1. Introduction
Privacy Notice
1. Introduction
At Swiss Datacenter Efficiency Association (we, our or SDEA), we recognize the importance of your privacy and of transparency.
This privacy notice (Privacy Notice) describes how we process your personal data when you interact with us, our website accessible at sdea.ch, including its subdomain label.sdea.ch (the Website), and the services we provide (together with the provision of the Website, our Services). We may also have additional privacy notices that apply in specific circumstances.
By using our Services, or otherwise providing us your information, you expressly acknowledge that we may process your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Notice.
2. Who is responsible for the processing of your personal data
Swiss Datacenter Efficiency Association, c/o asut, Hirschengraben 8, 3011 Bern, Switzerland, is responsible for the processing, as controller, of your personal data. You will find our contact details below in section 10.
This Privacy Notice only applies to data processing undertaken by or on behalf of us. Whilst we may provide links to third party websites, contents, or services, we are not responsible for their policies in relation to personal data. In such circumstances, the collection and use of your personal data are governed by the privacy policy of those third party providers, which you should carefully review to learn more about their personal data processing practices.
3. How we collect your personal data
We collect the personal data you or our customers provide to us.
We collect the personal data that you provide to us when interacting with us and/or using our Services, for example when you use our Website, complete the certification process, or when you subscribe to our newsletter.
It is only mandatory that you complete the data fields identified as such. If one or more mandatory data fields are not completed, we will not be able to provide access to our Services. You are not required to complete the optional data fields to access our Services.
Certain personal data are also collected in an automated manner.
We also automatically collect personal data, including by means of tools, web forms, cookies, and other active elements, as further described in this Privacy Notice.
You may define certain authorizations relating to the automatic collection of your personal data when you configure your device or your internet browser according to available functionalities. For more detailed information, please see the cookie section below (section 10).
4. How we use your data
We process your personal data in accordance with applicable laws and only if we have a valid legal ground to do so.
We process your personal data in compliance with applicable law, in particular Swiss data protection laws and, to the extent they apply to us, other data protection legislations, such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), manually or automatically using computer tools.
This means that we will only process your information for certain reasons (see Section 7) where we have a legal basis to do so.
Additional Information on the "legal basis"
-
Contractual Necessity: the processing is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you or to take pre-contractual steps at your request. This is particularly the case when processing your personal data is strictly required to provide you with the Services. When the GDPR applies, Contractual Necessity is based on Article 6(1)(b) GDPR.
-
Legitimate Interest: the processing is necessary for the fulfillment of our legitimate interests, and only to the extent that your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms do not require us to refrain from processing. When the GDPR applies, Legitimate Interest is based on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.
-
Consent: we have obtained your prior consent in a clear and unambiguous manner. Consent given can be withdrawn at any time, but this does not affect data processed prior to withdrawal. When the GDPR applies, Consent is based on Article 6(1)(a) GDPR.
-
Legal Obligation: the processing is necessary to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations. When the GDPR applies, Legal Obligation is based on Article 6(1)(c) GDPR.
Additional Information on profiling and automated decisions
-
We do not process your personal data to create a profile about you (profiling) and do not make decisions exclusively on the basis of an automated processing which have legal effects on the data subjects or affect them significantly (automated individual decision).
5. Why we use your data
We process your personal data for the following reasons:
To provide our Services, operate the Website and for customer management purposes.
We mainly process your personal data to provide the Website and the Services, including for interacting with you, and for managing our certification scheme.
➢ Legal basis: Contractual Necessity, Legitimate Interests
Additional Information
-
Contacting you and responding to your queries. You have the option of contacting us via the Website or by email. In this context, we process the data which you provide to us (including your contact information and the subject-matter of the request). This data is used for the purpose of providing you with the requested information and services. The retention period depends on the reason for your request and its context.
-
Providing maintenance and support. We use data to maintain our Services, troubleshoot and diagnose problems, and to provide customer support services.
-
Managing our participants and suppliers. If you or your employer participate in our certification scheme, we process the personal data that is necessary for our participants or supplier management, as well as for the following other related purposed.
The personal data that we process in this context includes: (i) personal data about individuals with whom we interact, such as the name, title, position, company name, email and/or postal address and the professional fixed and/or mobile phone number; (ii) personal data relating to our interactions and the management of our certification scheme; (iii) any other information provided to us by you, your employer, or third parties.
Our basis for processing the data generally is our legitimate interests in delivering our Services to our participants and ensuring we maintain the reliability of our certification scheme.
The personal data which we must retain for record-keeping, tax or other legal obligations will, as a rule, be kept for the duration of the contractual relationship and thereafter for a period of 10 years (or such other retention period as applicable). Shorter retention periods apply for personal data which must not be retained for the above reasons.
For our legitimate business interests related to the provision of the Services, including to ensure the security of the Services, improve our Services, as well as for monitoring or statistical purposes.
