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PRIVACY POLICY

In this Privacy Policy, we, Queeramnesty Switzerland (hereinafter referred to as "we" or "us"), explain how we collect and process personal data. This is not an exhaustive description; other privacy policies or general terms and conditions, conditions of participation, and similar documents may regulate specific issues. Personal data is understood to mean all information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.

If you provide us with personal data of other individuals (e.g., family members, data of work colleagues), please ensure that these individuals are aware of this Privacy Policy and only provide us with their personal data if you are permitted to do so and if this personal data is correct.

This Privacy Policy is designed to comply with the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), the Swiss Data Protection Act ("DSG"), and the revised Swiss Data Protection Act ("revDSG"). A date, e.g., that comes into force on September 1, 2023, would be required here. Whether and to what extent these laws are applicable depends on the individual case.


1. Responsible Party

Amnesty International – Swiss Section, Speichergasse 33, 3001 Bern, is responsible for the data processing we carry out here. If you have any concerns regarding data protection, you can contact us at the following address.


2. Collection and Processing of Personal Data

We primarily process the personal data we receive from our customers and other business partners and other parties involved in our business relationships, or that we collect from their users when operating our websites, apps, and other applications.

Queeramnesty Switzerland reserves the right to obtain certain data from publicly accessible sources or receives such data from other companies, subcontractors, authorities, and other third parties.

In addition to the personal data that you provide to us directly, the categories of personal data that we receive about you from third parties may include information from public registers, information in connection with official and judicial proceedings, information in connection with your professional functions and activities (e.g., for business customers), information from correspondence and meetings with third parties, credit reports (insofar as we conduct business with you personally), information from people in your environment (family, advisors, legal representatives, etc.; so that we can conclude or process contracts with you or with your involvement, e.g., references, your address for deliveries, powers of attorney), information on compliance with legal requirements such as anti-money laundering and export restrictions, information from banks, insurance companies, sales and other contractual partners of ours regarding the use or provision of services by you (e.g., payments made, purchases made), information from the media and the Internet about you (insofar as this is appropriate in the specific case), information on your addresses and, if applicable, interests and other socio-demographic data (for Marketing), data related to the use of the website (e.g., IP address, MAC address of the smartphone or computer, information about your device and settings, cookies, date and time of visit, pages and content accessed, functions used, referring website, location information).

3. Purposes of Data Processing and Legal Basis

 

We primarily use the personal data we collect to conclude and process our contracts with our customers, members, supporters, and partners. If you work for such a customer or business partner, your personal data will also be collected and processed in this capacity. In addition, we process personal data, to the extent permitted and where we deem it appropriate, for the following purposes, in which we have a legitimate interest commensurate with the purpose:

  • Offering and further developing our offerings, services, websites, apps, and other platforms on which we are present; Communicating with third parties and processing their inquiries (e.g., applications, media inquiries)

  • Reviewing and optimizing needs analysis procedures for direct customer contact, as well as collecting personal data from publicly accessible sources for customer acquisition; Advertising and marketing (including organizing events), unless you have objected to the use of your data. If we send you advertising as an existing customer, you can object at any time; we will then place you on a block list to prevent further advertising mailings

  • Asserting legal claims and defending yourself in connection with legal disputes and official proceedings; Preventing and investigating criminal offenses and other misconduct (e.g., conducting internal investigations, data analyses to combat fraud)

  • Ensuring our operations, in particular IT, our websites, apps, and other platforms

  • Purchase and sale of business units, companies, or parts of companies, and other corporate transactions, including the associated transfer of personal data, as well as measures for business management and to comply with legal and regulatory obligations and internal regulations.

