Introduction
This privacy statement (Privacy Statement) explains how Laudes Foundation (Laudes) collects personal data:
- from you through this website (www.transparencyguide.org); or
- when you are, or work at, one of our grantees, suppliers, or business contacts (all together, Partners).
Please read our Cookie Statement for personal data collected through our website via cookies and other technology.
Please read this Privacy Statement carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data. This Privacy Statement may be amended from time to time.
Controller of your personal data
Laudes is the controller of the personal data collected through this website and the personal data collected from Partners. Laudes is a Swiss foundation, located at Grafenauweg 10, 6301 Zug, Switzerland.
Where you as our business contact are also in contact with a local Laudes entity, Laudes Foundation and that local Laudes entity are joint controllers. For certain financial transactions, Laudes is supported by COFRA Holding AG (COFRA), located at Grafenauweg 10, 6301 Zug, Switzerland as a joint controller. For such joint controller relationships Laudes has concluded joint controller agreements. Core of these agreements is that Laudes is the main contact point for all privacy and data protection related matters of personal data collected through the website and of personal data of Partners. Laudes can be contacted through privacy@laudesfoundation.org.
The term ’Laudes’, ‘we’ or ‘us’ in this Privacy Statement means Laudes Foundation for all website visitors and for Partners who are in contact with Laudes Foundation. If you are in contact with a local Laudes entity, the term ‘Laudes’, ‘we’ or ‘us’ means Laudes Foundation jointly with your relevant local Laudes entity.
Information we collect from you
Laudes processes personal data we collect from you directly online or offline, either (i) when we are in contact through email, telephone or via the contact form on our websites, (ii) when you visit our offices or events, (iii) when you enter into transactions or business arrangements with us, or (iv) when we contact you in the context of our learning and development activities.
We may also collect your personal data via other sources, such as professional social media websites or trade registers.
Our use of your personal data
When you submit a request via the contact form on our website, we will use your personal data to communicate with you. If you subscribe to our newsletter on our website, we use your data to send our newsletter and we track your clicks to optimize our newsletter.
When you are or will become our Partner, we may use your personal data for the purpose of assessing and accepting grantees, suppliers and partners, including confirming and verifying identities and conducting due diligence and screening.
We will also process personal data necessary to conclude and execute agreements with our Partners, including to record and financially settle delivered services and projects.
As our Partner, your personal data may also be processed by Laudes for purposes of audits, accounting, management reporting and analysis or compliance with legal obligations such as tax obligations.
We may also process your personal data for purposes related to relationship management and learning and development, including maintaining and promoting contact with Partners, sending out surveys and establishing partnerships and alliances.
The grounds for processing your personal data are either to fulfill certain contractual or legal obligations or our legitimate business interest. Where we rely on legitimate interest as a legal ground, we will always maintain a balance between our legitimate business interests as described above and your privacy rights.
Disclosure of your personal data
To support our business, we engage a number of parties that work on our behalf, such as IT service providers, payment providers or professional providers like accountants or consultants. Laudes makes sure that, if required, so‑called data processing agreements are signed with the other parties, under which these parties are obliged, amongst other things, to protect the personal data and to handle these in compliance with the law.
We do not undertake marketing activities for third parties nor do we provide information to third parties for their own marketing purposes. We will endeavor to process your personal data solely within Switzerland or the European Union but we may also transfer your personal data to any other country worldwide. If we need to transfer your personal data outside Switzerland and the EU to a country whose legislation does not provide for an adequate protection of personal data, we will take appropriate measures to provide an adequate level of protection (in particular by concluding appropriate contracts and implementing technical and organizational measures).
How long do we retain personal data
In general, Laudes will retain your personal data for the duration of your business relationship and for the time it is necessary to keep your personal data after the end of that relationship. This period will depend on our purpose of use of your personal data. Examples are:
- Where your business contact details are included in invoices, we will keep your personal data together with our invoices (usually 7 years based on tax legislation).
- Where we need your personal data for identification and screening purposes, we will keep your personal data for as long as we are required to keep proof of the screening based on local law.
- When you unsubscribe from our newsletter, your details remain on the list of past recipients. This is a measure to prevent that you are manually re-added to the newsletter. However, at your request your details can be permanently removed from the list.
Other websites
This statement relates only to Laudes websites. Our website may from time to time contain links to third party websites. If you follow such link please note that these website may have their own policies. We recommend that you check the policies of third party websites before submitting any personal data. We do not accept any responsibility for third party websites or policies.
Your rights with regard to your personal data
You have several rights related to your personal data. Below you find an explanation of these rights.
Right of access: You have the right to request a copy of your personal data which are processed by or on behalf of Laudes. You can also ask for other information on the processing of your personal data, such as details of the storage period and third-party recipients.
Right of rectification: If your personal data are incorrect or incomplete or are not processed in compliance with any applicable law, you have the right to have your data rectified or completed by Laudes.
Right of restriction: You have the right to have the processing of your personal data restricted by Laudes. In that case, we will not process your data for a certain period of time, for instance while we are checking the rectification of your personal data.
Right of erasure of personal data: You have the right to have your personal data deleted. Please note that this right may not apply when we have a legal obligation or other pressing need to keep your personal data.
Right of data portability: At your request, Laudes will provide you with a structured copy of your personal data, which is suitable for common digital use. You also have the right to have these personal data transferred by Laudes to a third party.
Right to object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data by Laudes.
Please note that the above-mentioned rights might be restricted in certain cases, for instance if we have a legal obligation to process certain personal data or have an overriding interest in doing so (insofar as we are entitled to rely on this).
You may also be able to request a transfer of your personal data. To submit a request to us in this respect, please send an email to privacy@laudesfoundation.org.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, or if you want to lodge a complaint, please send an email to privacy@laudesfoundation.org. If you feel that we have not satisfactorily addressed any complaint that you have, you can submit a complaint to the competent data protection authority. The competent data protection authority in Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (http://www.edoeb.admin.ch).