Data Privacy

Data Privacy

Data Privacy

Data Protection Regulations

Dear customer,

These data protection regulations provide you with an overview of what personal data Ringier AG (hereinafter either «Ringier», «we» or «us») and the companies affiliated with Ringier (hereinafter the «Ringier Group») collect about you, how this personal data is processed and to whom it may be disclosed when you interact with us or we interact with you (e.g. when you use our websites or mobile applications). You will also learn what rights you have under applicable data protection law and how you can exercise them.

Please review these data protection regulations at regular intervals so that you are always informed on what happens to your personal data and how you can exercise your rights.

What you need to know about us:

1. Who is Ringier?

We are required by law to inform you of the controller under data protection law for the processing of personal data described in these data protection regulations. Under data protection law, the controller is the person who determines whether, for what purposes and how personal data is processed. This is, in principle, Ringier AG, Brühlstrasse 5, 4800 Zofingen with regard to the processing of personal data in accordance with these data protection regulations.

Ringier is an independent Swiss family-owned company founded in 1833. Today, Ringier is an innovative, digital and diversified media company operating in 19 countries with over 6,400 employees. Based on its 188-year history, Ringier stands for pioneering spirit and individuality, for independence as well as for freedom of expression and diversity of information.

Find out more about Ringier here: About us.

When processing personal data in accordance with these data protection regulations, other companies may jointly act as the controller if they contribute to the decision about the purpose or nature of the processing. In particular, this includes advertising partners or companies whose tools we integrate into our websites or applications as well as the companies of the Ringier Group. We remain your primary point of contact, even if other co-controllers exist.

2. Who belongs to the Ringier Group?

The Ringier Group includes the Ringier-affiliated companies located in Switzerland. These include, for example, the following subsidiaries: DeinDeal AG, Swissprinters AG, JobCloud AG and several others.

If you would like to find out more about the Ringier-affiliated companies and other holdings of Ringier in Europe and Africa, here: Brands.

3. What is the nature of the Ringier Group’s operations?

Today, Ringier manages leading brands in print, TV, radio, online and mobile media and runs successful print, entertainment and internet businesses. The Ringier Group produces Blick, SonntagsBlick, Schweizer Illustrierte, Schweizer Landliebe, Handelszeitung, der Beobachter and others. The complete portfolio is listed here: Brands.

4. What data does Ringier and companies affiliated with the Ringier Group generally process?

4.1 What is personal data and what is the definition of “processing”?

Personal data refers to any information relating to you and that reveals something about you as an individual, such as your first name and surname, postal address, email address, date of birth, phone number and similar information.

Information that cannot be associated with your person, i.e. not with your identity, is not personal and therefore not personal data.

Processing encompasses any handling of your personal data. This means, among other things, the acquisition, anonymization, storage, management, use, transmission, disclosure or deletion of your personal data.

4.2 How do we process your personal data and what is the legal basis for doing so?

Your trust in us when it comes to protecting your personal data and your privacy is important to us, which is why we want you to know that:

We comply with the principles imposed on us by the data protection laws of Switzerland and – if and to the extent applicable – of the European Union. This means that we are transparent with you about what personal data we process and for what purpose. We only collect your personal data lawfully and only process it – in cases where we need to – if we have a legal basis to do so. A legal basis may be a contract, your consent, a provision of a law, a public interest that allows us to process the data, or a legitimate interest on our part.

With these data protection regulations, we inform you about the purposes for which we collect your personal data. If we no longer need your personal data and are no longer required by law to retain it, we will no longer do so (for more information, see Section 4.6). 

You can find out what rights you have with regard to your personal data and how you can exercise them in Section 5 below.

