1. Introduction

Baumann Bigler, Notaries and Lawyers, with offices in Boll, Stettlen and Worb, respects your privacy. We undertake to treat the information and data obtained or received about you carefully and responsibly at all times and to process it in compliance with the relevant provisions of data protection law.

Below you will find information on how we process your personal data when you obtain our services or otherwise contact us, communicate with us or otherwise deal with us. Within our different locations, we process your personal data within the framework of this data protection declaration and thus in particular for the same purposes.

Insofar as we carry out our main professional activities (i.e. in particular public notarisation as well as all preparatory and executive acts necessary for this), the cantonal data protection law of the Canton of Berne applies in principle.

2. Our contact details

We are responsible for processing your personal data, i.e.:

Location Boll
bb-notare und anwälte AG
Bernstrasse 30
3067 Boll

Location Stettlen
Baumann Bigler, Notare und Anwälte
Stefan Bigler, Anwalt und Notar
Bernstrasse 96
3066 Stettlen

Location Worb
Baumann Bigler, Notare und Anwälte
Bahnhofplatz 7
3076 Worb

For requests relating to the protection of your personal data, you can contact the aforementioned office by telephone, e-mail or also by post.

3. Personal data

“Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. This includes various categories of information that you provide to us, such as name, contact details, e-mail address, title, information about the company for which you work, telephone number, date of birth, AHV number, customer history, powers of attorney, signature authorisations, declarations of consent, financial information such as payment information, IP address, contractual data that arise in connection with the conclusion or processing of a contract and other information relating to you. This does not include statistical data or anonymised data that cannot be directly linked to your person.

We receive this data either directly from you as the data subject yourself or from any third parties involved, such as contracting parties, authorities, banks, insurance companies or any counterparties. To the extent permitted, we also process data about you that we have collected ourselves, e.g. from public registers or websites. This includes in particular master data and contract data. If you disclose data about other persons to us, we assume that you are authorised to do so, that this data is correct and that you have ensured that these persons have been informed about this disclosure where necessary and have given their consent.

A “data subject” is a natural person whose personal data is processed; “processing” means any handling (obtaining, storing, keeping, using, modifying, disclosing, archiving, deleting, destroying) of personal data, such as the assignment to an identifier such as a name, an identification number or location data.

4. Principles and purposes of data processing

We process your personal data primarily in connection with our contractual relationship with you and any third parties involved and thus for the purpose of initiating, concluding, managing and processing contracts, for example for:

• Clarifications at banks, insurance companies, asset managers and in non-public registers;;
• Obtain powers of attorney;;
• Netting of bank accounts;;
• Procurement of private documents for the establishment of an inventory;;
• Receipt and disbursement of funds in connection with the settlement of notarised contracts;
• Drafting of articles of association and contracts (not requiring notarisation);
• Conducting contractual negotiations;
• Legal and tax advice;
• Trust functions;
• Activities as executor of the will;
• Other services, e.g. negotiations with authorities, representation in court, obtaining building permits, etc.

In addition, we process your personal data and that of other persons insofar as this is permissible and appears to us to be appropriate, in particular for the following purposes in which we have a corresponding legitimate interest:

To ensure and improve our operations, in particular IT and our website, we use the following data;

For security purposes (for IT, building and facility security and for the protection of our employees and other persons), i.e. for access and entry controls, for example.;

For the purposes of our risk management as part of our corporate governance;

To evaluate the IP address and the country; however, this only in the event of attacks on the website’s network infrastructure and for statistical purposes.;

We also process your data on the basis of your consent, for example:

• For marketing purposes, to maintain relationships and to improve our services and our operations (e.g. organisation of events, sending newsletters, contact form), in any case insofar as you have not objected to the use of your data. Insofar as the processing of personal data concerns the online area, you will find further information under point 7.;
• For communication with you and with the above-mentioned categories of recipients in accordance with section 6 below (e.g. for the purpose of conducting online meetings);

If we process your personal data on the basis of your consent, you can revoke your consent at any time, but this has no effect on data processing that has already taken place.

Further processing of your personal data is based on legal, official or regulatory obligations imposed on us (such as the obligation to retain data).

5. Application

We publish job advertisements on an irregular basis (e.g. on our website, on corresponding portals, etc.). You have the option of sending us your application either postally or electronically. In the case of these (digital) applications and also in the case of unsolicited applications, your applicant and application data will be stored and processed (electronically) by us for the purpose of processing the application procedure.

If an employment contract is concluded after the application process, we will store the data submitted during the application in your personnel file for the purpose of the usual organisational and administrative process – this in compliance with the more extensive legal obligations.

If an application is rejected, we delete the data submitted to us within 3 months of the end of the recruitment process. In exceptional cases, the data will not be deleted if it must be stored for a longer period of time due to legal requirements.

If you expressly consent to your data being stored for a longer period of time, e.g. for your inclusion in our applicant database, the data will be processed on the basis of your consent. You can revoke your consent at any time by making a declaration to us with effect for the future. A corresponding notification to the office named under point 2 is sufficient for this purpose. However, the processing procedures carried out up to this point are not affected by your revocation.

