1. What is this Privacy Notice about?

Aquila (also «we», «us») collects and processes personal data that concern you but also other individuals («third parties»). We use the word «data» here interchangeably with «personal data».

«Personal data» means data relating to identified or identifiable individuals, which means that the relevant data, in combination with additional data, make it possible to draw conclusions about the identity of these individuals. «Sensitive personal data» is a subset of personal data that is specially protected under applicable data protection law. This includes, for example, data revealing racial or ethnic origin, health data, religious beliefs, biometric data for identification purposes, and information relating to trade union membership. In Section 3, you will find information about the data we process in accordance with this Privacy Notice. «Processing» means any operation that is performed on personal data, such as collection, storage, use, alteration, disclosure and erasure.

In this Privacy Notice, we describe what we do with your data when you use https://www.aquilainspection.com/, obtain services or products from us, interact with us in relation to a contract, communicate with us or otherwise deal with us. When appropriate we will provide a just-in-time notice to cover any additional processing activities not mentioned in this Privacy Notice. In addition, we may inform you about the processing of your data separately, for example in consent forms, terms and conditions, additional privacy notices, forms and other notices.

If you disclose data to us or share data with us about other individuals, we assume that you are authorized to do so and that the relevant data is accurate. When you share data about others with us, you confirm that. Please make sure that these individuals have been informed about this Privacy Notice.

This Privacy Notice is aligned with the EU General Data Protection Regulation («GDPR»), the Swiss Data Protection Act («DPA») and the revised Swiss Data Protection («revDPA». However, the application of these laws depends on each individual case.

2. Who is the controller for processing your data?

Aretus Limited is the controller, processing under this Privacy Notice, unless we tell you otherwise in an individual case, for example in additional privacy notices, on a form or in a contract.

You may contact us for data protection concerns and to exercise your rights under Section 11 as follows:

Aretus Limited,
16 Kyriakou Matsi Avenue
Eagle House 3rd floor
1082 Nicosia, Cyprus
info@aquilainspection.com

3. What data do we process?

We process various categories of data about you. The main categories of data are the following:

Technical data: When you use our website or other online offerings, we collect the IP address of your terminal device and other technical data in order to ensure the functionality and security of these offerings. This data includes logs with records of the use of our systems. We generally keep technical data for 6 months. In order to ensure the functionality of these offerings, we may also assign an individual code to you or your terminal device (for example as a cookie, see Section 12). Technical data as such does not permit us to draw conclusions about your identity. However, technical data may be linked with other categories of data (and potentially with your person) in relation to user accounts, registrations, access controls or the performance of a contract.

Registration data: Certain offerings, for example competitions, and services (such as login areas of our website, newsletters, etc.) can only be used with a user account or registration, which can happen directly with us or through our third-party login service providers. In this regard you must provide us with certain data, and we collect data about the use of the offering or service. Registration data may be required in relation to access control to certain facilities. We generally keep registration data 12 months from the date the use of the service ceases or the user account is closed.

Communication data: When you are in contact with us via the contact form, by e-mail, telephone or chat, or by letter or other means of communication, we collect the data exchanged between you and us, including your contact details and the metadata of the communication. If we record or listen in on telephone conversations or video conferences, for example for training and quality assurance purposes, we will tell you specifically. Such recordings may only be made and used in accordance with our internal policies. You will be informed if and when such recordings take place, for example by an indication during the video conference in question. If you do not want to be recorded, please notify us or leave the (video) conference. If you simply do not want your image to be recorded, please turn off your camera. If we have to determine your identity, for example in relation to a request for information, a request for press access, etc., we collect data to identify you (for example a copy of an ID document). We generally keep this data for 12 months from the last exchange between us. This period may be longer where required for evidentiary purposes, to comply with legal or contractual requirements, or for technical reasons. E-mails in personal mailboxes and written correspondence are generally kept for at least 10 years. Recordings of (video) conferences we will usually keep for 24 months. Chats are generally stored for 2 years.

