Privacy Policy for Swiss Centre for Journalism
This Privacy Policy describes how Swiss Centre for Journalism, located at 58 Talstrasse, Zurich, Zurich Canton, 8001, Switzerland, collects, uses, and protects your personal data when you use our site or services. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your data in an open and transparent manner, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and applicable Swiss data protection laws.
What Personal Data We Collect
We may collect and process various types of personal data, depending on your interaction with our site and services. This data may include:
• **Identity and Contact Data:** Such as your name, address, email address (when you provide it), phone number (when you provide it), date of birth, and other similar identifiers.
• **Payment Data:** Information necessary to process payments for courses or services, which may include billing address and payment card details. Please note that we do not store full payment card details; this is handled by secure, compliant payment processors.
• **Profile Data:** Information you provide when creating an account on our service, such as username, password, course history, preferences, and feedback.
• **Usage Data:** Information about how you use our online platform, courses, and services, including pages viewed, time spent on pages, search queries, and other interaction data.
• **Technical Data:** Includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access our service.
• **Communication Data:** Includes your preferences in receiving communications from us.
We collect this data in several ways:
• **Directly from you:** When you register for a course or service, make a purchase, fill out forms, communicate with us, or create an account.
• **Automatically:** As you interact with our site, through cookies and similar technologies (see below).
• **From third parties:** Such as business partners or service providers who assist us in providing our services.
How We Use Your Personal Data
We use your personal data for various purposes, based on different legal grounds under GDPR and applicable laws:
• **To Provide Services:** To register you for courses, workshops, or seminars, process payments, manage your account, and deliver the educational content and services you have requested. (Legal Basis: Performance of a contract)
• **To Improve Our Services:** To understand how our site and services are used, to analyse trends, and to develop and improve our course offerings, online platform features, and user experience. (Legal Basis: Legitimate interests)
• **To Communicate with You:** To respond to your inquiries, provide support, send you important updates about your services, and, with your consent, send you information about other courses or services we offer that may be of interest. (Legal Basis: Performance of a contract, Legitimate interests, Consent)
• **For Business Operations:** To manage our relationship with you, administer and protect our business and this service (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data). (Legal Basis: Legitimate interests, Legal obligation)
• **For Security and Fraud Prevention:** To ensure the security of our online platform and protect against fraudulent or illegal activity. (Legal Basis: Legitimate interests, Legal obligation)
• **To Comply with Legal Obligations:** To meet our legal, regulatory, tax, and accounting obligations. (Legal Basis: Legal obligation)
Sharing Your Personal Data
We may share your personal data with trusted third parties under specific circumstances:
• **Service Providers:** We may share data with third-party service providers who perform services on our behalf, such as payment processing, IT and system administration services, data analytics, and customer support. These providers are required to process your data only for the purposes instructed by us and in accordance with this policy and data protection laws.
• **Business Partners:** If you register for a specific programme offered jointly with a partner organization, we may share relevant data with that partner to facilitate your participation.
• **Legal Requirements:** We may disclose your data if required to do so by law, court order, or other legal process, or if we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, property, or safety, or the rights, property, or safety of others.
• **Business Transfers:** In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your personal data may be transferred to the acquiring entity.
We ensure that any third parties who handle your data are also committed to protecting your privacy and comply with applicable data protection standards.
Data Retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
In some circumstances, we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under GDPR and applicable data protection laws, you have certain rights regarding your personal data:
• **The right to access:** You have the right to request copies of your personal data.
• **The right to rectification:** You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or complete information you believe is incomplete.
• **The right to erasure:** You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
• **The right to restrict processing:** You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• **The right to object to processing:** You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• **The right to data portability:** You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
• **The right to withdraw consent:** Where we process your data based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us in writing at the address provided at the end of this policy. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, particularly in the EU Member State or Swiss Canton of your habitual residence, place of work, or the place of the alleged infringement.
Data Security
We have implemented appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
Cookies and Similar Technologies
Our site uses cookies and similar technologies to collect information about your browsing behaviour. Cookies are small data files placed on your device. They help us to operate the site, improve your experience, and analyse site traffic. You can manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our service.
Links to Third-Party Sites
Our online platform may contain links to third-party websites or services. This privacy policy does not apply to those third-party sites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of external websites.
Children's Privacy
Our services are not intended for individuals under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us so that we can take steps to remove that information.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. Any changes will be posted on this page, and the revised policy will be effective immediately upon posting. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our data practices, please contact us in writing at:
Swiss Centre for Journalism
58 Talstrasse
Zurich, Zurich Canton, 8001
Switzerland