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Privacy Notice

What is this Privacy Notice about?

IPNFA (also “we“, “us“) necessarily collects and processes the data provided by you as part of its activities, as well as personal data that concern you. We use the word “data” here interchangeably with “personal data“. In doing so, we observe the provisions of the (current and) revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (“revDPA”), which is expected to enter into force on 1 September 2023, and the European Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR“). However, the application of these laws depends on each individual case. Regarding data processing and use of Cookies we refer to Section below.

2. Who is the Data Processing Controller?

The “Data Processing Controller” of the data processing as described in this Privacy Notice (i.e. the responsible person) is IPNFA, unless we have informed you otherwise in certain cases. You can notify us of any data protection-related concerns using the following contact details:
IPNFA
c/o Frits Westerholt
Hauptstrasse 81
CH-4702 Oensingen
Switzerland
E-Mail: secretary@ipnfa.org

3. What data do we process?

We process various categories of data about you. The main categories of data are the following:

  • Technical data: When you use our website or other online offerings (e.g. member area), we collect the IP address of your terminal device and other technical data in order to ensure the functionality and security of these offerings. This data includes logs with records of the use of our systems. We generally keep technical data for 6 months. In order to ensure the functionality of these offerings, we may also assign an individual code to you or your terminal device (for example as a cookie, see Section ). Technical data as such does not permit us to draw conclusions about your identity. However, technical data may be linked with other categories of data (and potentially with your person) in relation to user accounts.
  • Registration data: Certain services (such as login areas of our website) can only be used with a user account or registration. In this regard you must provide us with certain data, and we collect data about the use of the service. We generally keep registration data for 12 months from the date the use of the service ceases or the user account is closed.
  • Master data: With master data we mean the basic data that we need for the performance of our membership services, such as name and contact details, and information about, for example, your role and function and your date of birth. We process your master data if you are a member. We receive master data from you. We generally keep master data for [10] years from the last exchange between us or from the end of the membership.

Much of the data set out in this Section is provided to us by you (e.g. through e-mail, when you communicate with us, when you use the website, when register for the members area etc.). You are not obliged or required to disclose data to us. If you wish to gain access to the membership area, you must also provide us with registration data and master data.
Our processing includes the collection, storage, processing, and deletion of the data listed above. When you visit our website, technical usage data is processed, which may include information about the web pages visited, IP address, type and ID of the hardware used, language settings, information about data usage and storage, information about the operating system and browser used, and the date and duration of your visit to the website. When using our website, the processing of technical data cannot be avoided.

4. For what purposes do we process your data?

We process your data for purposes related to communication with you, in particular in relation to responding to inquiries and to enable us to contact you in case of queries and to enable you to use the members area. For this purpose, we use in particular registration data and master data in relation to services that you use. We keep this data to document our communication with you and for follow-up inquiries. . In addition, we may process technical usage data on our website to analyze it on an anonymized and aggregated basis for the ongoing optimization of our website.

5. On what basis do we process your data?

Where we ask for your consent for certain processing activities, we will inform you separately about the relevant processing purposes. You may withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by sending an e-mail to us; see our contact details in Section ). Where you have a user account, you may also withdraw consent or contact us also through the relevant website or other service, as applicable. Once we have received notification of withdrawal of consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose(s) you consented to, unless we have another legal basis to do so. Withdrawal of consent does not, however, affect the lawfulness of the processing based on the consent prior to withdrawal.
Where we do not ask for consent for processing, the processing of your personal data relies on our legitimate interest in the particular processing, in particular in pursuing the purposes and objectives set out in Section and in implementing related measures. Our legitimate interests also include compliance with legal regulations, insofar as this is not already recognized as a legal basis by applicable data protection law (for example in the case of the GDPR, the laws in the EEA and in the case of the DPA, Swiss law).

6. With whom do we share your data?

In relation to the website, our services, our legal obligations or otherwise with protecting our legitimate interests and the other purposes set out in Section, we may disclose your personal data to third parties, in particular to the following categories of recipients:

  • Service providers: We work with service providers in Switzerland and Germany who process your data who receive data about you from us as separate controllers (e.g. IT providers).
  • Authorities: We may disclose personal data to agencies, courts, and other authorities in Switzerland and abroad, if we are legally obliged or entitled to make such disclosures or if it appears necessary to protect our interests.

All these categories of recipients may involve third parties, so that your data may also be disclosed to them. We can restrict the processing by certain third parties (for example IT providers), but not by others (for example authorities).

7. Is your personal data disclosed abroad?

As explained in Section , we disclose data to other parties. These are not all located in Switzerland. Your data may therefore be processed in Europe.

8. How long do we process your data?

We process your data for as long as our processing purposes, the legal retention periods and our legitimate interests in documentation and keeping evidence require it or storage is a technical requirement. You will find further information on the respective storage and processing periods for the individual data categories in Section , and for cookies in Section . If there are no contrary legal or contractual obligations, we will delete or anonymize your data once the storage or processing period has expired as part of our usual processes.

9. How do we protect your data?

We take appropriate security measures in order to maintain the required security of your personal data and ensure its confidentiality, integrity, and availability, and to protect it against unauthorized or unlawful processing, and to mitigate the risk of loss, accidental alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access.

10. What are your rights?

Applicable data protection laws grant you the right to object to the processing of your data in some circumstances, in particular for direct marketing purposes, for profiling carried out for direct marketing purposes and for other legitimate interests in processing.
Our data processing is restricted to the purposes set out in Section above and does not include any of the purposes listed in this Section. However, to help you control the processing of your personal data, you have the following rights in relation to our data processing, depending on the applicable data protection law:

  • The right to request information from us as to whether and what data we process from you;
  • The right to have us correct data if it is inaccurate;
  • The right to request erasure of data;
  • The right to request that we provide certain personal data in a commonly used electronic format or transfer it to another controller;
  • The right to withdraw consent, where our processing is based on your consent;
  • The right to receive, upon request, further information that is helpful for the exercise of these rights;

If you wish to exercise the above-mentioned rights in relation to us, please contact us in writing, at our premises or, unless otherwise specified or agreed, by e-mail; you will find our contact details in Section . In order for us to be able to prevent misuse, we need to identify you (for example by means of a copy of your ID card, unless identification is not possible otherwise).
Please note that conditions, exceptions or restrictions apply to these rights under applicable data protection law (for example to protect third parties). We will inform you accordingly where applicable.
If you do not agree with the way we handle your rights or with our data protection practices, please let us (Section ) know. If you are located in the EEA, the United Kingdom or in Switzerland, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority in your country. You can find a list of authorities in the EEA here: https://edpb. europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en. You can reach the UK supervisory authority here: https://ico.org.uk/global /contact-us/. You can reach the Swiss supervisory authority here: https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb /en/home/the-fdpic/contact.html.

11. What about Third Party Websites?

Our website may contain links to third party websites, products, and services. Information collected by third parties, which may include location data or contact details, is governed by their privacy policies. We recommend that you to review the privacy policies of such third parties. This Privacy Notice does not apply to websites of third-party providers which can be accessed through our website. We have no influence on how these companies comply with data protection requirements.

12. Can we update this Privacy Notice?

This Privacy Notice is not part of a contract with you. We can change this Privacy Notice at any time. The version published on this website is the current version.

Last updated: 05.02.2025