Status: 9. October 2023
1. What is this Privacy Notice about?
In the course of my business activities, I collect and process personal data (hereinafter also “data”), in particular personal data about my clients, associated persons, counterparties, courts and authorities, correspondent law firms, professional and other associations, visitors to my websites, participants in events, job applicants, recipients of newsletters, and other entities or, in each case, their contact persons and employees (hereinafter also “you”).
In this Privacy Notice I inform you about the processing of these personal data. In addition to this Privacy Notice, I may provide you with additional information about the processing of your data (e.g., in forms or contract terms), additional Privacy Notices (e.g. on other websites), forms and notices.
If you disclose data to me about other persons (e.g., family members, representatives, counterparties, or other associated persons), I will assume that you are authorized to do so, that such data is accurate, and that you have ensured that such persons are aware of such disclosure to the extent that an information obligation applies (e.g., by bringing this Privacy Notice to their attention in advance).
2. Who is responsible for processing your data?
The following company is the data controller, i.e., the party that is primarily responsible to ensure compliance with data protection laws:
Sabrine Schnyder
P.O. Box
8053 Zurich
Switzerland
For any inquiry about the processing of your data, please feel free to contact me via privacy@sabrineschnyder.ch.
3. For what purposes do I process which of your data?
As part of my operations or when you use my website www.sabrineschnyder.ch (the “Website”), I may process different categories of personal data for different purposes. In particular, I process the following personal data from you for the following purposes:
Communication: I process personal data so that I can communicate with you as well as with third parties, such as parties to proceedings, courts, or authorities, by e-mail, telephone, letter, or other means (e.g., as part of my arbitrator practice, to answer inquiries, in the context of legal advice and representation as well as pre-contractual measures or execution of contracts). This also includes sending information about events, legal changes, news about my law firm, or similar information to my clients, contractual partners, and other interested parties. This may, e.g., take the form of newsletters and other regular communication (especially electronically, via mail, and via telephone). You have the option to refuse or withdraw your consent to such communications at any time. In the context of communication, I process in particular the content and metadata of the communication as well as your contact data, but also image and audio recordings of video or phone calls. In the event of an audio or video recording of the communication, I will inform you separately, and you are free to inform me if you do not wish to be recorded or to terminate the communication. If I need or wish to confirm your identity, I may collect additional data (e.g., a copy of an ID).
Pre-contractual measures and conclusion of contracts: With regard to the conclusion of a contract, I may in particular process your name, contact details, powers of attorney, declarations of consent, information about third parties (e.g., contact persons, family details, as well as counterparties), contract contents, date of conclusion, creditworthiness data, as well as all other data that you provide to me or that I collect from public sources or third parties (e.g., commercial register, credit agencies, sanctions lists, media, legal protection insurance companies, or the Internet). In particular, I also process this data if you or your principal or employer conclude a contract with me to establish an attorney-client relationship or if another party does so in a case in which you are involved. This also includes checks for any conflicts of interest.
Administration and performance of contracts: I process personal data in order to comply with my contractual obligations to my clients and other contractual partners (e.g., suppliers, service providers, correspondent law firms, project partners) and, in particular, to provide and claim contractual services. This also includes data processing for the management of mandates (e.g., legal advice to my clients, representation of my clients in court and before authorities, and correspondence) as well as data processing for the enforcement of contracts (debt collection, court proceedings, etc.), accounting and public communication (if permissible). For this purpose, I process in particular the data that I receive or have collected in the course of initiating and concluding the contract, as well as data that I create in the course of my contractual services or that I collect from public sources or other third parties (e.g., courts, authorities, counterparties, information services, media, detective agencies or the Internet). Such data may include, in particular, minutes of conversations and consultations, notes, internal and external correspondence, contractual documents, documents that I create and receive in the course of proceedings in courts and before authorities (e.g., legal documents, judgments and decisions), background information about you, counterparties or other persons, image and audio recordings, as well as other mandate-related information, documents, transcripts of records, invoices, and financial and payment information. In this context, I may also process sensitive personal data.
Operation of my websites: In order to operate my websites in a secure and stable manner, I collect technical data, such as IP address, information about the operating system and settings of your end device, region, time and type of use. Additionally, I may use cookies and similar technologies. More information about this can be found in Section 8.
Improving my electronic offerings: In order to continuously improve my websites, services and other (electronic) offerings (e.g., newsletters), I collect data about your behavior and preferences by analyzing, for example, how you navigate through my websites and how you interact with my social media profiles and other electronic offerings (e.g., newsletters). For this purpose, I also process direct or indirect feedback from you regarding my website, social media presence and my tools (e.g. comments, emails or other statements that are directly addressed to me or of which I become aware of otherwise) as well as other feedback regarding my services, including in the context of an attorney-client relationship with you or in the context of public statements from you (e.g. on social media, in the media or mailings).
