Privacy

We think your privacy is important at iKot.be. 

We only use your personal data to register and manage your account, to enable contact between users who offer a room and users who are looking for a room, and to process payments. In addition, we attach great importance to the proper storage and protection of your personal data. In the statement below we explain which personal data we collect, for what purpose we do this and (if applicable) with whom we share this data.

Our services

iKot.be offers a platform where potential tenants can get in touch with landlords. This privacy statement applies to these services and the related websites (including iKot.be).

What personal data is collected?

We need certain personal data to provide you with the best possible experience and to inform you about our products and services.

You enter most of this personal data directly when you create an account on iKot.be. In addition, we receive some personal data indirectly, for example from the browser you use to surf. With this personal data we can personalize our products and offer you a full service.

  • First name
  • E-mail address
  • Telephone number (only if you place a room ad)
  • User name
  • IP address of the last login moment and of a transaction (if you make a payment)
  • Transaction data
  • Postal code and house number (only if you place a room ad)
  • Messages from people looking for a room to landlords may also contain personal data.

For what purpose do we collect your personal data?

  • First name . We use your first name to address you personally in e-mails and other communications.
  • Email address . This information is necessary for using the services on iKot.be: for logging in, service notifications (such as room notifications, notifications of new messages, etc. If you have given permission, we can also use your first name in commercial mailings).
  • Phone number . This is only requested when placing a room ad to increase the accessibility of the room owner for potential tenants. This telephone number is displayed if a spotlight has been purchased for the relevant room, or if a user has placed a response to the relevant ad via the response form on the website.
  • Username . In addition to the e-mail address, iKot.be also uses a user name that you can enter yourself. Many users prefer a username to logging in with an email address. You can log in to iKot.be with both your username and your e-mail address. The username is not by definition personal data, but it is the moment someone recognisably combines his/her first and last name in the username.
  • IP address . iKot.be only stores the IP address of each last session per user in the user database. In addition, the incoming traffic is continuously logged by the web server. These logs also contain IP addresses and data about your browser. We only use this information to detect and prevent fraud and abuse. In addition, the IP address is stored as additional proof that someone comes from a certain country. This is necessary to be able to apply the Mini One Stop Shop scheme in case you make a payment. The Mini One Stop Shop Scheme (MOSS) is an EU scheme that asks us to charge our European customers VAT applicable in his/her country.
  • Transaction Data . iKot.be uses Pay.nl to process payments. A number of personal data are processed. For more information, see “with whom do we share your personal data”.
  • Street, zip code and house number . iKot.be uses street name, zip code and house number to determine the location of a room, also to calculate the distance to a university, for example, and also to display the rooms on maps.
  • Messages from people looking for a room to landlords may also contain personal data. iKot.be stores messages (from someone looking for a room, addressed to a room owner), provided they have been sent via the form on the website. This data is not used for commercial purposes, but only kept to be consulted in case of disputes and to detect fraud. In addition, we store this data to give our users permanent insight into which messages they have sent and which advertisements they have responded to. The moment someone deletes his/her account, these messages are also deleted from the database.

With whom do we share your personal data and do we have a processing agreement?

Your data is securely stored on a Digital Ocean web server (data center in Amsterdam).

  1. First name . This data is processed in e-mails that we send via our mail server at Amazon SES (data center in Ireland (eu-west-1)). If you send a reaction via the reaction form, we will share your first name with the placer of the room advertisement.
  2. Email address . This data is processed in e-mails that we send via Amazon SES. If you send a reaction via the reaction form, we will share your e-mail address with the placer of the room advertisement. We also share your email address with our administration program Acumulus if you make a payment on our platform. your email address is shared in encrypted form with the Gravatar service to retrieve a personal avatar image if you have set up such an image with this service. If you have not set an image, gravatar will automatically return a randomly generated image based on your encrypted email address.
  3. Phone number . This data is linked to a room advertisement and is not shared with other authorities.
  4. Username . This information is only shared with our administration program Acumulus if you make a payment on our platform.
  5. IP address of the last login moment and of a transaction. This information is not shared with other authorities.
  6. Transaction Data . If you make a payment on iKot.be, this payment is made via Pay.nl and/or Paypal (if you choose the latter method, your payment will be made via both Pay.nl and Paypal). During the payment, all data that you enter in the payment form (for example your account or credit card number, your full name, your e-mail address) are processed by Pay.nl and stored with this body (often partly anonymised). iKot.be does not store this data itself. We do store a transaction ID, payment method, the type of units you buy on our website, the amount and any start and end date of a payment. The transaction data is also shared with our administration program Acumulus, but this shared transaction data does not contain any personal data.
  7. Street, zip code and house number in case you place a room ad on iKot.be. This data is sometimes shared with other websites through a public feed that iKot.be offers. Apart from a street name, this feed does not contain any personal data, unless you state traceable personal data in the descriptive text for your room. your house number will not be shared in this feed. If you do not want this information to be shared with third parties, you can make this known via our web form and we will exclude your advertisement(s).
  8. Messages from people looking for a room to landlords may also contain personal data. This data is not shared with other parties.

