Data protection

In this Privacy Policy, Eawag explains how it collects and otherwise processes personal data. It does not provide a comprehensive description; it is possible that specific matters may be regulated by other privacy policies, general terms and conditions of business, contractual terms and conditions, terms and conditions of participation, forms and similar documents.

Eawag uses the term “data” here as having a meaning equivalent to “personal data”. This means data concerning an identified or identifiable person and “processing” means any handling of personal data, e.g. procurement, storage, usage, alteration, disclosure and erasure.

If you provide data to Eawag concerning other persons (e.g. family members, data relating to colleagues), Eawag will proceed on the assumption that you are entitled to do so, that this data is correct and that you have ensured that these persons have been informed concerning this disclosure (e.g. by referring them in advance to this Privacy Policy).

The following entity is responsible for the data processing described in this Privacy Policy:

Eawag
Überlandstrasse 133
8600 Dübendorf
Contact: datenschutz@cluttereawag.ch

Eawag primarily processes the personal data that it receives in connection with its employment relationships, business relations with its customers and other business partners as well as any other persons involved in these relations or which it collects from users through the operation of its websites, apps and other applications. If it does not have this data, Eawag will generally be unable to conclude or perform a contract with you (or the body or person you represent).

• Master data: This refers to basic data such as names, contact details, personal information, photographs, customer history, declarations of consent and information concerning third parties (e.g. contact persons, representatives).
• Contractual data: This refers to data acquired in relation to the provision of services by Eawag and the conclusion of contracts, such as contractual services, data concerning the provision of services, data obtained prior to the conclusion of a contract, information relating to implementation (e.g. invoicing) and financial data (e.g. bank details).
• Applicant data: This refers to data acquired in relation to an application for a job at Eawag such as professional background, education and training, references and data obtained from public sources (e.g. social media and the Internet). This data also includes information concerning criminal convictions as well as bans regarding any particular employment/activities and extracts of criminal records.
• Data relating to education: This refers in particular to data acquired by or generated at the Eawag training centre, such as assessments, performance records, examination results and certificates.
• Communication data: This refers to data arising in relation to communications between Eawag and third parties (e.g. by email, telephone, letter or any other means of communication), such as the content of emails or letters, your contact information and communication meta-data.
• Registration data: This refers to data that Eawag acquires or receives from you (e.g. email) in relation to registration (e.g. login areas, newsletters).
• Technical data: This refer to data acquired in relation to the use of Eawag’s electronic content (e.g. website), such as IP address, information concerning your device’s operating system as well as the region and time of usage. As a general rule, technical data does not enable any inferences to be made concerning your identity in principle. However, this data may be cross-referenced with other categories of data (e.g. registration data), and hence with you individually.
• Behavioural and preference data: This refers to data relating to your behaviour and your preferences, such as how you respond to electronic messages, navigation on the website, interactions with our social media profiles, participation in events, where applicable supplemented by information obtained from third parties (including from publicly available sources).
• Other data: This includes data obtained in relation to administrative or judicial procedures (e.g. official records), data collected on health protection grounds (e.g. protection concepts), photographs or video or sound recordings created by Eawag or which it receives from a third party in which you are recognisable (e.g. at events, from video monitoring, etc.) and participation in events.

Eawag takes appropriate technical and organisational security precautions in order to protect your personal data against unauthorised access or misuse.

• From you: Much of the data processed by Eawag has been provided by you directly to Eawag (e.g. in relation to its services or communication with you). You are not under any obligation to disclose your data, except under specific circumstances (e.g. statutory obligations). For example, if you conclude contracts with Eawag or wish to receive services from it, you will need to provide certain data to Eawag.
• From third parties: Eawag may also extract data from publicly accessible sources (e.g. debt enforcement registers, media or the Internet, including social media) or obtain them from authorities (e.g. communes, supervisory authorities), your employer or any customer that is party to a business relationship with you or otherwise has dealings with you as well as from any other third parties (e.g. associations).

