PRIVACY POLICY

Effective Date: 29.08.2024

This privacy policy explains how we, Heads for Excellence GmbH, process personal data.

This privacy policy is designed to meet the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation („GDPR“) and the revised Swiss Data Protection Act („nDSG“). The applicability of these laws depends on the individual case.

Responsible Person and Contact

The responsible entity is:

Heads for Excellence GmbH
Via Cornonscello 1
6944 Cureglia
Switzerland

If you have any questions about our handling of personal data or other data protection concerns, you can contact us at the following address: privacy@headsforexcellence.com.

We have appointed a data protection officer, whom you can reach at the above-mentioned email address.

You can reach the EU representative of Heads for Excellence GmbH at the following contact details:

VGS Datenschutzpartner GmbH
Am Kaiserkai 69
20457 Hamburg
Germany
info@datenschutzpartner.eu

Explanation of Terms

To explain the terms, we refer to Art. 5 nDSG and Art. 4 GDPR:

• Personal data: Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person;
• Data subject: Natural person about whom personal data are processed;
• Personal data requiring special protection:
  • Data on religious, ideological, political, or trade union views or activities,
  • Data about health, privacy, or racial or ethnic origin,
  • Genetic data,
  • Biometric data that uniquely identifies a natural person,
  • Data on administrative and criminal prosecutions or sanctions,
  • Data on social assistance measures.
• Processing: Any handling of personal data, regardless of the means and procedures used, including acquisition, storage, retention, use, modification, disclosure, archiving, deletion, or destruction of data;
• Disclosure: The transmission or making available of personal data;
• Profiling: Any automated processing of personal data used to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, particularly to analyze or predict aspects relating to that person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location, or movement;
• High-risk profiling: Profiling that entails a high risk to the personality or fundamental rights of the data subject by leading to a combination of data allowing an assessment of essential aspects of the personality of a natural person;
• Data breach: A breach of security that results in personal data being inadvertently or unlawfully lost, deleted, destroyed, altered, disclosed, or accessed by unauthorized persons;
• Responsible person: Private person or federal body which alone or together with others decides on the purpose and means of processing;
• Data processor: Private person or federal body that processes personal data on behalf of the data controller.

Processed Personal Data and Processing Purposes

We process the following personal data as part of the recruitment process:

• Candidate data and recruitment data: First and last name, contact details of contact persons, position and title, associated company/job, industry, any cross-connections and further background information from publicly accessible sources (e.g., LinkedIn), CVs, references, letters of motivation, any assigning persons, contents of inquiries.
• Commissioned data: Communication with employers and third parties, consultation documentation, information disclosed to us by or on behalf of employers, authorities, and third parties in the course of our service or which we produce in the course of our service.
• Service and billing data: Information on the services provided and billed, billing data, proof of services, invoices, payments, bank details.
• Supplementary information: Information related to the use of our newsletters and participation in our events and other information provided by candidates as well as employers.

We process personal data mainly to provide, document, bill, and improve our services. This includes forwarding your personal data to potential employers, processing to meet legal requirements, and enforcing or defending legal claims. We also process our candidates‘ personal data to communicate with them, respond to inquiries, and send newsletters, information about our services, and invitations to events, courses, conferences, or lectures.

If you provide us with personal data of other persons (e.g., reference persons), please ensure these persons are aware of this privacy policy and only share their personal data with us if you are allowed to do so and if this personal data is accurate.

Disclosure of Personal Data

We do not disclose any personal data to third parties without the consent of the data subject unless this is done in connection with order processing or is necessary for the purposes described in this privacy policy. In particular, information may be passed on to employers as part of order processing.

In addition, we may disclose personal data to data processors, particularly to IT providers (e.g., Coveto) and other providers who make IT applications available or provide support and other services on our behalf for the purposes set out in this privacy policy.

Our processors may be based anywhere in the world, including outside Switzerland or the European Union. Heads for Excellence GmbH ensures that data is only transferred to countries with an adequate level of data protection equivalent to that of Switzerland or the EU, or only to processors that have concluded data transfer agreements with Heads for Excellence GmbH based on the standard contractual clauses issued and approved by the European Commission (Art. 46 Para. 2 GDPR), thereby ensuring a level of data protection comparable to that of the EU or Switzerland.

Cookies / Tracking and Other Technologies Related to the Use of Our Website

We typically use „cookies“ and similar technologies on our websites to identify your browser or device. A cookie is a small file that is sent to your computer or automatically stored on your computer or mobile device by the web browser you are using when you visit our website. This allows us to recognize you when you return to this website, even if we do not know who you are. In addition to session cookies, which are deleted after your visit, persistent cookies can also be used to store user settings and other information for a certain period of time (e.g., two years). However, you can set your browser to reject cookies, save them for one session only, or otherwise delete them prematurely. Most browsers are preset to accept cookies. We use persistent cookies to save user preferences (e.g., language, autologin) so that we can better understand how you use our offers and content.

Legal Basis for the Use of Cookies:

The use of cookies that are essential for the operation of the website is based on our legitimate interest according to Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR and § 25 Para. 2 TTDSG. For other cookies, particularly those used for analytics or marketing purposes, we require your explicit consent in accordance with Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR and § 25 Para. 1 TTDSG.

By using our websites and agreeing to receive newsletters and other marketing emails, you consent to the use of these techniques. If you do not wish to do so, you must set your browser or email application accordingly, or uninstall the app if this cannot be adjusted via the settings.

Duration of the Retention of Personal Data

We process and store your personal data as long as necessary to fulfill our contractual and legal obligations or other purposes pursued with the processing, e.g., for the duration of the entire business relationship (from initiation and processing to termination of a contract), and beyond that in accordance with statutory retention and documentation obligations. Personal data may be retained for the period during which claims can be asserted against our company and insofar as we are otherwise legally obliged to do so or justified business interests require this (e.g., for evidence and documentation purposes). For operational data (e.g., system logs), shorter retention periods of twelve months or less generally apply.

Rights of the Data Subjects

Data subjects have the right to request information in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR and Art. 25 nDSG.

Insofar as our processing is based on consent, every person concerned has the right to revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future.

Additionally, you may assert the other rights under the applicable Swiss data protection law and the GDPR, including the rights to rectification, deletion, restriction of processing, data portability, and objection.

To exercise such rights, data subjects may contact us at the address mentioned in section 1 above. We will process these requests in accordance with the applicable Swiss data protection law and the GDPR and may also refuse or fulfill them only to a limited extent in accordance with the legal regulations.

A data subject also has the option provided for in the Swiss Data Protection Act to contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (www.edoeb.admin.ch).

Adjustments to this Privacy Policy

It may be necessary to amend this privacy policy from time to time, for example, if the law or the way we process personal data changes. In this case, the new version will be published on our website. We will notify you of any substantial changes in advance, for example, via email or a prominent notice on our website.