for clients, suppliers, job applicants, employees and website visitors of PFERD-VSM (Schweiz) AG and VITEX Schleifmittel AG.
This Data Privacy Statement outlines how we, PFERD-VSM (Schweiz) AG and VITEX Schleifmittel AG, based in Brüttisellen, process your personal data if you contact or communicate with us as a client, supplier, job applicant, employee, visitor to our website or in any other capacity.
If you transmit or disclose data relating to third parties such as your employees, work colleagues, family members or customers, etc. to us, we will assume that you are authorized to do so, that this data is correct, and that we have permission to process it as described in this Statement. By submitting such third-party data, you confirm that this is the case. Please ensure that all affected third parties are aware of this Privacy Statement.
The protection of your privacy is our paramount concern. It goes without saying that all data is processed in compliance with the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act (nFADP).
1. Who is responsible for processing your personal data?
PFERD-VSM (Schweiz) AG and VITEX Schleifmittel AG are responsible for processing data as described in this Data Privacy Statement, unless otherwise communicated in individual cases.
In the case of clients and suppliers, responsibility rests with the company named as the contractual partner on the relevant contracts (orders, purchase orders, etc.) or correspondence (e.g. letterhead or e-mail signature).
In the case of job applicants and employees, responsibility rests with the employer or job advertiser named in the job advertisement, in your employment contract or on other employment-related documents (such as the payroll).
For visitors to our website and for social media-related data processing, the responsible party shall be PFERD-VSM (Schweiz) AG.
If you are unsure who is responsible after having read the above, please feel free to contact us at the address below and we will help you identify the company responsible for your concern.
Should you have any further questions about our handling of personal data or any other data privacy concerns, please contact us at the following address:
PFERD-VSM (Schweiz) AG
Zürichstrasse 38b
8306 Brüttisellen
Switzerland
info@pferd-vsm.ch
VITEX Schleifmittel AG
Zürichstrasse 38
8306 Brüttisellen
Switzerland
info@pferd-vsm.ch
2. Which personal data do we process and for which purposes?
2.1 Clients and suppliers
a) If you or your employer are our client or supplier, we process the order-related data we receive from you concerning yourself, your employees or your customers (name, address, email address, other data concerning your interests, hobbies, marital status, etc., which may also include particularly sensitive personal data), relevant correspondence (purchase orders, order history, payment methods, agents, invoices, reminders and other contractual correspondence) and other documentation (such as third-party credit information) to allow us to handle the relevant transactions, including warranty and guarantee claims. As a client, you may also subscribe to our newsletter and receive other marketing communications from us. You may unsubscribe from these at any time.
2.2 Personnel
a) Job applicants: If you apply to work for us, we process the data received from you (such as your name, contact details, CV, salary expectations, names of referees, employers’ references and, where applicable, information on health restrictions or criminal records), as well as references obtained from your named sources, in order to check your suitability for the advertised role. In some cases, we may also share this data with external recruiters. If you are hired, this information will be added to your personnel file.
b) Employees: If you are employed by us, we process your data (in particular, your personnel file containing all data received from you (including information about family members, e.g. for the purposes of family allowances or emergency contact lists), information about your position (employment contract and other agreements (such as training agreements), salary, job description, etc.) and performance (commendations, official warnings, file notes about employee interviews, interim references, etc.) and contact details (email address, telephone numbers, etc.) as well as health information where applicable (e.g. medical certificates) and other data (e.g. time sheets, absences, performance data) as required in order to process your employment relationship.
2.3 Website and social media
a) Visitors to our website: When you visit our website, we process the relevant access data (website visited, time of access, source/link via which you accessed our site, browser used, operating system used, IP address used) to enable you to use our website (establish a connection), ensure the security and stability of our system, optimize our Internet offering and for our own internal statistical purposes.
b) Contact form: If you contact us via the contact form or via another channel, we will process your personal data in order to respond to your request.
c) Social media: We have a presence on various social media. Please be aware that we have no influence over data processing by such media and that your activities on such media will be processed in accordance with the operators’ data privacy policies. When you interact with us via such channels, we process the data received from you (i. e. your profile and your activities) to enable us to interact with you.
