Data privacy statement

The mandate of Basel Area Business & Innovation 

Basel Area Business & Innovation (hereinafter referred to as “Basel Area“) is an association pursuant to Art. 60 et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code and is financed by private and public partners for the purpose of promoting innovation and the location of the northwestern Swiss cantons of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft and Jura. The core task of Basel Area is to communicate the strengths of the Basel region as a business location to the public and to support company founders and enterprises from Switzerland and abroad with the implementation of their projects in the region. Basel Area focuses on proactively developing and maintaining a network of qualified decision-makers, innovators, experts, multipliers and investors. In this network, Basel Area provides customers with targeted access to knowledge and specialized know-how and is able to settle new companies in the region and organize successful events. In addition, Basel Area leads and manages several initiatives, such as BaseLaunch and DayOne. 

In this data privacy statement, we, Basel Area, explain how we collect and otherwise process personal data in our activities. “Personal data” is defined as all the information that relates to an identified or identifiable person. The privacy statement applies to all persons whose data we process, regardless of how they contact us, e.g. by telephone, on one of our websites or via our initiatives, one of our pages on a social network, at one of our events, etc.  It applies both to the processing of personal data already collected as well as data to be collected in the future. This data privacy statement does not contain an exhaustive description; other data privacy statements or general terms and conditions, conditions of participation and similar documents may govern specific matters. 

Responsible persons and contacts 

Basel Area is responsible for the data processing described here. If you have any data privacy concerns, you can contact us at the following address: 

Basel Area Business & Innovation
Dufourstrasse 11
CH-4010 Basel
+41 61 295 50 00
info@baselarea.swiss 

Collection and processing of personal data 

Personal data is all information that relates to an identified or identifiable natural person. Data that cannot be assigned to a natural person (anonymous data) is not included.  

You often disclose personal data yourself, e.g. when you transmit data to us or communicate with us. In particular, we process personal data that we receive from you, our customers and business partners as well as other persons in connection with our business relationships or that we collect from visitors to our websites. We also process personal data when you participate in our events, register in our event and newsletter notification lists or interact with us via social media or on our website. 

In particular, we process the following personal data: 

• Data about your identity such as first name, surname, date of birth, gender, title;  
• Contact information — such as name, address, email address, telephone number, professional activity, industry and areas of interest;  
• Communication data — such as email correspondence with you;  
• Information related to your professional functions and activities;  
• Financial data such as bank details and payment card details;  
• Information that is provided to us for the purpose of attending meetings, seminars or events and information about which offers you have used or which events you have attended;  
• Information about how you interact with our websites or how you use our websites;  
• Technical data — such as IP address, language settings, browser settings, time zone, operating system, platform, screen resolution; URL path, username/ID (if available), date and time of retrieval, amount of data transferred, notification of successful retrieval, browser type, referrer URL (the URL that refers to our website, e.g. Google search), the requesting provider;  
• Image and video recordings of you — such as photos or videos of our events;  
• Advertising and communication data — such as information about when you receive and read newsletters from us, which of our events you attend and preferences for advertising and communication settings;  
• Data and information, for example in documents or correspondence and meetings with third parties, which are sent to us by third parties or which we take from public registers; or  
• Other information relating to you that you provide to us.  

We collect particularly sensitive personal data if we are legally obliged to do so or if you, courts, authorities, etc. have provided us with such information.  

This list is not exhaustive. In individual cases, we may also process further personal data. 

If you provide us with personal data from other persons (e.g. family members, work colleagues), please make sure that these persons are aware of this privacy statement and only provide us with their personal data if you are allowed to do so and if this personal data is correct. 

In addition to the data that you provide to us directly, we collect personal data from the following sources, insofar as this is permitted: Information that you provide to us, your family, your employer, your contractual partners, our business partners, consultants or other third parties; Information from public registers (e.g. commercial register, press, Internet); Information from the media and Internet about you (insofar as this is appropriate in the specific case, e.g. in the context of an application, press review, marketing/sales, etc.).  

Purpose of personal data processing 

The aim and purpose of Basel Area is to market the Basel region as a business and innovation location, to support international companies that want to establish their business activities in the region, to support local companies and researchers in the fields of technology and innovation, and to provide general assistance to company founders in setting up their companies. 

We process the data collected primarily in order to achieve the objectives of Basel Area, to communicate with you, to draw attention to the activities of Basel Area, to conclude and process contracts with our customers and business partners, in particular in connection with our business relationships with our customers and the procurement of products and services from our suppliers and contractors. We then process personal data to further develop our offers, services and websites, and other platforms on which we are present; for market and opinion research, media monitoring; to ensure our operations, in particular IT, our websites and other platforms as well as measures for IT, building and facility security and protection of our employees and other people and assets entrusted to us (such as access controls, visitor lists, network and email scanners, telephone recordings) and to comply with our domestic and foreign legal and regulatory obligations.  

