Technical audit · 2026-06-16

studielink.nl

Higher education application system in the Netherlands

Studielink.nl is the centralized system for applying to higher education institutions in the Netherlands, through which prospective students apply to universities. Homepage scan: 24 requests total, 4 domains. The configuration is exemplary. The only analytics is private Cloudflare web statistics, running without cookies and without cross-site tracking. Everything else consists of the site's own domains and its API. The scan shows no Google Analytics, no Facebook, no advertising, no session recording, and no third-party commercial trackers. Not a single cookie was set during the session. No violations were recorded.

Timeline of the leak

1044 ms · private web statistics
Cloudflare's private web statistics load. It runs without cookies and without cross-site tracking.
1120 ms · own API
Requests to the site's own API fire — a functional part of the page's operation.
cookieless analytics, no consent required
The analytics runs without cookies and without cross-site tracking, and is therefore exempt from consent. Not a single cookie was set during the session.

Declared versus actual

Cloudflare analytics (cookieless) — заявлен

Detected trackers

Context

www.studielink.nl is the centralized system for applying to higher education institutions in the Netherlands: prospective students use it to apply for admission to universities and colleges. The data controller is Studielink’s operator. The site is service-oriented, with an extension into the applicant’s account area.

Scan: 24 requests to 4 domains, homepage, captured in a clean Edge browser without a VPN or ad blocker. The technical stack is extremely minimal.

Who receives the data

There are no third-party commercial recipients.

The only analytics is private Cloudflare web statistics, running without cookies and without cross-site tracking. The remaining requests go to the site’s own domains and its API. The scan shows no Google Analytics, no advertising networks, no social media pixels, and no session recording.

A full banner for the statistics is not required here: the private web statistics run without cookies and don’t track the user across sites, and are therefore exempt from consent. Not a single cookie was set during the entire session.

Only private, cookieless analytics and the site’s own API. Before any interaction, Cloudflare’s cookieless web statistics and requests to the site’s own API fire. The scan contains no Google analytics, no advertising domains, no social plugins, and no session recording.

Conclusion

Studielink.nl is a model of a restrained configuration for a service handling prospective students’ data. The only analytics is private Cloudflare web statistics, without cookies and without cross-site tracking, while everything else is the site’s own infrastructure. There is no third-party advertising, no Google analytics, no social media pixels, and no session recording whatsoever, and no cookies are set. The key takeaway for the reader: an admissions service can manage perfectly well with private, cookieless statistics alone, and here that is achieved without a single third-party commercial tracker and without a single cookie. No violations were recorded.

Evidence
Original (audit)
HAR file: nl/studielink-nl-2026-06-16.har
SHA-256: 45287e874d41569d4a08275bfd99d86b5fbe48eb2b0e378c7145ad2e4eee403b
HAR files are stored on EU infrastructure (Proton Drive). SHA-256 is published for integrity verification.