PRIVACY POLICY

Last revision: August 2019

With this Privacy Policy, we inform you how we process your personal data. Your personal data means any information relating to you as a natural person or as a legal entity (Personal Data). Processing means any handling of your Personal Data such as collection, retention, storage, adaption, usage, transfer, disclosure, etc. (Processing). If “we” (or “us”) is used hereinafter, this refers to Lichtsteiner Stiftung, c/o Walder Wyss Ltd., Christoffelgasse 6, 3011 Berne, Switzerland.

1. Who we are

The controller of your Personal Data is:

Lichtsteiner Foundation, c/o Walder Wyss Ltd., Christoffelgasse 6, 3011 Berne, Switzerland, info@lichtsteinerfoundation.org

2. Personal Data we process and our sources

We mainly process data from Swiss and international start-ups and its shareholders, from the inventions / projects to be supported and from members of our wide network (such as inventors, pioneers, donors, other foundations, specialists, specialist institutes, etc.) in the fields of medtech, life science, biotech, mental health, public health and well-being (medicine).

Personal Data we process about you includes:

  • your contact details (e.g. title, first name, last name, business address, home address, phone number, e-mail address, etc.), information about your employer, occupation, sector you are working in, your academic degree, and further basic information;
  • information on the invention / project to be supported:
    • introduction to your start-up (name of your start-up, name and e-mail address of the founders, channels you are present on, information about your product, the identified customer segment, business case and team, etc.);
    • information about the start-up setup (the sector you focus on, inspiration and history, legal form and date of incorporation, members of the board and the advisory board (name, e-mail address, affiliation), information about your investors and coaching or mentoring programs, financing phase, etc.);
    • information about the content of your work (problems to solve, market, future customers, risks, your solution and technology, challenges, revenue model, partners, competitors, paying customers, business plan financials, expected development, etc.);
    • information about needed support (supporting amount, use of the supporting amount, etc.);
  • payment-related information such as bank details;
  • identification and background information provided by you or collected as part of our review of possible support or the acceptance of our investment;
  • information you provide to us for the purposes of receiving alerts, updates, information, brochures, newsletters or attending meetings, seminars, projects and other events;
  • information we receive from you in connection with your enquiries;
  • any other information relating to you which you may provide to us, perhaps also Personal Data of third parties.

We collect this information from the moment you first contact us, for example when you fill out the application form for support via our website, when specialists and research institutes in the fields of medicine provide us with your contact details with regard to possibly support your invention / project, from different start-up platforms, when you register to receive alerts, updates, information, brochures or newsletters, when you participate at a meeting, seminar, project or other event or when you send us an enquiry. We also may collect your Personal Data from other sources, for example to keep your information up to date using publically available sources.

3. How we use your Personal Data

We use your Personal Data:

  • to communicate with you and to answer your enquiries;
  • to support medical progress through targeted investments in the early-stage phase in order to improve people’s health;
  • to connect inventors, pioneers, start-ups, donors, other foundations and specialists through our network especially to match potential investors with start-ups and with sources of innovative inventions / projects;
  • to promote the maintenance and development of business relationships with you and to be able to constantly optimise our contacts and our network in the fields of medicine. We also use the information provided to us internally to contact you when necessary;
  • to present your invention / project on our website, in order to persuade additional donors to invest;
  • for the purposes of alerts, updates, information, brochures, newsletters, invitations to meetings, seminars, projects and other events, etc.;
  • to provide and constantly improve our website, including monitoring and evaluating its use (see section 4 “Use of our website and e-mails” below for additional information);
  • to document the compliant exercise of your rights (see section 10 "Your rights" below for additional information);
  • to comply with our legal, regulatory and risk management obligations, including the use of data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

4. Use of our website and e-mails

While visiting our website, cookies are being used. Cookies are small text files placed on your computer or other device. Our website saves such small files on your computer in order to be able to show you e.g. complex and dynamic content and in order to recognise you on your next visit. These cookies are not used under any circumstances for monitoring or even storing the behaviour of visitors individually. We do not use analysing cookies. Cookies are automatically deleted after 14 days at the latest.

You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. Please note, however, that this may affect your experience of our website. To find out more about cookies, including how to manage, reject and delete cookies, visit https://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

We may use your name and e-mail address to send you alerts, updates, information, brochures, newsletters, invitations to meetings, seminars, projects and other events as well as other information by e-mail, but will ask for consent first unless we have obtained your contact details from you in the context of an application for support. If you receive marketing communications from us and no longer wish to do so, you may unsubscribe at any time by following the link included in these e-mails.

5. Data protection principles we adhere to

We adhere to the following principles of applicable data protection law:

  • we only process your Personal Data lawfully;
  • we process your Personal Data in a proportionate manner and in good faith;
  • we process your Personal Data for the purpose indicated at the time of collection and in a transparent manner;
  • we obtain the necessary consent from you for the Processing of Personal Data;
  • we guarantee data accuracy and data security;
  • we guarantee the observance of your rights in connection with data Processing.

6. Who we share your Personal Data with

We may share your Personal Data with trusted third parties including:

  • Third parties who are involved in the process of deciding which inventions / projects in the fields of medicine should be supported and promoted by us (e.g. experts);
  • Our affiliates;
  • third parties who are involved in the transfer of the investment amount (e.g. banking institutions);
  • third parties who are involved in sending information or organising events (e.g. Mailchimp);
  • IT service providers;
  • authorities (e.g. tax authorities);
  • our auditors.