4.3 What personal data does Ringier process, and when and why does it do so (purpose)?

In principle, we always process your personal data whenever you interact with us or we interact with you. In the case of Ringier products this happens when you:

  • purchase a subscription for a Ringier product (newspaper or e-paper) and enter a contract with us for that reason or when you already have a subscription;
  • purchase paid digital offerings;
  • participate in a competition, contest, draw, crossword puzzle (online, via SMS or entry form);
  • have signed up for an email newsletter;
  • receive advertising about our media products and services (direct marketing);
  • use the free registration and log-in service provided by OneLog (hereinafter «OneLog»);
  • use our websites and applications;
  • contact us in any other way, e.g. for suggestions, feedback or reports of violations;
  • spend time in the public areas of our building

a)  Subscription for Ringier products (newspaper or e-paper)

If you purchase a subscription and therefore enter into a contract with us, you can create a cross-platform user account (hereinafter «OneLog user account») for this subscription with the free registration and login service provided by OneLog AG (hereinafter «OneLog») (see Section 4.3 f) and process your order through this. In doing so, we collect the following personal data from you when you place your order:

  • Gender (Mr/Ms)
  • Company
  • First name
  • Surname
  • Address, including house number, postal code, place of residence and country
  • Phone number (landline and mobile number)
  • Email address
  • Payment information

We process this personal data for the duration of the subscription for the following purposes:

  • to fulfill and handle contractual and legal obligations (e.g. newspaper delivery);
  • to manage and maintain the customer relationship (e.g. change of address);
  • to verify access authorisation and administration of the user account (if available);
  • to issue invoices.

If you select an online payment option such as a credit and debit card when purchasing a subscription, payment will be processed using the online payment system of the respective provider. In such cases, personal data and payment details are processed directly by the provider of the respective payment system. We are not privy to nor do we save your payment details. Please note the data protection regulations of the respective online payment system provider in such cases.

In order to provide you with additional offers on products and services from the Ringier Group, we also process personal data in the following ways:

  • for marketing purposes, i.e. we advertise additional products from the Ringier Group by post, phone, email or SMS (see Section 2 above). You have the option to object to this processing at any time (see Section 5).

b) Purchase of paid digital offers

Certain digital offerings from Ringier are subject to a fee and can only be purchased with a OneLog user account (see Section 4.3 f).

When purchasing a paid digital offering, online payment options such as credit and debit card purchases can be selected. Payment is made via the online payment system of the provider in question. In this case, the personal and payment data is processed directly by the provider of the respective payment system. We are not aware of and do not store your payment details. In this instance, please see the data protection regulations of the provider of the online payment system in question.

c) Competitions, contests, draws, crossword puzzles, Ringier initiatives

If you participate in a competition, contest, or draw via an entry form or online, or if you solve our crossword puzzle and send in the answer or if you participate in our initiatives, such as Green Circle, we normally collect the following personal data:

  • Salutation (gender)
  • First name
  • Surname
  • Year of birth/Date of birth
  • Address, including house number, postal code and place of residence
  • Phone number (landline or mobile number)
  • Email address
  • Image/photo/video (e.g. in photo competitions)
  • Bank details (only for the payment of a prize)

We process this personal data for the following purposes:

  • to draw the winner;
  • to publish images/photos/videos;
  • to announce who the winner is;
  • Payment of a profit;
  • to assess a project in connection with a Ringier initiative.

In order to provide you with additional offers on products and services from the Ringier Group, we also process personal data in the following ways:

  • to develop and manage the relationship with you;
  • for marketing purposes, i.e. we advertise additional products from the Ringier Group by post, phone, email or SMS (see Section 2 above). You have the option to object to this processing at any time (see Section 5).

Please be aware that certain competitions and Ringier initiatives are run in partnership with various business partners and NGOs. Other personal data is sometimes collected and processed as part of these partnerships and may even be shared with the partner in question. For more information, please see the terms and conditions of participation of the relevant competition or the privacy policy of our partner/NGO.

d) Email newsletter

If you have agreed to let us use your email address for advertising purposes, we will send you newsletters at regular intervals to inform you about the Ringier Group’s additional offers and services.

You can object to the processing of your email address at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of each newsletter.

You can also subscribe to our editorial newsletter and, to make sure you do not miss anything, you can activate newsletter alerts in your OneLog user account. You can unsubscribe from the editorial newsletter at any time by clicking on the link at the end of the newsletter.

If you have an OneLog user account, you can manage your newsletter subscriptions (promotional and editorial newsletters) and alerts in your OneLog user account.

e) Advertising about our media products and services (direct marketing)

In order to provide you with additional offers on products and services from the Ringier Group, we and the companies belonging to the Ringier Group also process your personal data for marketing purposes. This means that we advertise additional products and services from the Ringier Group by post, phone, email or SMS.

