Privacy policy

This privacy policy explains how the Smart City Hub Switzerland association processes the personal data of test participants in connection with the Private-Pool. You will receive an overview of which data is affected in detail, how we use it and what rights you have as a result.

Responsibility

Responsible for the processing of personal data within the Data Protection Act is the association:

Smart City Hub Switzerland
Poststrasse 28
CH – 9000 St. Gallen
+41 79 673 11 26
info@smartcityhub.ch

You can contact the Association’s data protection officer by post at the given address or directly by e-mail to info@smartcityhub.ch.

The administration or organizational unit responsible for the individual studies (see section 3) is responsible for the processing of data within the scope of the individual studies.

How is personal data collected and processed?

1. Registration as a test person

If you agree to be available for studies as a test subject in the Smart City Hub Switzerland Private Pool, your data will be processed by our service provider TestingTime AG (“TestingTime”). TestingTime coordinates the registration of test subjects and the sending of invitations to participate in studies on our behalf.

For this purpose, TestingTime invites you to register on the TestingTime platform. The following data is collected: Name, e-mail address, telephone number, gender, age, languages, zip code, country. In addition, the IP address and the date and time of registration are stored in order to prevent misuse of the service (“basic data”).

For successful registration in the Private-pool of the Smart City Hub Switzerland and for participation in studies, you must agree to the conditions of participation and the processing of your personal data. TestingTime processes your data only as instructed by Smart City Hub Switzerland and does not use it for advertising purposes or its own purposes. TestingTime also has no access to the studies.

The personal data that TestingTime collects on behalf of Smart City Hub Switzerland for the provision of its services will be stored in accordance with the statutory retention and documentation obligations and then deleted.

You can have your data deleted from the database at any time.

2. Invitation to a study

If you meet the criteria for a study, you will be contacted by TestingTime and generally asked to provide further study-specific data. If you provide further information, this will also be stored in your test subject profile. If we select you to participate in a study, TestingTime will send you a brief reminder with details of how to complete the study.

In this reminder, you will also be asked to provide TestingTime with your IBAN or PayPal details so that a payment, if applicable, can be processed and submitted. This information will also be saved in your test subject profile.

3. Participation in a study

The studies are conducted by Smart City Hub Switzerland and by public bodies themselves or by their contracted service providers. The public bodies that can recruit test subjects from the Private-Pool are shown on this list. The composition of the public bodies entitled to participate in the Private-Pool may change at any time. In the study invitation you will be informed about the public institution responsible for the study (“organizational unit responsible for the study”).

By accepting a study invitation, you agree that your basic data (see section 1) and personal data relevant to the specific study (see section 2) will be disclosed to the organizational unit responsible for the study. You also agree that the organizational unit responsible for the study may process the data collected from you as part of the study. The organizational unit responsible for the study will only process your data for the purpose of the study. The organizational unit responsible for the study must comply with the applicable legal provisions on data protection. For information about the processed data as well as questions or concerns about the processing of data in the context of a study, please contact the organizational unit responsible for the study.

There are three types of studies:

• In-house study: The test person is invited to a location of the organizational unit responsible for the study or to rented premises for the purpose of the study.
• Online questionnaires: The test person fills out a questionnaire online.
• Remote testing: The test run takes place via a video conferencing tool.

In the case of in-house studies and remote testing, test subjects can be recorded in a video file during the survey. These recordings are used exclusively for the purpose of documentation and evaluation of the study by the organizational unit responsible for the study. The organizational unit responsible for the study ensures that the recordings are deleted after the evaluations have been completed. Any further use of the test data without your consent will only take place in anonymized form.

To answer the online questionnaires, the organizational unit responsible for the study uses solutions from service providers for online surveys.

The data transmitted by TestingTime to the organizational unit responsible for the study and the personal data provided by you to the organizational unit responsible for the study will only be processed and stored by the latter for as long as is necessary for the purposes of the study or due to legal requirements.

4. Recipients of the data

The Smart City Hub Switzerland only passes on data if required by law or if you have consented to the transfer, which is the case in particular when you accept a study invitation (see section 3 above).

We require all recipients to comply with the applicable data protection laws and standards.

Recipients may receive personal data under the following conditions:

• Within the organizational unit responsible for the study, those employees who need your personal data to conduct the specific study for which you have accepted the invitation will have access to it.
• The organizational unit responsible for the study may transfer personal data to the service providers and processors it engages for processing on its behalf.

The service providers and processors involved are contractually obliged to comply with data protection standards. They process the data for the organizational unit responsible for the study only for the purpose of conducting and evaluating the study.
If required by law or by an authority, the Smart City Hub Switzerland association and public bodies may have to disclose your personal data without prior notice or consent. This may be due to a court order or other regulatory obligation.

Smart City Hub Switzerland and the organizational units responsible for the study do not sell any personal data to third parties.

5. Where is your personal data processed?

Your personal data (registration and study content) is generally processed in Switzerland or the EU.

However, some service providers who provide video conferencing tools or online questionnaires are based in a third country (i.e. countries outside the European Economic Area – EEA). In order to provide the services, certain data may be transferred to these third countries.

Third countries such as the USA or China are considered by the European Court of Justice and the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) to have an inadequate level of data protection according to Swiss and EU standards. There is a risk that foreign authorities may gain access to the data stored there for control and monitoring purposes without you being able to defend yourself against this. You can only exercise your data subject rights to a limited extent in some third countries.

The organizational unit responsible for the study is responsible for complying with the data protection regulations applicable to it, especially if it uses video conferencing or online questionnaires.

6. Your rights

So far as the legal requirements are met, you have the right to:

• Receive information, as well as a copy of your data;
• Rectification and erasure of your data;
• Restriction of the processing of your data;
• Transfer of your data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;
• Complaint to the competent supervisory authority at your place of residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement;
• