Privacy Policy

At GHR Rechtsanwälte AG ("GHR" or "we") we respect your privacy and take protection of personal information very seriously.

In addition to general data protection principles, where an attorney-client relationship exists (and where the relationship is not merely a business relationship which is not connected to any kind of legal services), it is protected by the attorney-client privilege. Lawyers have a legal obligation to remain independent. They focus without restriction on attending to their clients' needs and may not represent any interests that conflict with their clients' interests. As a result of the protection awarded to the attorney-client relationship, all client information is protected by the attorney-client privilege. Lawyers are therefore not only under a legal obligation to maintain confidentiality, but also have the right to refuse to provide information to public authorities and third parties. A lawyer's independence, attorney-client privilege and the lawyer's position of trust provide the necessary guarantees to ensure that clients can unreservedly confide in their attorney.

The purpose of the present data privacy statement is to inform you on the collection and use of individual data of personal or factual circumstances of a specific or determinable natural person (“personal data”) when visiting our Website.

This declaration of data protection applies exclusively to our website (www.ghr.ch) and any subdomain in the format subdomain.ghr.ch (“Website”). We assume no responsibility and accept no liability for links accessible from our Website to the websites of third parties. Clicking an external link is your sole responsibility.

 

1 - User consent

Please note that, when you visit and use our Website, you consent to our processing of your personal data within the framework of this data privacy statement and applicable data protection principles.

 

2 - Contact person

We are always at your disposal should you have any questions or messages concerning your personal data. You can reach us under:

GHR Rechtsanwälte AG
Tavelweg 2
Postfach
3074 Muri b. Bern
ghr@ghr.ch

 

3 - Anonymous data collection

Unless stated otherwise in this data privacy statement, you may visit the pages of our Website without downloading any personal data. We do not store any personal data in this connection. In order to improve our services, we merely evaluate statistical data which do not allow us to deduce information concerning your person.

 

4 - Processing of personal data

In general

When contacting us through our online contact form or directly by e-mail, we collect and process only the following data:

• All information supplied by you specifically on our online contact form or in your correspondence with us (name, address, age, gender, contact details, mandate-specific information, etc.);
• IP-address;
• browser version and browser type used;
• date and time of your inquiry or message.

Please note that the aforementioned items are the only personal data which we will process on our website unless this data privacy statement explicitly mentions the processing of any further data. In certain cases, it is possible that we will not collect all such data. As a rule, we will only collect as much personal data as is necessary in order to properly and efficiently process a task.

We do not generate personality profiles on our Website.

Sensitive personal data

We do not collect or process any sensitive personal data via our Website (e.g. wages data, personal privacy data, data relating to personal religious or ideological beliefs, health data, etc.).

When acting in an attorney-client relationship, it is, however, likely that we will receive or collect sensitive personal data from you. All such information and documents provided to us by you as an (existing or potential) client is protected by the attorney-client privilege. We will make it a high priority to protect your sensitive personal data. We will collect sensitive personal data exclusively from you directly (and in full transparency for you).

 

5 - Using your personal data

Your personal data is processed on our Website only in connection with an inquiry made by you, or in order to correct an error or to improve our online presence, and possibly for internal statistical purposes.

 

6 - Disclosure to third parties, attorney-client privilege

We are entitled and obliged to supply such data to service providers, who offer their services via our Website, which are necessary in order to enable such service providers to perform the tasks which they must perform under any service agreements entered into with you. Such service providers may only use such data in the same way as we ourselves may use it. We will ensure that service providers do not use the data for anything but the actual processing of a service and that they will not use such data for themselves or disclose them to third parties. For this purpose, we have been provided with the relevant audit and control rights.

Your data will not be disclosed to third parties via the Website without your express consent, except for third party service providers whom we need in order to perform our tasks under an agreement or mandate with you (e.g. Swiss Post or other couriers, telecommunication service providers, authorities for debt collection purposes, etc.), and only if

• such third party is subject to a confidentiality obligation (e.g. postal or telecommunications secrecy), or
• such third party has concluded a confidentiality agreement with us, or
• we have been exempted from the attorney-client privilege in a specific case.

