Privacy Policy

The Swiss Society for the Common Good (SSCG) is committed to the social cohesion of society in Switzerland and promotes voluntary work in Switzerland.

With this Privacy Policy, we provide information on which personal data we process in connection with our activities and operations, including our website. In particular, we provide information on the purpose for which, how and where we process which personal data. We also provide information on the rights of persons whose data we process.

For individual or additional activities and operations, we may publish further information in connection with data protection.

We are subject to Swiss data protection law and any applicable foreign data protection law, in particular that of the European Union (EU) with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In its Decision of 26 July 2000, the European Commission recognised that Swiss data protection law guarantees adequate data protection. In its Report dated 15 January 2024, the European Commission confirmed this adequacy decision.

1. Contact addresses

Responsibility for the processing of personal data:

Swiss Society for the Common Good (SSCG)

Schaffhauserstrasse 7

8042 Zurich

Switzerland

info@sgg-ssup.ch

In individual cases, there may be other controllers for the processing of personal data or joint responsibility with at least one other controller.

Data protection representation in the European Economic Area (EEA)

We have the following data protection representative in accordance with Art. 27 GDPR:

VGS Datenschutz­partner GmbH

Am Kaiserkai 69

20457 Hamburg

Germany

info@datenschutzpartner.eu

The data protection representative serves as an additional point of contact for data subjects and authorities in the European Union (EU) and the rest of the European Economic Area (EEA) for enquiries in connection with the GDPR.

2. Terms and legal bases

2.1 Definitions

Personal data is all information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.

Sensitive personal data includes data on trade union, political, religious or ideological views and activities, data on health, privacy or ethnic or racial affiliation, genetic data, biometric data that uniquely identifies a natural person, data on criminal or administrative sanctions or prosecutions, and data on social assistance measures.

Processing includes any handling of personal data, irrespective of the means and procedures used, such as querying, comparing, adapting, archiving, retaining, retrieving, disclosing, procuring, recording, collecting, deleting, announcing, organising, storing, modifying, disseminating, linking, destroying and using personal data.

A data subject is a natural person about whom we process personal data.

The European Economic Area (EEA) comprises the Member States of the European Union (EU) plus the Principality of Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) refers to the processing of personal data as processing of personal data and the processing of sensitive personal data as processing of special categories of personal data (Art. 9 GDPR).

2.2 Legal basis

We process personal data in accordance with Swiss data protection law, in particular the Federal Act on Data Protection (Data Protection Act, FADP) and the Ordinance on Data Protection (Data Protection Ordinance, DPO).

If and insofar as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is applicable, we process personal data in accordance with at least one of the following legal bases:

  • Article 6(1(b) of the GDPR for the processing of personal data necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and for the implementation of pre-contractual measures.
  • Article 6(1) (f) GDPR for the processing of personal data necessary to safeguard the legitimate interests of us or of third parties, unless such interests are overridden by the fundamental rights and freedoms and interests of the data subject. Legitimate interests include, in particular, our interest to be able to carry out our activities and operations permanently, in a user-friendly, secure and reliable manner and to be able to communicate about them, to guarantee information security, to protect against misuse, to enforce our own legal claims and to comply with Swiss law.
  • Article 6(1)(c) GDPR for the processing of personal data necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject under any applicable law of Member States of the European Economic Area (EEA).
  • Article 6(1)(e) GDPR for the processing of personal data necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.
  • Article 6(1)(a) GDPR for the processing of personal data with the consent of the data subject.
  • Article 6(1) (d) GDPR for the processing of personal data necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person.

3. Nature, scope and purpose

We process personal data that is necessary in order to be able to carry out our activities and operations on a permanent, user-friendly, secure and reliable basis. Such personal data may in particular fall into the categories of inventory and contact data, browser and device data, financial and payment data, content data, meta and usage data, media data, member data, location data, sales data and contract data.

We also process sensitive personal data for certain activities and operations. These include our individual assistance and project funding, the Job Caddie mentoring programme and the Think + Do Tank Pro Futuris.

We process personal data for the duration required for the respective purpose(s) or by law. Personal data that no longer needs to be processed is anonymised or deleted.

