Effective date: February 1, 2024
The original text is the German version. Any discrepancies or differences created in the translation are not binding and have no legal effect for compliance or enforcement purposes. If any questions arise related to the accuracy of the information contained in the translated terms of use, refer to the Ger-man version of the website which is the official version.
English translation from the German version 1.0 / 02.2024
Your privacy is important to us
Protecting your data and protecting the privacy of users of our website switzerland-innovation.com, our platform at community.switzerland-innovation.com and our other services (hereinafter jointly referred to as “Services”) is important to us. The personal data that we collect or receive in the course of our business activities is treated in confidence and securely protected against access. Most of the content we provide on the website is freely accessible. We do, however, use industry-standard technologies to measure and improve the performance of our website, and collect data for this purpose. In some cases, we work together with external service providers. Insofar as we (or third parties acting on our behalf) collect and process personal data, we comply with the requirements of the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection and the applicable requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. This Privacy Statement (“Statement”) describes how the Switzerland Innovation Foundation (“we,” “us” or “our”) collects and processes personal data and sets out your associated rights.
Our objectives are:
- realizing successful R&D collaborations between private companies, Swiss universities and other research partners;
- generating domestic and foreign R&D investment;
- localizing domestic and foreign companies and research partners that create jobs and develop new marketable products, services and processes;
- creating a platform to accelerate the development of research results into marketable solutions;
- creating attractive conditions for research groups and start-ups as catalysts for the localization of established companies;
- securing our attractiveness and competitiveness through clear competence profiles at the sites as well as excellent conditions and services for our customers.
The Switzerland Innovation Foundation is the national organizing institution of Switzerland Innovation, and provides services to the independent sites:
- Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area AG
- Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne AG
- Switzerland Innovation Park Innovaare (InnovAARE AG)
- Switzerland Innovation West EPFL (Association SIP WEST EPFL)
- Switzerland Innovation Park Ost AG
- Switzerland Innovation Park Zürich (Stiftung IPZ)
Introduction
By using our Services, you agree to this Privacy Statement. If you provide us with the personal data of other persons, please ensure that these persons are familiar with this Privacy Statement and disclose their personal data to us only if you are authorized to do so.
The Switzerland Innovation Foundation is a foundation registered under Swiss law that is subject to Swiss data protection regulations, in particular the Federal Act on Data Protection (“FADP”). In addition to the Swiss data protection regulations, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) is also of significance for us. In this Privacy Statement, the terms “process,” “processing” and “personal data” are used synonymously with the terms “handle,” “handling” and “personal details”.
If you do not agree to this Privacy Statement, you should not use our Services. If you have any questions about data protection, do not hesitate to contact us (section 11).
1 What personal data do we collect and process?
Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. It does not include data that cannot be attributed to any natural person (anonymous data). We primarily process the personal data that we receive from you in connection with our mandate, from business relations with other business partners and from other involved persons, companies and public bodies.
Particularly sensitive personal data includes data on religious, philosophical, political or trade union views or activities, data on health, private life, including details of sex life and sexual orientation, data on racial or ethnic origin, genetic data, biometric data that uniquely identifies a natural person, data on administrative and criminal prosecutions or sanctions, and data on social assistance measures.
We process (i.e., collect, use, store and transmit) various types of personal data, such as:
a. data about your identity, such as your first name, last name, date of birth, gender, title;
b. identification and background information that you provide to us or that you enter when registering for our Services; the latter includes the name of the website accessed, URL path, user name/ID (if available), date and time of access, amount of data transferred, notification of successful access, browser type and version, user’s operating system, referrer URL (the URL that linked to our website, e.g., Google Search), IP address and the requesting provider;
c. contact details, such as addresses (invoicing address, shipping address, e-mail address) and telephone numbers, as well as financial data, such as bank details and payment card data;
d. information relating to your professional roles and activities;
e. data and information – for example, provided in documents or relating to correspondence/meetings with third parties – that is transmitted to us by third parties (section 2a) or that we take from public registers;
f. information disclosed to us by you or on your behalf, or that we create as part of our Services;
g. information provided to us to enable participation in meetings, seminars or events;
h. advertising and communication data, such as information about when you receive and read newsletters from us, which of our events you attend and preferences regarding advertising and communication settings;
i. any other information relating to you that you provide to us;
j. We collect particularly sensitive personal data, including information on criminal convictions and criminal offenses, where we are obliged to do so for legal reasons or if you, the courts, authorities, etc. have provided us with such information because it is necessary for us to be able to provide a certain service to a client.
2 How do we collect personal data?
We collect and process personal data when you communicate with us or our employees, register to use our Services or to receive information by e-mail, or when you attend a meeting, seminar or other event.