We may also process your personal data for our legitimate business operations related to providing our Services, which include (i) ensuring that our Services are provided in an efficient and secure way (e.g. through internal analysis of the Services’ stability and security, updates and troubleshooting); (ii) protecting the security of our IT systems, architecture and networks; (iii) benefiting from cost-effective services (e.g. we may opt to use certain services offered by suppliers rather than undertaking the activity ourselves); (iv) improving and developing the Services (including monitoring the use of our Services, and for statistical purposes); and (v) achieving our corporate goals).
➢ Legal basis: Legitimate Interests, Consent
Additional Information
Additional information on the processing of your personal data for our legitimate business operations:
-
Ensuring that our Website is provided in an efficient and secure way. In addition to the personal data which you provide interacting with the Website (e.g. when you fill in forms ), we automatically collect technical information about your interactions with the Website, such as IP address, the content that was accessed, date and time of access, information about your web browser, your preferences, or other information related to your interaction with the Website, including your navigation details on the Website.
We process this data to establish a connection with your device over the internet, to identify you when you use the Website, control the use of the Website and for security purposes.
-
Protecting the security of our IT systems, architecture and networks. We use data to protect the security of our IT systems, architecture and networks, for instance to detect and disrupt the operation of malicious software by systematically scanning contents in an automated manner.
-
Personalizing and improving our Services. We may process your personal data, in particular data relating to your use of our Services and your preferences (e.g. the content you accessed, date and time of access and your preferences), for internal analysis and statistical purposes, in order to better understand the needs of our users, to optimize their experience by personalizing our Services, and in general to improve the ergonomics and functionality of our Services. You may object to such processing activities at any time (see section 11 below for additional information on your rights).
In connection with the Website, we use analytics tools provided by known market providers, such as Wix Analytics. The privacy policy of those service providers is applicable in this context. You will find information on Wix’s privacy practices here: Wix.com.
You will find additional information in Section 10 in relation to the use of cookies for this purpose, including on the duration for which data collected this way are stored. Data collected by other means is deleted or anonymized at the latest 7 days after its collection.
-
Data anonymization. We may combine your personal data with other information (aggregate) or erase any information that allows us to identify you (anonymize), so that it is no longer considered personal data under applicable data protection law, in which case this Privacy Notice will no longer apply and we may use such data for purposes not contemplated by this Privacy Notice (e.g. for benchmarking or analytics purposes, or to develop and market new services). You may object to the anonymization or aggregation of your personal data for this purpose at any time (see section 11 below for additional information on your rights).
To send you our newsletter and other advertising information.
If you subscribe to our newsletter, we will collect your contact details (name and email address) and use it to provide you with our newsletter. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter service at any time, in which case your contact details will be deleted.
➢ Legal basis: Consent
We also process the time of registration and your opt-in confirmation to demonstrate compliance. We also analyze your use of our newsletter, e.g., whether you have opened it or clicked on certain links, and process this data to optimize and improve our newsletter.
➢ Legal basis: Legal Obligation; Legitimate Interests
Independently from your subscription to our newsletter, we may contact you by email to inform you about our activities if you have previously subscribed for the use of our Services or registered to one of our events, if you have not objected to the corresponding use of your email address. You can object to the use of your email address for this purpose at any time by contacting us (see contact detail in section 12).
➢ Legal basis: Legitimate Interest
To comply with our other legal obligations or for other legitimate interests.
We may further process your personal data if we have a legal obligation to do so or for other legitimate interests. This will for instance be the case if we need to disclose certain information to public authorities or retain such information for tax or accounting purposes, or for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.
The personal data that we process for this purpose are those that we collected for one of the purposes indicated elsewhere in this section 5. We retain the personal data for the duration of the legal obligation imposed on us.
➢ Legal basis: Legal Obligations, Legitimate Interests
6. The circumstances in which we share your personal data with
third parties
We will only share your personal data with third parties if this is necessary for the operation of our Services, if there is a legal obligation or permission to do so, or if there is another valid reason to do so.
Additional Information
-
Our service providers. We may share your personal data with third parties in connection with the operation of the Services or our business operations and with subcontractors such as IT service providers, cloud service providers, database providers, automated marketing solutions providers and consultants.
-
Legal Obligation. We may also disclose your personal data where we have a legitimate interest in doing so, for example (i) to respond to a request from a judicial authority or in accordance with a legal obligation; (ii) to bring or defend against a claim or lawsuit; or (iii) in the context of restructuring, in particular if we transfer our assets to another company.
7. International Transfers
We store your personal data on servers located in Switzerland and/or the European Union.
In principle, we do not transfer your personal data to other countries or make it available there. However, in certain circumstances, in particular in connection with the operations of our subcontractors, your personal data may be made available to recipients located abroad (e.g., we use services of providers headquartered in the U.S and in Israel, from which locations some data may be available). In such cases, we will ensure that suitable safeguards are in place, in accordance with applicable data protection laws, for instance by relying on standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission.