We may have personal data processed by third parties. We may process personal data together with third parties or transfer it to third parties. Such third parties are, in particular, specialist providers whose services we use, authorities, including police authorities in connection with our events, in particular the Federal celebration on the Rütliwiese, and partners for our activities and operations. We also guarantee that such third parties adhere to our Privacy Policy.

We process personal data in principle only with the consent of the data subjects. If and insofar as processing is permitted for other legal reasons, we may refrain from obtaining consent. For example, we may process personal data without consent in order to fulfil a contract, to comply with legal obligations or to safeguard overriding interests.

We also process personal data that we receive from third parties, obtain from publicly accessible sources or collect in the course of carrying out our activities and operations, if and insofar as such processing is permitted for legal reasons.

4. Communication

We process personal data in order to be able to communicate with third parties. In this context, we process in particular data that a data subject transmits when contacting us, for example by post or e-mail. We may store such data in an address book or with similar tools.

Third parties who transmit data about other persons are obliged to guarantee data protection vis-à-vis such data subjects. For this purpose, the accuracy of the personal data transmitted must be ensured, among other things.

5. Applications

We process personal data about applicants insofar as this is necessary for assessing suitability for an employment relationship or for the subsequent performance of an employment contract. The required personal data results in particular from the information requested, for example in the context of a job advertisement. We may publish job advertisements with the help of suitable third parties, for example in electronic and printed media or on job portals and job platforms.

We also process personal data that applicants voluntarily disclose or publish, in particular as part of cover letters, CVs and other application documents as well as online profiles.

We process – if and insofar as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is applicable – personal data about applicants, in particular in accordance with Art. 9( 2)( b) GDPR.

6. Data security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of data security which is appropriate to the respective risk. With our measures, we guarantee in particular the confidentiality, availability, traceability and integrity of the personal data processed, but without being able to guarantee absolute data security.

Our website and other elements of our online presence are accessed using transport encryption (SSL /TLS, in particular with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, abbreviated to HTTPS). Most browsers warn against visiting websites without transport encryption.

Like in principle all digital communications , our digital communications are subject to mass surveillance without cause or suspicion by security authorities in Switzerland, the rest of Europe, the United States of America (USA) and other countries. We have no direct influence on the corresponding processing of personal data by secret services, police agencies and other security authorities. Nor can we rule out the possibility that individual data subjects will be monitored in a targeted manner.

7. Personal data abroad

We process personal data in principle in Switzerland and the European Economic Area (EEA). However, we may also export or transfer personal data to other countries, in particular to process or have it processed there.

We may export personal data to all countries and territories on earth, provided that local law guarantees appropriate data protection in accordance with the decree of the Swiss Federal Council and – to the extent that and insofar as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is applicable – in accordance with the decision of the European Commission.

We may transfer personal data to countries whose laws do not guarantee adequate data protection if data protection is guaranteed for other reasons, in particular on the basis of standard data protection clauses or with other suitable guarantees. In exceptional cases, we may export personal data to countries without adequate or suitable data protection if the special data protection requirements are met, such as the express consent of the data subjects or a direct connection with the conclusion or performance of a contract. On request, we will be happy to provide data subjects with information about any guarantees or provide a copy of any guarantees.

8. Rights of data subjects

8.1 Data protection entitlements

We grant data subjects all claims in accordance with the applicable data protection law. Data subjects have the following rights in particular:

  • Information: Data subjects can request information as to whether we process personal data about them and, if so, which personal data it concerns. Data subjects also receive the information necessary to assert their rights under data protection law and to ensure transparency. This includes the personal data processed as such, but also information on the purpose of processing, the retention period, any disclosure or export of data to other countries and the origin of the personal data.
  • Rectification and restriction: Data subjects can rectify inaccurate personal data, complete incomplete data and have restrictions imposed on processing their data.
  • Erasure and objection: Data subjects can have personal data erased (“right to be forgotten”) and object to the processing of their data with effect for the future.
  • Surrender and transfer of data: Data subjects may request the surrender of personal data or the transfer of their data to another controller.

