SVTI Group Privacy Statement

1. The personal data collected

SVTI collects personal data related to the provision of services, related to the employed and contracted persons, as well as those personal data that are provided to SVTI by requesting information about the services provided, visiting our website services and subscribing to e-mail notifications and/or a newsletter, furthermore when making an inquiry via inquiry forms and helplines, when carrying out a transaction and when placing an order via website. 

This may include the following data:

• Personal master data, identification and contact data such as first name, last name, dates of birth, job title, telephone number, residential and/or postal address, e-mail address, telephone numbers, and country,
• information on courses attended and examinations taken,
• personnel data arising in the context of the employment relationship,
• data related to correspondence,
• location and traffic data,
• financial and transactional data such as credit card information,
• sound and image recordings,
• profile data or personal preference data (e.g., preferences regarding products or services),
• any information voluntarily provided to us, such as feedback, opinions, and information disclosed through a helpline.

SVTI also automatically collects personal data generated by visits to the website. This may include:

• Device information such as IP address, referring websites, SVTI pages visited from your device, or the length of time your device visited this website,
• Internet protocol information and details collected through third-party vendors such as Google Analytics, but which do not specifically identify you,
• Information collected using cookies (for more information on this, please see our cookie policy).
   

2. Reasons for the use of personal data

SVTI uses personal data for the following purposes:

• For contract fulfillment: in order to conclude and implement agreed contracts, personal data must often also be processed. This is the case, for example, with the online store, course visits and examinations and personal certifications.
• For communication: In order to be able to communicate with third parties, personal data must often be processed. This may be the case, for example, when a contact form is used by us, when an application is submitted, when contact is made by e-mail, mail or telephone or in other ways, as well as for customer care.
• In order to assert legal claims, personal data may need to be processed. This may involve different categories of personal data, depending on the case concerned.
• To improve our website with the aim of ensuring that the content is presented in the best possible way for visitors,
• To send e-mails and communicate with third parties regarding our services and events.
• For the realization of the employment relationship with the employees. 
• To carry out occupational benefits and related activities.
• To analyze website usage, monitor trends and for promotional purposes.
• To respond to inquiries and comments and to provide support through communication channels.
• To test and optimize needs analysis procedures for direct customer contact and to collect personal data from publicly available sources for customer acquisition purposes.
• To operate our website in a safe and secure manner and to comply with our legal requirements and obligations.
• To carry out or complete a transaction or order placed on SVTI Group websites.
• To create and manage user accounts.
• For video surveillance for the purpose of maintaining housekeeping and other measures for IT, building and facility security and protection of our employees and other persons and assets belonging to or entrusted to us (such as access controls, visitor lists, network and mail scanners, telephone records).
• To share within the SVTI Group for the purpose of providing services.
• For any other purpose about which we inform you before collecting personal data.

3. Disclosure of personal data

SVTI shares or transfers personal data as described herein. We do so only in compliance with applicable data protection laws. 

The following is a list of the parties to whom we might share personal data and the reasons for doing so:

• SVTI Group companies, although the SVTI Pension Fund does not disclose health data or data about business transactions such as purchases, early withdrawals, etc. to the employer.
• Third-party companies that perform certain functions on behalf of SVTI, such as fulfilling inspection orders, sending emails, processing customer data, analyzing data and processing credit card payments, providing direct marketing services and cloud hosting services. These parties only have access to the information necessary to perform respective functions. They may not use it for any purpose other than to provide services to us.
• When SVTI, in its sole discretion, regardless of the reason, which may include, but is not limited to, compliance with laws, regulations, or governmental or legal requests for such information, in the event of a merger, sale, reorganization, acquisition, joint venture, or assignment, deems it appropriate to disclose information necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against an individual who may be violating our business policies or other terms; or to otherwise protect SVTI Group companies.
• In some circumstances, personal data may also be disclosed to authorities in Switzerland and abroad if we are legally obliged or entitled to do so or if this is necessary to protect our legitimate interests. The authorities process the data they have received from us under their own responsibility.

4. Protection of personal data

We keep personal data secure and take appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data against loss, access, misuse or alteration, to ensure availability and to prevent falsification of personal data. Our contractual partners and employees who have access to your personal data are obliged to comply with the provisions of data protection law.

SVTI maintains strict, state of the art security measures in the storage and disclosure of information that is generated or provided to SVTI to prevent unauthorized access, loss or destruction of personal data. These may include:

• Physical security measures, controlled access to our facilities, and secure destruction of media containing personal information.
• Technical safeguards such as the use of anti-virus and endpoint protection software and monitoring of our systems and data centers to ensure that our security policies are followed.
• Organizational safeguards such as security and privacy training and awareness programs to ensure that our employees understand the importance and means by which they must protect your personal information.

As a general rule, SVTI does not collect any personal data that requires special protection. However, if we do, we always collect the data in accordance with applicable data protection laws. Individuals who choose to provide us with unsolicited sensitive personal data are asked to provide explicit consent for the processing of that data.

5. Duration of storage of personal data

SVTI retains personal data for the period necessary to fulfill the original purposes for which it was collected, but in any event to the maximum extent permitted by law, and also, in particular, to enable SVTI to pursue its business interests, conduct audits, comply with legal obligations, enforce agreements or resolve disputes.