In such cases we shall strictly observe the requirements of applicable data protection laws.

 

7 - Communication, information and updates

Communication for marketing purposes: We may send you marketing information in relation to our Website, services and products by various communication means. You can unsubscribe from such advertising content by following the instructions provided in the respective communications. Alternatively, you may also unsubscribe from any advertising content by e-mail addressed to ghr@ghr.ch.

Communication for information and other purposes: We will provide you with information and messages which are important and necessary for all clients and customers, i.e. communications with important information as well as communications which you have requested. You cannot unsubscribe from such communications. However, you may modify the media and the format through which you receive such information.

For the distribution of newsletters, we use the WebTool-Newsletter application as developed and maintained by Weserve AG, Liebefeld, Switzerland. This tool allows us to analyze how a newsletter is used as well as redirections to our Website (so-called Heatmaps). This enables us to determine, e.g. how far users scroll, which links they click on, and how often they click them. Furthermore, the tool allows us to obtain feedback from users directly. This provides us with valuable information on how to design our newsletters and Website more user-friendly.

 

8 - Cookies

General information

In various areas of our Website, so-called cookies are used. Cookies are small text files which are transferred to your computer and stored in your browser. Their purpose is to make our services more user-friendly, effective and safe. In addition, cookies enable our systems to recognize your browser and to offer services to you. Cookies do not contain any personal data. However, it is possible that a cookie may be allocated to a specific set of user data.

Our Website only uses automated cookies. Apart from the above-mentioned advantages to the user, we do not trace cookies back to obtain user profiles for our benefit or to gain personally relevant knowledge.

You have the option of refusing cookies or to configure your browser to inform you every time our Website attempts to insert a cookie. However, this can result in certain services on our Website being unusable or usable only to a limited extent.

You may find further information about cookies (including instructions on how to block them) at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

Tarte au Citron

In order to assure cookie use in accordance with applicable privacy rules, we use the tool "tarte au citron". This tool installs a cookie in your browser in order to remember your cookie settings. By default, the tool blocks all cookies except the ones which are strictly necessary to enable the functioning of our Website. It is your choice to decide on whether or not a service used by this Website is allowed to set cookies or not. Without your explicit consent, no third-party cookies will be installed.

Should you wish to reconsider your cookie settings at a later stage, you can always do so in the cookie settings menu:

Change your cookie settings

 

9 - Google Tools

This Website uses certain services from Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”), as stated hereinbelow.

Analytics

Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies” which are stored on your computer and which enable an analysis of your use of the Website. The information concerning your use of this Website generated by the cookie is normally uploaded to a Google server in the USA and stored there. However, if the IP anonymization on this Website is activated, within the member states of the European Union or in other states party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, Google will first shorten your IP address. Only in exceptional cases is the complete IP address transferred to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this Website, Google will use this information to evaluate your usage of this Website, to compile reports about Website activities and to generate other services in favor of the website operator related to the Website and internet use. In the context of Google Analytics, Google will not merge the IP address relayed by your browser with other data. You can prevent the storage of cookies by an appropriate setting in your browser software; however, please note that, in this case, it is possible that you will not be able to fully use all the functions on this Website. Moreover, you can prevent cookies from collecting and transmitting data regarding your usage of the Website (incl. your IP address) to Google and the processing of such data by Google, if you download and install the link available under the following browser plugin: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

Google offers a service to anonymize transferred data even for Google itself. Our Website uses this service. Your IP address will be shortened before it is stored on Google's server, making it more difficult to track your identity. In addition, we do not use Google Analytics on our subpage "Our Offices/Contact us".

reCAPTCHA

reCAPTCHA is used to check whether the data entered on our website (such as on a contact form) has been entered by a human or by an automated program. To do this, reCAPTCHA analyzes the behavior of the website visitor based on various characteristics. This analysis starts automatically as soon as the website visitor enters the website. For the analysis, reCAPTCHA evaluates various information (e.g. IP address, how long the visitor has been on the website, or mouse movements made by the user). The data collected during the analysis will be forwarded to Google.

