Practical guides
Loyalty cards and personal data in Belgium
Oktapus runs a loyalty card without asking customers for their name, photo or date of birth. With an account, the service processes their email address, cards and received stamps, among other data. Shops see the state of the card at their own premises, without seeing email addresses or cards from other shops.
Which loyalty card suits a Belgian shop wanting to collect as little personal data as possible and follow the GDPR? The starting point is knowing what information each action uses, followed by the choices available to customers.
What data is collected for a loyalty card?
The privacy policy details account information: email address, internal identifier, language, theme, notification choices, linked sign-in services and creation date. Loyalty adds joined shops, cards, dated stamps, how they were awarded, rewards given and corrections. The key for the code shown at the counter and records needed to protect it also form part of the service.
Customers can start in the app without an account, up to 3 stamps, then register to continue and keep them. Without an account, the service keeps the device and its cards without an email address. The customer website requires an account from the first stamp. The chosen route therefore changes the information needed at the start.
Are location access and notifications compulsory?
Cards and stamps work when customers refuse notifications, Discovery or location access. Those options rely on consent under the policy. If location access is allowed, the position is used to calculate a response, then disappears. It is retained neither in the database nor in logs.
Enabling notifications registers device information, including an installation identifier and a notification token. Other uses have their own data: reporting a shop adds a reason and an optional comment, while entering the contest adds a declaration and answers. It helps to distinguish information connected to stamps from information produced by additional features the customer chooses.
What does the shop see when scanning a card?
Staff see the state of the card at their own shop. The dashboard shows numbers such as programme members, issued stamps and rewards given. Scanning reveals neither the customer's name or email nor their activity at other shops. In Oktapus Pro, the camera reads the code: no image is saved or sent, only the code's text reaches the server.
The service also processes technical information needed to operate, including hosting logs with an IP address and a request timestamp. The policy also describes audience measurement and, with banner acceptance, tracking website visits. Data is neither sold nor shared for advertising purposes.
Where is the data and how can customers delete it?
The database is hosted in the European Union and servers run in Frankfurt. The policy names service providers and describes transfers involving some providers based in the United States, covered by the safeguards it specifies. Customers can request a data copy from the app and deletion from the app or website.
For an account, deletion happens after thirty days, with the option to reverse the request during that time. After deletion, stamps are detached from the customer and reduced to the day to preserve shop counters. Used-code records remain for seven days and anti-abuse counters for three. The policy gives the other retention periods and ways to exercise rights.
When should you choose something else?
A paper card without a customer file is more suitable if the aim is for no digital service to process visits. Oktapus retains the information needed for cards and their protection, even when the shop does not see customer identities. An unnamed customer on the shop's screen therefore does not make the whole service anonymous.
This guide describes the product and its policy without establishing compliance for each shop's programme. A need for named customer records, contact exports or additional information collection calls for a separate review of purposes and obligations. The privacy policy remains the reference for details of legal bases, recipients and rights.
Practical questions
- Must customers give a date of birth to collect stamps?
- Oktapus does not ask for a date of birth to run the card. The policy distinguishes cards from data linked to additional features chosen by the customer.
- Does deleting an account erase shop counters?
- After deletion, stamps are detached from the customer and reduced to the day. The shop keeps its counters without identifying that customer.