We may postpone, restrict or refuse the exercise of the rights of data subjects to the extent permitted by law. We can inform data subjects of any requirements that must be met in order to exercise their rights under data protection law. For example, we may refuse to provide information in whole or in part with reference to trade secrets or the protection of other persons. For example, we may also refuse to delete personal data in whole or in part with reference to statutory retention obligations.

We may impose costs for exercising rights by way of exception. We will inform data subjects in advance of any costs.

We are obliged to take appropriate measures to identify data subjects who request information or assert other rights. Data subjects are obliged to cooperate.

8.2 Legal protection

Data subjects have the right to assert their data protection rights through legal means or to notify or lodge a complaint with a competent data protection supervisory authority.

The data protection supervisory authority for complaints by data subjects against private controllers and federal bodies in Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

European data protection supervisory authorities for complaints from data subjects – if and insofar as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is applicable – are organised as members of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB). In some Member States of the European Economic Area (EEA), data protection supervisory authorities are federally structured, particularly in Germany.

9. Use of the website

9.1 Cookies

We may use cookies. Cookies – our own cookies (first-party cookies) as well as cookies from third parties whose services we use (third-party cookies) – are data that is stored in the browser. Such stored data need not be limited to traditional cookies in text form.

Cookies can be stored in the browser temporarily as session cookies or for a certain period of time as persistent cookies. Session cookies are automatically deleted when the browser is closed. Persistent cookies have a specific storage period. In particular, cookies make it possible to recognise a browser the next time you visit our website and thus, for example, to measure the reach of our website. However, persistent cookies can also be used for online marketing, for example.

Cookies can be disabled or deleted in whole or in part at any time in the browser settings. Without cookies, our website may no longer be fully available. We actively request – at least if and to the extent necessary – your express consent to the use of cookies.

In the case of cookies used to measure success and reach or for advertising, a general opt-out is possible for many services via AdChoices (Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada), the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), YourAdChoices (Digital Advertising Alliance) or Your Online Choices (European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance, EDAA).

9.2 Logging

For every visit to our website and our other online presence, we may log at least the following information, insofar as it is transmitted to our digital infrastructure during such visits: date and time including time zone, IP address, access status (HTTP status code), operating system including user interface and version, browser including language and version, individual sub-page of our website accessed including amount of data transferred, last website accessed in the same browser window (referrer).

We record such information, which may also display personal data, in log files. The information is required in order to be able to provide our online presence permanently, in a user-friendly and reliable manner. The information is also required to ensure data security – including by or with the help of third parties.

9.3 Tracking pixels

We may incorporate tracking pixels into our online presence. Tracking pixels are also referred to as web beacons. Tracking pixels – including those from third parties whose services we use – are usually small, invisible images or scripts formulated in JavaScript that are automatically retrieved when accessing our online presence. Tracking pixels can record at least the same information as in log files.

10. Notifications and messages

We send notifications and messages via e-mail and other communication channels such as instant messaging or SMS.

10.1 Measurement of success and reach

Notifications and messages may contain web links or tracking pixels that record whether an individual message has been opened and which web links were clicked on in the process. Such web links and tracking pixels may also record the use of notifications and messages on a personal basis. We need this statistical recording of usage to measure success and reach, in order to be able to send notifications and messages in an effective and user-friendly manner, as well as permanently, securely and reliably, based on the needs and reading habits of the recipients.

10.2 Consent and objection

You must in principle consent to the use of your e-mail address and other contact addresses, unless the use is permitted for other legal reasons. We can use the “double opt-in” procedure to obtain consent that has been confirmed twice. In this case, you will receive a message with instructions for duplicate confirmation. We may log consents obtained including IP address and time stamp for evidentiary and security purposes.

You can in principle object to receiving notifications and messages such as newsletters at any time. With such an objection, you can at the same time object to the statistical recording of usage for the purpose of measuring success and reach. The foregoing is without prejudice to any notifications and messages required in connection with our activities and operations.

10.3 Service providers for notifications and messages

We send notifications and messages with the help of specialised service providers.

In particular, we use:

  • Campaign Monitor: E-mail marketing platform; provider: Marigold Group (UK, USA etc.); data protection information: “Privacy”, Privacy Policy.
  • SendGrid: Platform for transactional e-mails (“sending e-mails is very easy”); providers: Twilio Inc. (USA) / Twilio Ireland Limited (Ireland); data protection information: Privacy Policy.

