Privacy Policy

The European Union of National Tile Associations ("we") attaches great importance to protecting your data and safeguarding your privacy. In this statement, we would therefore like to inform you about the collection and use of individual data concerning personal or factual circumstances of an identified or identifiable natural person ("personal data").

This Privacy Policy applies to the domain euf-federation.com and subdomains in the format subdomain.euf-federation.com.

Changes to this privacy policy apply from the time of their publication on our website. The processing of personal data collected under an older privacy policy will be carried out in accordance with this privacy policy. We reserve the right to change this privacy policy at any time and to inform customers, partners and users about the changes in an appropriate manner.

I. INFORMATION ABOUT THE PERSON IN CHARGE

1. rESPONSIBLE AND CONTACT PERSON

The data controller with respect to those personal data that you send to us through the website is:

EUF
c/o Swiss Tile Association
Ceramic way 3
6252 Dagmersellen

info@euf-federation.com 

If you have any questions or communications concerning your personal data, please do not hesitate to contact us.

ii. INFORMATION ON DATA PROCESSING

2. pROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA

We process your personal data only within the framework of the data processing principles and if a legal basis exists. Where it serves the initiation and execution of a contract, this legal basis applies. Furthermore, we have an interest in continuously improving our offers and adapting them to your needs. This is a necessity in order to further develop our offers, for statistical purposes and to ensure the security of our offers. We assume that our interests prevail.

In the course of a website visit, we also collect the following necessary data:

  1. All information that you explicitly provide in the context of an inquiry in the contact form or an e-mail (name, address, age, gender, contact details, texts, photos, images, etc.).
  2. IP address and referrer URL (the previously visited page);
  3. Used browser version and browser type;
  4. Date & time of the visit or request;
  5. Operating system;
  6. Provider.

Cookies, which we use on our website, can be found at the end of this privacy policy under the title IV "Information on the use of cookies".

We do not create any personality profiles on the website and only collect or process particularly sensitive personal data (e.g. about religious, political or ideological views, state of health, etc.) as an exception and in this case limited to contractual or legal obligations. 

3. dISCLOSURE TO THIRD PARTIES

Your data will not be passed on to third parties without your express consent. Exceptions to this are our service partners that we need to process the contractual relationship (e.g. financial institutions to process payments, the postal service, courier services or freight forwarders to ship material, cloud services to provide and guarantee the digital infrastructure, etc.). In these cases, we strictly comply with the requirements of the applicable data protection laws. The scope of data transfer is limited to a minimum.

The use of service partners in countries other than Switzerland or the member states of the European Economic Area is only an option for us if the country in question either has an equivalent level of data protection according to the Federal Council's list of countries, or we can contractually ensure the equivalence of the level of protection (e.g., through contracts or the conclusion of so-called standard contractual clauses). 

3.1 DATA PROCESSING ON COMPANY PAGES

We process personal data in accordance with the principles of this privacy policy. Personal data may be processed if you interact with us via our company pages on the corresponding social media.

When visiting a company website, the respective operator of the platform collects information that enables it to recognize users and to comprehensively analyze user behavior. Based on the data collected in this way, the operator of the platform can also create user profiles. If you are logged in with your corresponding user account when visiting a company page, the respective provider can also assign this visit to your account. The respective provider only provides us with an anonymized statistical evaluation of the use of our company page based on the information obtained.

In principle, you can assert your rights under data protection law with regard to data processing by our company websites both against us and against the respective operator of a platform. However, we would like to point out that these can be asserted most effectively with the respective operator, as only this operator has access to the users' data and can take appropriate measures and provide information directly.

4. MESSAGES, NOTIFICATIONS AND UPDATES

Communication for advertising purposes: If there is a corresponding basis under data protection law (use of a paid service or corresponding consent), we use your contact data to inform you about similar offers by e-mail, as well as for marketing and optimization purposes, which enable us to offer you better services and better customer service, for statistical purposes and to further optimize our offers.

You can opt out of receiving the newsletter at any time. This can be done by sending an email to info@euf-federation.com or by using the link at the end of the newsletter.

When sending newsletters, we use established tools from recognized providers. Compliance with data protection requirements is ensured via order processing contracts.

Communications for Informational and Other Purposes: We will send you communications that are required or necessary for all customers, notices that contain important information, and other communications that you request from us.   You may not opt out of these communications.  However, you may be able to customize the media and format through which you receive the notifications.