Registration: Certain offers and services (e.g., newsletter) require registration (directly with me or via my external login service providers). For this purpose, I process the data provided during the respective registration. Furthermore, I may also collect personal data about you during the use of the offer or service. If required, I will provide you with further information about the processing of this data.
Security purposes and access controls: I process personal data to ensure and continuously improve the appropriate security of my IT and other infrastructure (e.g., buildings). This includes, for example, monitoring and controlling electronic access to my IT systems as well as physical access to my premises, analyzing and testing my IT infrastructures, performing system and error checks, and creating backup copies. For documentation and security purposes (preventive measures and analysis of incidents), I also maintain access logs or visitor lists for my premises, may process criminal records and use surveillance systems (e.g., security cameras). Signs indicating the presence of surveillance systems are posted at the appropriate locations.
Compliance with laws, directives and recommendations of authorities as well as internal regulations (“Compliance”): I process personal data to comply with applicable domestic and foreign law (e.g., to combat money laundering or to comply with tax or professional obligations), self-regulations, certifications, industry standards, my corporate governance and for internal and external investigations in which I are a party (e.g., by a law enforcement or supervisory authority or an appointed private body).
Risk management and corporate governance: I process personal data as part of risk management (e.g., to protect against criminal activities) and corporate governance. This includes, among other things, my operational organization (e.g., resource planning).
Job application: If you apply for a job with me, I process the relevant data for the purposes of reviewing and assessing the application, carrying out the application process, and, in the case of successful applications, preparing and concluding a contract. For this purpose, in addition to your contact data and the information from the corresponding communication, I also process in particular the data contained in your application documents, possibly also criminal record extracts, and the data that I can additionally obtain about you, for example from job-related social networks, the Internet, the media and references (if you consent to obtaining references). Data processing in connection with the employment relationship is governed by a separate privacy notice.
Other purposes: Other purposes include, for example, training and educational purposes and administrative purposes (e.g., accounting). I may listen to or record telephone or video conferences for purposes of training, evidence, and quality assurance. In such cases, I will notify you separately (e.g., by displaying a notice during the relevant video conference) and you are free to let me know if you do not wish to be recorded or to terminate the communication (if you do not wish your image recorded, please switch off your camera). In addition, I may process personal data for the organization, implementation, and follow-up of events, such as, in particular, lists of participants and the content of presentations and discussions, but also image and audio recordings made during these events. Protection of other legitimate interests is also one of the further purposes, which cannot be listed exhaustively.
4. Where does the data come from?
From you: You provide me with much of the data I process (e.g., in the context of my services, your use of my websites, and your communication with me). In some instances, this data is also transmitted to me automatically by your end device. You are not required to disclose your data, with certain exceptions (e.g., legal obligations). You must for example provide me with certain data to conclude contracts with me or use my services. The use of my websites is also impossible without data processing.
From third parties: I may collect data from publicly accessible sources (e.g., debt collection registers, land registers, commercial registers, media or the Internet, including social media) or receive such data from public authorities, your employer or mandator who has a business relationship with me or otherwise deals with me, as well as from other third parties (e.g., clients, counterparties, legal protection insurance companies, credit agencies, address brokers, associations, contractual partners, Internet analysis services). This includes, in particular, the data that I process in the course of initiating, concluding and performing contracts, as well as data from correspondence and other communication with third parties, but also all other categories of data pursuant to Section 3.
5. Who do I disclose your information to?
In connection with the provisions set forth in Section 3 I transfer your personal data in particular to the categories of recipients listed below. If necessary, I obtain your consent for this or will have the competent supervisory authorities release me from my professional obligation of confidentiality.
Service providers: I work with service providers in Switzerland and abroad who (i) process data on my behalf (e.g., IT providers), (ii) process data in joint responsibility with me or (iii) process data on their own responsibility that they have received from me or collected on my behalf (e.g., IT providers, banks, insurance companies, debt collection companies, credit agencies, list brokers, other law firms or consulting companies). As a general rule, I conclude contracts with our processors regarding the processing and protection of personal data, in particular - if relevant - with regard to the attorney-client privilege.
Clients and other contractual partners: This mainly includes my clients and my other contractual partners for whom a transfer of your data arises from the contract (e.g., because you work for a contractual partner or they provide services for you). This category of recipients also includes entities with which I cooperate, such as other law firms in Switzerland and abroad or legal protection insurance companies. The recipients are themselves responsible for the processing of the data, either as sole controllers, or as joint controller with me.
