privacy statement

DATA PROTECTION

Tourism Biel/Bienne Seeland (Zentralstrasse 60, 2501 Biel/Bienne), an association in the sense of Art. 60ff ZGB (law of associations), operates the website bienne2go.ch and is therefore responsible for the collection, processing and use of your personal data and the compliance of the said data processing with Swiss law.

Your trust is important to us, which is why we take the issue of data protection seriously and ensure the appropriate level of security. We of course abide by the statutory provisions of the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), the Ordinance to the Federal Act on Data Protection (OFADP), the Telecommunications Act (TCA) and, if applicable, other data protection provisions, in particular the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (GDPR).
Please take note of the information below so that you know which data we collect from you and for what purposes it is used.

1.    SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF THE COLLECTION, PROCESSING AND USE OF PERSONAL DATA

a.    when you visit www.bienne2go.ch

When you visit our website, our servers make a temporary record of each access and store it in a log file. The following data is collected and stored, without any action on your part, until it is automatically deleted by us after 12 months at the latest:

• the IP address of the accessing computer
• the time and date of access
• the name and URL of the file called up
• the website from which access is made
• the operating system of your computer and the browser used
• the country from which access is made and the language settings of your browser
• the name of your Internet access provider

The said data is collected and processed for the purpose of allowing you to use our website (establishing a connection), ensuring system security and stability in the long term and allowing our Internet offering to be optimised, as well as for internal statistical purposes. This is our legitimate interest in the processing of data within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. The IP address in particular is used in order to determine the country of residence of the visitor to the website and set the language of the website accordingly. The IP address is also analysed in the event of attacks on the network infrastructure of www.bienne2go.ch as well as for statistical purposes.

When you visit our website, we also use what are known as pixels and cookies to display advertising that is personalised for you and to use web analysis services. Further details of this can be found in Sections 2, 6 and 7 of this privacy policy.
 

b.    when you use our contact form

You have the option of using a contact form to get in touch with us. Doing so requires that you enter the following personal data:

• Title
• First name and surname
• Address (street, number, town/city, postcode) (optional)
• Telephone number (optional)
• E-mail address

We only use this data in order to answer your queries in an optimum manner and in a way that is tailored to you. The processing of your contact request constitutes our legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. You can object to this data processing at any time (for contact details, see further below, Section 11).
 

c.    when you register for our newsletter

You have the option of subscribing to our newsletter through our website. Registration is required in order to do so. As part of the registration, the following data must be provided:

• Title
• First name and surname
• E-mail address

You also have the option of providing additional information on a voluntary basis. We process this data in order to personalise the information and offers sent to you and to better align ourselves to your interests.

By registering, you give your agreement to the data provided being processed for regular dispatch of the newsletter to the address you provided, for the statistical analysis of user behaviour and optimisation of the newsletter. Your consent constitutes our legal basis for the processing of your e-mail address in the sense of art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR.We are entitled to commission third parties with the technical processing of advertising measures and to pass your data on for this purpose (see under Section 3).

At the end of each newsletter is a link which you can use to unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. When unsubscribing you have the option to let us know the reason you are doing so. Once you have unsubscribed, your personal data will be deleted. Further processing shall take place only in anonymised form for the purpose of optimising our newsletter.

We expressly point to the data analysis during the newsletter distribution (see Section 9).
 

d.    when you book, place orders or make reservations with third parties

On our website there are a number of ways to make bookings or reservations or request informational material or other services. The corresponding services are provided by third parties in each case. You will be notified accordingly if you are redirected to our partners. Depending on the service to be provided, different data is collected in this respect. This could be the following data, for example:

• Title and/or company
• First name and surname
• Address (street, number, postcode, town/city, country)
• Other contact details (e-mail address, telephone number)
• Credit card details, where required

The data you provide is generally collected by the relevant provider directly or for certain offers passed on to the relevant provider by us. For further data processing, the data protection provisions of the relevant provider shall apply in these cases. The legal basis for the processing of the aforementioned data lies in the performance of a contract within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR.

2.    USE OF YOUR DATA FOR ADVERTISING PURPOSES

a.    Facebook Analytics

In order to provide you with personalised services and information on our website (on-site targeting), we use and analyse the data that we collect about you when you visit the website. For the corresponding data processing, what are known as cookies may be used where necessary (see also under Section 6). The analysis of your user behaviour may be used to create what is known as a usage profile. The usage data is combined only with pseudonymous data, and never with data that has not been pseudonymised.