Master data: With master data we mean the basic data that we need, in addition to contract data (see below), for the performance of our contractual and other business relationships or for marketing and promotional purposes, such as name and contact details, and information about, for example, your role and function, your bank details, your date of birth, customer history, powers of attorney, signature authorizations and declarations of consent. We process your master data if you are a customer or other business contact or work for one (for example as a contact person of the business partner), or because we wish to address you for our own purposes or for the purposes of a contractual partner (for example as part of marketing and advertising, with invitations to events, with vouchers, with newsletters, etc.). We receive master data from you (for example when you make a purchase or as part of a registration), from parties you work for, or from third parties such as contractual partners, associations and address brokers, and from public sources such as public registers or the internet (websites, social media, etc.). We may also process information about third parties as part of master data. We may also collect master data from our shareholders and investors. We generally keep master data for 10 years from the last exchange between us or from the end of the contract. This period may be longer if required for evidentiary purposes, to comply with legal or contractual requirements, or for technical reasons. For contacts used only for marketing and advertising, the retention period is usually much shorter, usually no more than 2 years from the last contact.

Contract data: This means data that is collected in relation to the conclusion or performance of a contract, for example information about the contracts and the services provided or to be provided, as well as data from the period leading up to the conclusion of a contract, information required or used for performing a contract, and information about feedback (for example complaints, feedback about satisfaction, etc.). This includes information about third parties. We generally collect this data from you, from contractual partners and from third parties involved in the performance of the contract, but also from third-party sources (for example credit information providers) and from public sources. We generally keep this data for 10 years from the last contract activity or from the end of the contract. This period may be longer where necessary for evidentiary purposes, to comply with legal or contractual requirements, or for technical reasons.

Behavioural and preference data: Depending on our relationship with you, we try to get to know you better and to tailor our products, services and offers to you. For this purpose, we collect and process data about your behaviour and preferences. We do so by evaluating information about your behaviour in our domain, and we may also supplement this information with third-party information, including from public sources. Based on this data, we can for example determine the likelihood that you will use certain services or behave in a certain way. We anonymize or delete this data when it is no longer relevant for the purposes pursued, which may be – depending on the nature of the data – between 2-3 weeks (for motion profiles) and 24 months (for product and service preferences). This period may be longer where necessary for evidentiary purposes, to comply with legal or contractual requirements, or for technical reasons. We describe how tracking works on our website in Section 12.

Other data: We also collect data from you in other situations. For example, data that may relate to you (such as files, evidence, etc.) is processed in relation to administrative or judicial proceedings. We may obtain or create photos, videos and sound recordings in which you may be identifiable (for example at events, with security cameras, etc.). We may also collect data about who enters certain buildings, and when or who has access rights (including in relation to access controls, based on registration data or lists of visitors, etc.), who participates in events or campaigns (for example competitions) and who uses our infrastructure and systems and when. Moreover, we collect and process data about our shareholders and other investors, in addition to master data, including information for registers, in relation to the exercise of their rights and events (for example general meetings). The retention period for this data depends on the processing purpose and is limited to what is necessary. This ranges from a few days for many security cameras, to a few weeks for contact tracing and visitor data, which is usually kept for [3] months, to several years or more for reports about events with images. Data relating to you as a shareholder or investor is kept in accordance with corporate law, but in any case for as long as you are invested.

Much of the data set out in this Section 3 is provided to us by you (through forms, when you communicate with us, in relation to contracts, when you use the website, etc.). You are not obliged or required to disclose data to us except in certain cases, for example within the framework of legal obligations. If you wish to enter into contracts with us or use our services, you must also provide us with certain data, in particular master data, contract data and registration data, as part of your contractual obligation under the relevant contract. When using our website, the processing of technical data cannot be avoided. If you wish to gain access to certain systems or buildings, you must also provide us with registration data.

As far as it is not unlawful we also collect data from public sources (for example commercial registers, the media, or the internet including social media) or receive data from other companies within our group, from public authorities and from other third parties (such as contractual partners, internet analytics services, etc.).

4. For what purposes do we process your data?

We process your data for the purposes explained below. Further information is set out in Sections 12 and 13 for online services. These purposes and their objectives represent interests of us and potentially of third parties. You can find further information on the legal basis of our processing in Section 5.

We process your data for purposes related to communication with you, in particular in relation to responding to inquiries and the exercise of your rights (Section 11) and to enable us to contact you in case of queries. For this purpose, we use in particular communication data and master data, and registration data in relation to offers and services that you use. We keep this data to document our communication with you, for training purposes, for quality assurance and for follow-up inquiries.

