Introduction

In this Privacy Policy, we, SwissHoldings, the Association of Multinational Enterprises in Switzerland (hereinafter: “SwissHoldings”, “us”, “we”), inform you which data we collect about you, why we process it and to whom we pass it on, so that we can ensure transparent and legally compliant data processing. The protection of your personal data is important to us. We therefore attach great importance to your privacy and the protection of your personal data as well as transparent information about the collection, processing and use of your personal data. We are committed to responsible handling. Consequently, we consider it a matter of course to comply with the legal requirements of the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and the Ordinance on Data Protection (DPO) as well as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We treat your personal data confidentially and in accordance with this privacy policy in compliance with the statutory data protection regulations.

It is generally possible to use our website without providing personal data. If personal data (e.g. name, address or e-mail addresses) is collected on our website, this is always done on a voluntary basis as far as possible. Some of this data is passed on to third parties in accordance with this privacy policy.

We would like to point out that data transmission over the Internet (e.g. when communicating by e-mail) may be subject to security vulnerabilities. Complete protection of data against access by third parties is not possible.

Encryption of the website:
The SwissHoldings website uses SSL encryption for security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the fact that the address line of the browser changes from “http://” to “https://” and a lock symbol appears in your browser line. If SSL encryption is activated, data that you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.

Data processing

Data collection:
We process your personal data. Personal data is all information relating to identified or identifiable natural persons (“data”). You are identifiable if you can be identified, directly or indirectly, for example by your name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier.

We process the data that is generated when you use our online services or the data that you provide (e.g. as part of a newsletter order). You can find out more about sending newsletters below.

Where permitted, we may receive such data from publicly accessible sources, companies, authorities or other third parties.

Specifically, we process the following data from you, whereby we always inform you which data is mandatory for the specific case and which data you can transmit to us on a voluntary basis.

Duration of data retention:
We process and store personal data only for the period required to fulfil the purpose. Beyond this, data is processed or stored in accordance with statutory retention or documentation obligations. Data may be stored for the period during which claims can be asserted against us or our legitimate interests make this necessary (e.g. for evidence and documentation purposes).

Data that is subject to a longer statutory retention obligation will be retained by us for longer. Retention obligations that require us to retain data arise from accounting and tax regulations. According to these regulations, business communications, concluded contracts and accounting documents must be stored for up to 10 years. As soon as the data is no longer required for the above-mentioned purposes, it is deleted, blocked or anonymised as far as possible.

Data retention through the use of cookies:
Cookies help in many ways to make your visit to our websites easier, more pleasant and more meaningful. Cookies are information files that your web browser automatically saves on the hard drive of your end device when you visit our website. Most of the cookies we use are “session cookies”. These are automatically deleted at the end of your visit.

Other cookies remain stored on your end device until they are actively deleted. The latter are used to recognise you the next time you visit our website. We use cookies, for example, to temporarily store your entries when you fill in a form on the website so that you do not have to repeat the entry when you call up another subpage or, for example, to show you a personalised website view.

Most Internet browsers accept cookies automatically. However, you can configure your browser so that no cookies are stored on your computer or so that a message always appears when you receive a new cookie. If you deactivate cookies, you may not be able to use all the functions of our website.

You can prevent the storage of cookies by setting your browser software accordingly; however, we would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all the functions of this website to their full extent. You can also prevent the collection of data generated by cookies and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) to Google and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at the following link.

Data protection:
In order for you to receive the newsletter offered on the website, we require an e-mail address from you as well as information that allows us to verify that you are the owner of the e-mail address provided and that you agree to receive the newsletter. We use this data exclusively for sending the requested information. You can revoke your consent to the storage of the data, the e-mail address and its use for sending the newsletter at any time, for example via the “unsubscribe” link in the newsletter. Registration for our newsletter takes place in a so-called double opt-in procedure. This means that after registering, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your registration. This confirmation is necessary so that no-one can register with other people’s e-mail addresses. Subscriptions to the newsletter are logged in order to be able to prove the registration process in accordance with legal requirements. This includes storing the time of registration and confirmation as well as the IP address. Changes to your data stored by MailChimp (more on this below) are also logged.

IP anonymisation:
We have activated the IP anonymisation function on this website. This means that your IP address will be truncated by Google within member states of the European Union or in other signatory states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area before being transmitted to the USA. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. Google will use this information on behalf of the operator of this website to analyse your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide the website operator with other services relating to website activity and internet usage. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other Google data.

Use of third-party tools

Mailchimp (newsletter):
Newsletters are sent by means of “MailChimp”, a newsletter dispatch platform of the US provider Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE #5000, Atlanta, GA 30308, USA.

The email addresses of our newsletter recipients, as well as their other data described in this notice, are stored on MailChimp’s servers in the USA. MailChimp uses this information to send and analyse the newsletter on our behalf. Furthermore, MailChimp may, according to its own information, use this data to optimise or improve its own services, e.g. to technically optimise the sending and presentation of the newsletter or for economic purposes in order to determine which countries the recipients come from. However, MailChimp does not use the data of our newsletter recipients to write to them itself or pass it on to third parties.

We trust in the reliability and IT and data security of MailChimp. MailChimp is certified under the US-EU data protection agreement “Privacy Shield” and thus undertakes to comply with EU data protection regulations. We have also concluded a “Data Processing Agreement” with MailChimp. This is a contract in which MailChimp undertakes to protect the data of our users, to process it on our behalf in accordance with its data protection provisions and, in particular, not to pass it on to third parties.

The newsletters contain a so-called “web-beacon”, i.e. a pixel-sized file that is retrieved from the MailChimp server when the newsletter is opened. As part of this retrieval, technical information, such as information about the browser and your system, as well as your IP address and time of retrieval, is initially collected. This information is used for the technical improvement of the services based on the technical data or the target groups and their reading behaviour based on their retrieval locations (which can be determined with the help of the IP address) or the access times.

The statistical surveys also include determining whether the newsletters are opened, when they are opened and which links are clicked. Although this information can technically be assigned to individual newsletter recipients, it is neither our endeavour nor that of MailChimp to observe individual users. The analyses serve us much more to recognise the reading habits of our users and to adapt our content to them or to send different content according to the interests of our users. You can find more information here.

You can cancel the receipt of our newsletter at any time, i.e. revoke your consent. Your consent to the sending of the newsletter via MailChimp and the statistical analyses will expire at the same time. Unfortunately, it is not possible to cancel the sending of the newsletter via MailChimp or the statistical analyses separately.

You will find a link to unsubscribe from the newsletter at the end of each newsletter.

Matomo:
We use the “Matomo” software on this website. The software sets a cookie (a text file) with which your browser can be recognised. When pages of our website are accessed, the following data is stored

  • the user’s IP address, shortened by the last two bytes (anonymised)
  • the sub-page accessed and the time of access
  • the page from which the user came to our website (referrer)
  • which browser with which plugins, which operating system and which screen resolution are used
  • the time spent on the website
  • the pages that are accessed from the accessed subpage

The data collected with Matomo is stored on our own servers. It is not passed on to third parties.

We need the data to analyse the surfing behaviour of users and to obtain information about the use of the individual components of the website. This enables us to constantly optimise the website and its user-friendliness. By anonymising the IP address, we take account of the user’s interest in the protection of personal data. The data is never used to personally identify the user of the website and is not merged with other data.

Google Analytics:
We have concluded a contract with Google for commissioned data processing and fully implement the strict requirements of the German data protection authorities when using Google Analytics.

This website uses the “demographic characteristics” function of Google Analytics. This allows reports to be created that contain statements about the age, gender and interests of site visitors. This data comes from interest-based advertising from Google and from visitor data from third-party providers. This data cannot be assigned to a specific person. You can deactivate this function at any time via the ad settings in your Google account or generally prohibit the collection of your data by Google Analytics as described below under “Objection to data collection”.

You can find more information on how Google Analytics handles user data in Google’s privacy policy.

Embedded content from other websites:
Posts on this website may contain embedded content (e.g. videos, images, posts, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in exactly the same way as if the visitor had visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking services and record your interaction with this embedded content, including your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to this website.

Linking and redirecting to external sites:
Posts on this site may contain links to third-party websites and content. The collection, processing and storage of personal data by SwissHoldings ends with the selection of these links and the redirection to the websites operated by third-party providers and the provision of other content.

Objection to data collection

You can object to the recording of data in the manner described above in two different ways:

  1. You can completely prevent the storage of cookies in your browser. However, some functions on our website may then no longer be usable.
  2. You can activate the “Do-not-track” setting in your browser. Our Matomo system is configured to respect this setting.

You have the option of preventing the actions you take here from being analysed and linked. This will protect your privacy, but will also prevent the owner from learning from your actions and improving usability for you and other users.

Your rights

Right to information:
You have the right to request access to your personal data stored by us at any time free of charge if we process it. This gives you the opportunity to check what personal data we process about you and that we use it in accordance with the applicable data protection regulations.

Right to rectification:
You have the right to have incorrect or incomplete personal data rectified and to be informed of the rectification. In this case, we will inform the recipients of the data concerned of the adjustments made, unless this is impossible or involves disproportionate effort.

Right to erasure:
You have the right to have your personal data erased under certain circumstances. In individual cases, the right to erasure may be excluded.

Right to restriction of processing:
Under certain circumstances, you have the right to request that the processing of your personal data be restricted.

Right to data portability:
Under certain circumstances, you have the right to receive from us, free of charge, the personal data that you have provided to us in a readable format.

Right to lodge a complaint:
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a competent supervisory authority against the way in which your personal data is processed. The competent data protection authority in Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Right of cancellation:
In principle, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. However, processing activities based on your consent in the past are not rendered unlawful by your revocation.

The exercise of the aforementioned rights generally requires that you provide clear proof of your identity (for example, in cases where your identity is not otherwise clear or cannot be verified by means of a copy of your ID). You can contact us at any time via info@swissholdings.ch or on +41 (0)31 356 68 68 to assert your rights and for further questions on the subject of personal data.

Last updated: November 2023

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