Privacy Policy

Version 1.1 – 18 September 2023

 

About us

This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy“) explains how we process and protect your personal data when you use this Website or our services, through the Certifaction® Solution, provided via https://certifaction.com/ (together, the “Website“).

The Website and the Certifaction® Solution are operated by Certifaction AG, Limmatquai 120, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland (the “COMPANY“, “we“, “our“, or “us“). The Company is the controller for the data processing described below. If, however, you use our Certifaction® Solution as a company-client we act as a data processor.

Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy or our General Terms & Conditions, the definitions used in this Privacy Policy have the same meaning as in the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection or the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
For all questions on the subject of data protection, you can also contact our data protection officer at any time. He or she can be reached:
by e-mail to: privacy@certifaction.com

We expressly point out that if you use this e-mail address, the contents will not be exclusively noted by our data protection officer. If you wish to exchange confidential information, please therefore first contact us directly via: emeka.mosanya@certifaction.com and mark the correspondence with: “F.A.O. data protection officer”.

 

1 Personal data we collect

We may collect or receive personal information for a number of purposes connected with our business operations when you use our website or our services. This includes the following:

  • Client requests (e.g. details about your inquiries)
  • Personal Information (e.g. name and surname, e-mail address, phone number, physical address, citizenship, ID documentation, birth date)
  • Login details (e.g. password, username, sessions)
  • Payment details (e.g. billing information, credit card details)
  • Website visitor details (e.g. IP address, logfiles, type and version of browser used, operating system, referrer URL, hostname of the accessing computer, the time of the server inquiry)
  • Recruiting details (e.g. motivation letter, CV)
  • Photos and videos (e.g. photos and videos of the user’s face used for identification purposes)
  • Audio files (e.g. voice and sound recordings used for identification purposes)
  • Files and documents (e.g. a user’s files and documents under the “Signature Request” service, as well as attachments you provide us under customer support, or information about their file and documents such as file names and content).

2 How we collect personal data

We collect information about our users when they use our Website or our services, including taking certain actions within it.

Directly

  • When users correspond with us by electronic means.
  • When users access, use, or otherwise interact with our Website and/or services through the Certifaction® Solution.
  • When users sign up to receive our newsletter and other marketing materials.
  • When users submit their data to us.

Indirectly

  • From public sources, such as public directories.
  • From third parties, such as social media plugins and third-party cookies.
  • From our clients, when using our services.

3 Legal Basis and purposes

Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal data described in this Privacy Policy depends on the personal data we collect and the specific purposes for which we collect it.

Contract: To perform our contractual obligations or take steps linked to a contract with you. In particular:

  • To provide our services.
  • To provide you with customer support.
  • To set up and manage your account in our services, as well as to verify your credentials when logging in.
  • To recruit you.

Consent: We may rely on your freely given consent at the time you provided your personal data. In particular:

  • To provide users with news, special offers, newsletters, and general information about goods and services which we offer.
  • To set non-essential cookies and similar tools.

Legitimate interests: We may rely on legitimate interests based on our assessment that the processing is fair and reasonable and does not override your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms. In particular:

  • To maintain and improve our Website and services.
  • To develop new services.

Necessity for compliance with legal obligations: To meet regulatory and public interest obligations. In particular:

  • To comply with applicable regulations and legislation.
  • For the legal enforcement of claims and rights.

3.1 Newsletter

We may send newsletters and other notifications by email and through other communication channels. We may have newsletters and other notifications sent by third parties or send them with the help of third parties.

In principle, you must expressly consent to the use of your e-mail address and other contact addresses, unless the use is permitted for other legal reasons. We use “double opt-in” for any consent in the case of e-mails, i.e. you will receive an e-mail with a web link that you must click to confirm, so that no misuse by unauthorized third parties can take place. We may log such consents including Internet Protocol (IP) address, date and time.

Newsletters and other notifications may contain web links or tracking pixels that record whether an individual newsletter or notification has been opened and which web links were clicked (performance measurement). Such web links and tracking pixels record the use of newsletters and other notifications. We need this statistical recording of usage, including success and reach measurement, in order to be able to offer newsletters and other notifications effectively and in a user-friendly manner, as well as permanently, securely and reliably, based on the reading habits of the recipients.

You can unsubscribe from newsletters and other notifications at any time and thereby object in particular to the aforementioned collection of usage. You can do so by contacting us directly or following the link included in the footer of each newsletter we send you.

 

4 Data retention

We retain personal data for so long as it is needed for the purposes for which it was collected or in line with legal and regulatory requirements or contractual arrangements.

 

5 Service Providers

The Company may engage third party companies (“Service Providers“) to facilitate the operation of our Website and services, assist in analyzing the usage of the Website and services, or perform Website and service-related services, such as payment and the provision of IT infrastructure services. These third parties have access to the user’s personal data only to the extent necessary to perform these tasks on behalf of the Company.