The above includes all purposes in relation to which we communicate with you, whether in the context of customer service or consulting, authentication in case the website is used, and for training and quality assurance (for example in customer service). We further process communication data to enable us to communicate with you by e-mail and telephone, as well as through messenger services, chats, social media, and by letter and fax. Communication with you usually takes place in relation to other processing purposes, for example so that we can provide services or respond to an access request. Our processing also serves to document the communication and its content.

We process data for the conclusion, administration and performance of contractual relationships.

We conclude various contracts with our business and private customers, suppliers, subcontractors and other parties, such as partners in projects or parties in legal proceedings. In particular, we process master data, contract data and communication data and, depending on the circumstances, registration data relating to the customer or the persons for whose benefit the customer has received a service. In the run-up of a business relationship, personal data – in particular master data, contract data and communication data – is collected from potential customers or other contractual partners (for example in an order form or a contract) or results from a communication. In connection with the conclusion of a contract, we process data to start a customer relationship. In some cases, this information is reviewed in order to comply with legal requirements. As part of performing contractual relationships, we process data for the administration of the customer relationship, to provide and claim contractual services (which includes involving third parties, such as security service providers, advertising service providers, who may in turn provide data to us), for consulting and for customer support. The enforcement of legal claims arising from contracts is also part of the performance, as are accounting, termination of contracts and public communication.

We process data for marketing purposes and relationship management, for example to send our customers and other contractual partners personalized advertising for products and services from us and from third parties. This may happen in the form of newsletters and other regular contacts (electronically, by e-mail or by telephone), through other channels for which we have contact information from you, but also as part of marketing campaigns (for example events, contests, etc.). You can object to such contacts at any time (see at the end of this Section 4) or refuse or withdraw consent to be contacted for marketing purposes. With your consent, we can target our online advertising on the internet more specifically to you (see Section 12).

For example, if you consent we may send you information, advertising and product offers from us and from third parties electronically or by telephone. For this purpose, we process in particular communication and registration data. As most companies, we personalize communications so that we can provide you with customized information and offers that meet your needs and interests. Therefore, we combine data we process about you and collect preference data and use this data as a basis for personalization (see Section 3).

Relationship management includes addressing existing customers and their contacts, possibly personalized on the basis of behavioural and preference data. In the context of relationship management, we may also operate a customer relationship management system («CRM») in which we keep the data of customers, suppliers and other business partners that is required for relationship management, for example data about contact persons, relationship history (for example information about products and services purchased or supplied, interactions, etc.), interests, marketing measures and other information.

All this processing is important to us not only to promote our offerings as effectively as possible, but also to make our relationships with customers and other third parties more personal and positive, to focus on the most important relationships, and to use our resources as efficiently as possible.

We further process your data for market research, to improve our services and operations, and for product development.

We strive to continuously improve our products and services (including our website) and to respond quickly to changing needs. We therefore analyse, for example, how you navigate through our website or which products are used by which groups of people in which way and how new products and services can be designed (for further details, see Section 12). This helps us understand the market acceptance of existing products and services and the market potential of new products and services. To this end, we process in particular master data, behavioural data and preference data, but also communication data and information from customer surveys, polls and studies and other information, for example from the media, social media, the Internet and other public sources. We use pseudonymized or anonymized data for these purposes to the extent possible. We may also use media monitoring services or conduct media monitoring ourselves and process personal data in order to conduct media monitoring or to understand and respond to current developments and trends.

We may also process your data for security and access control purposes.

We continuously review and improve the appropriate security of our IT and other infrastructure (for example buildings). Like all companies, we cannot exclude data security breaches with absolute certainty, but we do our best to reduce the risks. We therefore process data, for example, for monitoring, inspection, analysis and testing of our networks and IT infrastructures, for system and error checks, for documentation purposes and in the context of backups. Access controls include electronic system access controls (for example logging into user accounts), as well as physical access controls (for example building access). For security purposes (to prevent and investigate incidents), we also keep access protocols and visitor lists and use surveillance systems (for example security cameras).

We process personal data to comply with laws, directives and recommendations from authorities and internal regulations («Compliance»).

We also process data for the purposes of our risk management and as part of our corporate governance, including business organization and development.

We may process your data for further purposes, for example as part of our internal processes and administration or for quality assurance purposes and trainings.