11. Social media

We are present on social media platforms and other online platforms in order to be able to communicate with interested parties and to provide information about our activities and operations. In connection with such platforms, personal data may also be processed outside Switzerland and the European Economic Area (EEA).

The General Terms and Conditions (GTC) and Terms of Use as well as the privacy policies and other provisions of the individual operators of such platforms also apply. These provisions provide information in particular on the rights of data subjects directly vis-à-vis the respective platform, which includes, for example, the right to information.

12. Third-party services

We use the services of specialist third parties in order to be able to carry out our activities and operations permanently, in a user-friendly, secure and reliable manner. With such services, we can, among other things, embed functions and content into our website. In the case of such embedding, the services used record the IP addresses of the users at least temporarily for technical reasons.

For necessary security-relevant, statistical and technical purposes, third parties whose services we use may process data in connection with our activities and operations in an aggregated, anonymised or pseudonymised form. This includes, for example, performance or usage data in order to be able to offer the respective service.

In particular, we use:

12.1 Digital infrastructure

We use the services of specialist third parties in order to be able to make use of the required digital infrastructure in connection with our activities and operations. These include, for example, hosting and storage services from selected providers.

In particular, we use:

  • Fastly: Edge cloud platform, in particular Content Delivery Network (CDN); provider: Fastly Inc. (USA); data protection information: Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy.
  • Sirv: Hosting and optimisation of images; provider: SIRV LIMITED (United Kingdom); data protection information: Privacy Policy.
  • WP Engine: WordPress hosting; provider: WPEngine Inc. (USA); data protection information: Privacy Policy.

12.2 Map material

We use third-party services to embed maps on our website.

In particular, we use:

12.3 Digital audio and video content

We use services from specialist third parties to enable the direct playback of digital audio and video content such as music or podcasts.

In particular, we use:

12.4 Fonts

We use third-party services to embed selected fonts as well as icons, logos and symbols into our website.

In particular, we use:

12.5 Advertising

We use the option of displaying third-party advertising such as social media platforms and search engines for our activities and operations in a targeted manner.

In particular, we want to use this type of advertising to reach people who are already or might be interested in our activities and operations (Remarketing and Targeting). For this purpose, we may transmit the relevant – possibly also personal – information to third parties that enable such advertising. We can also determine whether our advertising is successful, i.e. in particular whether it leads to visits to our website (conversion tracking).

Third parties with whom we advertise and with whom you are logged in as a user may possibly assign the use of our website to your profile there.

In particular, we use:

13. Enhancements for the website

We use enhancements for our website in order to be able to use additional functions. We may use selected services from suitable providers or use such extensions on our own digital infrastructure.

In particular, we use:

  • Google reCAPTCHA: Spam protection (distinguishing between desirable content from humans and unwanted content from bots and spam); provider: Google; Google reCAPTCHA-specific information: “What is reCAPTCHA?”.

14. Measurement of success and reach

We try to determine how our online offering is used. In this context, we may, for example, measure the success and reach of our activities and operations as well as the impact of third-party links to our website. However, we can also, for example, try out and compare how different parts or versions of our online offering are used (“A/B test” method). Based on the results of the measurement of success and reach, we can in particular correct errors, strengthen popular content or make improvements to our online offering.

In most cases, the IP addresses of individual users are stored to measure success and reach. In this case, IP addresses are in principle truncated (“IP masking”) in order to comply with the principle of data minimisation through the corresponding pseudonymisation.

Cookies may be used to measure success and reach and user profiles may be created. Any user profiles created include, for example, the individual pages visited or content viewed on our website, information on the size of the screen or browser window and the – at least approximate – location. As a general rule, any user profiles are created exclusively in pseudonymised form and are not used to identify individual users. Individual third-party services to which users are logged in may assign the use of our online offering to the user account or user profile for the respective service.

In particular, we use:

15. Final provisions

We may amend and supplement this Privacy Policy at any time. We will provide information about such amendments and supplements in an appropriate form, in particular by publishing the current Privacy Policy on our website.