Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy has been machine-translated. In case of doubt, the original German version shall prevail.

With this Privacy Policy, we provide information about the processing of personal data in connection with our activities and operations, including our website under the domain name velella-group.com. In particular, we explain for what purposes, how and where we process which personal data. We also inform about the rights of persons whose data we process.

For individual or additional activities and operations, we may publish further privacy policies or other information relating to data protection.

We are subject to Swiss law as well as any applicable foreign law, in particular that of the European Union (EU) with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

With its decision of 26 July 2000, the European Commission recognised that Swiss data protection law ensures an adequate level of data protection. With its report of 15 January 2024, the European Commission confirmed this adequacy decision.

1. Contact details

The controller within the meaning of data protection law is:

Velella LLC
Gewerbestrasse 10
6330 Cham
Switzerland

info@velella-group.com

In individual cases, third parties may be responsible for the processing of personal data, or there may be joint responsibility with third parties. Upon request, we will be happy to provide data subjects with information about the respective responsibility.

2. Definitions and legal bases

2.1 Definitions

Data subject: Natural person about whom we process personal data.

Personal data: All information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.

Particularly sensitive personal data: Data on trade union, political, religious or philosophical views and activities, data concerning health, the intimate sphere or belonging to an ethnic group or race, genetic data, biometric data that uniquely identifies a natural person, data on criminal and administrative sanctions or prosecutions, and data on measures of social assistance.

Processing: Any handling of personal data, regardless of the means and procedures applied, for example querying, comparing, adapting, archiving, storing, reading, disclosing, obtaining, recording, collecting, deleting, revealing, organising, structuring, saving, changing, distributing, linking, destroying and using personal data.

European Economic Area (EEA): Member States of the European Union (EU) as well as the Principality of Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway.

2.2 Legal bases

We process personal data in accordance with Swiss law, in particular the Federal Act on Data Protection (Data Protection Act, DPA) and the Ordinance on Data Protection (Data Protection Ordinance, DPO).

Where and insofar as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is applicable, we process personal data pursuant to at least one of the following legal bases:

Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR for processing of personal data necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and for pre-contractual measures.
Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR for processing of personal data necessary to safeguard legitimate interests – including legitimate interests of third parties – provided that the fundamental freedoms and rights and the interests of the data subject do not prevail. Such interests include, in particular, the long-term, human-friendly, secure and reliable performance of our activities and operations, ensuring information security, protection against misuse, enforcement of our legal claims, and compliance with Swiss law.
Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR for processing of personal data necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject under any applicable law of Member States in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Art. 6(1)(e) GDPR for processing of personal data necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.
Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR for processing of personal data based on the consent of the data subject.
Art. 6(1)(d) GDPR for processing of personal data necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another natural person.
Art. 9(2) et seq. GDPR for the processing of special categories of personal data, in particular based on the consent of the data subjects.

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) refers to the processing of personal data as the processing of personal data and to the processing of particularly sensitive personal data as the processing of special categories of personal data (Art. 9 GDPR).

3. Type, scope and purpose of processing personal data

We process those personal data that are necessary in order to carry out our activities and operations on a long-term basis in a human-friendly, secure and reliable manner. The processed personal data may, in particular, fall into the categories of browser and device data, content data, communication data, metadata, usage data, master data including inventory and contact data, location data, transaction data, contract data and payment data. The personal data may also constitute particularly sensitive personal data.

We also process personal data that we receive from third parties, obtain from publicly accessible sources or collect in the course of carrying out our activities and operations, insofar as such processing is permitted.

Where required, we process personal data with the consent of the data subjects. In many cases, we may process personal data without consent, for example to fulfil legal obligations or to safeguard overriding interests. We may also request consent from data subjects even if consent is not required.

We process personal data for the duration necessary for the respective purpose. In particular, we anonymise and/or delete personal data depending on statutory retention and limitation periods.

4. Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We may process personal data in an automated manner or use Artificial Intelligence for the processing of personal data.