For the purposes of customer acquisition, we also obtain personal data (addresses) from publicly available as well as professional third-party sources.

You always have the option to object to the processing of your personal data for these purposes in general or for a specific product or service (see Section 5).

f) Registration for OneLog

OneLog is a free registration and log-in service provided by OneLog AG. When you register for OneLog, OneLog AG, as the data controller, collects the following personal data and discloses it to Ringier (for more information, see the OneLog privacy policy):

  • Salutation
  • First name
  • Name
  • E-mail address

For the provision of Ringier’s digital offers within OneLog, we collect the following additional data:

  • Postal code
  • Place of residence
  • Date of birth
  • Nickname
  • Photo/avatar (voluntary)

We or OneLog processes this personal data for the following purposes:

  • to fulfil and handle statutory obligations;
  • to verify access permissions and manage the user account.

 In order to be able to provide you with further offerings relating to the products and services of the Ringier Group, we also process the above-mentioned personal data:

  • to develop and maintain the relationship with you;
  • for marketing purposes, i.e. we send you advertising by post, by telephone, by email or by SMS about other products from the Ringier Group (see Section 2 above). You have the option to object to this processing at any time (see Section 5).
  • to display personalized online advertising (see Section 4.3 g).

g) Personalisation of online advertising

If you register with OneLog, you will see personalised online advertising on certain portals of the Ringier Group. In order to be able to play these online advertisements to you, your personal data will be made available to Ringier Advertising on the basis of an anonymous user identification number. Your identity will not be disclosed to Ringier Advertising or its partners. Ringier Advertising and any business partners are also obliged to refrain from and prevent the creation of a personal reference.

You have the option at any time to object to the processing of your personal data for this purpose by for this purpose at any time by logging out of your OneLog user account. The data already collected for this purpose will be deleted within 7 days.

h) Online tracking and online advertising techniques

When you use our websites and applications, we and third parties engaged by us may collect and process various pieces of technical data. Examples of such data include the IP address, the operating system used, the time of use or identification numbers or codes assigned to your end device (PC, smartphone, tablet, etc.) via cookies and similar technologies. We collect and process this data to ensure the functionality and security of the websites and applications, to continuously improve our products and services and adapt them to your needs, to identify trends, to compile and evaluate statistics on the use of our digital offerings, and also to provide you with a good advertising experience.

Detailed information about the data used as well as about the techniques deployed, their purposes and possible settings (e.g. regarding the deactivation of these techniques) can be found here:

i) Other contact

When you contact us, e.g. to give us suggestions or feedback, we collect the following personal data from you:

  • First name
  • Last name
  • Phone number (optional)
  • Email address
  • Message

We use this data to process your request or your suggestions and, if necessary, to contact you.

j) Video monitoring

When you move around our publicly accessible spaces in the Ringier Pressehaus, you will be filmed while in the entrance/exit areas of the building and in the garage.

This video recording is for your protection and for the protection of our employees, as well as for evidence if any incidents occur. The recording is stored for a maximum of one week and is not passed on to any third parties. This notwithstanding, Ringier may disclose the video recording for legal reasons; for example, to a law enforcement authority or for the prosecution or exposure of unlawful activities.

k) Reporting violations

Ringier AG has a whistleblower system (Ringier AG SpeakUp Line) for reporting violations, which is provided by the company People Intouch B.V. in the Netherlands on behalf of Ringier AG. When reporting via Ringier AG SpeakUp Line, personal data that you voluntarily provide in the report will be processed, these are

  • Name
  • Address
  • Gender
  • (Function) Title
  • Nationality
  • Administration/employee numbers
  • Audio files
  • Password required to access your message 
  • additional technical data, such as the IP address, to ensure a secure connection between the reporting person and Ringier AG SpeakUp Line
  • If you activate push notifications, Ringier AG SpeakUp Line saves your email address (for notifications via the website) or a token from your mobile phone (for notifications via the app).
  • Characteristics of the incident
  • Measures taken
  • Investigation reports
  • Other data relating to the incident
  • Report credentials
  • Sounddateien

Ringier AG has no access to technical data or data stored for push notifications. Ringier AG only sees the information and data that you enter in the message.