2.4 Other purposes
We may also use the above data to comply with our legal obligations and official regulations, communicate with the authorities and the courts, and to assert and defend legal claims.
3. To whom do we disclose your personal data?
Within the context of our business activities and the purposes outlined in section 2, we may also disclose your data to third parties, where this is admissible and appropriate, either to enable them to process this data on our behalf or to use it for their own purposes. In addition to the third parties already cited in section 2, these shall, in particular, include the following (collectively referred to as "recipients"):
- Other companies in our group, in particular
- PFERD-VSM (Schweiz) AG, Zürichstrasse 38b, 8306 Brüttisellen, Switzerland
- "PFERD – Rüggeberg" – Werkzeuge - & Maschinen GmbH, Zürichstrasse 38b, 8306 Brüttisellen, Switzerland
- VITEX Schleifmittel AG, Zürichstrasse 38, 8306 Brüttisellen, Switzerland
- August Rüggeberg GmbH & Co. KG, Hauptstrasse 13, 51709 Marienheide, Germany
- VSM · Vereinigte Schmirgel- und Maschinen-Fabrik AG, Siegmundstrasse 17, 30165 Hanover, Germany
- Service providers (such as banks, insurance companies, travel service providers, credit reference agencies), including contractors (such as IT providers)
- Credit check agencies (your name and address within the context of a credit check), social insurance agencies, government authorities
- Customers, dealers, suppliers, subcontractors, debt collection companies, manufacturers, freight forwarders and other business partners
- Selected data may also be published (e.g. on our website, on our social media channels, in newspapers or occasionally in bids) and may therefore be publicly accessible
- We also give references, provided the employee concerned has given us their written consent
- Authorities and other third parties, if we are required to do so by law or to safeguard our interests, e.g in order to combat abuse or protect our rights, and counterparties in potential or actual legal proceedings.
Otherwise, we only disclose personal data to third parties if necessary to achieve the purposes described in this Privacy Statement or our business activities, where provided for by law or in a court ruling, where necessary to assert our legal claims or if you have given your consent. Further information on the disclosure of personal data is available from the contacts cited in section 1.
4. Will your personal data be shared abroad?
Data recipients are generally located within Switzerland. In certain cases, we may also disclose personal data to IT service-providers and other recipients abroad (predominantly EU countries, primarily Germany and in certain cases – such as social media or selected IT service-providers – in the USA). If we transmit data to a country without suitable data protection laws, we will ensure an adequate level of data privacy as required by Swiss law by entering into suitable agreements (primarily via standard contractual clauses) or by other legal means or will rely on legal exceptions such as your consent, the conclusion or execution of a contract or the assertion, exercising or enforcement of legal claims. Further information on affected countries and implemented measures is available from the contacts cited in section 1.
5. What are your rights?
Individuals have the right to request information regarding the data we process about them, and the right to request the correction or deletion of such data.
Where our data processing is based upon consent, affected parties have the right to withdraw their consent at any time with future effect.
To exercise such rights, the data subjects may contact the address given in section 1 above. All such requests will be handled in accordance with the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act. We also reserve the right to reject or only partially meet such requests as the law permits.
6. Cookies
Our website uses cookies. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device.
We use cookies to improve your website experience (for example, by storing your preferred language choice). We also use cookies to generate statistical analyses regarding the use of our website.
Most browsers are preset to automatically accept cookies. You can deactivate this by disabling cookies in your browser settings.
7. Changes to this Data Privacy Statement
From time to time, it may become necessary to amend or update this Data Privacy Statement - for example, if there is a change in the law or in the way we process personal information. We will inform you of any such changes by suitable means (e.g. by posting on our website or by sending you an email). With this information, the new version becomes binding.
Version dated August 2023