Data processing agreement

Data protection statement

Privacy is important and we always process your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection regulations (including the Federal Act on Data Protection "FADP" and, where applicable, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, "GDPR"; hereinafter collectively "applicable data protection law").

In this statement, we inform you about how we process personal data that we collect from you, that you provide to us, or that we may collect from other sources. This includes the various ways in which you interact with us, including through our websites.

1. Person responsible for processing your data
If you have any questions about the collection, processing or use of your data in accordance with these data protection provisions, you can contact the data controller directly:

VZ VermögensZentrum
VZ VermögensZentrum
Gotthardstrasse 6 8002
Zürich

2. Personal data processed
We collect the personal data of our customers that we need to provide the agreed service(s), to protect our interests or by virtue of a legal provision or other binding requirement. We process such data, for example, when concluding or executing a brokerage contract, search mandate, property appraisal, filing a rental application, acting as a real estate consultant, applying for a job vacancy or participating in an event.

2.1 When using the website, any of its sub-sites or linked external sites
When using the website, any of its sub-sites or linked external sites, we may collect the following personal data:

your identification and contact information (e.g. last name, first name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, including secondary data)
customer data (e.g. birthday, nationality, marital status, profession, title, job description, etc...)
property information
other data (e.g. commercial register data, land register data, search criteria, including any information you may share with us or enter on our site)
financial information (e.g. bank details)
marketing information (e.g. newsletter subscriptions, email alerts)
information concerning the use of our site
technical information transmitted automatically to us or to our service provider, information relating to usage behavior or website parameters (e.g. IP address, device type, country of origin, number of clicks on page, newsletter opening, click on links, etc...)

However, when you visit our site, we may automatically collect analysis data concerning user behavior on our website or, for example, on receipt of the newsletter/SMS.
In addition, we collect on our website the data required when you subscribe to a newsletter, register for an event, appraise your property, fill in a contact form or use one of our various services. We process this data to protect our legitimate interests, to improve our quality, to analyze data or to publicize our services.

2.2 When you entrust us with the management or sale of your property
When you entrust us with the management, appraisal or valuation of your property or the development of a real estate project, we may collect the following personal data:

your identifying information (full name, company name, identity card, passport, type of residence permit, place and date of birth, certificate of residence or establishment, legitimation card)
your contact details (postal and e-mail address, telephone number)
your bank or postal details
your family and personal situation (including marital status)
property information (property category, technical data of the property, price, condominium ownership regulations, accounting, minutes of general meetings, etc...)

2.3 When you are a tenant or looking for a property to rent
When you are a tenant or looking for a property to rent, and in particular when you send us a rental application form digitally or on paper or following the signing of a lease contract, we may collect the following personal data:

your identifying information (full name, company name, identity card, passport, type of residence permit, place and date of birth, certificate of residence or establishment, legitimation card)
your contact details (postal and e-mail address, telephone number)
your family and personal situation (marital status, number of children, existence of guardianship or trusteeship, number and type of vehicles, number and type of pets, name of your household insurance, your current manager, guarantor, your current rent as well as your reason for moving)
your financial situation (your profession, employer, net monthly income, most recent pay slips, an official extract concerning you from the prosecution office)
your bank or postal details
information on your desired property or your search criteria (price, features, surface areas, down payment, mortgage lender, loan amount, cedulas, easements, sales notice, condominium ownership regulations, etc...)
any other information indicated on the form or provided spontaneously

This personal data is collected in order to identify you, to communicate with you, to offer you a property corresponding to your expectations, to manage your lease contract, to ensure your right to reside in Switzerland, to guarantee your solvency as well as to offer you solutions in line with your needs. Your data will be processed on the basis of the contract concluded or to be concluded.

2.4 When you take part in events organized by us
When you participate in events that we organize, we collect personal data for the purpose of organizing and carrying out the event and, where appropriate, sending you further information. We also use your information to inform you about other events. During these events, we may take photos of you or film you, and publish these images internally or externally. We process this data in order to protect our legitimate interests, such as event organization, customer segmentation, dissemination of information about our events, organizational quality or marketing campaigns.
This includes the following information:

your full name, postal and e-mail address, company name, and telephone numbers
personal information (e.g. your profession, position, title, employer or company)
photos or videos

3. Use of cookies, tracking and analysis tools as well as plug-ins and other third-party offer integrations
Cookies help to make your visit to our websites simpler, more pleasant and more useful, as well as to guarantee operation; they can also be used to offer you advertising based on your areas of interest. Cookies are files containing information that your Internet browser automatically stores on your computer's hard drive when you visit our website. In principle, our digital offerings can be used even without cookies, although certain functionalities may be limited.