6. Data transfer and data transmission abroad

Within the scope of the above-mentioned processing purposes (section 4), it may be necessary for us to pass on your personal data to the recipients listed below. These process your data either on our behalf, jointly or on their own responsibility. Insofar as we are obliged to do so, we ensure that the recipients treat your data confidentially and in accordance with the applicable legal provisions and that your data is only used for the purpose of the respective service.

• External service providers, including order processors: banks, insurance companies, trustees, shipping service providers (in particular the Swiss Post and couriers), IT service providers (e.g. in connection with e-mail, video conferences, etc. – we use appropriate communication tools in this regard), cloud providers, advertising service providers who carry out analysis and marketing for us.;
• notary’s offices or law firms associated with us (cf. Section 2);
• Clients, counterparties and their legal representatives, business partners and other parties involved in any legal proceedings, courts, domestic and foreign authorities, such as commercial registry offices.;

The recipients may be located in Switzerland or abroad, i.e. worldwide, which means that your data may also be used outside Switzerland, in particular in Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Isle of Man, Faroe Islands, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Uruguay.

If the recipient is located in a country without adequate legal data protection, we will contractually ensure that the recipient complies with the applicable data protection, unless the recipient is already subject to a legally recognised set of rules to ensure data protection and we cannot rely on an exceptional provision. Such an exceptional provision may exist if you have consented to the disclosure or if the data in question has been made generally accessible by you and you have not objected to its processing. Disclosure is also permissible in the case of legal proceedings abroad, in cases of overriding public interests or if the performance of a contract requires such disclosure.

7. Cookies / Tracking etc.

On our website, we may use “cookies” and similar technologies to identify your browser or device. A “cookie” is a small text file that is transferred to your computer and stored by your browser when you browse our pages.

We may use different types of cookies on our website: the so-called session-related temporary cookies, which are technically necessary for the operation of the website. However, they do not remain on your computer. When you leave our website, the temporary cookie is also deleted. We may also use permanent cookies. These remain stored on your computer and allow us to recognise your browser on your next visit. In addition, we may use service providers who can also place cookies on your device for us (so-called third-party cookies). These cookies help us to tailor our site to the specific needs of our visitors. Through the use of these cookies, we receive information about what content you have viewed or searched for, or which websites you have previously visited. These cookies are stored on your hard drive.

Most browsers (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.) accept Coo-kies by default. You can allow or prohibit temporary and permanently stored cookies independently of each other in the security settings. The data stored in our cookies cannot be linked to your personal data (name, address, etc.) without your express consent.

8. Duration of storage

We process and retain your personal data for as long as is necessary or appropriate to fulfil our contractual and legal obligations or to comply with the relevant legal provisions or as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected. As far as possible, we anonymise or delete your personal data as soon as it is no longer required, or at the latest after expiry of the legally prescribed retention period.

You can request the deletion of your personal data yourself at any time by sending us a corresponding request to the contact point mentioned under point 2. We will comply with your request unless we are obliged to continue to store the data for other reasons (e.g. the legal obligation to retain data).

9. Rights of the data subject

In principle, you have the right to obtain information from us at any time about whether we are processing personal data about you. You also have the option of having us correct, block or delete your personal data. This does not apply to data that we need to process outstanding orders or to enforce existing rights and claims, as well as data that we are required to retain by law. You can also object to the disclosure of certain personal data. In addition, you can demand that we return the data you have provided to us.

You can revoke your consent to the use of your personal data at any time. However, your revocation is limited to the storage and use of personal data that we are not permitted to store or use without your consent due to legal permissions. Furthermore, your revocation has no effect on previous processing procedures which were carried out on the basis of your consent.

To assert your rights, please contact us in writing and provide proof of your identity (contact details under point 2). As long as your rights are not restricted due to legal regulations or overriding public or private interests, we will be happy to comply with your request. The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/de/home.html) acts as the supervisory authority in data protection matters.

10. Liability for links

We have no influence on the current and future design and content of the linked pages on our website. This statement applies to all links and references set within our own website. Liability for illegal, incorrect or incomplete content and in particular for damage arising from the use or non-use of such information rests solely with the provider of the site to which the link refers and not with the party who merely refers to the publication in question via links. We exclude all liability to the extent permitted by law.

11. Data security / technical and organisational measures

We would like to point out that communication with us via the public, freely accessible Internet is associated with certain security risks over which we have no influence and no means of control. Please contact us if you wish to communicate via a secure connection.

For our website and to protect the transmission of confidential content, we use SSL or TLS encryption for security reasons. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the fact that the address line of the browser changes from “http://” to “https://” and by the lock symbol in your browser line. If SSL or TLS encryption is activated, data that you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.

We then apply technical and organisational measures (TOMs) to protect your personal data. These measures are regularly reviewed and adapted.

12. Changes

We reserve the right to change this privacy policy at any time. The current version published on our website or the version that we have otherwise provided to you, if applicable, shall apply. If you are affected by a change to the data protection declaration (for example, if you use a newsletter service), we will inform you of such a change in an appropriate manner. The data protection declaration does not establish a contractual or other formal legal relationship with or on behalf of a party.