In addition to the data that you provide to us directly, we collect personal data from the following sources:
a. Information that you, your family, your employer, your contracting parties, our business partners, consultants or other third parties provide to us;
b. Information from public registers (e.g., commercial registers, press, internet);
c. Information about your person taken from the media and internet (if this is appropriate in the specific case, e.g., in the context of an application, press review, marketing/sales, etc.).
When you access our website, we collect data transmitted by your browser and automatically stored by our server, such as the date and time of access, the name of the file accessed, amount of data transferred and access time, your web browser, browser language and the requesting domain (further data is collected via our website only if you provide this information voluntarily, such as when submitting a registration form or other request).
When you register to use Services or receive our newsletter, we process the contact details that you provide, such as your title, first name, last name, company and e-mail address.
3 For what purposes do we process personal data?
We process your information, including your personal data, for the following purposes:
a. Primarily, to enter into and fulfill contracts with you and business partners, particularly in connection with the provision of Services and the fulfillment of our objectives;
b. To purchase products and services from our suppliers and vicarious agents;
c. To fulfill legal and regulatory obligations and responsibilities, as part of our general business activities and for other business administration purposes;
d. For marketing, advertising and other purposes: if you have consented to the processing of your personal data for specific purposes, we will process your personal data within the framework of and based on this consent, unless we have and require any other legal basis. Consent that has been granted can be revoked at any time, although this shall have no effect on data processing already carried out;
e. To further develop our offers, services, websites and other platforms on which we are present; to communicate with you; to communicate with third parties and process their inquiries (e.g., applications, media inquiries);
f. For market research and opinion canvassing, media observation;
g. To establish legal claims and defenses in connection with legal disputes and administrative proceedings;
h. To ensure continued business operations, in particular of our IT services, websites and other platforms, as well as measures to secure our IT services, buildings and systems and to protect our employees and other persons and assets entrusted to us (e.g., through access controls, visitor lists, network and e-mail scanners, telephone recordings);
i. To comply with legal and regulatory obligations and internal regulations.
4 On what legal basis do we process personal data?
Depending on the purpose of the processing activity (see section 3 above), we process your information and personal data if:
a. this is necessary to conclude or fulfill a contract for the requested Services or to fulfill our obligations under such a contract, e.g., if we process your data for some of the purposes specified in sections 3a–3c (as well as for some of the data transfers described in this section 4);
b. this is necessary to protect our legitimate interests without unduly affecting your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms;
c. this is necessary to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations, including carrying out checks to identify you personally and disclosing information to the authorities, regulatory bodies and government agencies (sections 5f and 5gg);
d. we process particularly sensitive personal data or special categories of personal data as required to comply with legal obligations, or if the processing relates to personal data that is clearly generally accessible; or
e. the data is processed with your consent, which we obtain from you from time to time (e.g., if required by law), or the data is processed with your express consent in the case of particularly sensitive personal data or special categories of personal data.
Examples of the “legitimate interests” mentioned above include:
f. the specific purposes detailed in sections 3d to 3i;
g. exercising our rights in accordance with Articles 26 and 27 of the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation or Articles 16 and 17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, including our freedom to conduct business and our right to property;
h. if we make the disclosures referred to in the following section 5, provide products and services and want to ensure a consistently high standard of service and the satisfaction for our customers, employees and other stakeholders; and
i. the fulfillment of our accountability and legal requirements;
j. in all cases, provided that your interests in the protection of your privacy do not outweigh our legitimate interests.
5 Who has access to personal data and with whom is it shared?
The following partner companies enable us to offer our Services effectively. The partner companies are:
a. Jointcreate AG – VAT ID: CH-170.3.047.757-5:
Jointcreate AG provides the digital service jointcreate.com for operating the community sites of Switzerland Innovation. It acts as a licensor, orchestrates the technical operation and is a service partner to Switzerland Innovation and all associated parks. Jointcreate AG has the same access to the data as all other users of the community sites. Under our innovation order, Jointcreate AG can arrange for extracts of the community data to be created by stepping stone AG. Jointcreate AG will only pass this data on to us and subsequently delete it again. These processes are documented.
b. bbv Software Services AG – VAT ID: CHE-108.385.922:
bbv Software Services AG is the development partner for the community.switzerland-innovation.com platform. bbv Software Services AG has no access to the data of community.switzerland-innovation.com that extends beyond that of other users. In exceptional circumstances, bbv Software Services AG can be provided with a minimal data extract to perform a technical analysis of the platform. This process is documented.
c. stepping stone AG – VAT ID: CHE-110.527.462:
stepping stone AG is the cloud partner of community.switzerland-innovation.com and is responsible for operating the platform. stepping stone AG cannot access the data except in documented emergency situations. stepping stone AG is certified to ISO-27001 and therefore has a strong ISMS.
d. LinkedIn – Sunnyvale, 1000 W Maude Ave, United States:
LinkedIn is used to register for and log in to community.switzerland-innovation.com. To enable this, the registration or login request for community.switzerlandinnovation.com is transmitted to LinkedIn, along with the time of the request. community.switzerland-innovation.com obtains the user’s last name, first name, avatar image and the e-mail address from LinkedIn.