 

If you have given us your consent to process your personal data for specific purposes (for example, when you register to receive newsletters), we will process your personal data within the scope of and based on this consent, unless we have another legal basis and we require one. Consent given can be revoked at any time; however, this will not affect data processing that has already taken place. Cookies / Tracking and other technologies related to the use of our website We typically use "cookies" and similar technologies on our websites and apps that can be used to identify your browser or device. A cookie is a small file that is sent to your computer or automatically saved on your computer or mobile device by the web browser you use when you visit our website or install an app. When you return to this website or use our app, we can recognize you, even if we don't know who you are. In addition to cookies that are only used during a session and deleted after your website visit ("session cookies"), cookies can also be used to store user preferences and other information for a specific period of time (e.g., two years) ("permanent cookies"). However, you can set your browser to reject cookies, save them only for a session, or otherwise delete them earlier. Most browsers are preset to accept cookies. We use permanent cookies to save user preferences (e.g., language, auto-login) so that we can show you tailored offers and advertising (this information may be used by websites of other organizations; however, these organizations do not receive any information about who you are. They simply see that the same user is on their website who was on a particular page on our site). Certain cookies are set by us, and some are set by contractual partners with whom we work. If you block cookies, certain functionalities (such as language selection, shopping cart, ordering processes) may no longer work. We sometimes, and where permitted, include visible and invisible image elements in our newsletters and other marketing emails. By retrieving these from our servers, we can determine whether and when you opened the email so that we can tailor our offers to you.

By using our websites and apps, and by agreeing to receive newsletters and other marketing emails, you consent to the use of these technologies. If you do not wish to do so, you must configure your browser or email program accordingly, or uninstall the app if this cannot be adjusted via the settings.

Analysis
We sometimes use third-party services on our websites, which may be located in any country, with which we can measure and evaluate website usage. For this purpose, we also use permanent cookies placed by the service provider. If you have registered with the service provider yourself, the service provider will also know you. The processing of your personal data by the service provider is then the responsibility of the service provider in accordance with its privacy policy. The service provider only informs us how our respective website is used.

Social Media
We also use so-called plug-ins from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, or Instagram on our websites. This is visible to you in each case (typically via corresponding icons). We have configured these elements so that they are deactivated by default. If you activate them (by clicking), the operators of the respective social networks can register that you are on our website and where you are, and can use this information for their own purposes. Your personal data will then be processed under the responsibility of that operator in accordance with their privacy policy. We will not receive any information about you from them.

Data Sharing and Data Transfer Abroad
As part of our business activities and for the purposes set out in Section 3, we also disclose personal data to third parties, where permitted and deemed appropriate, because they process it for us.

Some of these recipients are located in Germany, but they may be located anywhere in the world. In particular, you must expect your data to be transferred to all countries in which Amnesty International is represented by group companies, branches, or other offices, as well as to other European countries and the USA where the service providers we use, such as Microsoft, are located.

If a recipient is located in a country without adequate legal data protection, we will contractually oblige the recipient to comply with the applicable data protection regulations (for this purpose, we use the revised standard contractual clauses of the European Commission, which are available here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj), unless the recipient is already subject to a legally recognized set of rules to ensure data protection and we cannot rely on an exception. An exception may apply, in particular, in legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases of overriding public interest or if the performance of a contract requires such disclosure, if you have consented, or if the data concerned has been made publicly available by you and whose processing you have not objected to.

4. Specific Areas


Membership and Donations


You can register as a member of Amnesty International and Amnesty Youth via our website and offline using forms to get involved in groups, networks, or other structures supporting Amnesty International projects. For the purpose of member registration, we process, in particular, your contact information, such as title, first name, last name, email address, postal address, as well as the selected payment method and the amount of the membership fee.

For the purpose of data collection, we sometimes work with external service providers.

If you donate to Amnesty International, your contact information (such as title, first name, last name, email address, date of birth, postal address, as well as the selected payment method and the amount of the donation) will be processed.

The processing of your data in the context of your membership (e.g., member registration, member administration, correspondence with members, membership fee management, invitations to association events, etc.) or donations is carried out, where the GDPR is applicable, on the basis of the legal basis of fulfilling a contract or implementing pre-contractual measures (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) or on the basis of our legitimate interest in processing personal data to fulfill the association's purpose.

