Sounds pretty similar to me and my grandparents, especially the part about not being vulnerable with each other. Mostly it’s surface-level talks. For example, my grandpa is into plants and gardening, so we might talk about the garden or his most recent visit to the garden center or something.

And I’m pretty sure behavior like this is passed down through generations.

I believe a major factor in this was a ruling by the Hoge Raad that a “free” phone with a contract is unlawful and is actually a loan. Carriers now have to list the price for the phone and for the service separately, so it’s a lot more clear what the costs of the phone are.

Also, a “free” phone is now registered as a loan with monthly recurring costs, which impacts for example the maximum mortgage you can get on a home.

That is not what GDPR is about.

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one that wanted to work on a garbage truck, for the exact same reason!

In the Netherlands, they solved this by adding a randomly generated transaction reference to the payment. This will appear on your bank / credit card statement. To view details for the transaction (time and location of entry/exit), you have to enter the paid amount and reference.

However, this will only give you info for a single transaction. If you want to see an overview of all your transactions, you need to create an account in their app. After linking your card to your account, again using the reference and amount for a transaction, you can view your travel history.