• Communication: Eawag processes your data in order to be able to communicate with you (e.g. in order to answer enquiries or for the performance of a contract).
• Conclusion, management and performance of contracts: Eawag processes personal data in relation to the conclusion of contracts or for the performance of a contract concluded with you, with suppliers or service providers or with other contractual partners. This also includes the enforcement of legal rights under contracts (collection, court action, etc.), accounting, the termination of contracts and public communication. Eawag also processes data as part of the process of managing job applications as well as during the preparatory stage prior to the establishment of an employment relationship.
• Marketing purposes and relationship management: Eawag processes data in order to send personalised advertising (e.g. as printed matter, by email or through other electronic channels) concerning services, events and other news to its customers, other contractual partners and other interested parties for marketing and relationship management purposes. You can object to any such contact at any time or refuse or withdraw consent to be contacted for marketing purposes by informing Eawag accordingly.
• Registration: In order to be able to use particular offers and services (e.g. login areas, newsletter), you need to register (directly with Eawag or with its external service provider), in which instance Eawag will process the respective data.
• Technical and physical access controls: Visitor lists are kept and access control and monitoring systems are established at various locations for security purposes.
• Compliance with laws, instructions and recommendations issued by authorities: Eawag may process personal data for the purpose of compliance with laws and the fulfilment of any legal duties. In addition, data may be processed in connection with internal investigations as well as external investigations (e.g. by criminal prosecutors, a supervisory authority or a designated private body).
• Risk management: Eawag may process personal data within the context of risk management (e.g. in order to uphold facility rules or for the prevention or investigation of crime).
• Other purposes: These other purposes include education and training purposes, administrative purposes (e.g. overall personnel and payroll management, the management of master data or accounting), the upholding of the rights of Eawag and the assessment and improvement of internal processes. Other purposes also include the upholding of other legitimate interests.

Where permitted, and provided that it appears reasonable to do so, Eawag also shares data with third parties during the course of its business activities and for the purposes provided for under section 5, either because these third parties process data on behalf of Eawag or because they wish to use the data for their own purposes. The categories of recipient include the following in particular (non-exhaustive list):

• providers of services to Eawag (e.g. banks, insurers), including outsourced service providers (e.g. IT providers);
• contractual partners in a broad sense (e.g. external project funding bodies)
• national and foreign authorities, offices or courts;
• the public at large, including website visitors and social media;
• sectoral organisations, associations and other bodies;
• other parties within potential or actual legal proceedings.

Eawag processes and stores personal data primarily in Switzerland and in the European Union (EU/EFTA), although under exceptional circumstances – for instance via outsourced processors or service providers (e.g. IT software licences) – potentially in other countries.

If a recipient is situated in a country without an adequate level of data protection, Eawag will oblige it under contract to comply with data protection standards, generally speaking by agreeing upon recognised standard contractual clauses. Eawag may refrain from doing so if the recipient is already subject to a framework of rules intended to ensure data protection that is recognised in Europe or if Eawag is able to rely on an exception. This may be the case specifically in the event that legal proceedings are ongoing abroad, in situations involving overriding public interests, if the performance of a contract requires such disclosure, if you have provided your consent to Eawag or if the data in question has been made generally accessible by you and you have not objected to the data being processed.

Please note that data exchanged over the Internet is often routed through third countries. This means that your data may also be transferred abroad, even if the sender and the recipient are situated in the same country.

Eawag processes and stores your data for as long as necessary for the fulfilment of its contractual and statutory duties or otherwise for the purposes pursued through processing, i.e. for instance for the duration of the entire business relationship (from the preparatory stage, through performance, until termination of the contract) and thereafter in accordance with statutory retention and documentation requirements. It is therefore possible that data may be stored for the period of time during which claims may be brought against Eawag, if it is otherwise obliged to do so by law or where required by legitimate business interests (e.g. for evidentiary and documentation purposes). Once your data is no longer needed for the above-mentioned purposes, it will generally be erased or anonymised, where possible.