5. On what basis do we process your data?

Where we ask for your consent for certain processing activities (for example for the processing of sensitive personal data, for marketing mailings, for personalized motion profiles and for advertising management and behaviour analysis on the website), we will inform you separately about the relevant processing purposes. You may withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by providing us written notice (by mail) or, unless otherwise noted or agreed, by sending an e-mail to us; see our contact details in Section 2. For withdrawing consent for online tracking, see Section 12. Where you have a user account, you may also withdraw consent or contact us also through the relevant website or other service, as applicable. Once we have received notification of withdrawal of consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose(s) you consented to, unless we have another legal basis to do so. Withdrawal of consent does not, however, affect the lawfulness of the processing based on the consent prior to withdrawal.

Where we do not ask for consent for processing, the processing of your personal data relies on the requirement of the processing for initiating or performing a contract with you (or the entity you represent) or on our or a third-party legitimate interest in the particular processing, in particular in pursuing the purposes and objectives set out in Section 4 and in implementing related measures. Our legitimate interests also include compliance with legal regulations, insofar as this is not already recognized as a legal basis by applicable data protection law (for example in the case of the GDPR, the laws in the EEA and in the case of the DPA, Swiss law). This also includes the marketing of our products and services, the interest in better understanding our markets and in managing and further developing our company, including its operations, safely and efficiently.

Where we receive sensitive personal data, we may process your data on other legal basis, for example, in the event of a dispute, as required in relation to a potential litigation or for the enforcement or defense of legal claims. In some cases, other legal basis may apply, which we will communicate to you separately as necessary.

6. What applies in case of profiling and automated individual decisions?

We may automatically evaluate personal aspects relating to you («profiling») based on your data (Section 3) for the purposes set out in Section 4, where we wish to determine preference data, but also in order to detect misuse and security risks, to perform statistical analysis or for operational planning. We may also create profiles for these purposes, i.e. we may combine behavioural and preference data, but also master data, contract data and technical data relating to you in order to better understand you as a person with your various interests and other characteristics.

In both cases, we pay attention to the proportionality and reliability of the results and take measures against misuse of these profiles or profiling. Where these can produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you, we generally ensure human review.

7. With whom do we share your data?

In relation to our contracts, the website, our services and products, our legal obligations or otherwise with protecting our legitimate interests and the other purposes set out in Section 4, we may disclose your personal data to third parties, in particular to the following categories of recipients:

• Service providers: We work with service providers in Switzerland and abroad who process your data on our behalf or as joint controllers with us or who receive data about you from us as separate controllers (for example IT providers). For the service providers used for the website, see Section 12.

• Contractual partners including customers: This refers to customers and our other contractual partners as this data disclosure results from these contracts. If you work for one of these contractual partners, we may also disclose data about you to that partner in this regard. These recipients also include contractual partners with whom we cooperate or who carry out advertising for us and to whom we may therefore disclose data about you for analysis and marketing purposes.

• Authorities: We may disclose personal data to agencies, courts and other authorities in Switzerland and abroad if we are legally obliged or entitled to make such disclosures or if it appears necessary to protect our interests. This may include health data. These authorities act as separate controllers.

• Other persons: This means other cases where interactions with third parties follows from the purposes set out in Section 4, for example service recipients, the media and associations in which we participate or if you are included in one of our publications.

All these categories of recipients may involve third parties, so that your data may also be disclosed to them. We can restrict the processing by certain third parties (for example IT providers), but not by others (for example authorities, etc.).

8. Is your personal data disclosed abroad?

As explained in section 7, we disclose data to other parties. These are not all located in Switzerland. Your data may therefore be processed both in Europe and in exceptional cases, in any country in the world.

If a recipient is located in a country without adequate statutory data protection, we require the recipient to undertake to comply with data protection (for this purpose, we use the revised European Commission’s standard contractual clauses, which can be accessed here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?), unless the recipient is subject to a legally accepted set of rules to ensure data protection and unless we cannot rely on an exception. An exception may apply for example in case of legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases of overriding public interest or if the performance of a contract requires disclosure, if you have consented or if data has been made available generally by you and you have not objected against the processing.

9. How long do we process your data?

We process your data for as long as our processing purposes, the legal retention periods and our legitimate interests in documentation and keeping evidence require it or storage is a technical requirement. You will find further information on the respective storage and processing periods for the individual data categories in Section 3, and for cookies in Section 12. If there are no contrary legal or contractual obligations, we will delete or anonymize your data once the storage or processing period has expired as part of our usual processes.

