that match the content you have viewed. We ask your permission for the purposes (2) and (3). You can withdraw your consent at any time. You can unsubscribe from emails by clicking on ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of every email from us or by changing your preferences in your account settings. When you unsubscribe, StudeerSnel advises you to regularly monitor StuDocu or social media for new offers.

2.6.   Help center

If you have a question for us, you can contact our help center. You can send us a message via a web form. It is necessary to process the following personal data from you:

• Name
• E-mail address
• Open text field with your question or message to us

We process this personal data for the following purposes:

1. Answering your question or responding to your message
2.  Contacting you as part of the processing of your question
3. Analyzing the most common questions to improve the service.

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data for purposes (1) and (2) is the performance of an agreement with you: answering your question or responding to your message and for purpose (3) our legitimate interest in improving the service.

2.7.   Other

We may also process your personal data for the following purposes:

• For the execution of business process, management reporting and internal management. The legal basis for this is our legitimate business interest.
• To combat and prevent fraud and/or abuse of StuDocu and to protect the position of StudeerSnel and/or third parties. The legal basis for this is our legitimate business interest.
• To ensure the security and stability of IT systems. The legal basis for this is our legitimate business interest.

3. Automated decision making and profiling

We can use technologies that are considered automated decision-making or profiling. We do not take automated decisions about you that have a material effect on you or affect you to a significant degree..

4. Sharing your personal data

4.1.   Sharing internally

StudeerSnel shares your personal data internally only with employees who are authorized to have access to your details when this is necessary for their work.

4.2.   Outsourcing work and collaborating with partners

In addition, as part of the outsourcing of certain activities, we may share personal data with external parties, so called processors, with whom we have concluded processing agreements and who may not use your data for their own purposes. 

Some external parties are independently or jointly responsible with StuDocu for the processing of your personal data, for example if you create an account there (e.g. Facebook or PayPal). We also conclude agreements with these parties about the careful processing of your data.

Inter alia the following external parties have access to (a part of) your data.

• Payment providers
• Social media providers
• Ad networks (see our cookie statement)
• SaaS Cloud providers
• Software suppliers for analysis purposes
• Providers of communication software
• Suppliers of stability software for StuDocu

4.3.   Other

We may provide your personal data to other parties that we need within the framework of our services, such as lawyers or bailiffs. For the rest, we only provide data to third parties with your consent or if we are required to do so by law or regulation, we are forced to do so as a result of legal proceedings and/or in the event that we consider it necessary to protect our own interests and/or the interests of third parties.

5. Transfers of personal data

Your personal data will only be stored or processed by us or by third parties engaged outside the European Union (and the EEA) if this is in accordance with the applicable regulations for the transfer of personal data to countries outside the European Union. This means that we will only pass on your personal data to countries outside the European Union if the European Union has decided that the third country concerned guarantees an adequate level of protection, or if other appropriate safeguards are offered, such as an adequate decision  or the use of standard data protection provisions approved by the European Commission. These can be found at https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-transfers-outside-eu/model-contracts-transfer-personal-data-third-countries_en.

6. Storage periods

We keep your personal data for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed as described in this privacy statement. In certain cases we are obliged to keep (certain) personal data longer when a legal retention period applies. If we need to retain personal data for a longer period based on the legitimate interest to protect our rights or those of third parties, we will retain the personal data necessary for this purpose until the relevant incidents and/or claims have been concluded. 

When you exercise your right to remove your personal data, you can in some cases delete your data earlier. We explain this below, under the heading ‘Your rights’.

We use the following storage periods:

• Use of website and cookies (see our cookie statement [link])
• Account information; until you delete your account or have been inactive on StuDocu for more than 15 months;
• E-mail notifications: until you unsubscribe;
• Help center: up to 1 year at the latest.

7. Security

We take the protection of personal data seriously and StudeerSnel takes appropriate measures to prevent misuse, loss, authorized access, unwanted disclosure and unauthorized modification. In addition, you can take the following measures yourself to secure your account:

• Use a strong password;
• Inform us of changes in your personal data or incidents concerning your personal data in a timely manner;
• Be careful when disclosing personal information about yourself in your public account, via social media and through messages;
• Log out after your visit to our website when using a public computer.

8. Your rights

You can request us to exercise your rights with regard to your personal data:

• Withdrawing permission: you can ask us to withdraw your consent once it has been granted. We then stop processing your personal data in the future, unless there is another reason that requires us to do so.
• Access: you can ask us which personal data we process from you. If we do so, we will share with you which personal data is processed, with what purpose, with which third parties it is shared, the storage periods used, the source of which personal data may have been collected from outside of you and information about any automated decision-making. In your own account you can view most of your data and check for accuracy.
• Correction: you can request us to improve or supplement your personal data if this personal data is incorrect or incomplete. In your own account you can check and adjust most of your data.
• Disposal: you can request us to delete your personal data if the personal data is not relevant for the purpose for which it is collected, when permission has been withdrawn, when you object to a processing of personal data on the basis of a legitimate interest or when the processing of personal data is unlawful. You can always delete your own account. Sometimes we are obliged to keep your data for some time, see the heading ‘storage periods.’
• Limitation of processing: you can request us to limit the processing of your personal data when the correctness of the personal data is disputed, the processing of personal data is unlawful but you do not want it to be deleted, or waiting for the response on a request for exercising the right of objection. In that case, we still store the data, but we do not process it further.
• Objection: you can object to the processing of your personal data when the data processing is based on our legitimate interest, including the use of personal data for direct marketing purposes.
• Data transfer (data portability): you can request us to obtain your personal data in a structured, current and machine readable form or transfer it to another organization when the data processing takes place automatically and is based on permission or an agreement.

You can submit a request to exercise the above rights by contacting us at support@studocu.com. We aim to respond within four weeks of receiving the request.

You can also submit a complaint to the Dutch Data Protection Authority when you believe that StudeerSnel violates your privacy rights.

9. Other information 

9.1.    Change of company

When StuDocu or StudeerSnel is taken over or merges with another company or in its preliminary phase, it may be necessary for your personal data to be accessed or taken over by our advisors or (the advisors of) the new company. They are obliged to comply with the conditions in this privacy statement. When there are changes in the way your personal data is handled, we will first communicate this to you.

9.2.    Privacy terms of external parties

When you use services from external parties via our website, for example social media networks (Facebook and Google+), the privacy conditions of those external parties apply. This privacy statement only concerns the processing of personal data by StudeerSnel within the context of StuDocu. We advise you to read the privacy conditions and settings of those external parties.

9.3.    Minors

StuDocu is aimed at students from the age of 16. 

Version: [28-07-2023]