At ValueQuest GmbH, the protection and security of your personal data is our top priority. We handle your data sensitively and carefully and ensure the highest level of data security.

We ("ValueQuest", "we"/"us"/"our") collect and use your personal data exclusively in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), where applicable, and other applicable legal provisions, in particular the Swiss Data Protection Act (DSG) and the associated ordinance (VDSG) and, as a market research institute, we are committed to the quality standard of the professional association ESOMAR.

In this privacy policy, we inform you in particular about the most important aspects of data processing in the context of our activities and the data protection rights to which you are entitled. It describes how we collect and process your personal data (information that relates to a person and identifies them directly or indirectly) when you visit our website or make use of our services.

By accessing our website and using the services we offer, you declare that you have read this privacy policy carefully and agree to the data processing described.

Any questions in connection with this privacy policy can be sent at any time by email to info@valuequest.ch. If you do not agree with this declaration, you must refrain from accessing the portal and using our services and products.

Contact data protection officer

The controller within the meaning of data protection law is the:

ValueQuest GmbH
Seestrasse 353
8038 Zurich

Tel.: +41 44 786 32 52
E-mail: info@valuequest.ch

Website: https://valuequest.ch

Name and address of the data protection officer

ValueQuest GmbH
Melanie Wollschläger
Seestrasse 353
8038 Zurich

Phone: +41 44 786 32 52
E-mail: info@valuequest.ch

Collection, processing and use of personal data

Access data

When you access our website, the browser used on your device automatically sends data to the server of our website. This data is temporarily stored in a log file, the so-called server log files.

The access data includes in particular

  • Browser type and browser version
  • Operating systems used
  • Referrer URL (the previously visited website)
  • Host name of the accessing computer
  • Date and time of the server request
  • Internet Protocol address (IP address)

Amount of data transferred

Other similar data and information used for security purposes in the event of attacks on our IT systems

This is standard information that is stored on every website when it is accessed.

This data is processed exclusively for the purpose of enabling the use of our website (establishing a connection), ensuring system security and stability in the long term, optimizing our offer and for internal statistical purposes. This data is not passed on to third parties or analyzed in any other way. A personal user profile is not created.

Contact us

On our website, you have the option of contacting us via a contact form and/or by e-mail. In this case, the information you provide will be processed for correspondence with you or for the purpose of processing your request and handling it. Which data is collected in the case of a contact form can be seen from the respective contact form. The details marked with * are mandatory fields. All other information can be provided voluntarily by the person making the inquiry.

You can object to this data processing at any time. Please send your objection to the following e-mail address: info@valuequest.ch. In such a case, your request will not be processed any further.

The provision of this personal data is expressly on a voluntary basis. Without this personal data, however, we will not be able to provide the services requested by the user in the desired quality or at all.

ValueQuest uses the personal data that the user transmits to us to fulfill the following purposes:

  • to provide, maintain, protect and optimize the services and information offered
  • communicate with you and provide you with the best possible and personalized information you need from us (e.g. about our products and services)
  • to comply with legal or other regulatory requirements and internal regulations
  • for the establishment, exercise and/or defense of actual or potential legal claims, investigations or similar proceedings
  • for other legitimate purposes, if this processing is evident from the circumstances or was indicated at the time of collection

Provision of contractual services

We also process personal data to the extent necessary to provide you with our contractual or pre-contractual services and to perform other services requested by you, as described in this privacy policy. The data processed in this context, the type, scope, purpose and necessity of its processing are determined by the underlying contractual relationship.

The processed data includes master data (e.g. name and address), contact data (e.g. e-mail address and telephone number) as well as contract data (e.g. services used, contract content, contractual communication, names of contact persons) and payment data (e.g. bank details, payment history).

As a matter of principle, we do not process particularly sensitive personal data unless it is part of commissioned or contractual processing.

If we store your personal data on the basis of a contractual relationship, this data will remain stored for at least as long as the contractual relationship exists and at most as long as limitation periods for possible claims by us run or statutory or contractual retention obligations exist.