5. TRANSMISSION OF PERSONAL DATA

Unless expressly agreed otherwise, electronic communication shall take place via non-encrypted e-mails. The use of e-mails is not technically secure; it may happen that e-mails are not delivered. When e-mails are transmitted, they may leave national borders, even if the sender and recipient are in Germany. The confidentiality of e-mails cannot be guaranteed if encryption is missing or insufficient.

Even when using forms available on our website, only the transmission of your message from your computer to the web server is encrypted. 

By using the forms or sending an e-mail, you consent to communication via e-mail with knowledge of the risks described. The use of encrypted or otherwise secured communication channels must be agreed with us in advance.

6. RETENTION OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

6.1 sERVER LOCATIONS

Our website is hosted by Cloudrexx in Thun. 

Your personal data collected in the course of activities on the website are hosted on Cloudrexx servers in Switzerland. The servers are shielded as well as possible against unauthorized third-party access. Backups are made regularly to prevent data loss as much as possible.

As far as your personal data is concerned, which we collect directly, it is stored on our own servers as well as on virtual servers of a cloud provider with a good reputation with storage location in Switzerland or the European Economic Area. The servers are shielded as well as possible against unauthorized third-party access. Backups are made regularly to prevent data loss as far as possible.

6.2 RETENTION PERIOD

We keep your data only as long as it is necessary legally or according to the purpose of processing. In the case of analyses, we store your data until the analysis is completed. If we store data on the basis of a contractual relationship with you, this data will remain stored at least as long as the contractual relationship exists and at the longest as long as limitation periods for possible claims by us run or legal or contractual retention obligations exist. As a rule, the retention period does not exceed 10 years (calculated from the termination of the contractual or factual relationship with you). 

iii. yOUR RIGHTS

7. GENERAL

In principle, you have the rights to information, correction, deletion, restriction, transfer, revocation and objection as well as, if applicable, complaint. 

8. DATA FROM YOUNG PEOPLE UDNER 16

According to general requirements of data protection law, young people under the age of 16 cannot give consent to the processing of their personal data. However, for the use of certain services on our website and platforms, the existence of consent is required. 

Our website is generally not aimed at young people under the age of 16. Insofar as this data protection declaration refers to consent or makes reference to such consent, this always includes the consent of the parents or the legal representative, insofar as this is necessary. In principle, we assume the consent of the legal representative, insofar as a young person interacts with us. This principle applies until we are informed otherwise by the legal representative or we must assume due to other circumstances that a young person is acting without the consent of the legal representative. As the legal representative of juveniles, we will treat the legal representative as if the juvenile were exercising his or her own rights with respect to the exercise of privacy-related choices. This applies until the adolescent reaches the age of 16, from which point we give priority to the adolescent's voting rights to the extent permitted by law in the event of a conflict (and as long as it does not involve the purchase of a service for consideration).

9. INFORMATION, CORRECTION, TRANSFER

You have the right to free information about your stored data and the right to correction at any time. Please contact us for this purpose. You will find our contact details under item 1 of this privacy policy.

You also have the right to request the transfer of your personal data held electronically to another data controller free of charge. Please note, however, that we cannot adapt your data to any special format requirements of another controller and will not transfer your business history or passwords under any circumstances.

10. REVOCATION AND DELETION

You can revoke your consent to the processing of your data by us in accordance with data protection law at any time and request the deletion of your personal data. Please contact us for this purpose. You will find our contact details under item 1 of this data protection declaration.

In the event of a deletion request, we will block and block your profile. Please note, however, that we are required by commercial and tax law, for example, to retain accounting vouchers for at least 10 fiscal years. We can therefore neither delete nor process the personal data contained in these vouchers. To this extent, your revocation or deletion request therefore only applies to future processing and only to personal data that we do not process on the basis of a legal justification, but exclusively on the basis of your consent. 

If a contractual relationship is still pending at the time of receipt of your revocation and deletion request, your personal data will continue to be processed until the contract has been fully processed. Your revocation under data protection law expressly has no influence on the processing of existing contractual relationships and is not considered an extraordinary reason for termination.

