Bill to improve privacy and security for business owners
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Bill to improve privacy and security for business owners

Bill to improve privacy and security for entrepreneurs Trade Register.

Knowing who you are doing business with. That's the purpose of the Chamber of Commerce's Trade Register. With this public register, anyone can check the details of business partners. This provides legal certainty in economic transactions. At the same time, the personal data contained in the Trade Register must be adequately protected. The Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate are now taking measures to adjust the balance between these two interests.

In recent years, however, registered business owners have been increasingly troubled by unwanted use of their business data. For example, data that are required to be public by law are being used for marketing purposes when no permission has been given. Address details of individuals are being published on the Internet (doxing) and especially more and more Zzp'ers are experiencing online and physical threats.

To combat these problems and ensure that the Trade Register keeps up with the times, a number of improvements are being made:

  • Better protection of personal data.
  • A brake on unwanted direct marketing.
  • A new form of funding the Commercial Register.

Occasional data retrieval will remain free. But bulk users will have to pay for it. Entrepreneurs who are registered and make full use of trade register functions such as extracts will have to pay an annual fee. (Between € 2,500 - and € 50,000) The revenue model of unwanted data use by third parties is expected to disappear. In this way the government thinks it will improve the privacy of registered entrepreneurs in the Trade Register and prevent nuisance from some marketers.

The ban on the use of trade register data for direct marketing purposes will be included in a second bill scheduled for 2025. This adjustment should start to help against the annoying practice of unsolicited acquisition phone calls to many entrepreneurs. In addition to these measures, control of data by the Chamber of Commerce (KVK) will be tightened.

The plan is to have implemented as many measures as possible by the end of 2025.

Source: Government.com
Link: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2024/05/08/vernieuwing-handelsregister-streeft-naar-privacy-en-veiligheid-voor-ondernemers

Source: chamber of commerce
Link: https://www.kvk.nl/pers/vernieuwing-handelsregister-verbetert-privacy-en-veiligheid-voor-ondernemers/

Our comments:

It is good that the government is taking business owners' privacy seriously. The question is whether these measures are sufficiently effective:

  • Professional marketers will not be shocked by an annual fee and simply continue to get the data from the Trade Register.
  • The data remains public (required by law), with only phone and email shielded. Malicious individuals will not stop this, and self-employed individuals with their registered private address may be especially affected.
  • The KVK wants to tighten controls, but the question remains how they will do that in practice. Checking only basic data still says nothing about actual activities. Still cowboys can run around with data from an attic and be difficult to distinguish from professionals.

Our solution:
With an address ofPostadres.nl you are, especially as a self-employed person, not dependent on these measures. Your address data and privacy are always guaranteed in safe hands. And not at the end of 2025 as with the Chamber of Commerce, but immediately after registration.

Please see our Privacy Statement and Terms and Conditions for more information.