10. How do we protect your data?

We take appropriate security measures in order to maintain the required security of your personal data and ensure its confidentiality, integrity and availability, and to protect it against unauthorized or unlawful processing, and to mitigate the risk of loss, accidental alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access.

Technical and organizational security measures may include encryption and pseudonymization of data, logging, access restrictions, keeping backup copies, giving instructions to our employees, entering confidentiality agreements, and monitoring. We protect your data that is sent through our website in transit by appropriate encryption. However, we can only secure areas in our control. We also require our data processors to take appropriate security measures. However, security risks can never be excluded completely; residual risks are unavoidable.

11. What are your rights?

Applicable data protection laws grant you the right to object to the processing of your data in some circumstances, in particular for direct marketing purposes, for profiling carried out for direct marketing purposes and for other legitimate interests in processing.

To help you control the processing of your personal data, you have the following rights in relation to our data processing, depending on the applicable data protection law:

• The right to request information from us as to whether and what data we process from you;

• The right to have us correct data if it is inaccurate;

• The right to request erasure of data;

• The right to request that we provide certain personal data in a commonly used electronic format or transfer it to another controller;

• The right to withdraw consent, where our processing is based on your consent;

• The right to receive, upon request, further information that is helpful for the exercise of these rights;

If you wish to exercise the above-mentioned rights in relation to us, please contact us in writing, at our premises or, unless otherwise specified or agreed, by e-mail; you will find our contact details in Section 2.

Please note that conditions, exceptions or restrictions apply to these rights under applicable data protection law (for example to protect third parties or trade secrets). We will inform you accordingly where applicable.

If you do not agree with the way we handle your rights or with our data protection practices, please let us (Section 2) know. If you are located in the EEA, the United Kingdom or in Switzerland, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority in your country.

12. Do we use online tracking?

We use various techniques on our website that allow us and third parties engaged by us to recognize you during your use of our website, and possibly to track you across several visits. This Section informs you about this.

In essence, we wish to distinguish access by you (through your system) from access by other users, so that we can ensure the functionality of the website and carry out analysis and personalization. We do not intend to determine your identity, even if that is possible where we or third parties engaged by us can identify you by combination with registration data. However, even without registration data, the technologies we use are designed in such a way that you are recognized as an individual visitor each time you access the website, for example by our server (or third-party servers ) that assign a specific identification number to you or your browser (so-called «cookie»).

Cookies are individual codes (for example a serial number) that our server or a server of our service providers or advertising partners transmits to your system when you connect to our website, and that your system (browser, cell phone) accepts and stores until the set expiration time. Your system transmits these codes to our server or the third-party server with each additional access. That way, you are recognized even if your identity is unknown.

Whenever you access a server (for example when you use a website or an app, or because an e-mail includes a visible or invisible image), your visits can therefore be «tracked». If we integrate offers from an advertising partners or a provider of an analysis tool on our website, they may track you in the same way, even if you cannot be identified in a particular case.

We use these technologies on our website and may allow certain third parties to do so as well. However, depending on the purpose of these technologies, we may ask for consent before they are used. You can also set your browser to block or deceive certain types of cookies or alternative technologies, or to delete existing cookies. You can also add software to your browser that blocks certain third-party tracking. You can find more information on the help pages of your browser (usually with the keyword «Privacy») or on the websites of the third parties set out below.

We distinguish the following categories of «cookies» (including other technologies such as fingerprinting):

• Necessary cookies: Some cookies are necessary for the functioning of the website or for certain features. For example, they ensure that you can move between pages without losing information that was entered in a form. They also ensure that you stay logged in. These cookies exist temporarily only («session cookies»). If you block them, the website may not work properly. Other cookies are necessary for the server to store options or information (which you have entered) beyond a session (i.e. a visit to the website) if you use this function (for example language settings, consents, automatic login functionality, etc.). These cookies have an expiration date of up to 24 months.

• Performance cookies: In order to optimize our website and related offers and to better adapt them to the needs of the users, we use cookies to record and analyse the use of our website, potentially beyond one session. We use third-party analytics services for this purpose. We have listed them below. Before we use such cookies, we ask for your consent. You can withdraw consent at any time through the cookie settings. Performance cookies also have an expiration date of up to 24 months. Details can be found on the websites of the third-party providers.

13. Can we update this Privacy Notice?

This Privacy Notice is not part of a contract with you. We can change this Privacy Notice at any time. The version published on this website is the current version.

Last updated: March 2024