In addition, we may disclose your Personal Data if we are required or permitted to do so by law or legal processes, for example due to a court order or a request from a law enforcement agency, when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate for our legitimate interest, for example in preventing harm or financial loss, in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual fraudulent or other illegal activity.

7. Countries we transfer your Personal Data to

We may transfer your Personal Data to recipients abroad (they may even be located outside the European Union), including countries that do not provide the same level of protection as Swiss and/or EU/EEA law. Before we do so, we will implement appropriate measures to protect your Personal Data, for example by requiring the recipient abroad to agree to data processing agreements that ensure an adequate level of data protection. We further reserve the right to transfer Personal Data abroad with your explicit consent or on the basis of further authorisations under applicable data protection law.

8. How we store your Personal Data

We store your Personal Data in personal form for as long as it is necessary for the specific purposes for which the data is collected, and as long as we have a legitimate interest in keeping your Personal Data (for example to enforce or defend legal claims or for archiving purposes and IT security). We also store your Personal Data as long as it is subject to a legal retention obligation.

9. How we protect your Personal Data

We use various technical and organisational security measures to help protect your Personal Data from unauthorised or unlawful access and Processing, and to counteract the risk of loss, accidental alteration or inadvertent destruction of data.

10. Data protection provisions about the application and use of Google Analytics (with anonymization function)

On this website, the controller has integrated the component of Google Analytics (with the anonymizer function). Google Analytics is a web analytics service. Web analytics is the collection, gathering, and analysis of data about the behavior of visitors to websites. A web analysis service collects, inter alia, data about the website from which a person has come (the so-called referrer), which sub-pages were visited, or how often and for what duration a sub-page was viewed. Web analytics are mainly used for the optimization of a website and in order to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of Internet advertising.

The operator of the Google Analytics component is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin, D04 E5W5, Ireland.

For the web analytics through Google Analytics the controller uses the application "_gat. _anonymizeIp". By means of this application the IP address of the Internet connection of the data subject is abridged by Google and anonymised when accessing our websites from a Member State of the European Union or another Contracting State to the Agreement on the European Economic Area.

The purpose of the Google Analytics component is to analyze the traffic on our website. Google uses the collected data and information, inter alia, to evaluate the use of our website and to provide online reports, which show the activities on our websites, and to provide other services concerning the use of our Internet site for us.

Google Analytics places a cookie on the information technology system of the data subject. The definition of cookies is explained above. With the setting of the cookie, Google is enabled to analyze the use of our website. With each call-up to one of the individual pages of this Internet site, which is operated by the controller and into which a Google Analytics component was integrated, the Internet browser on the information technology system of the data subject will automatically submit data through the Google Analytics component for the purpose of online advertising and the settlement of commissions to Google. During the course of this technical procedure, the enterprise Google gains knowledge of personal information, such as the IP address of the data subject, which serves Google, inter alia, to understand the origin of visitors and clicks, and subsequently create commission settlements.

The cookie is used to store personal information, such as the access time, the location from which the access was made, and the frequency of visits of our website by the data subject. With each visit to our Internet site, such personal data, including the IP address of the Internet access used by the data subject, will be transmitted to Google in the United States of America. These personal data are stored by Google in the United States of America. Google may pass these personal data collected through the technical procedure to third parties.

The data subject may, as stated above, prevent the setting of cookies through our website at any time by means of a corresponding adjustment of the web browser used and thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Such an adjustment to the Internet browser used would also prevent Google Analytics from setting a cookie on the information technology system of the data subject. In addition, cookies already in use by Google Analytics may be deleted at any time via a web browser or other software programs.

In addition, the data subject has the possibility of objecting to a collection of data that are generated by Google Analytics, which is related to the use of this website, as well as the processing of this data by Google and the chance to preclude any such. For this purpose, the data subject must download a browser add-on under the link https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout and install it. This browser add-on tells Google Analytics through a JavaScript, that any data and information about the visits of Internet pages may not be transmitted to Google Analytics. The installation of the browser add-ons is considered an objection by Google. If the information technology system of the data subject is later deleted, formatted, or newly installed, then the data subject must reinstall the browser add-ons to disable Google Analytics. If the browser add-on was uninstalled by the data subject or any other person who is attributable to their sphere of competence, or is disabled, it is possible to execute the reinstallation or reactivation of the browser add-ons.

Further information and the applicable data protection provisions of Google may be retrieved under https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ and under http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html. Google Analytics is further explained under the following Link https://www.google.com/analytics/.

11. Your rights

You have the following rights:

  • You are entitled to ask for information of the data we hold about you and how we process it and to receive a copy of your Personal Data.
  • You may also have your Personal Data rectified or deleted, restrict our Processing of that information, and object to the Processing of your Personal Data.
  • You may also choose to withdraw your consent. Please note that even after you have chosen to withdraw your consent we may be able to continue to process your Personal Data to the extent required or permitted by law.
  • You also have the right, in the event of a violation of privacy, to lodge a complaint in relation to our Processing of your Personal Data with the competent court.

To exercise your rights, you can contact us at the address indicated above.

We must ensure that your Personal Data is accurate and up to date. Therefore, please advise us of any changes to your Personal Data by contacting us at the address indicated above.

12. Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Police may be amended over time, especially if we change our data Processing or if new legislation becomes applicable. We actively inform persons whose contact details are registered with us of such changes in the event the changes are significant, if this is possible without disproportionate effort. In general, however, the Privacy Policy in its current version at the beginning of the respective Processing applies to data Processing.