Authorities and courts: I may disclose personal data to offices, courts, and other authorities as well as arbitral institutions in Switzerland and abroad if this is necessary for the fulfillment of my contractual obligations and, in particular, to conduct my mandate, or if I are legally obligated or entitled to do so, or if this appears necessary to protect my interests. The recipients are themselves responsible for the processing of the data.
Counterparties and persons involved: To the extent necessary for the performance of my contractual obligations, in particular for the management of mandates, I also disclose your personal data to counterparties and other involved persons (e.g., co-arbitrators, guarantors, financiers, affiliated companies, other law firms, respondents or experts).
Other persons: This refers to other cases where the inclusion of third parties results from the purposes according to Section 3. This includes, for example, delivery addressees or payment recipients specified by you, third parties in the context of agency relationships (e.g., your lawyer or your bank) or persons involved in official or legal proceedings. I may also disclose your personal data to my supervisory authority, in particular if this is necessary to release me from my professional obligation of confidentiality. You may also be affected if I cooperate with the media and transmit content to them (e.g., photos). In the course of business development, I may sell or acquire businesses, parts of businesses, assets or companies, or enter into partnerships, which may also result in the disclosure of data (including data about you, e.g., as a client or supplier or as their representative) to the parties involved in these transactions. Communications with my competitors, industry organizations, associations, and other bodies may also involve the exchange of your data.
All these categories of recipients may involve third parties, so that your data may also become accessible to them. I can restrict processing by certain third parties (e.g., IT providers), but not by others (e.g., authorities, banks, etc.).
I also allow certain third parties to collect personal data from you on my websites and at events organized by me, also under their own responsibility (e.g., media photographers, providers of tools that I have embedded on my websites, etc.). These third parties are solely responsible for the data processing insofar as I are not decisively involved in these data collections. If you have any concerns or wish to assert your data protection rights, please contact these third parties directly. I have outlined your rights in Section 7. Information about the activities on my website can be found in Section 8.
6. Is your personal data also transferred cross-border?
I process and store personal data mainly in Switzerland and exceptionally in the European Economic Area (EEA). However, depending on the circumstances personal data may potentially be processed in any country in the world, for instance through subcontractors of my service providers or in proceedings before foreign courts or authorities. In the course of my activities for clients, your personal data may also end up in any country in the world.
If a recipient is located in a country without adequate data protection, I contractually obligate the recipient to comply with an adequate level of data protection (for this purpose, I use the revised standard contractual clauses of the European Commission, which can be accessed via https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?, if necessary with the required adaptations for Switzerland), insofar as the recipient is not already subject to a legally recognized set of rules to ensure data protection. I may also disclose personal data to a country without adequate data protection without entering into a separate contract for this purpose if I can rely on an exception clause. An exception may apply in particular in the case of legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases of overriding public interests or if the performance of a contract that is in your interest requires such disclosure (e.g., if I disclose data to my correspondent law firms), if you have consented, or if it is not possible to obtain your consent within a reasonable period of time and the disclosure is necessary to protect your life or physical integrity or that of a third party, or if it concerns data made publicly available by you, the processing of which you have not objected to. I may also rely on the exception for data from a register provided for by law (e.g., commercial register) to which I have been legitimately granted access.
7. What rights do you have?
You have certain rights in connection with my data processing. In particular, you may, in accordance with applicable law, request information about the processing of your personal data, have inaccurate personal data corrected, request the deletion of personal data, object to data processing, request the release of certain personal data in a standard electronic format or its transfer to other data controllers or revoke consent with effect for the future, insofar as our processing is based on your consent.
If you wish to exercise your rights against me, please contact me; my contact details can be found in Section 2. To prevent misuse, I must verify your identity (e.g., with a copy of your ID, if necessary).
Please note that conditions, exceptions, or limitations apply to these rights (e.g., to protect third parties or trade secrets or due to my professional obligation of confidentiality). I reserve the right to redact copies or to supply only excerpts for reasons of data protection or confidentiality.
8. How are cookies, similar technologies and social media plug-ins used on my websites?
When using my websites (incl. newsletters), data is generated that is stored in logs (especially technical data). In addition, I may use cookies and similar technologies (e.g., pixel tags or fingerprints) to recognize website visitors, evaluate their behavior and recognize preferences. A cookie is a small file that is transmitted between your system and the server and enables the recognition of a specific device or browser.
You can set your browser to automatically reject, accept or delete cookies. You can also disable or delete cookies on a case-by-case basis. You can find out how to manage cookies in your browser in the help menu of your browser.