Amnesty International offers the following payment options for donations and membership fees: SMS (with this payment method, we also process your telephone number, and billing is handled directly by your mobile provider), direct debit/debit card (LSV/DD), Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PostFinance Card, PostFinance E-Finance, PayPal, TWINT, and payment slip. Your data is transmitted encrypted. Amnesty International does not store any card data itself; your payment details are processed directly by an external partner certified by the credit card industry (PCI DSS). The data protection regulations of the respective partner apply.

Donations to Amnesty International are deductible from taxable income. If you provide us with your mailing address, you will receive a donation receipt from us in February. Further details on tax deductions (direct federal, cantonal, and municipal taxes) can be found here at zewo.ch.

The personal data we receive from you as part of your registration or donation will be stored by us for as long as necessary for member support, processing your donation, or fulfilling other legal obligations.

We periodically inform our members, donors, and interested parties about current topics, activities, fundraising campaigns, and other offerings from Amnesty International. We will contact you by mail, phone, or email. If you do not wish to receive information from us, you can unsubscribe using the link provided in the email or notify us at any time by sending a message to datenschutz@amnesty.ch, stating the exact contact information you wish to exclude (mailing address, phone, etc.). If you purchase a membership as a gift for another person, we will process your information as well as the recipient's contact details as listed above.

Appeals, petitions, and other activities

If you would like to get involved with us on a cause, you can join and co-sign appeals, petitions, and other activities via our website. On a case-by-case basis, a selection of this form data will then be forwarded to authorities, companies, organizations, etc.: usually title, first name, last name, place of residence, and country. For this purpose, we process your contact information, such as title, first name, last name, email address, and postal address.

We process your personal data within the scope of these activities, where the GDPR is applicable, on the basis of the legal basis of fulfilling a contract or implementing pre-contractual measures (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) or on the basis of our legitimate interests in processing personal data to fulfill the association's purpose in accordance with our statutes (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

We will retain this data for as long as necessary to perform the specific activity or to fulfill other legal obligations.

If the activity is not coordinated by us but by another organization, you may be redirected to a website not operated by us and for whose content we are not responsible. In such cases, the privacy policies of the respective operators of these websites apply.

Workshops, Events, and Other Offers


On our website, you can find information about our upcoming events, register for them, and order materials for a workshop or class. You can contact us for this purpose by email or using the contact form on the website. Depending on your request, we require the following information from you to process your request and to contact you if necessary for further information (e.g., language skills for courses, menu requests, etc.): title, first name, last name, email address, and postal address.

We process your personal data within the scope of these activities, where the GDPR is applicable, on the basis of the legal basis of fulfilling a contract or implementing pre-contractual measures (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) or on the basis of our legitimate interests in processing personal data to fulfill the association's purpose in accordance with our statutes (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

Contact forms


You can contact us and submit inquiries using the various online contact forms on our websites. This may include media releases and inquiries, event registration, ordering teaching materials, signing up for our newsletter, subscribing to the event alert for events in your area, etc.

When you contact us via our contact forms, we process your contact information, such as title, first name, last name, postal address, email address, any comments you may have added, messages, or, for example, selected event locations of interest to you. If necessary for registration for a course or event, we also process the name and address of the company or institution and the number of participants.

We process the personal data you provide to us when using the contact form, where the GDPR is applicable, based on our legitimate interest in processing personal data to fulfill the association's purpose in accordance with our statutes and to process your specific request (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

We store this data for as long as necessary to respond to your inquiry or to fulfill other legal obligations.

If you share your contact details with us and have consented to receive information, we will periodically inform you about current topics, activities, fundraising campaigns, and other offers from Amnesty International.

