Swiss Arbitration Privacy Policy

As of May 2021

This privacy policy describes how the Swiss Arbitration Association (“ASA”) and the Swiss Arbitration Centre Ltd. (the “Centre”; ASA and the Centre together “we”) collect, use and share your personal data when you use our website, www.swissarbitration.org, apps for mobile online platforms (hereinafter referred to collectively as “our website and apps”) and sign up physically through registration at events. The term “personal data” refers to information relating to an identified or identifiable person.

Data Controller and Contact Address

1. ASA is the data controller of the processing activities described in this privacy policy unless another person is expressly stated to be the controller or another controller is identified based on a case-by-case assessment, namely the Centre.
2. ASA may be contacted at the following address:

Swiss Arbitration Association (“ASA”)
Boulevard du Théâtre 4
1204 Geneva
Tel.: +41 22 310 74 30
Fax: +41 22 310 37 31
E-Mail: asa@swissarbitration.org

Type of Personal Data Collected and Data Sources

1. 1. We collect personal data you provide to us when you use our website and apps, sign up for our newsletters, register for or attend our events, become a member of ASA or maintain such membership. We collect data on subscribers’ interactions with our newsletters, including which links subscribers click and whether they have opened the e-mail. In some cases, we may retrieve personal data from publically available sources (e.g. from social media, your employer’s website or the internet).
   2. In particular, we may collect and process the following categories of personal data:
      • Personal data and contact information, such as name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, country, date of birth, gender, employer and employer contact information, qualifications, job, pictures, etc.;
      • Data pertaining to memberships, subscriptions, purchases and events you attend, such as membership details, subscription to newsletters (opt-ins and opt-outs), payment information, billing and shipping address, products and services ordered and purchased, invitations to and participations at events and special activities, personal preferences and interests, information connected to queries, complaints and disagreements relating to products and services or respective contracts entered into, etc.;
      • Data concerning the use of our website and apps, such as the IP address and other identification (e.g. user name of social media, MAC address of smartphones or computers, cookies), date and time of visits, visited sites and contents, referring websites, etc.;
      • Data in connection with communication, such as preferred means of communication, correspondence and communication (including records of the communication), etc.

Purposes and Legal Basis of Data Processing

1. 1. 1. We process personal data for the following purposes, to the extent permitted by applicable law:
         • Commencing, concluding, performing, and processing memberships and other contracts with us, organizing events, sending invitations;
         • Maintaining, managing, and developing our member and user relationships, communicating with members, users and third parties, providing service and support to members, users and third parties, promoting, advertising and marketing, creating user profiles, offering customized services and relevant content, sending newsletters;
         • Offering, enhancing, and improving our services and offerings, developing new services and offerings, operating, maintaining, optimizing, and ensuring the security of our services, offerings and infrastructure;
         • Complying with legal and regulatory obligations and internal rules, law enforcement, civil, administrative, and criminal proceedings, complaints, fighting abuse, investigations and answering inquiries from government agencies and official bodies.
      2. In addition, we can also process personal data for additional purposes insofar as a legal obligation requires the processing or we provide information about the processing elsewhere or the processing was obvious from the circumstances at the time the data was collected.
      3. We use the personal data for the purposes listed above based on the following legal grounds, if and insofar as any such is required under applicable data protection law:
         • To fulfil our contractual or legal obligations;
         • Where there are legitimate interests of us or of third parties or to protect legitimate public interests; or
         • If you have given us your consent for certain processing purposes, such consent will form the legal basis for the processing.

Member Profiles

By providing any information as part of a profile meant to be published on our websites and/or apps, you expressly consent that such information is intended for broad public dissemination.

Duration of Data Storage

We store personal data as long as this is necessary for the purpose for which we have collected such data. Specific personal data is also subject to legally binding retention obligations of ten or more years, which we comply with. We can also store personal data for at least the term of the applicable limitation periods, which in many cases are five or ten years. We generally delete personal data that accrues in connection with the use of our website and apps (e.g., logs, analyses, etc.) and that are not subject to any such retention or limitation periods earlier, as soon as we no longer have any interest in the processing.

