Privacy Notice - Data Protection Statement of BFI Consulting AG.

With this Data Protection Statement, we, BFI Consulting AG. (hereinafter BFI, we or us), describe how we collect and further process personal data. This Data Protection Statement is not necessarily a comprehensive description of our data processing. It is possible that other data protection statements are applicable to specific circumstances. 
 

The term "personal data" in this Data Protection Statement shall mean any information that identifies or could reasonably be used to identify any natural person. 
 

If you provide us with personal data of other persons (such as family members, work colleagues, etc.), please make sure the respective persons are aware of this Data Protection Statement and only provide us with their data if you are allowed to do so and such personal data is correct. 

This Data Protection Statement is aligned with the Swiss Data Protection Act («DPA»). However, the application of these laws depends on each individual case.

1. Data Owner / Data Protection Officer
 

The "data owner" of data processing as described in this data protection statement (i.e., the responsible person) is BFI Consulting AG., Zurichstrasse 103e, 8123 Ebmatingen – Switzerland (unless we have informed you differently in certain cases). 
 

You can notify us of any data protection related concerns using the following contact details: 
 

BFI Consulting AG
Legal & Compliance – Data Protection Officer
Zurichstrasse 103e
8123 Ebmatingen
Switzerland
info@bficonsulting.com

2. Collection and Processing of Personal Data
 

We primarily process personal data that we obtain directly from our clients and other individuals (such as employees, business partners, etc.) in the context of our business relationships with them. We also process personal data that we collect from internet users when operating our websites (e.g., using our site, registering for our blog, etc.), apps and other third-party applications (e.g., payment services, webinar platforms, and other online services). 
 

Insofar as it is permitted to us, we obtain certain personal data from publicly accessible sources (e.g., debt registers, land registries, commercial registers, press, internet) or we may receive such information from affiliated companies, from authorities or other third parties. Apart from data you provided to us directly, the categories of data we receive about you from third parties include, but are not limited to, information from public registers, data received in connection with administrative or court proceedings, information in connection with your professional role and activities, information about you in correspondence and discussions with third parties or given to us by individuals associated with you (family, consultants, legal representatives, etc.) in order to conclude or process contracts with you or with your involvement (e.g. references, your delivery-address, powers of attorney), information regarding legal regulations such as anti-money laundering and relevant restrictions, bank details, information regarding insurances, our distributors and other business partners for the purpose of ordering or delivering services or products to you or by you, information about you found in the media or internet (insofar as indicated in the specific case, e.g. in connection with job applications, KYC, media reviews, marketing/sales, etc.), your address and any interests and other socio-demographic data (for marketing purposes), data in connection with your use of our websites (e.g., IP address, MAC address of your smartphone or computers, information regarding your device and settings, cookies, date and time of your visit, sites and content retrieved, applications used, referring website, localization data).

3. Purpose of Data Processing and Legal Grounds
 

We primarily use collected data in order to conclude and process contracts with our clients, employees and business partners, and the procurement of products and services from our suppliers and subcontractors, as well as in order to comply with our domestic and foreign legal obligations. You may be affected by our data processing in your capacity as an employee of such a client or business partner. 
 

In addition, in line with applicable law and where appropriate, we may process your personal data and personal data of third parties for the following purposes, which are in our (or, as the case may be, any third parties') legitimate interest, such as: 
 

• providing and developing our products, services and websites, apps and other platforms, on which we are active;

• communication with third parties and processing of their requests (e.g., job applications);

• review and optimization of procedures regarding needs assessment for the purpose of direct client approach as well as obtaining personal data from publicly accessible sources for customer acquisition;

• advertisement and marketing, provided that you have not objected to the use of your data for this purpose (if you are part of our client base and you receive our advertisement, you may object at any time and we will place you on a list against further advertising mailings);

• market and opinion research;

• asserting legal claims and defense in legal disputes and official proceedings;

• prevention and investigation of criminal offences and other misconduct (e.g., conducting internal investigations, data analysis to combat fraud);

• ensuring our operation, including our IT, our websites, apps and other appliances;

• video surveillance on our location used to protect our domiciliary rights and other measures to ensure the safety of our premises and facilities as well as protection of our employees and other individuals and assets owner by or entrusted to us (such as e.g., access controls, visitor logs, network and mail scanners, telephone recordings);

• acquisition and sale of business divisions, companies or parts of companies and other corporate transactions and the transfer of personal data related thereto as well as measures for business management and compliance with legal and regulatory obligations as well as internal regulations of BFI. 

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In addition, if you have given us your consent to process your personal data for certain purposes, we will process your personal data within the scope of and based on this consent, unless we have another legal basis, provided that we require one. Consent given can be withdrawn at any time, but this does not affect data processed prior to withdrawal.

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4. Cookies / Tracking and Other Techniques Regarding the Use of our Website

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We typically use "cookies" and similar techniques on our websites, which allow for an identification of your browser or device. A cookie is a small text file that is sent to your computer and automatically saved by the web browser on your computer or mobile device, when you visit our website. If you revisit our website, we may recognize you, even if we do not know your identity. Besides cookies that are only used during a session and deleted after your visit of the website ("session cookies"), we may use cookies in order to save user configurations and other information for a certain time period (e.g., two years) ("permanent cookies"). Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may configure your browser settings in a way that it rejects cookies, only saves them for one session or deletes them prematurely. Most browsers are preset to accept cookies. We use permanent cookies for the purpose of saving user configuration (e.g., language, automated log in). If you block cookies, it is possible that certain functions are no longer available to you. 