We may use profiling in order to automatically evaluate certain personal aspects relating to data subjects. Profiling is used, for example, to analyse or predict interests, behaviours or personal preferences.

We will provide information on a case-by-case basis about decisions that are based solely on automated processing of personal data and that have legal effect for data subjects or significantly affect them (automated individual decisions).

5. Disclosure of personal data

We may disclose personal data to third parties, have personal data processed by third parties or process personal data jointly with third parties. Such third parties may include, for example, specialised service providers whose services we use.

In the course of our activities and operations, we may disclose personal data in particular to banks and other financial service providers, authorities, educational and research institutions, consultants and lawyers, interest groups, IT service providers, cooperation partners, credit and business information agencies, logistics and shipping companies, marketing and advertising agencies, media, parent, sister and subsidiary companies, organisations and associations, social institutions, telecommunications companies, insurance companies and payment service providers.

6. Communication

We process personal data in order to be able to communicate with individuals as well as with authorities, organisations and companies. In doing so, we process in particular data that a data subject transmits to us when contacting us, for example by letter post or e-mail. We may store such data in an address book or with comparable tools.

Third parties who transmit data to us about other persons are obliged to independently ensure the data protection of those data subjects. In particular, they must ensure that such data are correct and may be transmitted.

7. Data security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure data security appropriate to the respective risk. With our measures, we ensure in particular the confidentiality, availability, traceability and integrity of the processed personal data, but we cannot guarantee absolute data security.

Access to our website and our other digital presence is via transport encryption (SSL / TLS, in particular via Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, abbreviated HTTPS). Most browsers warn against visiting a website without transport encryption.

Our digital communication is subject – like in principle any digital communication – to indiscriminate mass surveillance without cause or suspicion by security authorities in Switzerland, in the rest of Europe, in the United States of America (USA) and in other countries. We have no direct influence on the corresponding processing of personal data by intelligence services, police departments and other security authorities. We also cannot rule out that a data subject may be specifically monitored.

8. Personal data abroad

We process personal data in principle in Switzerland and in the European Economic Area (EEA). However, we may also export or transfer personal data to other countries, in particular in order to process it there or have it processed there.

We may export personal data to all countries on earth and elsewhere in the universe, provided that the law there ensures adequate data protection in accordance with the decision of the Swiss Federal Council and – where and insofar as the GDPR is applicable – also in accordance with the decision of the European Commission.

We may transfer personal data to countries whose laws do not provide adequate data protection, provided that data protection is ensured for other reasons, in particular on the basis of standard contractual clauses or other appropriate safeguards. Exceptionally, we may export personal data to countries without adequate or appropriate data protection if the specific data protection requirements are met, for example the explicit consent of the data subjects or a direct connection with the conclusion or performance of a contract. Upon request, we will be happy to provide data subjects with information about any safeguards or provide a copy of any safeguards.

9. Rights of data subjects

9.1 Data protection claims

We grant data subjects all claims in accordance with the applicable law. Data subjects have, in particular, the following rights:

Access: Data subjects may request information as to whether we process personal data about them and, if so, which personal data. Data subjects also receive the information necessary to assert their data protection claims and to ensure transparency. This includes the processed personal data as such, but also, among other things, information about the purpose of processing, the duration of storage, any disclosure or export of data to other countries, and the origin of the personal data.
Rectification and restriction: Data subjects may have inaccurate personal data corrected, incomplete data completed and the processing of their data restricted.
Right to express their point of view and human review: In the case of decisions based solely on automated processing of personal data that have legal effect for them or significantly affect them (automated individual decisions), data subjects may express their own point of view and request that the decision be reviewed by a human.
Erasure and objection: Data subjects may have personal data deleted (“right to be forgotten”) and object to the processing of their data with effect for the future.
Data disclosure and data portability: Data subjects may request the disclosure of personal data or the transfer of their data to another controller.

