Privacy & Cookies

Privacy statement

We process your personal data in order to provide the best possible service to our visitors and business relations. We handle this data with care. This privacy statement explains how we deal with your personal data.

a. The Controller

The organisation responsible for processing your personal data is the Stichting Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest and affiliated foundations and associations such as the Stichting Rotterdam Philharmonic Festivals and the Vereniging Vrienden van het Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, with registered address at Kruisstraat 2, 3012CT Rotterdam, registered with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce under number 41126499.

b. The personal data that is processed and for what purposes

If you attend a concert or festival, make a purchase via our ticketshop or webshop, register for our newsletter, or otherwise contact us, we may process the following personal data:

Personal identification: your name, title, date of birth, full address, country.
Contact data: telephone number, e-mail address.
Payment information: bank account number, payments with credit card.
Information about interests: visiting history, interests, whether you have a Podiumkaart or discount card.
Online data: IP address, marketing opt-in.
Other data: contact history, agreements, observations concerning nature of relationship.

This data is processed for the following purposes:

To process ticket or webshop orders, bookings, and other activities, online or otherwise.
To communicate about your visit, booking, or other activities.
To offer services in the chosen language.
To supply information about our activities via e-mail and social media.
To issue invitations to events.
To answer questions and deal with complaints.
To carry out analyses and improvements to our services and communications (anonymized where possible).

We process personal data on the basis of:

Consent: for example, to receive the newsletter, accept cookies, or publish visual materials.
Agreement: to process a purchase, booking, or visit to a concert.
Legal obligations: for example, tax-law obligation to preserve payment transaction data.
Legitimate interest: such as website analyses.

c. Processing for specific purposes

Ticket sales

You can order tickets for our concerts online via our website, by telephone to our customer service, or in person via the de Doelen ticket office. All ticket sales for the orchestra, including those made through the box office of de Doelen, will be registered in the ticket sales system of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is the controller (Article 26 of the GDPR), and de Doelen is the processor for the tickets that the de Doelen ticket office sells for the orchestra. There is an agreement with de Doelen concerning the division of our responsibilities.

Photographic and video materials:

Visual materials may be used for giving impression of atmosphere, or reporting. This falls within the exemptions for journalistic purposes as set out in the GDPR.
With regard to the photographing of adults, we refer to the Terms and Conditions for Audiences of de Doelen. De Doelen adopts the Terms and Conditions for Audiences of the VSCD, of which Article 4.5 states: ‘the concert hall / theatre reserves the right to make image or sound recordings at the event attended by the audience member. Audience members may not claim copyright on, or otherwise object to, the use of their portrait / likeness as a part of the publicity for any said event’.

The taking of photographs and video images of children

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra reserves the right to publish still photographs and recordings made during family shows and educational projects in order to promote its activities in the field of education. In these images the children will not be identifiable. If a child is identifiable in an image, we will of course first seek permission from that child’s parents/guardian or, in the case of educational projects, via the contact person for that child’s school. Parents and teachers may take photographs (without flashlight!) and in such a case are themselves responsible for compliance with the school’s privacy policy concerning online publication of their own photographs. Filming is not permitted.

Website visits, online services, and marketing

We will communicate with visitors and business relations that have supplied us with their e-mail addresses and given their consent to, or expressed no objection to, receiving communications from us, on matters concerning the orchestra, by e-mail, social media, or otherwise. We also utilise the opportunities presented by social media platforms for targeted advertising, such as LinkedIn and Meta custom audiences. These enable us to spend our advertising budget in a more efficient way.

Our websites and apps use cookies and other techniques to improve user experience and guarantee functionality. In this regard we distinguish between functional cookies, which are necessary, for example, for our online ticket sales, analytical cookies, and marketing cookies. When you visit our website for the first time, you are shown a cookies banner by which you indicate your preferences. This banner provides detailed information about the cookies you choose; you can change your cookie settings at any time. If you give your consent, we will use marketing cookies from, for example, Google Ads, Meta, and TikTok.

The Vereniging Vrienden van het Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest is the organisation that recruits private individuals as friends of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Friends make voluntary contributions in the form of financial support for the purchase of instruments. They also support the orchestra’s special activities and make an invaluable contribution to the orchestra’s mission. We work here within the statutory framework of the Dutch Telecommunications Act and the General Data Protection Regulation. We only contact people who have consented to be contacted, or with whom we have a client relationship. We always explain at the time of registration that we may use a telephone number for telemarketing. We are permitted to contact our visitors by phone up to three years after their last visit, unless they have indicated they do not wish to be contacted in this way.