When you use our website, cookies may be stored on your hard drive When you use our website, the cookies we use may collect and store usage data such as the IP address of your device, the pages viewed, the browser used, the date, time, etc. In principle, this data does not allow us to identify you, unless you are logged into your user account.

For example, we use cookies to recognize you after your first visit to our websites. In principle, it is not you as a user who is identified, but only the computer, mobile device or browser used. We also use cookies to find out who has visited our offers and to deduce how often certain pages or offers are visited, which parts of the websites are particularly popular and how they are used in general. We use other cookies to enable you to navigate freely and use the site's functionalities, for example when accessing protected areas, to ensure smooth navigation between different pages and to save your preferences. The use of cookies also enables us to use the choices you have made or the decisions you have made as parameters to make your visit to our websites more pleasant. Generally speaking, cookies are used to improve our services and make them more efficient and secure. Cookies also enable us to collect information in order to offer you advertising that may be of interest to you.

Finally, our cookies help to select online advertisements that are more in line with your potential interests and thus avoid the appearance of advertisements that would be of little or no interest to you. You can decide at any time whether or not to receive targeted advertising tailored to your interests.

Most Internet browsers automatically accept cookies. However, you can configure your browser so that no cookies are stored on your computer, or so that you are always informed when you receive a new cookie (please consult your browser settings). You can also delete cookies from your computer or mobile device using the corresponding function in your browser.

Most of the cookies we use are temporary session cookies, which are automatically deleted from the computer or mobile terminal at the end of the browsing session. However, we also use permanent cookies. These remain stored on the computer or mobile terminal after the end of the browsing session.

We may include third-party software applications (cookies, plug-ins) on our websites that enable you to share content with other people or let them know how you view or feel about content on our websites.
The issue and use of Cookies by third parties are subject to the privacy policies of these third parties. These Cookies and plug-ins are not under our control. Please refer to the privacy policies of the respective social media to establish how their Cookies work.

4. Transmission to third parties and transfer abroad
We will only pass on your data to third parties if this is necessary to provide our service, if these third parties provide a service to us, if we are required to do so by law or the authorities or if we have an overriding interest in passing on personal data (market intelligence companies as part of credit checks, for example), as well as to other third parties where this is necessary to defend our legitimate interests or those of third parties. To this end, we may pass on the required data to real estate agencies, banks and other service providers, such as service providers or computer software suppliers.

Your personal data will mainly be processed in Switzerland, but may also be processed in other countries, particularly in Europe, or in the United States, if required for the performance of your contract or if we subcontract services to one or more foreign supplier(s). These companies and service providers are bound by the same data protection requirements as we are. We will comply with the applicable rules and adopt all necessary measures prior to the transmission of personal data abroad.

5. How long we keep your data
We retain personal data for the time necessary to achieve the purpose for which it was collected. We keep them longer if legal or regulatory obligations or overriding interests so require. If we store data by virtue of a contractual relationship with you, this data remains stored for as long as the contractual relationship lasts, but at most until the expiry of the statute of limitations for any claims we may have or for as long as there is a legal or contractual obligation to store.

Web analysis data is only kept for a short period.
In certain circumstances, we may anonymize your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use this information without providing you with further notice.

6. Security of your personal data
In order to best protect your personal data, we take security measures in accordance with industry standards. Please note, however, that we cannot guarantee absolute security for your personal data, as storing as well as electronically transmitting personal data involves certain risks.

7. Your rights
You have a number of rights under applicable law regarding the protection of personal data. These rights may be limited in particular if they infringe the rights and freedoms of others.
These rights include:

the right of access and the right to information regarding personal data concerning you and stored with us, as well as the right to be informed about the purpose of the processing, the origin and the recipients or categories of recipients to whom the personal data will be transmitted.
the right to withdraw consent: where we process your personal data on the basis of your consent, you may withdraw this consent at any time. To do so, please use the contact details of the data controller given above.
the right to object to data processing or to revoke consent to the processing of personal data at any time and without justification.
the right to be forgotten: in certain cases, and if the applicable law so provides, you have the right to obtain the erasure of your personal data. Where you have requested not to receive certain information or documents from us, we will need to retain certain information to ensure that you are not contacted in the future.
the right of rectification if your data is incorrect or incomplete.
the right to data portability. Under certain conditions, you have the right to ask us to transmit your personal data to you in a commonly used format. We reserve the right, for obvious security reasons, to ask you to prove your identity when making your request.
the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority (Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) or, where the GDPR applies, with the supervisory authority insofar as the law so provides.

8. Modification of the data protection declaration
We expressly reserve the right to amend this data protection declaration at any time.

Status: August 2023