The reCAPTCHA analyses take place completely in the background. Website visitors are not advised that such an analysis is taking place. For more information about Google reCAPTCHA and Google’s privacy policy, please visit the following links: 
https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/
https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/android.html.

 

10 - Hotjar

We use the web analysis service Hotjar of Hotjar Ltd ("Hotjar") for our Website. Hotjar Ltd. is a European company based in Malta (Hotjar Ltd., Level 2, St Julian's Business Centre, 3, Elia Zammit Street, St Julians STJ 1000, Malta). By using this tool, movements on our Website can be traced (so-called heatmaps). This enables us to determine, e.g. how far users scroll and which buttons users click, and how often they click them. Furthermore, the tool also allows feedback to be obtained directly from the users of the Website. This provides us with valuable information on how to make our Website faster and more customer-friendly.

When using this tool, we pay particular attention to the protection of your personal data. Hence, we can only discern which buttons are being clicked on, the course of the mouse, how far the mouse scrolls, the screen size of your device, the type of device and browser information, location (only the country) and the preferred language in which our Website is displayed.

Hotjar provides every user with the option of using a "Do Not Track Header" in order to prevent the use of the Hotjar tool so that no data is recorded during the user's visit to the respective website. Additional information may be found here: https://www.hotjar.com/opt-out.

 

11 - Transmission of personal data

The data submitted on the contact form are not stored on your computer (no cookie or anything similar). For processing, the server will forward the data you have submitted on your contact form by e-mail. Such e-mails are not encrypted. Use of e-mail is technically not secure; it is possible that e-mails are not delivered. E-mails can cross borders even though the sender and the receiver are in the same country. The confidentiality of e-mails cannot be guaranteed in case of absence of insufficient encryption. Unencrypted e-mails are therefore not suitable for the transfer of confidential information.

By using the contact form or by sending an e-mail, you consent to communication by e-mail in full knowledge of the risks involved or described above.

 

12 - Storage of personal data

Our Website is hosted by Weserve AG, Liebefeld, Switzerland ("Weserve").

Personal data collected on the Website in the course of activities on our Website are hosted on Weserve's own servers in Switzerland. The servers are protected from unauthorized access to the greatest extent possible. Backups are made on a regular basisin order to reduce the risk of data loss to the extent reasonably possible.

To the extent that personal data directly collected and processed is concerned, storage and processing of such data is performed on a protected server infrastructure maintained by a certified IT service provider located in Switzerland (with servers located in Switzerland as well). The servers are protected from unauthorized access to the greatest extent possible. Backups are made regularly in order to reduce the risk of data loss to the extent reasonably possible.

 

13 - Information, correction

At any time, you are entitled to request information about your stored data and to correct it. This service is free of charge. Please contact us should you require this. Please refer to our contact details in Section 2 of this Privacy Policy Statement.

 

14 - Cancellation and deletion

You may cancel your consent to this Privacy Policy Statement at any time and demand that your personal data be deleted. Please contact us should you require this. Please refer to our contact details under Section 2 of this Privacy Policy Statement.

However, please note that under applicable rules for the legal profession as well as applicable commercial and tax law we are required to retain booking records for a minimum period of 10 business years. Thus, we can neither delete nor process personal data in such records. Your application for deletion therefore merely applies to any future processing of data.

If, at the time we receive your request for cancellation and deletion, services or deliverables are still pending, your personal data will continue to be active up until the final termination of our business relationship. Your cancellation rights under this Privacy Policy do not in any way affect the execution of existing agreements and shall not constitute exceptional grounds for termination.

 

15 - Updates and amendments to this privacy policy

Amendments of this Privacy Policy Statement apply from the date of their publication on our Website. Personal data collected under an older Privacy Policy Statement shall be handled according to this Privacy Policy Statement.

We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy Statement at any time and to inform clients and users of such changes in a suitable manner.

 

Last updated: January 2020