Insofar as we are permitted, we may also disclose your personal data as follows:
e. We may share personal information within our locations; if we do, the use and disclosure of your personal information is subject to this Statement.
f. We may disclose personal information to comply with the law, court proceedings, a court order or other legal proceedings, including arbitration proceedings (e.g., in response to a court order or summons).
g. If necessary, we will pass personal information to public and judicial authorities, regulatory bodies or government agencies and provide it in connection with proceedings, including where such information is required by law or regulation or requested by such authorities or other public bodies.
h. We may share your data with third parties, service providers, contractors or representatives who perform service functions that we require to operate our business, e.g., banks, insurance companies, counterparties and their legal representatives, as well as other persons involved (guarantors, financiers, affiliated companies, information providers, experts, etc.), providers of hosting services, e-mail communications, customer services, analytics, marketing and advertising. In such cases, the data will be shared based on our instructions and in accordance with this Statement and other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
The specified recipients may be located outside of Switzerland. In such cases, with the exception of cases where the country concerned has been classified as having an appropriate level of protection by the EU or Switzerland, we take appropriate security precautions (e.g., by concluding the standard contractual clauses of the EU Commission, including the adjustments necessary for Switzerland) to ensure that such transmission is in accordance with the applicable data protection rules. We normally transfer personal data to recipients or service providers in countries that do not offer an adequate level of protection if this is necessary for the fulfillment of a contract with the data subject(s) that was concluded in their interest or for the establishment, enforcement or defense of legal claims.
You may request additional information in this regard and obtain a copy of the appropriate protective measures (e.g., standard contractual clauses) by contacting us at the address provided at the end of this Privacy Statement.
6 How long do we store your data?
We retain your information, including personal data, only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected and only as long as we have a legitimate interest in the retention of the personal data (for example, to pursue or defend legal claims or for archiving purposes and IT security). Furthermore, we store your personal data if and for as long as required in accordance with a statutory retention obligation.
7 Cookies
Use of third-party services and content: third-party content, such as videos from YouTube, map material from Google Maps, RSS feeds or graphics from other websites, may be integrated within our Services. This always requires the providers of this content (hereinafter referred to as “Third-Party Providers”) to receive the IP address of users. Without the IP address, they would not be able to send the content to the browser of the relevant user. The IP address is therefore required to display this content. We endeavor to use content only from providers that use the IP address solely to deliver the content. However, we have no influence on whether the third-party providers choose to store the IP address (e.g., for statistical purposes). Where we are aware of such usage, we inform users accordingly.
Use of Google Analytics and Google reCAPTCHA: our websites use functions of the Google Analytics web analytics service and Google reCAPTCHA. The provider is Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Google Analytics uses cookies. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. On behalf of the website operator, Google uses this information to evaluate your use of the website, compile reports on website activities and provide the website operator with other services related to website and internet use. The IP address transmitted by your browser in connection with Google Analytics is not merged with other Google data.
You can prevent the storage of cookies by setting your browser software accordingly. In this case, however, please note that you may not be able to use all functions of our website to the full. In addition, you can prevent the collection of the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en
8 Third-party links
Our service may include links to third-party websites. Access to and the use of such linked websites is not subject to this Privacy Statement, but rather to the privacy policies of these third-party websites. We are not responsible for the information practices of such third-party websites.
9 Security of your personal data
We have taken reasonable precautions to protect the information we collect from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.
10 Rights
10.1 What rights do you have?
Individuals located in Switzerland or the European Economic Area (EEA) have certain rights relating to their personal data. We offer you the opportunity to exercise your rights, including:
a. the right to access your personal data;
b. the right to correct or rectify incorrect personal data;
c. the right to restrict or object to the processing of personal data;
d. the right to delete your personal data; and
e. the right to portability of personal data.
You have these rights in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Act on Data Protection. Please note that these rights are not applicable without limitation and may be subject to restrictions.
10.2 How can you exercise your individual rights?
The exercise of your rights requires you to provide proof of your identity (e.g., a copy of your ID card). To assert your rights, you can contact us at the addresses listed in section 11.
You also have the right to enforce your claims in court or to file a complaint with the competent data protection authority. The competent data protection authority in Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner
(https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home.html).
11 Address of the Switzerland Innovation Foundation
Switzerland Innovation Foundation
Zieglerstrasse 29
3007 Bern
Switzerland
+41 31 382 52 17
info@switzerland-innovation.com
12 Changes to this Statement
This Statement is valid from the effective date specified above. Since we may make changes to this Statement from time to time, you should review it on a regular basis.