We will use the postal, telephone, and electronic contact details you provide. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the link provided in the email or by sending a message to datenschutz@amnesty.ch and informing us which contact details (postal address, telephone, email, etc.) should be excluded.

With Urgent Actions, you can advocate for people who are immediately threatened by acute situations by writing to the responsible authorities. We provide letter templates for you to use.

You can register on our website if you would like to receive further information about the Urgent Actions via email. As a registered user, you can also enter your interest in topics, countries, and UA language (English, German, French) in your profile, and you will then receive new relevant UA cases via email.

As part of your registration for Urgent Actions, we process, in particular, your contact details such as title, first name, last name, email address, telephone number, date of birth, etc.

We process your personal data as part of your registration for Urgent Actions, if the GDPR is applicable, on the basis of the legal basis of fulfilling a contract or implementing pre-contractual measures (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) or on the basis of our legitimate interests in processing personal data to fulfill the association's purpose in accordance with our statutes, to process your registration for Urgent Actions, and to inform you about Urgent Actions by email (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

We store your data for as long as it is necessary for the Urgent Action or to fulfill other legal obligations.

 

5. Duration of Retention of Personal Data

We process and store your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfill our contractual and legal obligations or for the purposes pursued by the processing, i.e., for example, for the duration of the entire business relationship (from initiation and processing to termination of a contract) and beyond, in accordance with statutory retention and documentation obligations. Personal data may be retained for the period during which claims can be asserted against our company and to the extent we are otherwise legally obligated to do so or legitimate business interests require it (e.g., for evidentiary and documentation purposes). As soon as your personal data is no longer required for the above-mentioned purposes, it will generally be deleted or anonymized wherever possible. For operational data (e.g., system protocols, logs), shorter retention periods of twelve months or less generally apply.

6. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal data from unauthorized access and misuse, such as issuing instructions, training, IT and network security solutions, access controls and restrictions, encryption of data media and transmissions, pseudonymization, and controls.


7. Data Security

As part of our business relationship, you must provide the personal data necessary to establish and conduct a business relationship and fulfill the associated contractual obligations (you generally have no legal obligation to provide us with data). Without this data, we will generally not be able to conclude or process a contract with you (or the entity or person you represent). The website cannot be used if certain information required to secure data traffic (such as IP address) is not disclosed.


8. Profiling


We process some of your personal data automatically with the aim of evaluating certain personal aspects (profiling). We use profiling in particular to provide you with targeted product information and advice. We use analysis tools that enable us to tailor communication and advertising to your needs, including market and opinion research.

9. Rights of the data subject

Within the scope of the data protection law applicable to you and to the extent provided therein, you have the right to information, rectification, erasure, the right to restriction of data processing, and otherwise to object to our processing of your data, in particular that for direct marketing purposes, profiling carried out for direct marketing purposes, and other legitimate interests in processing, as well as to the disclosure of certain personal data for the purpose of transferring it to another entity (so-called data portability). Please note, however, that we reserve the right to assert the legally prescribed restrictions, for example, if we are obliged to retain or process certain data, have an overriding interest in doing so (to the extent we are entitled to rely on this), or require it to assert claims. If you incur any costs, we will inform you in advance. We have already informed you about the possibility of revoking your consent in Section 3. Please note that the exercise of these rights may conflict with contractual agreements and may have consequences such as early termination of the contract or costs. We will inform you in advance of such changes unless already contractually agreed.

The exercise of such rights generally requires that you clearly prove your identity (e.g., by providing a copy of your ID card where your identity is otherwise unclear or cannot be verified). To assert your rights, you can contact us at the address provided in Section 1.

In addition, every data subject has the right to enforce their claims in court or to file a complaint with the competent data protection authority. The competent data protection authority in Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (http://www.edoeb.admin.ch).


10. Changes

We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time without prior notice. The most recent version published on our website applies. If the Privacy Policy is part of an agreement with you, we will notify you of any changes by email or other appropriate means.

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