All about your data

Data protection

In this privacy policy, we, Founders Passion (hereinafter we or us), explain how we collect and otherwise process personal data. This is not an exhaustive description; other data protection declarations, or general terms and conditions, terms of participation and similar documents may regulate specific matters. Personal data is understood to mean all information relating to an identified or identifiable person.
If you provide us with personal data of other persons (e.g. family members, data of work colleagues), please ensure that 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 correct.
This privacy policy is designed to meet the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation “GDPR”, the Swiss Data Protection Act “DSG” and the revised Swiss Data Protection Act “revDSG”. Whether and to what extent these laws are applicable depends, however, on the individual case.

1. Data Controller

If you have any data protection concerns, you can inform us of these via the contact form at the end of the page.

2. Collection and Processing of Personal Data

We primarily process the personal data that we receive from our customers and other business partners in the course of our business relationship with them and other persons involved, or that we collect from users of our websites, apps and other applications.
To the extent permitted, we may also obtain certain data from publicly accessible sources (e.g. debt collection registers, land registers, commercial registers, press, internet, etc.) or receive such data from other companies, from authorities and other third parties (such as credit agencies, address dealers, etc.). In addition to the data from you that you provide to us directly, the categories of personal data that we receive from third parties about you include, in particular, information from public registers, information that we learn in connection with official and court proceedings, information in connection with your professional functions and activities (so that we can, for example, conclude and process business with your employer with your help), information about you in correspondence and discussions with third parties, credit reports (insofar as we process business with you personally), information about you that people from your environment (family, advisors, legal representatives, etc.) give us so that we can conclude or process contracts with you or with your involvement (e.g. references, your address for deliveries, powers of attorney, information on compliance with legal requirements such as money laundering and export restrictions, information from banks, insurance companies, sales and other contractual partners of us for the use or provision of services by you (e.g. payments made, purchases made)), information from media and the internet about you (insofar as this is appropriate in the specific case, e.g. in the context of an application, press review, marketing/sales, etc.), your addresses and, if applicable, interests and other socio-demographic data (for marketing), data in connection with the use of the website (e.g. IP address, MAC address of the smartphone or computer, information about your device and settings, cookies, date and time of the visit, pages and content accessed, functions used, referring website, location data).

3. Purposes of Data Processing and Legal Bases

We use the personal data we collect primarily to conclude and process our contracts with our customers and business partners, and to comply with our legal obligations in Germany and abroad. If you work for such a customer or business partner, your personal data may of course also be affected in this function.
In addition, we process personal data from you and other persons, to the extent permitted and as it seems appropriate to us, also for the following purposes in which we (and sometimes also third parties) have a legitimate interest corresponding to the purpose:

• Offer and further development of our offers, services and websites, apps and other platforms on which we are present;
• Communication with third parties and processing of their inquiries (e.g. applications, media inquiries);
• Review and optimization of procedures for needs analysis for the purpose of direct customer contact as well as collection of personal data from publicly accessible sources for the purpose of customer acquisition;
• Advertising and marketing (including the organization of events), provided that you have not objected to the use of your data (if we send you advertising as an existing customer of ours, you can object to this at any time; we will then put you on a blocking list against further advertising mailings);
• Market and opinion research, media monitoring;
• Assertion of legal claims and defense in connection with legal disputes and official proceedings;
• Prevention and investigation of criminal offences and other misconduct (e.g. conducting internal investigations, data analyses to combat fraud);
• Guarantees of our operations, in particular the IT, our websites, apps and other platforms;
• Video surveillance to protect domiciliary rights and other measures for IT, building and system security and protection of our employees and other persons and values belonging to us or entrusted to us (such as access controls, visitor lists, network and mail scanners, telephone recordings);
• Purchase and sale of business units, companies or parts of companies and other corporate transactions and the associated transfer of personal data as well as measures for business management and insofar as for compliance with legal and regulatory obligations as well as internal regulations.

If you have given us your consent to process your personal data for specific purposes (for example, when you register to receive newsletters or carry out a background check), we will process your personal data within the scope of and based on this consent, unless we have another legal basis and we need one. A given consent can be revoked at any time, but this has no effect on data processing that has already taken place.

4. Cookies / Tracking and other technologies in connection with the use of our website

We typically use “cookies” and similar techniques on our websites and any apps 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 use when you visit our website or install an app. When you visit this website again, or possibly use our app, we can recognize you in this way, even if we do not know who you are. In addition to cookies that are only used during a session and deleted after your website visit (“session cookies”), cookies can also be used to store user settings and other information over a certain period of time (e.g. two years) (“permanent cookies”). However, you can set your browser so that it rejects cookies, only saves them for one session or otherwise deletes them prematurely. Most browsers are pre-set to accept cookies. We use permanent cookies to save user settings (e.g. language, autologin), so that we can better understand how you use our offers and content, and so that we can possibly show you offers and advertising tailored to you (which can also happen on websites of other companies; however, these will then not learn from us who you are, if we even know that ourselves, because they only see that the same user is on their website who was also on a certain page with us). Certain cookies are set by us, certain cookies may also be set by contractual partners with whom we cooperate. If you block cookies, it may be that certain functionalities (such as language selection, shopping cart, ordering processes) no longer function as they should.
If necessary, we also integrate visible and invisible image elements into our newsletters and other marketing e-mails, through the retrieval of which from our servers we can determine whether and when you opened the e-mail, so that we can also measure and better understand how you use our offers and tailor them to you. You can block this in your e-mail program; most are pre-set to do so.
By using our websites and apps and consenting to receive newsletters and other marketing e-mails, you consent to the use of these technologies. If you do not want this, then you must set your browser or your e-mail program accordingly or uninstall the app, unless this can be adjusted via the settings.
We may use Google Analytics or comparable services on our websites. This is a service provided by third parties who may be located in any country in the world (in the case of Google Analytics, it is Google Ireland (based in Ireland), Google Ireland relies on Google LLC (based in the USA) as a processor (both “Google”), www.google.com), with which we can measure and evaluate the use of the website (not personal data). Permanent cookies are also used for this purpose, which the service provider sets. The service is configured in such a way that the IP addresses of visitors from Google in Europe are shortened before being forwarded to the USA and can therefore not be traced back. We assume no liability in the event that the service provider changes, expands or deletes its options and settings in its basic setting. Although we can assume that the information we share with Google is not personal data for Google, it is possible that Google may use this data to draw conclusions about the identity of visitors, create personal profiles and link this data with the Google accounts of these persons. If you have registered yourself with the service provider, the service provider also knows you. The processing of your personal data by the service provider then takes place under the responsibility of the service provider in accordance with its data protection provisions. The service provider only informs us how our respective website is used. We do not receive any information about you personally.
Furthermore, we may install so-called plug-ins from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest or Instagram on our websites. This is visible to you in each case (typically via corresponding symbols). We have configured these elements so that they are deactivated by default. If you activate them (by clicking on them), the operators of the respective social networks can register that you are on our website and where and can use this information for their purposes. The processing of your personal data then takes place under the responsibility of this operator in accordance with its data protection provisions. We do not receive any information about you from him.

5. Data Disclosure and Data Transfer Abroad

We may disclose certain data within the scope of our business activities and the purposes in accordance with section 3, to the extent permitted and as it seems appropriate to us, also to third parties, either because they process it for us or because they want to use it for their own purposes. This concerns in particular the following bodies:

• Service providers of us (e.g. banks, insurance companies), including processors (such as IT providers);
• Dealers, suppliers, subcontractors and other business partners;
• Customers;
• domestic and foreign authorities, agencies or courts;
• Media;
• Public, including visitors to websites and social media;
• Competitors, industry organizations, associations, organizations and other bodies;
• Acquirers or prospective acquirers of business units, companies or other parts of us;
• other parties in possible or actual legal proceedings;
  (all together recipients)

These recipients are partly domestic, but can be anywhere on earth. In particular, you must expect your data to be transferred to all countries in which we have interests, as well as to other countries in Europe and the USA, where the service providers we use are located (such as Microsoft, SAP, Amazon, etc.).
If a recipient is located in a country without adequate legal data protection, we contractually obligate the recipient to comply with the applicable data protection (for this we use the revised standard contractual clauses of the European Commission, which are available here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj? abrufbar sind), unless it is already subject to a legally recognized set of rules to ensure data protection and we cannot rely on an exception. An exception may apply in particular in the case of legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases of overriding public interest or if a contract execution requires such disclosure, if you have consented or if it concerns data made generally accessible by you, the processing of which you have not objected to.

6. Duration of Retention of Personal Data

We process and store your personal data as long as it is necessary for the fulfillment of our contractual and legal obligations or otherwise the purposes pursued with the processing, i.e. for example for the duration of the entire business relationship (from the initiation, processing to the termination of a contract) as well as beyond that in accordance with the legal storage and documentation obligations. It is possible that personal data will be stored for the time in which claims can be asserted against our company and insofar as we are otherwise legally obliged to do so or legitimate business interests require this (e.g. for evidentiary and documentation purposes). As soon as your personal data is no longer required for the above-mentioned purposes, it will be deleted or anonymized as a matter of principle and as far as possible. For operational data (e.g. system logs, logs), there are generally shorter retention periods of twelve months or less.

7. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organizational security precautions to protect your personal data from unauthorized access and misuse (e.g. issuing instructions, training, IT and network security solutions, access controls and restrictions, encryption of data carriers and transmissions, pseudonymization, controls).

8. Obligation to Provide Personal Data

Within the scope of our business relationship, you must provide the personal data that is necessary for the establishment and implementation of a business relationship and the fulfillment of the associated contractual obligations (you usually do not have a legal obligation to provide us with data). Without this data, we will generally not be able to conclude or process a contract with you (or the entity or person you represent). The website cannot be used if certain information to ensure data traffic (such as IP address) is not disclosed.

9. Profiling and Automated Decision-Making

We may process your personal data partly automatically with the aim of evaluating certain personal aspects (profiling). We use profiling in particular to be able to inform and advise you in a targeted manner about products. We use evaluation tools that enable us to communicate and advertise in line with requirements, including market and opinion research.
For the justification and implementation of the business relationship and also otherwise, we generally do not use fully automated automatic decision-making (as regulated in Art. 22 GDPR). Should we use such procedures in individual cases, we will inform you separately about this, provided this is required by law, and inform you about the associated rights.

10. Rights of the Data Subject

Within the scope of the data protection law applicable to you and to the extent provided therein (such as in the case of the GDPR), you have the right to information, correction, deletion, the right to restrict data processing, and otherwise to object to our data processing, in particular for purposes of direct marketing, profiling for direct advertising, and other legitimate interests in the processing, as well as to the release of certain personal data for the purpose of transfer to another location (so-called data portability). Please note, however, that we reserve the right to assert the legally предусмотренные restrictions on our part, for example, if we are obliged to retain or process certain data, have an overriding interest in doing so (to the extent that we may rely on it), or require it for the assertion of claims. If costs are incurred for you, we will inform you in advance. We have already informed you about the possibility of withdrawing your consent in section 3. Please note that the exercise of these rights may conflict with contractual agreements and this may have consequences such as premature termination of the contract or cost consequences. We will inform you in advance in this case, where this is not already contractually regulated.
The exercise of such rights generally requires that you clearly prove your identity (e.g. by means of a copy of your identity card, where your identity is otherwise not clear or cannot be verified). To assert your rights, you can contact us at the address given in section 1.
In addition, any data subject has the right to enforce their claims in court or to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority. The competent data protection authority in Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (http://www.edoeb.admin.ch).

11. Amendments

We may amend this privacy policy at any time without prior notice. The current version published on our website applies. If the privacy policy is part of an agreement with you, we will inform you of the change by e-mail or in another suitable manner in the event of an update.

Version of January 1, 2024