Zühlke makes a Zühlke Group website and blog (collectively referred to as the ‘website’) available via the web address https://www.zuehlke.com. The purpose of the website, in particular, is to provide information about Zühlke’s products and services and about Zühlke as an employer. Interested parties also have the opportunity to contact Zühlke. Furthermore, it is possible to interact with external parties via other channels, whether via events, social media or as part of contractual relationships or in the steps leading up to creating a contractual relationship.
In this privacy policy, we, the companies of the Zühlke Group (hereinafter collectively referred to as ‘Zühlke’, ‘we’ or ‘us’), explain how we collect and process your personal data. Personal data is any data that concerns you personally, e.g. your name, address, email addresses, user behaviour. This privacy policy is not exhaustive; if necessary, other privacy policies, such as the privacy policy for our employees, or general terms and conditions, contracts, terms and conditions of participation and similar documents, govern specific matters.
This privacy policy was compiled on the basis of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the FADP (Switzerland), taking into account data protection laws that apply locally where our company headquarters are located. For simplicity, we refer to GDPR provisions in some places. If your personal data is processed outside the scope of the GDPR, these references do not apply.
Zühlke is the controller responsible for processing your personal data. Within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable data protection laws, the controller responsible for processing your personal data is the Zühlke Group company that processes your personal data as part of its services or when communicating with you and that decides on the purposes and means of such data processing. The following companies are part of the Zühlke Group:
Zühlke has also appointed a data protection officer for the Zühlke Group. They can be contacted at dataprotection@zuehlke.com.
Zühlke processes your personal data for the following purposes:
Personal data may be provided by you on a voluntary basis or, in the case of usage data, collected automatically when the website is used.
Any use of cookies – or other tracking tools – by this website or third-party service providers used via this website is for the purpose of providing the service you have requested and for the purposes described in this policy.
The personal data that Zühlke processes independently or via third parties (more detailed information provided in Chapters VIII and IX) includes:
Full details on each type of personal data processed are provided below in this privacy policy or through explanatory texts (referred to as ‘disclaimers’ in emails and on forms) that are displayed at select points when the data is being collected.
If you have accepted the use of cookies via the cookie banner (see Section VI of this privacy policy and our cookie policy), the browser used on your device will automatically send information to our website server when you visit our website. This information is temporarily stored in what is known as a ‘log file’. The following information is collected without any intervention by you and is stored until it is automatically erased:
The data mentioned is processed by us for the following purposes:
We process this data based on your consent (Art. 6(1a) GDPR, where the GDPR applies) with regard to the data collection purposes listed above. Under no circumstances do we draw conclusions about you personally from the data that has been collected.
If you have any questions, we give you the opportunity to contact us via a contact form provided on the website. It is necessary for you to provide your name, contact details (last name, first name and email address) and a message so we can respond to these questions. Mandatory fields are marked as such. Sending further information is optional. The subsequent processing of your personal data is based on the legal basis of your consent (Art. 6(1a) GDPR, where the GDPR applies).
Zühlke gives you the option to access further information (e.g. white papers, etc.). To do so, you are required to complete a form, where we collect personal data such as your email address, first name and last name. Mandatory fields are marked as such. The legal basis for this data processing is your consent (Art. 6(1a) GDPR, where the GDPR applies) and our legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6(1f) GDPR (where the GDPR applies).
The following data is collected, as a minimum, in order to provide the requested service: email address, type of service requested (e.g. white paper). The services are only initiated after completion of a DOI procedure (double opt-in procedure). This means that we will send an email to the email address you have provided. We ask you to confirm that this is the correct email address and that you have actually requested our service. In addition to the email address you have provided, we also save your IP address, the time of your registration and your confirmation for the purpose of providing evidence of your registration and to prevent any misuse of your personal data.
If you would like more detailed information regarding this process, you can contact the controller (see Section II).
You can also subscribe to our newsletter on our website. We use this newsletter to inform you about our new offerings that may be of interest. To subscribe to the newsletter, you must provide us with your email address.
Newsletter subscription then takes place via the ‘double opt-in procedure’. This means that we will send an email to the email address you have provided after you have subscribed. We ask you to confirm that this is the correct email address and that you actually want to subscribe to our newsletter. If you do not confirm this subscription, the information you have provided will be made unavailable and automatically erased after one month. In addition to the email address you have provided, we also save your IP address, the time of your registration and your confirmation for the purpose of providing evidence of your registration and to prevent any misuse of your personal data.
The legal basis for processing is your consent in accordance with Art. 6(1a) GDPR, where the GDPR applies. You can withdraw this consent at any time with effect for the future by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the newsletters sent to you.
You will find an overview of the events/courses/events we are planning in the near future on our website (Eventhub or Academy website). You can register for these events/courses via the contact form. Mandatory fields are marked as such. Where the provision of personal data is explicitly marked as voluntary on the registration form, you can decide whether or not you wish to provide this data. This decision has no impact on your registration and participation in the event/course.
The following data is collected as a minimum in order to provide the requested service: email address, last name, first name, title, type of service required (e.g. registration for an event/course) and a billing address for courses. In addition to the data listed above, we also store your IP address and the time of your registration as well as your confirmation. This is for the purpose of providing evidence of your registration and to prevent any misuse of your personal data.
The legal basis for processing is your consent (Art. 6(1a) GDPR, where the GDPR applies) or the fulfilment of a contract or the implementation of pre-contractual measures (Art. 6(1b) GDPR, where the GDPR applies).