Type(s) of service providers who might access your personal data:

  • Accounting firms
  • Consultants
  • Other group entities
  • Marketing firms
  • Public authorities
  • Payment service providers
  • CRM software providers
  • Cloud server providers
  • IT-service providers
  • Analytics service providers

 

6 Data transfers

The Company and/or the Service Providers may transfer your personal data to and process it in the following countries:

  • EU and EEA
  • USA

We may use service providers who are partly located in so-called third countries (outside the European Union or the European Economic Area or Switzerland) or process personal data there, i.e. countries whose level of data protection does not correspond to that of the EU or Switzerland.

We safeguard your personal data per our contractual obligations and applicable data protection legislation when transferring data abroad.
Such safeguards may include:

  • the transfer to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection according to lists of countries published by the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, as well as to countries where there is an adequacy decisions by the European Commission in place;
  • applying standard data protection model clauses, binding corporate rules or other standard contractual obligations that provide appropriate data protection.

If a third country transfer takes place and there is no adequacy decision or appropriate safeguards, it is possible and there is a risk that authorities in the third country (e.g. intelligence services) can gain access to the transferred data and that the enforceability of your data subject’s rights cannot be guaranteed.

 

7 Data disclosure

We may disclose your personal data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary:

  • To comply with a legal obligation (i.e., if required by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities, such as a court or government agency);
  • To protect the security of the Website and defend our rights or property;
  • To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with us;
  • To defend ourselves against legal liability.

 

8 Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational security measures that we deem appropriate to protect your stored data against manipulation, loss, or unauthorised third-party access. Our security measures are continually adapted to technological developments.
We also take internal data privacy very seriously. Our employees and the Service Providers that we retain are required to maintain secrecy and comply with applicable data protection legislation. In addition, they are granted access to personal data only insofar as this is necessary for them to carry out their respective tasks or mandate.

The security of your personal data is important to us but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. We recommend using antivirus software, a firewall, and other similar software to safeguard your system.

 

9 Your rights

You have the below data protection rights. To exercise these rights, you may contact the above address or send an e-mail to: privacy@certifaction.com. Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.

  • Right of access: You have a right to request a copy of your personal data, which we will provide to you in an electronic form.
  • Right to amendment: You have the right to ask us to correct our records if you believe they contain incorrect or incomplete information about you.
  • Right to withdraw consent: If you have provided your consent to the processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw your consent with effect for the future. This includes cases where you wish to opt-out from marketing communications. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose(s) to which you initially consented unless there is another legal basis for processing. To stop receiving emails from us, please click on the ‘unsubscribe’ link in the email you received or contact us at privacy@certifaction.com.
  • Right to erasure: You have the right to request that we delete your personal data when it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or when it was unlawfully processed.
  • Right to restriction of processing: You have the right to request the restriction of our processing of your personal data where you believe it to be inaccurate, our processing is unlawful, or where we no longer need to process it for the initial purpose, but where we are not able to delete it due to a legal obligation or because you do not want us to delete it.
  • Right to portability: You have the right to request that we transmit your personal data to another data controller in a standard format such as Excel, where this is data which you have provided to us and where we are processing it on the legal basis of your consent or to perform our contractual obligations.
  • Right to object to processing: Where the legal basis for our processing of your personal data is our legitimate interest, you have the right to object to such processing on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will abide by your request unless we have a compelling legal basis for the processing which overrides your interests or if we need to continue to process the personal data for the exercise or defence of a legal claim.
  • Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: You have the right of appeal to a data protection supervisory authority if you believe that the processing of your personal data violates data protection law. The competent data protection authority in Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home.html). In Bavaria, Germany, the seat of our EU representative, the competent data protection authority is the Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht (https://www.lda.bayern.de/). You can exercise this right, for example, before a supervisory authority in the Member State of your residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement.

10 Links to third-party apps and sites

Our website may contain links to websites or apps that are not operated by us. When you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s website or app. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party websites or services.

We maintain online presences on social networks to, among other things, communicate with customers and prospective customers and to provide information about our products and services. If you have an account on the same network, it is possible that your information and media made available there may be seen by us, for example, when we access your profile. In addition, the social network may allow us to contact you. The content communication via the social network and the processing of the content data is thereby subject to the responsibility of the social network. As soon as we transfer personal data into our own system, we are responsible for this independently. This is then done in order to carry out pre-contractual measures and to fulfil a contract. For the legal basis of the data processing carried out by the social networks under their own responsibility, please refer to their data protection declarations. Below is a list of social networks on which we operate an online presence:

 

11 YouTube

Our website uses the video service YouTube, which is offered to persons from Switzerland and the European Economic Area by Google Ireland Limited, Google Building Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 4, D04 V4X7, Ireland. When visiting a page of our website with an embedded YouTube video, your browser connects to YouTube’s servers, which results in the transfer of your personal data – e.g. IP address, technical information about your browser type and operating system, activities you perform on our webpage – to YouTube, which may also be located in the USA, whether you have a YouTube account or not. Furthermore, YouTube is also able to track your behaviour once you start watching the videos. If you watch YouTube videos on our website while you are logged into your YouTube profile, your behaviour when watching our embedded YouTube video can also be linked to your YouTube account. If you do not wish this to be associated with your YouTube profile, you must log out of YouTube before accessing our corresponding website.