Employees of such a customer or business partner may also be affected by our data processing. 

If you have given us your consent to process your personal data for certain purposes (for example, when registering to receive the newsletters), we will process your personal data to the extent of and on the basis of that consent, unless we have another legal basis, insofar as such consent is needed. 

Consent can be revoked at any time; however, this has no effect on the data processed before the revocation. 

Data transfer and data transfer abroad 

Sometimes, as part of our activities, it is necessary for us to transfer your personal data to another organization, a data processor or other third parties – insofar as this is permitted and appears to us to be appropriate – because they process it for us or because they want to use it for their own purposes. 

A data processor is a company that handles the information on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions. We have data processors who support us in particular with: 

• IT services (companies that perform the necessary operations, technical support and maintenance of our IT solutions). 
• Marketing service providers (lead generation, printing and sales, web, design and creative agencies). 

Furthermore, Basel Area may also disclose your personal data to third parties, in particular partner organizations (companies or associations with which Basel Area jointly offers certain services and events). These include, in particular, Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area AG, for which Basel Area Business & Innovation operates the innovation parks. 

To the extent we are permitted, we may also disclose your personal data to comply with the law, a judicial proceeding, a court order or other legal process, including arbitration proceedings, e.g. in response to a court order or a subpoena. We also disclose data to public and judicial authorities, supervisory authorities or government bodies and in proceedings if required by law or regulations or by these authorities or other public bodies.  

We generally process and store personal data in Switzerland and the European Economic Area (EEA). In certain cases, however, we may also disclose personal data to service providers and other recipients who are located outside this area or who process personal data outside this area, in principle in any country in the world.  

If a recipient is located in a country without adequate legal data protection, we contractually oblige this person to comply with adequate data protection (we use the revised standard contractual clauses of the European Commission: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?), unless they are already subject to a legally recognized set of rules to ensure data protection and we are able to rely on an exception provision. An exception may apply in particular to legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases of overriding public interest or if the execution of a contract requires such disclosure, if you have given your consent or if it concerns data made generally accessible by you, the processing of which you have not objected to. 

Newsletter 

Basel Area sends out various newsletters for which you can register. The newsletters contain general information about the Basel region as well as about the services and events of Basel Area. Recipients who are not interested can unsubscribe from the newsletter by using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the e-mail. You can also find our contact details above. 

Cookies 

“Cookies” are small files that make it possible, during a user’s visit to the Basel Area website (https://baselarea.swiss/ and other domains managed by Basel Area), to store specific information related to the user on the user’s computer or other terminal device. Basel Area uses cookies in particular to determine the frequency of use and the number of users of its website and to make the range of services as convenient, efficient and attractive as possible. The Basel Area website uses the following types of cookies to identify users during their visit: 

1. Strictly necessary cookies (third-party cookies: reCAPTCHA, LinkedIn) 
2. Performance cookies (third-party cookies: Microsoft D365) 
3. Targeting cookies (third-party cookies: YouTube, Doubleclick by Google, LinkedIn) 

Users can set their browser to disable cookies, to restrict them to certain websites or so that they are informed as soon as a cookie is sent. Users can also delete cookies from their computer’s hard drive at any time. 

You can refuse the use of cookies at any time via the “Cookie Settings” pop-up window at the bottom left of our web pages. However, please note that you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you in the manner and for the purposes set out above. 

Google Analytics 

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (hereinafter “Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, i.e. text files placed on your computer, whereby the website analyses the use of the site by users. The information generated by cookies about the use of the website (including your IP address) is forwarded to Google and stored by Google on servers in the USA. Google uses this information to evaluate the use of the website, to create reports on website activity for website operators and to provide other services in connection with website activity and Internet use. 

We have configured these services so that the IP addresses of Google users within Europe are truncated before being sent to the US and therefore cannot be traced. We have deactivated the “data sharing” and “signals” settings. Although we can assume that the information we share with Google is not personal data for Google, it is possible that Google can draw conclusions about the identity of visitors from this data for its own purposes, create personal profiles and link this data to the Google accounts of these persons. 

By using our website, you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. 

Cookies can be rejected by selecting “decline all” cookies. You can find more information about the cookies we use here. 

 Google Ads 

This website may use Google Ads Remarketing to advertise on third-party websites (including Google) to previous visitors to our website. This could mean that we advertise to previous visitors who have not yet completed an activity on our website, e.g. those who have not sent a request via the contact form. This can also be done in the form of an advertisement on the Google search results page or a website in the Google Display Network. Third-party providers such as Google use cookies to activate ads based on a user’s previous visits to the site. All data collected will be used in accordance with our own privacy policy and Google’s privacy policy. If you do not wish to participate in our Google Ads remarketing, you can deactivate this by visiting Google’s Ads Preferences Manager. Find out more at: https://policies.google.com/privacy. 

