As a law firm, GWK LAW Ltd, Effingerstrasse 17, P.O. Box, CH-3001 Berne, Switzerland, (hereinafter “we”) necessarily processes your personal data. We process your personal data in accordance with the provisions of the Swiss Data Protection Act (hereinafter referred to as “DSG”) and, if applicable, the European General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter referred to as “GDPR”) and strictly observe the duty of confidentiality. Unless otherwise notified, we process your personal data as data controllers. We use technical and organisational security measures to adequately protect personal data against unauthorised access, manipulation, loss and deletion and check these measures regularly. This privacy policy describes how we process and use the personal data collected from you.

1. What personal data do we collect?
“Personal data” is information that relates to you or that we can otherwise associate with you. Personal data that we collect includes the following information: Company name, first and last name, title, registered office, postal address, e-mail address, telephone and fax number, date of birth, bank details and all information that you provide to us or that we otherwise obtain pursuant to section 2. Data processing includes all steps in the handling of personal data from collection, storage and use to deletion. When you access our websites, the following data is stored in log files: IP address, date, time, browser request and general information transmitted to the operating system or browser.

2. How do we process your personal data?
We collect personal data that you have voluntarily provided us with, for example, when you (i) contact us and provide us with information; (ii) when you instruct third parties to provide us with information; (iii) when you ask us to send you notices or newsletters.
In general, in our practice we also collect personal data (i) from publicly accessible sources such as public registers (commercial register, debt collection register, land register, civil status register), the press, the Internet, etc. (ii) from public authorities, courts, arbitration tribunals or other third parties involved in or connected with the provision of the services
We also use tracking technologies such as cookies to collect information such as the above and to better understand how visitors use our websites. These technologies help us to administer our websites and improve their user-friendliness. For example, we can see whether your computer has previously connected to us and see which areas of our websites are most frequently used.

3. For what purpose do we process your personal data?
We need your personal data in order to (i) comply with our legal obligations; (ii) administer the websites and ensure error-free provision of our websites; (iii) conclude or fulfil contracts with you; (iv) transfer data to third parties, e.g. to communicating lawyers of our national and international network (v) in connection with other activities, including, but not limited to, (vi) contractual obligations; (vii) other interests of GWK LAW AG; and (viii) to send you newsletters and other information.

4. To whom do we share your information?
We may pass on your data to third parties (in particular communicating lawyers, authorities, IT service providers) in order to provide our services and for the purposes mentioned above or if we are legally obliged to do so.

5. How do we use cookies?
Cookies are used on our websites. Cookies are small text files that are stored on the website visitor’s end device. They save how our website is used and serve to make our offer more user-friendly, more effective and safer and do not cause any damage on your device.
You can set your browser to inform you when cookies are set, to allow cookies only in individual cases, to exclude the acceptance of cookies for certain cases or in general, and to activate the automatic deletion of cookies when the browser is closed. However, if you deactivate cookies, the functionality of our websites may be limited or excluded. Cookies, which are necessary for the electronic communication process or for the provision of certain functions desired by you, can be stored. It is recommended that you disable third-party cookies, enable tracking protection and use “do not track”. For further information, please refer to the help function of your browser.

6. How do we use social media plug-ins?
The website may contain links to third-party websites, goods and services. Information collected by third parties, including location data or contact information, is subject to their respective privacy policies. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third parties. This privacy policy does not apply to third-party websites that can be accessed through our websites. We have no influence on how these companies meet the data protection requirements.
6.1 Instagram Plug-In
Plug-ins from Instagram are integrated on our websites. The provider is Facebook Inc, 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. You can recognize the Instagram plug-ins by the Instagram logo. When you visit our websites, the plug-in establishes a direct connection between your browser and the Instagram/Facebook server. Facebook thereby receives the information that you visit our websites with your IP address. We have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Facebook. You can find further information in the Instagram privacy policy. If you do not want Facebook to be able to assign visits to our websites to your Instagram user account, please log out of your Instagram user account.

6.2 LinkedIn Plug-In
Plug-ins from LinkedIn are integrated on our websites. Provider is LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Gardner House, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland. You can recognize LinkedIn plug-ins by the LinkedIn logo on our websites. By clicking on the LinkedIn buttons, the plug-in establishes a direct connection between your browser and the LinkedIn server. LinkedIn receives information that you have visited our websites along with your IP address. LinkedIn may use data collection, syndication analysis and other similar tools to track, extract, compile and analyze any data or information that results from the use of the plug-in. Please see LinkedIn’s privacy policy for more information.

7. Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics, a web analysis service from Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (hereinafter «Google»). Google Analytics uses cookies that enable website usage to be analysed. The information generated by the cookie as a result of your use of the website is sent in anonymised form to a Google server in the USA where it is stored. Thanks to anonymisation, this data cannot be assigned to any specific person. Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports about user activities and to provide additional services related to use of the website and Internet usage. Google will transfer this information to third parties, where appropriate, insofar as this is required by law or where third parties process this data on behalf of Google.
You can prevent the data that is generated by the cookie and is based on your use of the website (including your IP address) from being transferred to Google, as well as the processing of this data by Google, by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.
Google is certified under the Privacy Shield agreement and therefore guarantees to comply with European data protection law: https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&status=Active. Further information about data processing by Google is provided in Google’s Privacy Policy: http://www.google.de/intl/en/policies/privacy

8. Why do we process your personal data and on what justification?
We process your personal data for the conclusion and fulfilment of a contract or a legal obligation (Art. 4 para. 3 and 13 para. 2 lit. a DSG, Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b and c GDPR) and for communication purposes on the basis of your consent at the time of the collection of your personal data (Art. 4 para. 5 DSG, Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). You can revoke your consent at any time.

9. How long do we keep your personal data?
We process and store your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil our contractual and legal obligations or for the purposes stated in section 3. We store personal data for the duration of our entire business relationship and for ten years thereafter, as a rule, in order to comply with the statutory storage obligations and to be able to document our legitimate interests.

10. Data security
We have taken appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against loss and unauthorised access.

11. Your rights
You have the right to know what personal data we process about you. You also have the right to request that incorrect personal data about you be corrected and that your personal data be deleted. You also have the right to object to the processing of certain personal data and to request that the data processing be restricted. The restriction of processing or deletion of personal data is not possible if such data is necessary for the fulfilment of a contractual or legal obligation or if we have a legitimate interest in processing. You have the right to have your personal data transferred. To exercise these rights, please contact the address below and provide us with proof of your identification.
If you do not agree with our data processing, please inform us accordingly. You also have the right to report this to the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner and/or the relevant supervisory authorities in the EU.

12. Communication channels and security
We cannot guarantee the confidentiality of electronic communication channels, especially e-mail. The Internet, websites and the electronic transmission of data are generally regarded as insecure in terms of confidentiality and data security. Unauthorized third parties could access information exchanged via the aforementioned channels, and data could be damaged or its contents altered. We accept no liability for the security of electronically transmitted data. We recommend that you encrypt your e-mails.

13. How can you contact us?
Please contact us if you have any questions about this privacy policy:
GWK LAW Ltd
Effingerstrasse 17
P.O. Box
CH – 3001 Berne
gwk@gwk-law.ch

We reserve the right to adapt this privacy policy at any time. The current version of the privacy policy published on this website applies in each case.