Disclosure of Personal Data

1. 1. 1. 1. We may share some or all of the personal data collected through our websites or  apps with our subcontractors, who use this data in accordance with this privacy policy to achieve the purposes for which you delivered to us such personal data.
         2. In addition, there may be other circumstances in which we may share or transfer the personal data in our databases. For example, when you sign up for the publication of a member profile, we may publish such profile to the public. When we organize events, we may share your personal data with third parties with whom we collaborate in order to organize such event, and with speakers, attendees and other third parties. In addition, we may have to disclose personal data to authorities in order to comply with legal requirements, to protect our legitimate interests, or for the administration of justice. We may further share personal data with third parties in the event of a reorganisation, dissolution, or similar event.

Export of Personal Data

1. 1. 1. 1. We may transfer personal data to any country in the world, including to jurisdictions in the European Union or the European Economic Area, and to those countries where our data processors process personal data.
         2. If personal data that is not otherwise public is transferred to a country without adequate data protection provisions, we will ensure suitable data protection by deploying adequate contractual guarantees on the basis of EU standard contract clauses, binding corporate rules, or based on the exception of consent, of contract processing, of the determination, assertion or enforcement of legal claims, overriding public interests, or because the transfer is necessary to protect the physical integrity of a data subject. Where applicable data protection law so provides, you can obtain a copy of the contractual guarantees with regard to your personal data from the contact point mentioned at the beginning of this privacy policy, or you can find out where such a copy can be obtained. We reserve the right to redact such copies for reasons of data protection or for reasons of secrecy.

Cookies, etc.: Anonymous Data Collected Through Our Website and Apps

1. 1. 1. 1. In addition to the information you provide when you use our website and apps, we use cookies and similar technologies to collect anonymous information about the use of our website and apps. Cookies and similar technologies allow us to store information on your device or to access information stored on your device. This allows us to better understand user behavior, for example, to provide our services in a technically error-free, secure, user-friendly and demand-driven manner, to track how many visitors access our websites or apps, the date and time of their visit, the length of their stay, and which pages they view. We also determine which web browsers or mobile platforms our visitors use and the address from which they accessed our sites (for example, if they connected to our websites by clicking on an ad).
         2. Cookies and similar technologies generally do not provide personal data, only anonymous traffic data related to your device (e.g. your IP address) and statistical data (e.g. number and type of website visits). However, to the extent that the identifiers collected are classified as personal data by applicable law, we treat them as such. In addition, we can combine non-personal information collected using cookies and similar technologies with other personal information held by us. If we combine data in this way, we treat the combined data as personal data for the purposes of this privacy policy.
         3. You can block or delete cookies and similar technologies via the privacy settings of your browser and e-mail program, although deletion may affect your use of our services.

Your Rights

1. 1. 1. 1. You may, at any time, request to verify, access, rectify, delete your data and object to, restrict or revoke your consent to, the processing of your data. In certain cases, you may request to transfer your data in a common electronic format that allows further use and transmission. You might also withdraw consent of our using your data by clicking the unsubscribe button located at the bottom of the e-mails we send or by contacting us.
         2. To exercise your rights, send an email to the address indicated at the beginning of this privacy policy. We will then make every reasonable effort to take the necessary action as soon as possible.
         3. If you feel that your privacy rights have been violated, you may have a right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority, which is the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (http://www.edoeb.admin.ch).

Changes to this Policy

We are continually improving and adding new functionality and features to our website and apps as well as improving and adding to our existing products, services, and programs. Because of these ongoing changes, changes in the law and the changing nature of technology, our data practices will change from time to time without prior notice. If and when our data practices change, we will post the changes on its website to notify you of the changes. We encourage you to check the website frequently.