Privacy Policy

We process personal data that we obtain from our Business Clients, from Business Clients’ Users, on behalf of our Business Clients from third parties that have made publicly available personal data in the Internet in the context of Business Clients’ publications, events and other activites, from Users when using Storyshaker, our websites, apps and other applications, all in the context of our business relationships with our Business Client, for the provision of our services to our Business Clients for the purposes of our Business Clients.

We collect personal data made publicly accessible by you (e.g., internet, social media) or we may receive such information from Business Clients. The categories of data we collect about you from third parties include, but are not limited to, information made publicly accessible (e.g., internet, social media), information about you in correspondence with Business Client, information concerning your relationship with Business Clients and concerning Business Clients’ publications, events, activities, as well as data in connection with your use of our websites and apps.

We primarily use collected data in order to fulfill contracts with our Business Clients, in particular to enable our Business Clients to create and publish digital content and to mix it with relevant social media posts, as well as in order to comply with our domestic and foreign legal obligations. You may be affected by our data processing in your capacity as a User, employee, customer, potential customer, follower, fan, interested person or business partner of Business Client.

In addition, in line with applicable law and where appropriate, we may process your personal data and personal data of third parties for the following purposes, which are in Business Clients’, our (or, as the case may be, any third parties’) legitimate interest, such as:

• providing and developing our products, services and websites, apps and other platforms, on which we are active;
• communication with third parties and processing of their requests (e.g., job applications, media inquiries);
• advertisement and marketing, provided that you have not objected to the use of your data for this purpose (if you are part of our customer base and you receive our advertisement, you may object at any time and we will place you on a blacklist against further advertising mailings);
• market and opinion research, media surveillance;
• asserting legal claims and defense in legal disputes and official proceedings;
• prevention and investigation of criminal offences and other misconduct (e.g. conducting internal investigations, data analysis to combat fraud);
• ensuring our operation, including our IT, our websites, apps and other appliances;

If you have given us your consent to process your personal data for certain purposes (for example when registering to receive newsletters), we will process your personal data within the scope of and based on this consent, unless we have another legal basis, provided that we require one. Consent given can be withdrawn at any time, but this does not affect data processed prior to withdrawal.

We typically use “cookies” and similar techniques on our websites and apps, which allow for an identification of your browser or device. A cookie is a small text file that is sent to your computer and automatically saved by the web browser on your computer or mobile device, when you visit our website or install our app. If you revisit our website or use our app, we may recognize you, even if we do not know your identity. Besides cookies that are only used during a session and deleted after your visit of the website (“session cookies”), we may use cookies in order to save user configurations and other information for a certain time period (e.g., two years) (“permanent cookies”). Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may configure your browser settings in a way that it rejects cookies, only saves them for one session or deletes them prematurely. Most browsers are preset to accept cookies. We use permanent cookies for the purpose of saving user configuration (e.g., language, automated log in, in order to understand how you use our services and content, and to enable to show you customized offers and advertisement (which may also happen on websites of other companies; should your identity be known to us, such companies will not learn your identity from us; they will only know that the same user is visiting their website has previously visited a certain website. Certain cookies are sent to you from us, others from business partners with which we collaborate. If you block cookies, it is possible that certain functions (such as, e.g., language settings, shopping basket, ordering processes) are no longer available to you.

In accordance with applicable law, we may include visible and invisible image files in our newsletters and other marketing e-mails. If such image files are retrieved from our servers, we can determine whether and when you have opened the e-mail, so that we can measure and better understand how you use our offers and customize them. You may disable this in your e-mail program, which will usually be a default setting.

By using our websites, apps and consenting to the receipt of newsletters and other marketing e-mails you agree to our use of such techniques. If you object, you must configure your browser or e-mail program accordingly or uninstall the app, should the respective setting not be available.