To allow personalised marketing in social networks, we incorporate so-called remarketing pixels from Facebook into the website. If you have an account with one of the aforementioned social networks and are logged in at the time of your visit to our website, this pixel links the visit to our website with your account. Log out of your account prior to visiting our website if you would like to prevent this link from being made. Further advertising settings can be made from in your user profile in the relevant social networks.

The creation of pseudonymised user profiles for advertising and analysis purposes is based on a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. This applies to all data processing operations listed in this Section 2. The legitimate interest lies in direct marketing and analysis of the use of our website.

3.    TRANSFER OF DATA TO THIRD PARTIES

We pass your personal data on only if you have expressly consented to this, if there is a legal obligation to do so or if this is required in order to enforce our rights, in particular in order to enforce claims resulting from the relationship between you and Tourism Biel/Bienne Seeland.

We also pass your data on to third parties where this is required in conjunction with use of the website in order to provide you with the services requested or to analyse your user behaviour. If this is required for the purposes specified in the preceding sentence, your data may also be passed on to third parties abroad. If the website contains links to websites of third parties, Tourism Biel/Bienne Seeland will no longer have any influence on the collection, processing, storage or use of personal data by third parties once you click on such links and assumes no responsibility in this regard.

4.    TRANSFER OF PERSONAL DATA ABROAD

Tourism Biel/Bienne Seeland is entitled to also pass your personal data on to third-party companies (commissioned service providers) abroad, where this is required for the data processing described in this privacy policy. The said third-party companies are obliged to protect your data to the same extent as we are. If the level of data protection in a country does not correspond to the level of data protection in Switzerland or the European Union, we ensure by contractual means that the protection of your personal data corresponds to that in Switzerland or the European Union at all times.

5.    DATA SECURITY

We take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect any of your personal data that we have stored from manipulation, partial or complete loss and unauthorised access by third parties. Our security measures are constantly being improved in line with technological developments.

You should always treat your payment information as confidential and close the browser window once you have ended your communication with us, particularly if you are on a shared computer.

We also take data privacy within our organisation very seriously. Our employees and the service providers commissioned by us are obliged to maintain confidentiality and comply with our data protection provisions.

6.    COOKIES

Cookies help in many ways to make your visit to our website simpler, more pleasant and more meaningful. Cookies are information files that your web browser automatically stores on your computer’s hard drive when you visit our website. Cookies neither damage your computer’s hard drive nor do they transfer the user’s personal data to us. We use cookies, for example, in order to personalise the information, offers and advertisements that you see and to better align ourselves to your individual interests. Their use does not mean that we receive new personal data about you as an online visitor. Most Internet browsers accept cookies automatically. It is possible, however, to configure your browser so that no cookies are stored on your computer or so that a message will always appear when you receive a new cookie.

Disabling cookies may prevent you from being able to use all of the features on our website.

7.    TRACKING TOOLS

On our website we use various tracking tools. These tracking tools are used to monitor your surfing behaviour on our website. This is for the purposes of needs-based design and continuous optimisation of our website. In connection with this, pseudonymised usage profiles are created and small text files that are saved on your computer (“cookies”) are used.

Further information about the tracking tools used and the data processing that takes place as a result can be found here.

8. SHARPSPRING

Our website uses features of the SharpSpring marketing software. Operator of the platform and provider of the SharpSpring service is SharpSpring, Inc, located at 550 SW 2nd Avenue Gainesville, Florida, USA. SharpSpring uses "cookies", which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transferred to a SharpSpring server in the USA and stored there. This information usually includes personal data such as IP address, e-mail address, pages visited, downloads, time and length of stay of the website visit.

For more information, please refer to SharpSpring's privacy policy at: https://sharpspring.com/legal/privacy/

9.    SOCIAL MEDIA PLUGINS

The social plugins described below are used on our website. The plugins are disabled on our website as standard and therefore do not send any data. By clicking on the corresponding social media button, you can enable the plugins (known as the Shariff solution).

If these plugins are enabled, your browser establishes a direct connection with the servers for the relevant social networks as soon as you call up one of our websites. The content of the plugins is transferred from the social network to your browser directly and integrated by your browser into the website. The plugins can of course be disabled again with just a click of the mouse.
 

a.    Social plugins from Facebook

Social plugins from Facebook are used on our website to make our online presence more personal. We use the “LIKE” or “SHARE” buttons for this purpose. This is an offering from US company Facebook Inc. (1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA).