11. COMPLAINT TO A SUPERVISORY AUTHORITY

 With the entry into force of the revised DPA (expected on September 1, 2023), you have a right of appeal to the competent supervisory authority at the registered office of the controller if you believe that we have violated a provision of the DPA. 

The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (www.edoeb.admin.ch) is responsible for complaints from data subjects. 

iv. iNFORMATION ON THE USE OF COOKIES

In this section, we would like to inform you about how and for what purpose we use cookies on our website and provide you with information about how the respective cookies affect your personal data. Your rights according to the above title III above naturally also apply with regard to the cookies described below.

12. COOKIES

12.1 General information about cookies

Cookies are small text files or pieces of information that are stored on your computer or mobile device (such as a smartphone or tablet) when you use our services. A cookie usually contains the name of the website/app it came from, the duration of the cookie (i.e., how long the cookie will remain on your device), and a value, which is usually a randomly generated unique number.

We use cookies to make our services more user-friendly and to tailor our services and products to your interests and needs. Cookies are able to do this because our services can read these files. This enables our services to recognize you and remember important information that makes your use of our services more user-friendly (for example, by remembering preference settings). Cookies may also be used to help expedite your future activities and user experience with our Services. We also use cookies to compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that allow us to understand how users use our Services and help us improve the structure and content of our digital media.

The maximum storage time of cookies after their initial placement on the user terminal is as required by the applicable law.

12.2 types of cookies

The types of cookies we use are session cookies, resident cookies, first party cookies and third party cookies.

Resident cookies are used to store your login information and remember your settings for future logins to our services. A resident cookie is a cookie that is stored as a file on your computer and remains there when you close your web browser. The cookie can be read by the services that created it when you revisit those services.

Session ID cookies are used to enable certain features on our Services, to better understand how you interact with our Services, and to monitor aggregate user data and web traffic routing. Unlike resident cookies, session cookies are removed from your computer when you close your browser. Typically, session ID cookies store an anonymous session identifier on your computer that allows you to use a service without having to log in each time you click.

First party cookies are our own cookies that we use to improve your user experience. They are linked to a user's personal information. Third parties do not have access to the information we collect through our own cookies.

Third party cookies are cookies placed on our Services by third party companies to provide services, including advertising cookies. Third party companies place third party cookies on your device on our behalf when you visit our Services to enable those third party companies to perform the services they provide. In addition to what is discussed in this Privacy Policy, you can find more information about these third party cookies in the privacy policies of those third party companies.

Below is a list of the different types of cookies we use in our services.

12.3 essential cookies

Essential cookies are cookies that are strictly necessary for our services to work and for us to use their features. Without such essential cookies, our Services would not operate as smoothly as you would like and we may not be able to provide the Website or certain services or features that you request.

We also use technical cookies that allow our services to remember choices you have made (such as your username, language, or the region you are in) for customization and personalization purposes. These cookies do not collect information about you that is used for advertising purposes, nor do they remember which web pages you have been to.

The following first party cookies are set by us (all resident cookies):

Device Identifier Cookie: We install cookies on your computer that recognize you and tell the website or service that you are logged in.

User Local Cookie: We install cookies that are used to remember certain local selections you have made, such as language selection.

Privacy Visibility Cookies: We install cookies on your computer that indicate whether you have been informed by a banner message displayed about the use of cookies and the handling and your rights in relation to your data, and then whether you have given your consent to the use of cookies, so that the banner does not reappear each time you visit a page.

These cookies are necessary for the operation of our services, and therefore you can not object to the use of these cookies.

hCaptcha (session third party cookie)
This website uses the "hChaptcha" feature from Intuition Machines, Inc. hCaptcha is designed to prevent abuse of online services by malicious bots. It excels at avoiding long-term data retention by relying on instant evaluation instead of recording and analyzing your browsing history. hCaptcha also supports initiatives such as Privacy Pass, a new standard for preserving online privacy through cryptographic proof, and other unique features that put privacy first.

For more information on the handling of user data, please refer to the privacy policy at: https://www.hcaptcha.com/privacy.

12.4 Functional cookies

Functional cookies are cookies that enable the use of certain features in our Services that may be useful to you, but are not strictly necessary for our Services to work and for you to use their features. You can refuse the installation of these cookies by making the appropriate settings in your browser, but this may result in you not being able to use certain functions of our services, or only to a limited extent.

Privacy policy status: August 2023