Both the technical data I collect and cookies generally do not contain any personal data. However, personal data that I or third-party providers commissioned by me store about you (e.g., if you have a user account with me or these providers) may be linked to the technical data or to the information stored in and derived from cookies, and thus possibly to your identity.
I also use social media plug-ins, which are small pieces of software that establish a connection between your visit to my websites and a third-party provider. The social media plug-in tells the third-party provider that you have visited my websites and may send the third-party provider cookies that the third-party provider has previously placed on your web browser. For more information about how these third-party providers use your personal data collected via their social media plug-ins, please refer to their respective privacy notices.
In addition, I use my own tools as well as third-party services (which may in turn use cookies) on my websites, in particular to improve the functionality or content of my websites (e.g., integration of videos or maps), to compile statistics, and to serve advertisements.
In particular, I currently use offers from the following service providers and advertising partners, whereby their contact details and further information on the individual data processing can be found in the respective privacy notice:
Google Analytics
Provider: Google Ireland
Privacy notice: https://support.google.com/ana...
Information for Google accounts: https://policies.google.com/te...Instagram
Provider: Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd., Ireland
Privacy Notice: https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policyLinkedIn
Provider: LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Ireland
Privacy Notice: www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy?WhatsApp
Provider: Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, Ireland
Privacy Notice: www.whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy-eea
Some of the third-party providers I use may be located outside of Switzerland. Information on cross-border data transfers can be found under Section 6. In terms of data protection law, they may be either data processors of me or (independent) data controllers. Further information on this can be found in the privacy notices of the corresponding service providers.
9. How do I process personal data on my social media pages?
I maintain pages and other online presences on social networks and other platforms operated by third parties. In this context, I may process data about you. I may receive data from you (e.g., when you communicate with me or comment on my content) and from the platforms (e.g., statistics). The platform providers may analyze your usage and process this data together with other data they have about you. They also process this data for their own purposes (e.g., marketing and market research purposes and to manage their platforms), and act as individual data controllers for this purpose. For more information on processing by platform operators, please refer to the privacy notice of the respective platforms.
I currently maintain a presence on the following platforms, with the identity and contact details of the platform operator available in the respective privacy notice:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrine-schnyder-2b2a7543/
Provider: LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company or LinkedIn Corporation
Privacy notice: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy
I are entitled, but not obliged, to check content before or after it is published on my online presences, to delete content without notice and, if necessary, to report it to the provider of the relevant platform.
Some of the platform operators may be located outside of Switzerland. Information on cross-border data transfers can be found under Section 6.
10. What else needs to be considered?
I do not presume that the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) is applicable to data processing by me. Nonetheless, if the GDPR should apply to certain data processing on an exceptional basis, this Section 10 shall apply exclusively for the purposes of the GDPR and the data processing subject to it.
In this case, I base the processing of your personal data in particular on the fact that
it is necessary for the initiation, conclusion and performance of contracts and their administration and enforcement (Article 6 (1)(b) GDPR; see also Section 3),
it is necessary for the protection of my legitimate interests or of third parties, e.g., for communication with you or third parties, to operate my websites, to improve my electronic offers and registration for certain offers and services, for security purposes, for compliance with the law and internal regulations, for my risk management and corporate governance, and for other purposes such as training and education, administration, evidence and quality assurance, organization, implementation and follow-up of events and for the protection of other legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR; see also Section 3),
it is required or permitted by law due to my mandate or position under the law of the EU or the EEA or an EU member state (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR) or is necessary to protect your vital interests or those of other natural persons (Article 6(1)(d) GDPR);
you have separately consented to the processing, e.g., via a corresponding declaration on my websites (Article 6(1)(a) and Article 9(2)(a) GDPR).
I would like to point out that I process your data for as long as it is necessary for my processing purposes (cf. Section 3), the legal retention periods and my legitimate interests, in particular for documentation and evidence purposes, or storage is technically required (e.g. in the case of backups or document management systems). If there are no legal or contractual obligations or technical reasons to the contrary, I generally delete or anonymize your data after the storage or processing period has expired as part of my usual processes and in accordance with my retention policy.
If you do not disclose certain personal data to me, this may mean that it is not possible to provide the related services or conclude a contract. In principle, I indicate which personal data requested by me are mandatory.
The right to object to the processing of your data, described in Section 7, applies in particular to data processing for the purpose of direct marketing.
If you do not agree with my handling of your rights or data protection, please let me know (see contact details in Section 2). If you are in the EEA, you also have the right to complain to the data protection supervisory authority in your country. You can find a list of authorities in the EEA here: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.
11. Can this Privacy Notice be changed?
This Privacy Notice is not part of any contract with you. I may amend this Privacy Notice at any time. The version published on this website is the current version.