We use YouTube in the expanded data protection mode. According to YouTube, this mode ensures that YouTube does not store any information about visitors to this website before they watch the video. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that the sharing of data with YouTube partners can be ruled out as a result of the expanded data protection mode. For instance, regardless of whether you are watching a video, YouTube will always establish a connection with the Google DoubleClick network.

For more information, please see Google’s privacy policy.

 

12 Microsoft Teams

We use “Teams” to conduct online meetings. Teams is a software from Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland (“Microsoft”). The legal basis for the processing of data to conduct meetings via Teams is our legitimate interest in the effective and simple conduct of online meetings, discussion rounds and presentations. Also, we conduct this data processing on a contractual basis insofar as the meetings are held within the framework of existing contractual relationships with you. We are not responsible for any further data processing on the Teams product website, where the desktop software can be downloaded and the web app can be used.
During a meeting, participant details (e.g. display name, first name, last name, phone), metadata (e.g. meeting topic and description, IP address, time of participant’s last activity on Teams) chat or channel massages, microphone and video recording data and phone use may be processed under certain circumstances. You can deactivate the transmission via microphone and camera at any time via the corresponding settings. We only record meetings or log text data with your consent and prior notification. Microsoft stores and uses the metadata to enable us to analyse and report on the use of Teams. Microsoft may become aware of the above data as part of its contract with us. You can find more information in Microsoft’s data protection policy under https://privacy.microsoft.com/de-de/privacystatement.

 

13 Zoom

We use Zoom to conduct online meetings. Zoom is a software from Zoom Video Communications, Inc, 55 Almaden Blvd, Suite 600 San Jose, CA 95113 (“Zoom”). The legal basis for the processing of data to conduct meetings via Zoom is our legitimate interest in the effective and simple conduct of online meetings, discussion rounds and presentations. Also, we conduct this data processing on a contractual basis insofar as the meetings are held within the framework of existing contractual relationships with you. We are not responsible for any further data processing on the Zoom product website, where the desktop software can be downloaded and the web app can be used.
During a meeting, the data processed includes participants’ identification (e.g. name, display name, picture, email address, phone number, job information, stated locale, voice, image, user ID and other information provided by the user), preferences and settings (e.g. audio and video settings, recording file location, screen sharing settings), device information (e.g. information about speakers, microphone, camera, OS version, hard disk ID, PC name, MAC address, IP address, operating system and battery level, WiFi information), content generated in Zoom Meetings (e.g. audio, video, in-meeting messages and whiteboards, responses to polls and Q&A, files as well as related context, such as invitation details and meeting/chat name and meeting agenda) and participants’ interaction with Zoom (e.g. time when participant join/leaves the meeting, performance data, tracking data, such mouse movements, clicks and other actions taken during the meeting).
You can deactivate the transmission via microphone and camera at any time via the corresponding settings. We only record meetings or log text data with your consent and prior notification.

For more information, please see Zoom’s privacy policy.

 

14 Google Meet

We use Google Meet to conduct online meetings. Google Meet is a software which is offered to persons from Switzerland and the European Economic Area by Google Ireland Limited, Google Building Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 4, D04 V4X7, Ireland. The legal basis for the processing of data to conduct meetings via Google Meet is our legitimate interest in the effective and simple conduct of online meetings, discussion rounds and presentations. Also, we conduct this data processing on a contractual basis insofar as the meetings are held within the framework of existing contractual relationships with you. We are not responsible for any further data processing on the Google Meet product website, where the desktop software can be downloaded and the web app can be used.
During a meeting, the data processed includes participants’ identification (e.g. name, display name, picture, email address, phone number, voice, image, user ID and other information provided by the user), preferences and settings (e.g. audio and video settings, screen sharing settings), device information (e.g. information about speakers, microphone, camera, OS version, hard disk ID, PC name, MAC address, IP address), content generated in Google Meet Meetings (e.g. audio, video, in-meeting messages as well as related context, such as invitation details and meeting name) and participants’ interaction with Google Meet (e.g. time when participant join/leaves the meeting, as well as duration of their stay in the call).
You can deactivate the transmission via microphone and camera at any time via the corresponding settings. We only record meetings or log text data with your consent and prior notification.

For more information, please see Google’s privacy policy.

 

15 Changes to this privacy policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We, therefore, encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.
Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

 

16 Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to get in touch with us at: privacy@certifaction.com.