We also process your data within the scope of our contractual agreements. This concerns master data (e.g. customer master data, such as names or addresses), contact details (e.g. email addresses, telephone numbers), content data (e.g. text input, etc.), contract data (e.g. subject of the contract, term), payment details (e.g. bank details, payment history), usage and metadata (e.g. in the context of evaluating and measuring the success of marketing measures). Data subjects are our customers, course participants, service providers, interested parties and their customers, users, website visitors or employees and third parties. The purpose of the processing is to provide contractual services, for billing and to provide customer services. The legal bases for processing are derived from Art. 6(1b) GDPR (pre-contractual measure/contractual fulfilment) and Art. 6(1f) GDPR (legitimate interest), where the GDPR applies. Data is only disclosed to external parties if this is necessary as part of a project/order and we are entitled to do so. For Academy courses, data will only be shared with third parties if you have registered for a certification course with an official certification provider. In this case, your last name, first name and email address and, for certification courses provided by the SAQ (Swiss Association for Quality), also your private address, hometown and date of birth, will be forwarded to the certification provider. In turn, they will process the data disclosed to us as part of an order where they act as instructed by the client and in accordance with the legal requirements for processing as a processor (Art. 28 GDPR, where the GDPR applies) and do not process the data for any purposes other than those specified in the order.
We erase personal data relating to Academy courses one year after the date on which you registered for a course, at the latest. Alternatively, such data is anonymised. Otherwise, the data is generally erased once guarantee obligations and comparable obligations have expired. The requirement to store data is reviewed at irregular intervals. If there are any legal archiving obligations, erasure takes place after such periods have passed.
We give you the opportunity to receive content and information from us as part of LinkedIn campaigns. In this context, we provide information about the processing of user data and refer to this privacy policy. By submitting the LinkedIn form, you are agreeing that the data you have publicly disclosed on the platform (LinkedIn) may be stored and processed by us. The processing of personal data is based on Art. 6(1a) GDPR (consent) and Art. 6(1f) GDPR (legitimate interest), where the GDPR applies. You can request access to data that has been processed from the controller and you can also request that the controller erases such data (see Chapter II).
We process personal data that arises through a personal exchange of contact details and at your request, provided that there is a specific interest in doing so. The processing is based on Art. 6(1a) GDPR (consent) and Art. 6(1f) GDPR (legitimate interest), where the GDPR applies. The processing of personal data can be revoked at any time.
We also process personal data in the application process. All rules regarding the processing of the personal data of applicants are described in the Data protection information for applicants and talent management at Zühlke Engineering AG.
If you give us your consent via a cookie banner, we typically use ‘cookies’ and similar technologies on our website that can be used to identify your browser or device.
A cookie is a small file that is sent to your computer or is automatically saved on your computer or mobile device by the web browser you use when you visit our website. This allows us to recognise you when you visit this website again, even if we do not know who you are. In addition to cookies that are only used during a session and are deleted after your visit to the website (‘session cookies’), cookies can also be used to save user settings and other information for a set period of time (e.g. two years; ‘permanent cookies’). However, you can change your browser settings so that it rejects cookies, only saves them for one session or otherwise deletes them well ahead of time.
You can find out more about our cookies, which cookies we use, what they are for and how you can manage them in our detailed cookie policy here.
We use ‘technically necessary cookies’ in some areas of our website. These file elements can be used to identify your computer as a technical unit during your visit to this website in order to allow you to use our site. Generally, however, you have the option to change your browser settings such that you are informed about cookies, so that you can enable or disable them, or delete cookies that are already present. Please use your browser’s help function to find out how to change these settings. You can also manage the cookies used on our website at any time via our cookie settings in the website footer. Please note that elements of our website may not work if you have disabled technically necessary cookies. Cookies do not allow a server to read private data from your computer or data saved by another server. They are not harmful to your computer and do not contain any viruses. We base the use of technically necessary cookies on Art. 6(1f) GDPR, where the GDPR applies; such processing is carried out to allow the website to function. It is therefore necessary to safeguard our legitimate interests.
We also use other cookies to understand how you use our site and to be able to provide you with interesting offerings. Such cookies are only used if you have previously given your consent (in accordance with Art. 6(1a) GDPR, where the GDPR applies) via our cookie banner. You can find detailed information about these optional cookies in our cookie policy.
You can exercise certain rights in relation to data concerning you that is processed by us. In particular, you have the following rights:
You can address all requests to exercise your rights to the controller directly (see Section II for contact details). Requests can be exercised free of charge; they will be processed by us as quickly as possible and within one month of receiving your request, at the latest.
Your personal data will always be processed where the headquarters of Zühlke companies are located. If third parties are involved in processing as auxiliary parties (processors), for example to process commercial administrative services and in connection with IT services (in particular within the Zühlke Group or in the case of external IT service providers), it is likely that processing will take place outside of Zühlke locations. This may be in Switzerland, the UK, the EU or in third countries.
Tools from third parties based in third countries, e.g. the USA, may be integrated into our website or to provide services. If these tools are enabled, your personal data may be shared with the servers of the companies in question. However, any personal data processed will be stored in a European cloud. We run checks on all auxiliary parties from a variety of different angles (data protection, data security, IT, legal) and conclude appropriate data protection contracts, including current EU standard contractual clauses, before we use third-party services.
If you would like more detailed information, you can contact the controller at any time (see Section II).
Personal data is processed and stored for as long as the purpose for which it was collected requires. As such, the following applies:
The privacy policy is currently valid as at 03/08/2023.
We will adapt this privacy policy to new or changing needs. You can access the current version on our website at any time by clicking on this link.