By integrating the plugin, Facebook receives the information that your browser has called up the corresponding website, even if you do not own a Facebook account or are not logged in to Facebook. This information (including your IP address) is transferred by your browser to one of Facebook’s servers in the United States and stored there. If you are logged in to Facebook, Facebook may assign the visit to our website to your Facebook account directly. If you interact with the plugins, for example the “LIKE” or “SHARE” button, the corresponding information is likewise transferred to one of Facebook’s servers directly and stored there. The information is published on Facebook and shown to your Facebook friends.

Facebook may use this information for the purposes of advertising, market research and needs-based design for Facebook pages. For this reason, usage, interests and relationship profiles are created by Facebook, e.g. in order to analyse your use of our website with respect to the advertisements placed on Facebook, to inform other Facebook users about your activity on our website and to provide other services associated with your use of Facebook.

If you do not want Facebook to assign the data collected about your online presence to your Facebook account, you must log out of Facebook before visiting our website. The purpose and scope of data collection and further processing and use of the said data by Facebook as well as your rights in this respect and settings options in order to protect your privacy can be found in Facebook’s privacy policy.
 

b.    Social plugins from Twitter

Plugins from the short messaging network Twitter Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA are integrated into our website. The Twitter plugin (tweet button) is recognisable by the Twitter logo on our website. An overview of the tweet button can be found here.

If you activiate the social plugins, a direct connection is established between your browser and the Twitter server. Through this connection, Twitter receives the information that you have visited our website with your IP address. If you click on the Twitter tweet button while you are logged in to your Twitter account, you may link the content of our websites to your Twitter profile. Twitter can attribute the visit to our websites to your user account as a result. We would like to point out that, as the provider of these websites, we are not made aware of the content of the transferred data or its use by Twitter. Further information about this can be found in Twitter’s privacy policy.

If you do not want Twitter to be able to identify your visit to our websites, please log out of your Twitter account.

10.    NOTE ABOUT DATA TRANSFER TO THE US

For the sake of completeness, we would like to point out to users residing or based in Switzerland that in the US there are monitoring measures taken by the US authorities that generally allow the storage of all personal data relating to all persons whose data has been transferred from Switzerland to the US. This happens without differentiation, limitation or exception on the basis of the aim pursued and without an objective criteria that makes it possible to limit access to the data by US authorities and its later use to very specific, strictly limited purposes that may justify the intervention associated with both access to this data and use thereof. We would also like to point out that there are no judicial remedies in place in the US for affected persons from Switzerland that would make it possible to receive access to the data relating to them and to have this corrected or deleted, as well as no effective legal protection against general access rights by US authorities. We refer the persons affected explicitly to this legal and factual situation so that they can make an appropriately informed decision on whether or not to consent to their data being used.

For users residing in EU Member States, please note that, from the point of view of the European Union, the US does not have sufficient data protection levels due, inter alia, to the issues mentioned in this section. To the extent that we have explained in this privacy policy that recipients of data (such as Google, Facebook and Twitter) are located in the US, we will either based on a contract or by securing certification of these companies under the EU-US -Privacy Shield ensure that your data is protected at an appropriate level by our partners.

11.    RIGHT TO INFORMATION, CORRECTION, ERASURE AND RESTRICTION OF PROCESSING; RIGHT TO DATA PORTABILITY

You have the right to receive information about the personal data that we store about you free of charge upon request. In addition, you have the right to correct inaccurate data and the right to delete your personal data, as far as there is no statutory storage obligation or another legal basis for the processing in the sense of art. 6 GDPR that allows us to continue processing the data. You also have the right to reclaim from us the data you have given us (right to data portability). On request, we also pass the data on to a third party of your choice. You have the right to receive the data in a common file format.

You can reach us for the aforementioned purposes via the e-mail address info@biel-seeland.ch. We may, at our sole discretion, require proof of identity to process your requests.

12.    DATA STORAGE

We only store personal information for as long as it is necessary

• to use the above tracking advertising and analysis services within the scope of our legitimate interest
• to carry out services that you requested or to which you have given your consent (for example, to newsletter pursuant to pSection 9)to the extent specified above.
• to comply with legal obligations

Contract data is kept longer by us, as this is required by statutory storage requirements. Retention requirements that oblige us to keep data arise from accounting and tax regulations. According to these regulations, business communications, closed contracts and accounting documents must be kept for up to 10 years. As far as we no longer need this data to carry out the services for you, the data will be blocked. This means that the data may then only be used for accounting and for tax purposes.

13.    RIGHT TO COMPLAIN TO A DATA PROTECTION SUPERVISORY AUTHORITY

You have the right to file a complaint to a data protection supervisory authority at any time.

GENERAL

This page was last amended on Mai 23, 2018. If you have any questions or remarks about our legal indications or data protection, please contact us at info@biel-seeland.ch.