Telephone reports are transcribed into text by authorised subcontractors in the EU and UK, so Ringier AG does not have access to audio files. Written reports from reporting persons and responses from Ringier AG can be automatically translated in Ringier AG SpeakUp Line using artificial intelligence to facilitate communication between the reporting person and Ringier AG.

 

4.4 Disclosure of personal data to third parties

All personal data collected when you interact with Ringier will be disclosed within the Ringier Group (see section 2 above) and may be processed for the purposes mentioned above, in particular for marketing purposes. For marketing purposes, Ringier sometimes works with cooperation partners outside the Ringier Group, who receive only the information that someone is not a subscriber. Personal data of subscribers will not be passed on. You have the option to object to this disclosure and processing at any time (see section 5).

Your personal data can also be disclosed with third parties that are not part of the Ringier Group and who provide technical or organizational services on behalf of Ringier or companies belonging to the Ringier Group and that we require for the purposes mentioned above or to carry out their general business activities. Examples include hosting partners, printers or supplier organizations. These service providers are primarily located in Switzerland and the European Union, but they may be located in any country in the world. We contractually obligate these service providers to process your personal data exclusively on our behalf and in accordance with our specifications and to ensure the protection of your personal data through appropriate security measures of a technical or organizational nature.

When you post comments on an article on a website or in a mobile application and log into a Ringier user account via Facebook or Twitter, you are also agreeing to the publication of your surname and first name and potentially your place of residence (as provided by you in your user account, Facebook account or Twitter account) together with your comments. Your comments, including personal data, can be further shared on third-party websites and indexed by search engines.

Your personal data shall not otherwise be passed on, transmitted or sold to third parties outside the Ringier Group unless required to manage a contract that you have concluded with Ringier or a company belonging to the Ringier Group, or unless you have expressly consented to it.

This notwithstanding, Ringier may disclose personal data for legal reasons; for example, to law enforcement agencies for the purpose of prosecuting and detecting illegal activities or to tax authorities.

4.5 Is your personal data also sent abroad?

As explained in Section 4.4, we also disclose personal data to third parties that are not always located in Switzerland. Your data can therefore be processed both in Europe and, in exceptional cases, in any country in the world. This can also be the case if the recipient is located in Switzerland but data is routed via a foreign country because of its interchange via the internet.

If a recipient, for example one of our service providers, is located in a country without adequate data protection laws, we contractually oblige this recipient to comply with data protection. We use the European Commission’s revised standard contractual clauses for this purpose, which can be found here, unless such a recipient is already subject to a legally recognized set of rules to ensure data protection and we cannot rely on a derogation provision. A derogation may apply, in particular, in the case of legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases of overriding public interest or if the processing of a contract requires such disclosure, if you have consented to it or if it is a matter of data that you have made generally accessible and you have not objected to the processing of this data. Contractual arrangements can partially compensate for weaker legal protection or an absence of any legal protection, but not all risks can be eliminated (e.g. government access abroad).

4.6 How long do we process your personal data for?

We process and store your personal data for as long as our processing purposes, the statutory retention periods and our legitimate interests require, or for as long as storage is technically necessary. We may have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data, for example, if we need it for evidentiary purposes in order to enforce or defend against claims (e.g., in litigation) or if we retain your personal data for archiving purposes or to ensure IT security. Retention may be technically required if certain pieces of personal data cannot be separated from other data and we therefore need to retain it with the rest of this data (e.g. in the case of backups).

In principle, the following retention periods apply to us, for example, although we may deviate from this in individual cases:

Employee data:

  • Contract data is generally retained for 10 years from the last contract activity or from the end of the contract.
  • Master data , e.g. the personnel file and reference data, is retained for 10 years after the employee leaves the company.
  • Access data and system user data is deleted immediately after the employee leaves or after the technically required duration has passed.
  • Applicant data is usually deleted 4 months after the end of the application process, unless we have consent to keep the application pending.

Customer data:

  • Contract and master data relating to subscribers is generally kept for 10 years from the last contract activity or from the end of the contract, as required by law.  
  • Event participant/raffle data is generally kept for 3 months.

Business partner data:

  • Contract and master data is generally stored for 10 years from the last contract activity or from the end of the contract, as required by law.  
  • Creditor data is retained for 10 years from the date on which the personal data was collected.

If there are no legal or contractual obligations to the contrary, we delete or anonymize your personal data once the storage or processing period has expired, as part of our normal processes.