Cookies and Similar Technology

When using our online services, information is stored in cookies. Cookies are small text files placed on your device to log information, remember settings, and collect and analyze information about visitor behavior. Some cookies are used to evaluate visitor behavior on the website and to compile statistical reports on online activities by a third party (Google Analytics). We record your interaction with our online platforms in order to improve our content and services. iKot.be uses two categories of cookies: functional cookies and analytical cookies:

  1. Functional cookies
    • autologin (information that allows you to stay logged in to the website even after closing the browser window)
    • ci_session (information that allows you to stay logged in to the website without having to log in again on every page).
    • language (your chosen language)
    • cookieconsent_status (your agreement to our cookies)
    • __cfduid (information from Cloudflare, a content delivery network that we use to load a script that enables us to show you a 'cookie' notice).
  2. Analytical cookies
    • _ga (posted by Google Analytics)
    • _gid (posted by Google Analytics)
    • _gat (posted by Google Analytics)

If you have visited our website iKot.be before 25 May 2018, it is possible that you will find other cookies on your computer when you return to our website. These other cookies will no longer be placed by us or third parties as of 25 May 2018. Unfortunately, we cannot remove these cookies from your computer remotely. You can safely remove these cookies yourself without affecting the functionality of the iKot.be website.

Where is your personal data processed and stored?

For hosting and maintenance, your personal data is stored in the Netherlands. your personal data is mainly processed by our staff. We also share certain personal data with our email provider Amazon SES, in the data center zone eu-west-1 (Ireland). If you have made a payment on our website, part of your personal data is stored in our administration program in a data center in the Netherlands.

How long do we store your personal data?

We only keep your personal data for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or used. Read more about how to handle your data after deleting your account under the heading Right to be forgotten.

Access to and management of your personal data

You can view and edit your personal data directly via your My account environment. This way you can view and adjust your e-mail address, your password and your notification preferences at all times.

If you cannot view, modify or delete certain personal data yourself, or if you want a copy of your personal data, or if you want to submit a request for the restriction of processing, you can contact our helpdesk via our web form . We will respond to such requests as soon as possible and at the latest within 14 days of receipt.

Legal basis for data processing

We only collect and process your personal data when we have a legal basis to do so. The following principles apply:

  • The processing is necessary for the performance of the agreement;
  • The processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, such as the retention obligation for administrative (payment) data or to share certain information for criminal investigation following a police order;
  • When you have given us explicit permission for processing.

When the processing is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. In that case, we will terminate the relevant processing of your data.

Right to be forgotten

You can terminate your account at any time and thus delete your personal data from our database. You delete your account by logging in to iKot.be and going to My Account > Settings. You will find an option there to terminate your account. If you have lost your login details and want to delete your account, please use the Forgotten password option in the login form to gain access to your account, and then terminate your account via the My Account area, or contact us via the web form . 
The part of your personal data that we share with our administration program (see "Who do we share your personal data with and do we have a processing agreement?") will be stored for a maximum of 7 years to meet tax-technical requirements for accounting.

In addition to the right to be forgotten, as a user of iKot.be you have 6 other rights:

  1. The right to data portability, this is the right to transfer your personal data to other authorities
  2. Right of access, this is the right to access your own personal data that we process from you
  3. Right to rectification and addition, this is the right to have your personal data adjusted
  4. The right to restriction of processing, this is the right to have less personal data processed.
  5. The right with regard to automated decision-making and profiling, the right to a human eye when making decisions about your data
  6. The right to object to data processing.

Questions and complaints

If you have any questions about how we use your personal data, you can contact us via our web form