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In accordance with applicable law, we may include visible and invisible image files in our newsletters and other marketing e-mails. If such image files are retrieved from our servers, we can determine whether and when you have opened the e-mail, so that we can measure and better understand how you use our offers and customize them. You may disable this in your e-mail program, which will usually be a default setting.

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By using our websites and consenting to the receipt of newsletters and other marketing e-mails you agree to our use of such techniques. If you object, you must configure your browser or e-mail program accordingly.

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We may use Google Analytics or similar services on our website. These are services provided by third parties, which may be located in any country worldwide (in the case of Google Analytics Google Ireland Ltd. (located in Ireland), Google Ireland relies on Google LLC (located in the United States) as its sub-processor (both «Google»), www.google.com) and which allow us to measure and evaluate the use of our website (on an anonymized basis). For this purpose, permanent cookies are used, which are set by the service provider. We have configured the service so that the IP addresses of visitors are truncated by Google in Europe before forwarding them to the United States and then cannot be traced back. We have turned off the «Data sharing» option and the «Signals» option. Although we can assume that the information we share with Google is not personal data for Google, it may be possible that Google may be able to draw conclusions about the identity of visitors based on the data collected, create personal profiles and link this data with the Google accounts of these individuals for its own purposes. If you have registered with the service provider, the service provider will also know your identity. In this case, the processing of your personal data by the service provider will be conducted in accordance with its data protection regulations. The service provider only provides us with data on the use of the respective website (but not any personal information of you).

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5. Data Transfer and Transfer of Data Abroad

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In the context of our business activities and in line with the purposes of the data processing set out in Section 3, we may transfer data to third parties, insofar as such a transfer is permitted and we deem it appropriate, in order for them to process data for us or, as the case may be, their own purposes. In particular, the following categories of recipients may be concerned: 

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• our service providers (such as e.g., banks, insurances, brokers, payment services, identification services, etc.), including processors (such as e.g., IT providers);

• suppliers, subcontractors and other business partners;

• clients;

• domestic and foreign authorities or courts;

• the media (e.g., interviews, blog articles, etc.);

• the public, including users of our websites and social media;

• competitors, industry organizations, associations, organizations and other bodies;

• acquirers or parties interested in the acquisition of business divisions, companies or other parts of the BFI Capital Group;

• other parties in possible or pending legal proceedings;

• affiliates under the BFI Capital Group;

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together Recipients.

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Certain Recipients are located within Switzerland, but others may be located in any country worldwide where the laws regarding personal data protection may differ from those in Switzerland, and the data may be subject to the laws and regulations of the Recipient’s country.

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In particular, you must anticipate your data to be transmitted to other countries in Europe and the USA where you, or some of our service providers or their parent companies may be located (e.g., cloud services, custodian services, website providers, IT providers, etc.). 

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Although we take appropriate measures to protect personal data, we cannot guarantee the same level of data protection as provided under Swiss data protection laws in all jurisdictions. If a Recipient is located in a country without adequate statutory data protection, we require the Recipient to undertake to comply with data protection unless the recipient is subject to a legally accepted set of rules to ensure data protection (for this purpose, we use the list by the Swiss Federal Council of States that guarantee an adequate level of data protection, which can be accessed here:  https://www.ejpd.admin.ch/bj/en/home/staat/datenschutz/internationales/anerkennung-staaten.html) and unless we cannot rely on an exception. An exception may apply for example in case of legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases of overriding public interest or if the performance of a contract requires disclosure, if you have consented or if data has been made available generally by you and you have not objected against the processing.

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In the context of email communications, you should be aware that email transmission entails data travelling through different jurisdictions. By engaging in communication via email you assume the risk and accept the potential international transfer and processing of your personal data as described above. We strongly encourage communication via secure channels, and more specifically and where available to you, we recommend communicating with us via the Client Portal.

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6. Retention Periods for your Personal Data

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​We process and retain your personal data as long as required for the performance of our contractual obligation and compliance with legal obligations or other purposes pursued with the processing, i.e., for the duration of the entire business relationship (from the initiation, during the performance of the contract until it is terminated) as well as beyond this duration in accordance with legal retention and documentation obligations. Personal data may be retained for the period during which claims can be asserted against our company or insofar as we are otherwise legally obliged to do so or if legitimate business interests require further retention (e.g., for evidence and documentation purposes).

 

7. Data Security

 

We have taken appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal data from unauthorized access and misuse, including internal policies, training, IT and network security solutions, access controls and restrictions, etc.

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8. Your Rights

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In accordance with and as far as provided by applicable law, you have the right to access, rectification and erasure of your personal data, the right to restriction of processing or to object to our data processing, in particular for direct marketing purposes, for profiling carried out for direct marketing purposes and for other legitimate interests in processing in addition to right to receive certain personal data for transfer to another controller (data portability). Please note, however, that we reserve the right to enforce statutory restrictions on our part, for example if we are obliged to retain or process certain data, have an overriding interest (insofar as we may invoke such interests) or need the data for asserting claims. If exercising certain rights will incur costs on you, we will notify you thereof in advance. We have already informed you of the possibility to withdraw consent in Section 3 above. Please further note that the exercise of these rights may be in conflict with your contractual obligations, and this may result in consequences such as premature contract termination or involve costs. If this is the case, we will inform you in advance unless it has already been contractually agreed upon. 

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In general, exercising these rights requires that you are able to prove your identity (e.g., by a copy of identification documents where your identity is not evident otherwise or can be verified in another way). In order to assert these rights, please contact us at the addresses provided in Section 1 above. 

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In addition, every data subject has the right to enforce his/her rights in court or to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority. The competent data protection authority of Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home.html)

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9. Amendments of this Data Protection Statement

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​We may amend this Data Protection Statement at any time without prior notice. The current version published on our website shall apply.

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