If you no longer wish us to contact you by phone, we will process this choice in our records and not contact you in this way again. You can indicate this choice to us by e-mail: privacy@rpho.nl You can also e-mail us at this address to ask us when and in what manner you gave your consent to telemarketing.

The numbers from which the Vereniging Vrienden van het Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest calls are shown here.

Ticket sales, bookings, and rental of space

When you buy tickets or make reservations, we process your personal data to be able to process the request. For this purpose, we use the same data set as indicated under section b, above.

Business relations, sponsors and patrons

The personal data of press relations, suppliers, sponsors, patrons and other contacts is processed for communications and administrative purposes. For this purpose, we use the same data set as indicated under section b, above.

Interest profiles

On the basis of our interactions and the data you supply, we can create interest profiles. This enables us to improve our services and communications and to provide information and offers that have greater relevance.

d. Storage periods

Personal data is not stored for longer than necessary for the purposes for which it is collated, having regard to the storage periods stipulated by law.

The personal data that we register for the purchase of concert tickets will be stored for a maximum of three concert seasons, and thereafter anonymised. We can then only use the anonymised data for statistical purposes, to the extent that it is not traceable back to you individually.

For the purposes of managing commercial relationships with sponsors, patrons, friends, and from the education department with schools, we store the data for as long as the relationship with them continues. Thereafter the data is anonymised and only used for statistical purposes, to the extent that it is not traceable back to you individually.

Data for which consent for storage is given will be stored until that consent is withdrawn.

e. Rights of data subjects

As a data subject you have the right to access your personal data, the right to request that we rectify or delete your personal data, and the right to data portability. In addition, in certain circumstances, you can ask us to restrict the processing of your data and can object to such processing carried out on the basis of our legitimate interests. If you have given your consent for us to process your personal data, you are entitled to withdraw such consent at any time.

You can exercise the above rights by contacting us by e-mail at privacy@rpho.nl.

Finally, you have the right to file a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority.

Changes of address or notices of death

Please notify our customer service of all changes of addresses, including e-mail addresses, and notices of death by e-mail at info@rpho.nl.

f. Security of personal data

We take physical, technical and organisational measures to protect personal data. Data filled in online is sent in encrypted form. In principle, data processing is done within the European Union or, subject to the provision of appropriate guarantees, is forwarded outside the EU. We enter into data processing agreements with suppliers. Our staff are contractually obliged to treat your data in confidence.

g. Questions and feedback

We regularly check to ensure that we are complying with this privacy policy. Should you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, please contact us at:

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Address: Postbus 962, 3000 AZ, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Telephone: +31 (0)10 322 53 22

E-mail address: privacy@rpho.nl

h. Cookies

Cookies are small text files which are placed on your computer, tablet or telephone. On www.rotterdamsphilharmonisch.nl we may make use of cookies. They enable us to ensure that certain parts of the website operate properly. They also record the number of website visits. From this data we learn about the preferences of visitors to our website and we can focus our content more closely on their needs.

We also use cookies for the purpose of retargeting. This involves the processing of personal data, such as your surfing behaviour and any preferences. If you have indicated interest in any part of our website, this technique enables us to offer you relevant advertising and information on external websites (including Facebook and Google). We offer these on the basis of an analysis of your previous click behaviour on www.rotterdamsphilharmonisch.nl, with the aid of a retargeting cookie. Where your consent is needed to place or read cookies, this will be requested before any such cookies are placed. You can always withdraw your consent by deleting the cookies.

We use Google Analytics cookies to compile reports as to how visitors use our website. We use this information to improve our website and programming. The data collated by Google is anonymised and not shared with any third party. In particular, your IP address is not included. This cookie will be deleted after a maximum period of 38 months; after which we need to ask your permission again. We have installed Google Analytics in privacy-friendly setting in accordance with the recommendations of the Dutch Data Protection Authority.

Switching off and deleting cookies

Most browsers' standard setting is to accept cookies. If you do not wish us to use cookies, you can switch them off in the settings menu of your internet browser (search with the ‘help’ tab if you can’t find it in the menu). You can also automatically delete cookies when you leave the website, or set your browser in such a way that no cookies are placed at all. This step you can only take yourself, since the cookies are placed on your computer. Therefore the cookies are only deleted from the particular hardware and the browser that you delete them from. You need to repeat the process for each telephone, tablet or pc. By switching off cookies, some parts of our site may not function properly or at all.

Pages and information you share on social media

You can share pages and information from our website on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. They use cookies for this purpose. They store the information they receive in this way on their own servers. The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra cannot influence what Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest do with the data they collate via these cookies. You can find out more information about this in their privacy statements.

i. Changes to privacy statement

We may make changes to this privacy statement. The date of the most recent version is set out below.

Last amended: April 2025