Legal basis

The processing of this personal data is based on the following legal bases:

  • your consent, only if it can be withdrawn at any time (e.g. if you have asked to be contacted)
  • for the performance of a contract with you or with the intention of entering into a contract with you (e.g. when purchasing a product)
  • to comply with a legal obligation (e.g. for tax reasons or for the purposes of legal investigations or proceedings) or
  • to protect our legitimate interests (e.g. protection and security of our services, systems, assets; compliance with legal, regulatory and contractual obligations; assertion, exercise or defense of legal claims; maintenance and efficient organization of business operations; improvement and development of our services as well as sale and marketing of our services)

If the processing is based on your consent or our legitimate interests, you can withdraw your consent or object to this processing at any time by contacting us directly at info@valuequest.ch. Please note, however, that the withdrawal of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Retention periods

In principle, personal data will be deleted as soon as it is no longer required to achieve the purpose for which it was collected, unless longer storage is necessary to fulfill legal obligations (e.g. storage and documentation obligations), contractual or pre-contractual obligations or legitimate business interests on our part (e.g. to assert, exercise or defend legal claims).

Cookies

Our website uses so-called cookies. Cookies are small text files that are placed and stored on your end device (laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.) with the help of the browser. They are used to make our website more user-friendly and effective overall and to make your visit to our website as pleasant as possible. Among other things, to be able to offer you website-specific services, to be able to recognize you when you visit our website again and/or to be able to adapt our offer to your personal preferences.

Most of the cookies we use are so-called session cookies. These are automatically deleted when you log out or close the browser. Other cookies remain stored on your computer beyond the respective usage process and enable us or our partner companies (third-party cookies) to recognize your browser on your next visit. Insofar as other cookies (e.g. cookies to analyze your surfing behavior) are stored, these are treated separately in this privacy policy.

Most browsers are regularly set to accept cookies. If you do not want this, you can set up your browser so that it informs you about the setting of cookies and you allow the acceptance of cookies for certain cases only in individual cases or generally exclude them. You can also activate the automatic deletion of cookies when you close your browser. In addition, you can delete cookies that have already been set at any time via an Internet browser or other software programs.

Weglot

Our website uses the translation service Weglot (Weglot SAS, Paris) to dynamically provide content in German, French, English and Italian. Weglot processes the following:

  • Your IP address (for rough location determination)
  • Your choice of language
  • the URL called up

The language preference is stored in a session cookie or in web storage. All data is hosted in the EU (France) and processed in accordance with the GDPR. Further information: https://weglot.com/legal/privacy-policy/.

Google services

On our website, we use various services of Google LLC, based in the USA, or if you have your habitual residence in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, Google Ireland Ltd, based in Ireland ("Google"). Google LLC is always responsible for the processing of personal data when using "YouTube" and "Google Maps". We use the following Google services on our website:

  • Google Analytics
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Google Fonts
  • Google ReCAPTCHA
  • Google Ads

Further information on the individual services can be found below.

Google uses technologies such as cookies, browser-based web storage, and web beacons to analyze how you use our website. The information generated about your use of our website may be transmitted to a Google server in the United States or other countries and stored there. Information about the locations of Google’s data centers can be found at: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/.

We use reCAPTCHA to protect our website from abusive automated requests. This service analyzes user behavior based on various characteristics (e.g., IP address, dwell time, or mouse movements) to distinguish between human access and automated programs. The analysis takes place in the background without requiring any active action on your part. In the process, personal data may be transmitted to servers located abroad. This use is based on our legitimate interest in the security and protection of our website.

Further information on processing by Google and privacy settings can be found in Google's privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de&gl=de.

Google Analytics

We use the web analysis service Google Analytics to analyze our website and its visitors as well as for marketing and advertising purposes.

Google uses cookies. The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States or other third countries. Google uses this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to us. According to Google, the IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other Google data.

We only use Google Analytics with activated IP anonymization. This means that your IP address is truncated by Google within Switzerland or the EU/EEA before being transmitted to the USA. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there.

You can prevent the storage of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser software. In addition, you can prevent data collection and processing by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de. However, we would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all the functions of our website to their full extent.

Further information on the terms of use and data protection of Google Analytics can be found at: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245 and https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de&gl=de.