We may postpone, restrict or refuse the exercise of the rights of data subjects within the legally permissible scope. We may inform data subjects about any requirements that must be met for exercising their data protection claims. We may, for example, refuse to provide information in whole or in part by referring to confidentiality obligations, overriding interests or the protection of other persons. We may also refuse, for example, to delete personal data, in particular by referring to statutory retention obligations, in whole or in part.

We may exceptionally provide for costs for the exercise of rights. We inform data subjects in advance of any costs.

We are obliged to identify data subjects who request information or assert other rights by means of appropriate measures. Data subjects are obliged to cooperate.

9.2 Legal remedies

Data subjects have the right to enforce their data protection claims through legal action or to file a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.

The data protection supervisory authority for private controllers and federal bodies in Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

European data protection supervisory authorities are organised as members of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB). In some Member States in the European Economic Area (EEA), data protection supervisory authorities are structured federally, in particular in Germany.

10. Use of the website

10.1 Cookies

We may use cookies. Cookies – both our own cookies (first-party cookies) and cookies from third parties whose services we use (third-party cookies) – are data stored in the browser. Such stored data is not limited to traditional text cookies.

Cookies may be stored temporarily in the browser as “session cookies” or for a certain period as so-called persistent cookies. “Session cookies” are automatically deleted when the browser is closed. Persistent cookies have a defined storage period. Cookies make it possible, in particular, to recognise a browser on the next visit to our website and, for example, to measure the reach of our website. Persistent cookies can also be used for online marketing, for example.

Cookies can be disabled, restricted or deleted in whole or in part at any time in the browser settings. Browser settings often also enable automated deletion and other management of cookies. Without cookies, our website may not be available to you in full. We actively request – at least where and insofar as required under applicable law – your explicit consent to the use of cookies.

10.2 Logging

For each access to our website and our other digital presence, we may log at least the following information, insofar as it is determined or transmitted to our digital infrastructure by default during such access: date and time including time zone, IP address, access status (HTTP status code), operating system including user interface and version, browser including language and version, the specific subpage of our website accessed including the amount of data transferred, the previously visited website in the same browser window (referrer).

We log such information, which may also constitute personal data, in log files. The information is necessary to provide our digital presence on a permanent, human-friendly and reliable basis. The information is also necessary to ensure data security – including by third parties or with the help of third parties.

10.3 Tracking pixels

We may integrate tracking pixels into our digital presence. Tracking pixels are also referred to as web beacons. Tracking pixels – including those of third parties whose services we use – are usually small, invisible images or scripts formulated in JavaScript that are automatically retrieved when accessing our digital presence. With tracking pixels, at least the same information can be collected as with logging in log files.

We are present on social media platforms and other online platforms in order to communicate with interested persons and to provide information about our activities and operations. In connection with such platforms, personal data may also be processed outside Switzerland and the European Economic Area (EEA).

The terms and conditions (T&Cs) and terms of use as well as privacy policies and other provisions of the respective operators of such platforms apply. These provisions provide information in particular about the rights of data subjects directly vis-à-vis the respective platform, including, for example, the right of access.

12. Services of third parties

We use services of specialised third parties in order to carry out our activities and operations in a permanent, human-friendly, secure and reliable manner. With such services, we can, among other things, embed functions and content into our website. In the case of such embedding, the services used collect at least temporarily the IP addresses of users for technically mandatory reasons.

For necessary security-related, statistical and technical purposes, third parties whose services we use may process data in connection with our activities and operations in aggregated, anonymised or pseudonymised form. This includes, for example, performance or usage data in order to be able to provide the respective service.

Digital infrastructure

We use services of specialised third parties in order to make use of the necessary digital infrastructure in connection with our activities and operations. This includes, for example, hosting and storage services from selected providers.

We use in particular:

Hostpoint: Hosting; provider: Hostpoint AG (Switzerland); data protection information: Privacy Policy.

13. Extensions for the website

We use extensions for our website in order to use additional functions. We may use selected services from suitable providers or use such extensions on our own digital infrastructure.