Limitation of liability

Although every care has been taken by the Parliamentary Services to ensure the accuracy of the information published, no guarantee can be given that this information is correct, up-to-date, reliable or complete.

The Parliamentary Services expressly reserve the right to alter or delete all or part of the contents or to temporarily withhold publication at any time and without prior notice.

In no event will the Parliamentary Services accept liability for any loss or damage of a material or immaterial nature arising from access to, use or non-use of published information, or from misuse of the connection or technical faults.


Links

Links to third-party websites lie outside the scope of responsibility of the Parliamentary Services. Access and use of such websites are entirely at the user’s own risk. The Parliamentary Services expressly state that they have no influence whatsoever over the design, content and information on any linked sites. Responsibility for information and services of linked sites rests entirely with the relevant third party.

No liability can be accepted in respect of such websites.


Data protection

1. General information

Your data is safe in our hands. The Parliamentary Services only collect the personal data they need to fulfil their tasks (data minimisation). Stored data is carefully managed and protected against any form of misuse.
Under the terms of Article 13 of the Federal Constitution and legislation on data protection, everyone has the right to protection of his or her privacy as well as protection from the misuse of his or her personal details. The Parliamentary Services comply with these provisions on their web pages and when providing their web services.

2. Scope of application

This Privacy Notice applies to all pages on the Parliamentary Services websites under the parlament.ch and juniorparl.ch domain, as well as to web pages operated by third parties on behalf of the Parliamentary Services and the personal data collected via these web pages. This Privacy Notice may be amended at any time without prior notice. Where the Parliamentary Services web pages or pages operated on their behalf link to the web pages of other providers, the privacy information and policies of those providers apply to their own pages.
Individual units of the Parliamentary Services and the Federal Administration have their own or additional data protection provisions. Apps jointly developed by the Parliamentary Services may be subject to data protection provisions that cover their specific use. Please note: if you download an app, the operator of the app store will normally be provided with your details.

3. Links

The Parliamentary Services have no influence over external pages to which they provide links, nor over external pages that provide links to Parliamentary Services pages. Accordingly, the Parliamentary Services provide no guarantee in relation to such pages that the information they contain is accurate or that they are free of malware (such as viruses). Responsibility for the information and services provided on linked web pages or web services is entirely the responsibility of the third party concerned. The Parliamentary Services accept no responsibility or liability for such web pages or web services.

4. What happens to your data?

a) Retention and deletion

The processing of personal data on the web pages of the federal government is limited to the data that is required to provide a properly functioning website and user-friendly content and services, or to the data that you have actively made available to us. The personal data that we collect is only retained for as long as it is needed in order to fulfil the purpose concerned. Certain data may be retained for longer in order to meet statutory requirements or other obligations.

b) Data stored when completing a form

If you complete a form on our website (e.g. a contact form), we process the data you provide to the extent that this is required to fulfil the purpose of processing or to deal with your request. Normally, the information you provide is on a voluntary basis. Mandatory fields are only marked as such if this information is required in order to fulfil our statutory duty or to deal with your request or enquiry. This data will be deleted when the statutory retention period expires at the latest. The IP address of the device you use to submit the form is recorded to prevent misuse.

c) Data stored when booking a guided tour

If you book a guided tour, your contact details will be kept for one year and then deleted.

d) Data stored for the purpose of sending newsletters

If you subscribe to newsletters (notifications) on the website, the following data is recorded: your email address and, depending on the subscription, the number of the item of business, the name of the Council member, or the news type ID. This data remains in the system even if you cancel your subscription, although it will no longer trigger notifications.

e) Data stored for the purpose of web analytics

If you access the Parliamentary Services web pages and web services, the following data will be stored in log files: the IP address, date, time, browser request and the information transmitted on the device used, including the operating system and browser. This data is evaluated by web analytics tools (see below). The Parliamentary Services do this in order to continuously improve their methods of communication.
Web analytics tools: The Parliamentary Services use the Matomo and Siteimprove software solutions for web analytics not related to specific persons. Matomo is operated by the Parliamentary Services and Siteimprove by the company Siteimprove. Tracking is carried out using JavaScript and Pixel, but only within the domain (parlament.ch and juniorparl.ch), and is completely under the Parliamentary Services’ control. All data from Matomo remains in Switzerland, while data from Siteimprove is stored in Denmark. The data obtained is used exclusively for web analytics; it is not shared or combined with other data records.