Google Tag Manager

Our website uses the Google Tag Manager. With Google Tag Manager, website tags can be managed efficiently. Website tags are placeholders that are stored in the source code of the respective website, e.g. to record the integration of frequently used website elements, such as code for web analysis services. Google Tag Manager is an auxiliary service and processes personal data itself only for technical purposes and ensures the triggering of other tags, which in turn may collect data. Google Tag Manager does not access this data. If deactivation has been carried out at domain or cookie level, this remains in place for all tracking tags that are implemented with Google Tag Manager.

Further information on Google Tag Manager can be found at: https://support.google.com/tagmanager/?hl=de#topic=3441530 and in Google's privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Google Web Font

Our website uses so-called web fonts provided by Google for the uniform display of fonts. The font files are loaded directly from our system when they are called up, without any connection to Google servers. Your IP address or other data is not transmitted to Google. If your browser does not support web fonts, a standard font from your device will be used.

Google Ads

Our website uses Google Conversion Tracking. If you have reached our website via an ad placed by Google, Google Ads will set a cookie on your computer. The conversion tracking cookie is set when a user clicks on an ad placed by Google. These cookies lose their validity after 90 days and are not used for personal identification. If the user visits certain pages of our website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google can recognize that the user clicked on the ad and was redirected to this page. Each Google AdWords customer receives a different cookie. Cookies can therefore not be tracked via the websites of AdWords customers. The information collected using the conversion cookie is used to generate conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have opted for conversion tracking. Customers learn the total number of users who clicked on their ad and were redirected to a page with a conversion tracking tag. However, they do not receive any information that can be used to personally identify users.

If you do not wish to participate in tracking, you can refuse the setting of a cookie required for this - for example, by setting your browser to generally deactivate the automatic setting of cookies or to set your browser so that cookies from the domain "googleleadservices.com" are blocked.

Please note that you may not delete the opt-out cookies as long as you do not wish measurement data to be recorded. If you have deleted all your cookies in the browser, you must set the respective opt-out cookie again.

Note on data transfers to the USA

For the sake of completeness, we would like to point out to users residing or domiciled in Switzerland that there are surveillance measures in place in the USA by US authorities that generally allow the storage of all personal data of all persons whose data has been transferred from Switzerland to the USA. This is done without differentiation, restriction or exception based on the objective pursued and without an objective criterion that makes it possible to restrict the US authorities' access to the data and its subsequent use to very specific, strictly limited purposes that justify the interference associated with both access to this data and its use. We would also like to point out that there are no legal remedies available in the USA for data subjects from Switzerland that would allow them to gain access to the data concerning them and to obtain its correction or deletion, or that there is no effective legal protection against general access rights of US authorities. We explicitly draw the attention of data subjects to this legal and factual situation so that they can make an appropriately informed decision to consent to the use of their data.

We would like to point out to users residing in a member state of the EU that the USA does not have an adequate level of data protection from the perspective of the European Union - partly due to the issues mentioned in this section. Insofar as we have explained in this privacy policy that recipients of data (such as Google) are based in the USA, we will ensure that your data is protected at an appropriate level by our partners either through contractual arrangements with these companies or by ensuring that these companies are certified under the EU or Swiss-US Privacy Shield.

Security

ValueQuest has implemented organizational and technical measures to maintain the security of personal data and to protect it against unauthorized or unlawful processing, accidental loss, alteration, disclosure or access.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. For this reason, you are always free to transmit your personal data to us by other means, e.g. by telephone. Once we have received your data, we apply strict procedures and stringent security measures to prevent unauthorized access.

Rights

You have the right to request information about the processed personal data. In particular, there is a right to information about the personal data as such, the purpose of processing, the storage period or, if this is not possible, the criteria for determining this period, the origin of the data if it was collected via third parties, the existence of an automated individual decision and any recipients or categories of recipients to whom personal data is disclosed. There is also the right to revoke any consent given for the use of personal data at any time. The aforementioned rights can be asserted at any time with ValueQuest GmbH.

Changes to the privacy policy

We reserve the right to amend these data protection provisions at any time with effect for the future. A current version is always available on the website. This website should be visited regularly to familiarize yourself with the applicable data protection provisions.