If you transmit information and data to us, you are expressly deemed to consent to such data transfers. You may request additional information in this regard and obtain a copy of the relevant safeguards upon request by sending a request to the contact address indicated in section 12 below.
8. How long do we store your personal data
We will erase or anonymize your personal data as soon as it is no longer necessary for us to fulfill the purposes set out in section 5 of this Privacy Notice. This period varies, depending on the type of data concerned and the applicable legal requirements. More information on each type of processing can be found in section 5 above.
In view of the legal obligations incumbent upon us, certain information relating in particular to the contractual relationship must be retained for at least 10 years.
9. Security
We are committed to the security of your personal data, and have in place physical, administrative, and technical measures designed to keep secure your personal data and to prevent unauthorized access to it. We restrict access to your personal data to those persons who need to know it for the purpose described in this Privacy Notice. In addition, we use standard security protocols and mechanisms to exchange the transmission of sensitive data. When you enter sensitive information on our Website, we encrypt it using Transport Layer Security (TLS) technology.
Although we take appropriate steps to protect your personal data, no IT infrastructure is completely secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that data you provide to us is safe and protected from all unauthorized third-party access and theft. We waive any liability in this respect.
The internet is a global environment. As a result, by sending information to us electronically, such data may be transferred internationally over the internet depending upon your location. Internet is not a secure environment, and this Privacy Notice applies to our use of your personal data once it is under our control only. Given the inherent nature of the internet, all internet transmissions are done at your own risk.
If we have reasonable reasons to believe that your personal data have been acquired by an unauthorized person, and applicable law requires notification, we will promptly notify you of the breach by email (if we have it) and/or by any other channel of communication (including by posting a notice on the Website).
10. How we use cookies or other analytical tools
We and our third party service providers use cookies and other similar technologies (Cookies) in connection with our Website in order for us to provide our Services and ensure that it performs properly, to analyze our performance and to personalize your experience, some of which are capable of automatically processing data on your electronic device and/or of transferring personal data about you to us or third parties.
You can learn more about how we use Cookies and similar technologies and how you can exercise control over them in our Cookie Policy.
11. Your rights with regard to the processing of your personal data
You have the right to access your personal data we process and may request that they be removed, updated, or rectified.
Unless otherwise provided by law, you have the right to know whether we are processing your personal data. You may contact us to know the content of such personal data, to verify its accuracy, and to the extent permitted by law, to request that it be supplemented, updated, rectified, or erased. You also have the right to ask us to cease any specific processing of personal data that may have been obtained or processed in breach of applicable law, and you have the right to object to any processing of personal data for legitimate reasons.
If you request us to delete your personal data from our systems, we will do so unless we need to retain your data for legal or other legitimate reasons. Please note that any information that we have copied may remain in back-up storage for some period after your deletion request.
Where we rely on your consent to process your personal data, we will seek your freely given and specific consent by providing you with informed and unambiguous indications relating to your personal data. You may revoke at any time such consent (without such withdrawal affecting the lawfulness of processing made prior to).
The above does not restrict any other rights you might have pursuant to applicable data protection legislation under certain circumstances.
Additional Information
In particular, if the GDPR applies to the processing of your personal data you have the following rights under the GDPR if the respective requirements are met:
-
Right of access (Art. 15 GDPR) – you have the right to access and ask us for copies of your personal data.
-
Right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR) – you have the right to ask us to rectify personal data you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
-
Right to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR) – you have the right to ask us to erase your personal data in certain circumstances.
-
Right to restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR) – you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
-
Right to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR) – you have the right to ask that we transfer in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format the personal data you gave us to another organization, or to you, in certain circumstances.
-
Right to object to processing (Art. 21 GDPR) – you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data, which is based on our legitimate interests, in certain circumstances. In such case, we will no longer process the personal data unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing, which override your interests, rights, and freedoms or where the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
-
As a rule, you are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights and we will respond to your request within one month.
You will find further details of your rights in sections 4 and 5 of this Privacy Notice in connection with each processing activity we perform. If you want to exercise any of your rights, or want additional information about them, please contact us using the contact details listed below (see section 12).
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent authority.
If you are not satisfied with the way in which we process your personal data, you may lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement, in addition to the rights described above.
Although this is not required, we recommend that you contact us first, as we might be able to respond to your request directly.
12. Contact Us
If you believe your personal data has been used in a way that is not consistent with this Privacy Notice, or if you have any questions or queries regarding the collection or processing of your personal data, please contact us at communication@sdea.ch.
13. Update to this Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice may be subject to amendments. Any changes or additions to the processing of personal data as described in this Privacy Notice affecting you will be communicated to you through an appropriate channel, depending on how we normally communicate with you (including by email and/or via the Website, e.g., banners, pop-ups or other notification mechanisms). If you do not agree to the changes made, you must stop accessing and/or using the impacted Services.
Last updated: September 1, 2023