f) Cookies

Cookies are used on various federal government websites in order to make visiting the website attractive and to allow certain functions to be used. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer. Most of the cookies used (session cookies) are deleted from your hard disk at the end of the browser session. Other cookies remain on your computer and enable you to be recognised when you make your next visit (persistent cookies).
You can stop cookies from being stored on your browser by restricting or disabling the storage and reading of cookies. Please note that you will not be able to use certain website functions without enabling cookies.

g) Social networks

The Parliamentary Services manage miscellaneous accounts and profiles on social networks (including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Flickr, etc.), its own YouTube channels and various apps. These pages and services are offered and operated by third parties. All of these pages have their own data protection provisions.
In addition, third-party services, such as those provided by YouTube, Twitter, Google Maps, Google Ads, Google Custom Search, Instagram, bit.ly, etc. are directly embedded into individual Parliamentary Services web pages. These providers also use cookies, etc. When using the relevant Parliamentary Services web pages, user data is automatically transmitted to these companies. In such cases, the data protection provisions of the provider concerned expressly apply. Users must be aware that data is collected via these services and may also be passed on to third parties. If users also have an account with the service concerned, the operator may assign the information transmitted directly to the personal account concerned.
The Parliamentary Services have no influence over the collection of data or its further use by these operators. The Federal Administration has no knowledge of how much data they store, where they store it, for how long, the extent to which they comply with duties to delete data, the analyses they make of the data, the links they make to the data, and to whom they pass on the data.   
The most important third-party services the Parliamentary Services use are:
YouTube: As soon as you call up a Parliamentary Services web page that has a YouTube video embedded in it, a connection is established with the YouTube servers, and plug-ins from YouTube (YouTube LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA; subsidiary of Google LLC) are used from time to time. YouTube receives information about which page was visited from which IP address.
Google Maps: The Google Maps service provided by Google LLC (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) is used from time to time in order to display interactive maps and to provide directions to federal government offices. If you use Google Maps, information on your use (e.g. IP address) may be saved and sent to a Google server in the USA.
Google Custom Search: Certain Federal Administration offices use the ‘Custom Search’ box provided by Google LLC. If you use this search box (by sending the form), user data will be sent to the operator company. For further information on how Google handles user data, please consult the Google Privacy Policy.
Instagram: Instagram, Inc. is owned by Facebook. For further information on how Instagram handles user data, please consult its Data Policy.
Twitter: Twitter, Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. For further information on how Twitter handles user data, please consult its Privacy Policy and its cookies guidelines.
Bitly: Bitly is a URL shortening service. Bitly, Inc. is based in New York, USA. You will find further information on how Bitly handles user data at Bitly Privacy Policy.

5. Your rights  

You have the right to request information on the processing of your personal data by the Parliamentary Services at any time free of charge. To do so, contact the office named in the site’s legal notice (‘Impressum’). You may have further statutory rights, such as the right to have data deleted or corrected, to have data processing restricted, and to have data transmitted.
Collecting data for the provision of the website and storing the data in log files is absolutely essential to the operation of our website. As a result, users of our website have no right to object in this respect.

6. Data security

Website: When you visit our website, the Parliamentary Services use encrypted data communication based on TLS in conjunction with the highest encryption level supported by your browser. You can see whether a page on the website is being transmitted in encrypted form by checking whether the lock symbol displayed in the address bar of your browser is closed.
General data processing: In addition, the Parliamentary Services use suitable technical and organisational security measures in their data processing in order to protect your data against accidental or wilful manipulation, partial or complete loss, destruction, or unauthorised access by third parties. The Federal Administration’s security measures correspond to the current state of the art.

7. Operation

The web servers that are used to operate the websites are technically maintained by the Parliamentary Services. The following services are provided by external partners:
•    Graphic display of votes in the National Council: Smartmonitor
•    Reservation system for visits: Département des finances et de la santé du Canton de Neuchâtel
•    Virtual tour: Swizzonic AG
•    Juniorparl: Swizzonic AG
•    Federal Palace audio tour app: Audiotours GmbH
The same data protection requirements apply as for apps operated internally.

8. Name and contact details of the persons responsible

If you have any questions about data processing or if you believe that the Parliamentary Services may be infringing your rights by processing your personal data, please contact the Parliamentary Services’ data protection officer.


Copyright

Copyright, Parliamentary Services, 2005

The websites of the Parliamentary Services contain information that is available to the general public. The downloading or copying of texts, images, photos, videos or other data does not in any way entail the transfer of rights over the content.

Copyright and any other rights relating to texts, images, photos, videos or any other data available on the Parliamentary Services’ websites remain the exclusive property of the Parliamentary Services or of any other owners expressly mentioned. The reproduction of parts of such a website requires the prior written consent of the copyright holder.