We may use Google Analytics or similar services on our website. These are services provided by third parties, which may be located in any country worldwide (in the case of Google Analytics Google LLC is in the U.S., www.google.com) and which allow us to measure and evaluate the use of our website (on an anonymized basis). For this purpose, permanent cookies are used, which are set by the service provider. The service provider does not receive (and does not retain) any personal data from us, but the service provider may track your use of the website, combine this information with data from other websites you have visited and which are also tracked by the respective service provider and  may use this information for its own purposes (e.g. to controlling of advertisements). If you have registered with the service provider, the service provider will also know your identity. In this case, the processing of your personal data by the service provider will be conducted in accordance with its data protection regulations. The service provider only provides us with data on the use of the respective website (but not any personal information of you).

In addition, we use plug-ins from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Vimeo, SoundCloud and LinkedIn on our websites. This is visible for you (typically based on the respective symbols). We have configured these elements to be disabled by default. If you activate them (by clicking on them), the operators of the respective social networks may record that you are on our website and where on our website you are exactly and may use this information for their own purposes. This processing of your personal data lays in the responsibility of the respective operator and occurs according to its data protection regulations. We do not receive any information about you from the respective operator.

In the context of our business activities and in line with the purposes of the data processing set out in Section 3, we may transfer data to third parties, insofar as such a transfer is permitted and we deem it appropriate, in order for them to process data for us or, as the case may be, their own purposes. In particular, the following categories of recipients may be concerned:

• our service providers, including processors (such as e.g. IT providers);
• our Business Clients;
• domestic and foreign authorities or courts;
• the media;
• the public, including users of our websites and social media;
• other parties in possible or pending legal proceedings;

together Recipients.

Certain Recipients may be within Switzerland but they may be located in any country worldwide. In particular, you must anticipate your data to be transmitted to any country where our service providers are located (such as Google Analytics, Intercom Chat, Keyhole, Mailchimp). If we transfer data to a country without adequate legal data protection, we ensure an appropriate level of protection as legally required by way of using appropriate contracts (in particular on the basis of the standard contract clauses of the European Commission) or we rely on the statutory exceptions of consent, performance of contracts, the establishment, exercise or enforcement of legal claims, overriding public interests, published personal data or because it is necessary to protect the integrity of the persons concerned.

We process and retain your personal data as long as required for the performance of our contractual obligation and compliance with legal obligations or other purposes pursued with the processing, i.e. for the duration of the entire business relationship  as well as beyond this duration in accordance with legal retention and documentation obligations. Personal data may be retained for the period during which claims can be asserted against our company or insofar as we are otherwise legally obliged to do so or if legitimate business interests require further retention (e.g., for evidence and documentation purposes). As soon as your personal data are no longer required for the above-mentioned purposes, they will be deleted or anonymized, to the extent possible. In general, shorter retention periods of no more than twelve months apply for operational data (e.g., system logs).

We have taken appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal data from unauthorized access and misuse.

In accordance with and as far as provided by applicable law (as is the case where the GDPR is applicable), you have the right to access, rectification and erasure of your personal data, the right to restriction of processing or to object to our data processing in addition to right to receive certain personal data for transfer to another controller (data portability). Please note, however, that we reserve the right to enforce statutory restrictions on our part, for example if we are obliged to retain or process certain data, have an overriding interest (insofar as we may invoke such interests) or need the data for asserting claims. If exercising certain rights will incur costs on you, we will notify you thereof in advance. We have already informed you of the possibility to withdraw consent in Section 3 above. Please further note that the exercise of these rights may be in conflict with your contractual obligations and this may result in consequences such as premature contract termination or involve costs. If this is the case, we will inform you in advance unless it has already been contractually agreed upon.

In general, exercising these rights requires that you are able to prove your identity (e.g., by a copy of identification documents where your identity is not evident otherwise or can be verified in another way). In order to assert these rights, please contact us at the addresses provided in Section 1 above.

In addition, every data subject has the right to enforce his/her rights in court or to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority. The competent data protection authority of Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (https://www.edoeb.admin.ch).

We may amend this Data Protection Statement at any time without prior notice. The current version published on our website shall apply. If the Data Protection Statement is part of an agreement with you, we will notify you by e-mail or other appropriate means in case of an amendment.