Google reCAPTCHA  

We use Google’s reCAPTCHA service to ensure that our website is used by real people and to prevent abuse by bots. Data such as IP address and mouse movements are transmitted to Google. The processing is based on our legitimate interest. You can find more information in Google’s privacy policy.  

Log files 

Every time a page is accessed and displayed, access logs are recorded in a log file, the raw logs of Cyon, Switzerland, and are automatically deleted after 24 hours. The website statistics are generated from the raw logs and stored in prepared form. These records contain the following information: IP address of the accessing device, date and time of access, URL accessed, access status/HTTP status code, amount of data transferred during access, browser identification of the user and the website from which the user was redirected to the requested page (referrer), if available. 

Basel Area uses the web server/lightspeed server. Basel Area is able, for example, to determine on which days and at what times the services offered on its website are particularly popular and what data volumes are generated on its website. In addition, Basel Area may use log files to detect possible errors, such as faulty links or programming errors, and in this way use the log files for the development of its website. Basel Area does not link the page views and uses stored in the server log to individual persons. However, Basel Area reserves the right to use data from log files if there is a suspicion that users are using the website in violation of the law or contractual provisions. 

Social media 

We use the Salient Social Plugin on our websites to share our content on the social networks X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn. This is visible to you (usually through appropriate symbols). We’ve configured these items to disable tracking by default. If you activate these icons (by clicking), the operators of the corresponding social networks can detect that you are on our website and where exactly you are on our website and can use this information for their own purposes. This processing of your personal data is the responsibility of the respective operator and is carried out in accordance with their data protection regulations. 

Profiling 

We may process some of your personal data automatically in order to evaluate certain personal aspects (“profiling”). In particular, profiling enables us to provide you with better advice about services or to inform you about events that may be relevant to you. For this purpose, we may use evaluation tools to communicate with you and place appropriate advertisements for you, including market and opinion research. 

Third-party links  

Our service may contain links to third-party websites. Access to and use of such linked websites is not subject to this privacy statement, but to the privacy policies of those third-party websites. We are not responsible for the information practices of such third-party websites.  

Automated individual decisions 

In principle, we do not use fully automated automatic decision-making (as regulated in Art. 22 GDPR, for example) to establish and implement the business relationship. Should we use such procedures in individual cases, we will inform you separately if this is required by law and will inform you of the associated rights. 

Data security 

We take appropriate technical and organizational security precautions to protect your personal data against unauthorized access and misuse, such as issuing instructions, training, IT and network security solutions, access controls and restrictions, encryption of data carriers and transmissions, etc.  Employees sign an employment contract that contains a confidentiality clause. We also require our contractors to take appropriate technical and organizational security measures. 

Period for which personal data is stored 

We process and store your personal data as long as it is necessary for the fulfillment of our contractual and legal obligations or otherwise for the purposes intended by the processing, i.e. for example for the duration of the entire business relationship (from the initiation and processing of a contract through to its termination) as well as in accordance with the statutory retention and documentation obligations. It is possible that personal data will be kept for the period in which claims can be asserted against our company and insofar as we are otherwise legally obliged to do so or legitimate business interests require this (e.g. for evidence and documentation purposes). As soon as your personal data is no longer required for these purposes, it will generally and wherever possible be deleted or anonymized. For operational data (e.g. system and other logs), shorter retention periods apply. 

Rights of the data subject 

You have the right to information about, and correction and deletion of, your data within the framework of the data protection law applicable to you. In addition, there is the right to restrict data processing and to object to our data processing activities, in particular those carried out for direct marketing, profiling in the context of direct marketing and other legitimate interests in data processing. Furthermore, you have the right to surrender certain personal data for transfer to other bodies (“data portability”). 

Please note that these rights may be restricted or excluded in individual cases, for example if there are doubts about a person’s identity or if this is necessary to protect other people, to protect legitimate interests or to comply with statutory obligations. 

If you incur costs, we will inform you in advance. 

We have already informed you above about the possibility of revoking your consent. Please note that the exercise of these rights may conflict with contractual agreements, and this may have consequences such as the premature termination of the contract or additional costs. We will inform you in advance in such a case, unless this is already regulated by contract. 

In order to assert these rights, it is generally necessary for you to prove your identity (e.g. by means of a copy of the identity documents if your identity is not otherwise apparent or can be verified in another way). 

In addition, any data subject is entitled to enforce their rights in court or to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority. The competent data protection authority in Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home.html). 

Changes to privacy statement 

We may amend this data privacy statement at any time, with no prior notice. The current version published on our website applies.