The criteria we use to determine our retention periods include the following:

• Length of time the data is needed to provide our products or services or to conduct our business.
• Existence of a user account. In this case, we will retain the data as long as an account is active or as long as necessary to provide the related services.
• Existence of a legal, contractual or similar obligation to store the data. Examples include mandatory data retention laws, government orders to retain data relevant to an investigation, or data that must be retained for contractual purposes or potential litigation.

6. Cookies and their use

In order to tailor our offers to your needs as best as possible, we use so-called cookies in certain cases. Cookies are small files that cannot perform any operations on their own, files that are stored on your computer or mobile device when you visit or use one of our websites. Cookies store certain settings about your browser and data about the exchange with the Internet site through your browser. When a cookie is activated, it can be assigned an identification number that identifies your browser and allows the information contained in the cookie to be used. Basically, there are two different types of cookies: temporary cookies and permanent cookies. On the one hand, we use temporary cookies that are automatically deleted from your mobile device or computer at the end of the browser session. On the other hand, we use permanent cookies so that they store user settings (e.g. language, autologin). These remain stored on your computer or mobile device for a longer period of time after the browser session. After a programmed time, they are automatically deactivated.

We expressly state at this point that we do not use cookies to collect information on your computer (so-called spyware) or to display ads. This is especially true while you are not connected to the Internet or surfing outside of portals that belong to SVTI (so-called adware).

SVTI also uses cookies and similar technologies to enable certain processes, services and transactions, for example, when you use a virtual shopping cart in an electronic marketplace on the Internet.

You have the option of not using cookies by setting your browser in such a way that a warning appears on the screen before a cookie is saved or the setting of cookies is made impossible. Cookies that have already been set can be removed. In this case, however, it may not be possible to use certain SVTI and/or third-party services.

The SVTI permits partner companies that provide services for the SVTI or are integrated on the SVTI website to set cookies insofar as this is technically necessary and the use of the cookies is proportionate. The SVTI has no influence on the use of cookies outside the SVTI website. 

By continuing to use our website and/or by agreeing to this privacy policy, you consent to the setting of cookies by us and to the collection, storage and use of personal usage data, even after the end of the browser session (so-called permanent cookies). You can revoke this consent at any time by activating the browser default setting to refuse cookies from third-party providers.

7. Use of tracking tools

With the aim and intention of a demand-oriented design and continuous optimization of our internet pages, apps and emails, we use web analytics services such as Google Analytics.

In the context of the use of our Internet pages, pseudonymized usage profiles are created and, as explained in item 6 above, small text files stored on your computer are used. The information generated by such cookies about your use of this website is transmitted to the servers of the providers of these services, stored there and processed for us. In addition to the data mentioned in section 2 above, we thereby obtain the following information:

• Navigation path taken by a visitor to the Internet site,
• length of time spent on the website or sub-page,
• The sub-page on which the visitor leaves the website,
• Country, region or city from which access is made,
• End device (type, version, color depth, resolution, width and height of the browser window),
• Returning or new visitor.
• We use this information to evaluate the use of the Internet pages. 

The tools, programs and instruments that we use as part of the analysis of web behavior include Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, YouTube (integration of videos), Userlike, Hubspot and MailChimp .

When using the Google Analytics tool mentioned above, for example, the information generated by cookies about your use of the website, including your IP address, is transmitted to a Google server in the USA. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You can prevent the installation of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser software. In this context, however, we would like to point out that in such a case you may not be able to use all functions of the website to their full extent. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

8. Newsletter and contests

Our website offers the possibility to subscribe to a newsletter. It is also intended to hold occasional online contests. The data collected in the process (including name, address, e-mail) enables us to send you a newsletter with which we can draw your attention to suitable offers and further information. By registering and participating and providing your data, you give the appropriate consent. You can revoke this at any time and thus unsubscribe from the newsletter.

9. Possibility of access to and control of personal data by concerned persons

We are committed to ensuring that concerned persons are able to exercise their right to access and control their data.

We respond to requests in accordance with our internal procedures as described below. All requests must be submitted via any online privacy request form or by contacting us in writing (see Section 7 above). Verbal requests cannot be processed. The following shall further apply:

• Access to personal data: Concerned persons have the right to ask what personal data is stored about them. A copy of the data can be requested for a fee to be paid in advance. The data protection officer decides on the amount of the fee.
• Correction and deletion: persons concerned have the right to correct or update their personal data if it is demonstrably incorrect or demonstrably needs to be updated. They also have the right to request the deletion of their personal data, unless this is precluded by operational reasons or legal provisions on retention periods or other obligations to store such data. If we are asked to delete data, we may continue to store a small amount of information to demonstrate that we have complied with our obligation to delete data.
• Filing a Complaint: Complaints about compliance with the practices described in this statement will be handled formally and according to a defined procedure.
• Marketing Preferences: SVTI may send regular marketing communications to interested parties about our services, using a variety of channels, such as email, telephone, SMS, via postal mail and via third party social networks, always in compliance with applicable legal requirements. When required by law, we obtain consent before starting such activities.

10. Possibility of written contact

SVTI Schweiz. Verein
für technische Inspektionen
Datenschutzverantwortlicher
Richtistrasse 15
CH-8304 Wallisellen
datenschutzverantwortlicher@svti.ch