You have certain rights in relation to data processing by Eawag. According to the applicable law, you can in particular request information concerning the processing of your personal data, to have inaccurate personal data rectified, to request the erasure of personal data (or request such data be marked for erasure), to object to data processing, to request the provision of particular personal data in a commonly used electronic format or the transfer thereof to another controller or to withdraw consent, where processing is based on your consent.

Please note that prerequisites, exceptions or restrictions may apply in relation to these rights (e.g. in order to protect third parties or business secrets or to comply with retention requirements). The exercise of these rights may conflict with contractual agreements or statutory requirements.

If you wish to exercise your rights against Eawag, please contact the competent body; contact information can be found in section 2. You have to identify yourself (e.g. with a copy of photographic identification) in order to enable Eawag to prevent any misuse.

Usage of the Eawag website (including newsletters and other digital content) may result in the creation of data, which is stored in log files (in particular technical data). In addition, Eawag may use cookies and other technologies (e.g. pixel tags or fingerprints) to recognise website visitors, to record their behaviour and to identify their preferences. A cookie is a small file exchanged between the server and your system, which enables a particular device or browser to be recognised.

You can configure your browser so that it automatically rejects, accepts or deletes cookies. You can also disable or delete specific individual cookies. You can find out in your browser’s help menu how you can manage cookies in your browser.

As a general rule, neither the technical data collected by Eawag nor cookies contain any personal data.

Eawag also uses social media plug-ins. These are small software modules that establish a connection between your visit to the Eawag website and a third-party provider. The social media plug-in informs the third-party provider that you have visited the Eawag website and it can transmit to the third-party provider the cookies that it has previously stored on your browser. Further information about how these third-party providers use your personal data collected through their social media plug-ins can be found in the respective privacy policies.

In addition, Eawag uses its own tools as well as the services of third-party providers (which may in turn store cookies) on the website, in particular in order to improve the functioning or content of the Eawag website (e.g. integration of videos or maps) or to compile statistics.

Eawag currently uses services from the following service providers:

• Matomo
  Provider: Matomo.org
  Privacy Policy
   
• Google Maps
  Provider: Google LLC
  Privacy Policy
   
• Issuu
  Provider: Issuu Inc.
  Privacy Policy
   
• Superoffice
  Provider: SuperOffice AG
  Privacy Policy
   
• Brevo
  Provider: Brevo
  Privacy Policy
   
• Tagbox
  Provider: Tagbox
  Privacy Policy

Some of the third-party providers used by Eawag may potentially be situated outside Switzerland. Information concerning the transfer of data abroad may be found in section 7.

Eawag may maintain pages and other online profiles on social networks and other platforms operated by third parties and in this regard process data concerning you. In such cases, Eawag receives data from you (e.g. if you communicate with Eawag or comment on its content) and from the platforms (e.g. statistics). Platform providers may analyse how you use the platform and process this data along with other data available to them. They also process this data for their own purposes (e.g. marketing and market research purposes or for the purpose of managing their platforms), and to this effect act as independent controllers. For further information concerning processing by platform operators, please refer to the privacy policies of the respective platforms.

Eawag currently uses the following platforms:

• Instagram
  Provider: Meta Platforms Ireland Limited
  Data Policy
   
• LinkedIn
  Provider: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft)
  Privacy Policy
   
• Twitter (X)
  Provider: X Corp.
  Privacy Policy
   
• YouTube
  Provider: Google LLC
  Privacy Policy

Eawag is entitled, but not obliged, to review content either before or after it is published on its online profiles, to delete content without prior notice and, where appropriate, to report content to the operator of the platform concerned.

This Privacy Policy does not form part of a contract concluded with you. We may alter this Privacy Policy at any time. The version published on the Eawag website is the relevant up-to-date version