Ringier AG SpeakUp Line:

  • Report sound file: 14 days after translation job closure (+90 days backup)
  • Case content Ringier AG SpeakUp Line platform: until case closure by Client (+90 days backup)
  • Ringier AG SpeakUp Line user account: until user deletion (+90 days back-up)
  • Connection data: 90 days
  • Reporter device token Ringier AG SpeakUp Line app: only applicable when push notification enabled by reporter, 30 days after case closure
  • Reporter e-mail for notification purposes: only applicable when email notification enabled by reporter, 30 days after case closure

5. What are your rights with respect to your personal data?

Applicable data protection law grants you the right to object to the processing of your data in certain circumstances, in particular, for the purposes of direct marketing, direct marketing profiling and other legitimate interests in processing.

Depending on the applicable data protection law, you may also have the following rights with respect to your personal data: 

  • The right to access information from us as to whether we process your personal data and which data this relates to;
  • the right to have us rectify personal data if it is inaccurate;
  • the right for us to restrict the processing of personal data;
  • the right to request the erasure of personal data;
  • the right to request that we provide certain personal data in a commonly used electronic format or transfer it to another controller;
  • the right to withdraw consent, insofar as our processing is based on your consent;
  • the right to receive, upon request, further information necessary for the exercise of these rights.

If you wish to exercise your rights against us in relation to your personal data, please contact us in writing at the following address: Ringier AG, Customer Service Center, Brühlstrasse 5, 4800 Zofingen. You can also contact us by email ([email protected]). To prevent misuse, we must be able to identify you: please send a copy of an identity document when you contact us.

Please note that conditions, derogations or limitations apply to these rights under applicable data protection law (e.g., to protect third parties or trade secrets). In particular, we may need to process and store your personal data in order to fulfill a contract with you, to protect our own interests worthy of protection (e.g. when asserting, exercising and defending legal claims or to comply with legal obligations). To the extent legally permissible, in particular to protect the rights and freedoms of other data subjects and to safeguard interests worthy of protection, we may therefore also refuse a data subject’s request in whole or in part (e.g. by blacking out certain content that relates to third parties or our trade secrets). We will inform you about conditions, derogations and limitations on a case-by-case basis.

If you do not agree with how we handle your personal data or with your rights in this regard, please let us know. You also have the right to complain to the supervisory authority of the country where you live or work, or of the place or country where the alleged breach of data protection law took place. You can contact the Swiss supervisory authority here. A list of authorities in the European Economic Area can be found here.

6. How you can protect your children

We all need to work together to ensure that future generations become responsible citizens of the digital world.

Because children are less cognisant of the risks and consequences of the processing of their personal data and are unlikely to know their rights in this regard, special protections should be in place when it comes to their personal data. In particular, this of course applies to the use of such personal data for advertising purposes, which is why you will also find the relevant age limits in our terms of use as well as information about the legal age of consent.

Information and tips on using media can be found here (DE/FR/IT).

7. Data security

Ringier operates secure data networks which meet the relevant technical standards. All necessary and reasonable technical and organisational precautions are taken to protect your personal data against loss, destruction, falsification, manipulation and unauthorised access.

Although Ringier has taken every necessary step to prevent personal data from being disclosed through data transfer errors and/or unauthorised access by third parties, it cannot accept any liability for such unwanted incidents.

8. Who can you contact?

There are various ways to contact us:

If you have a legal question regarding data protection, you can send an email to [email protected]. Of course, you are also free to write us a letter: Ringier AG, Datenschutz, Dufourstrasse 23, 8008 Zurich.

If you have a question regarding your subscription or other customer relationship with us, please send an email to [email protected] or a letter to Ringier AG, Kundenkontakt Center, Brühlstrasse 5, 4800 Zofingen. You can also reach our Customer Contact Centre by calling +41 58 510 73 02.

9. Legal basis

When processing your personal data, we observe the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection along with its regulations and – where applicable – the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (GDPR).

10. Changes to and acceptance of these data protection regulations

Ringier modifies these data protection regulations as appropriate according to new or changing requirements. The latest version of this data privacy statement can always be found in the appropriate place.

The current data protection regulations published by us on this website apply in each case.

Version 6.0 from 07.05.2024

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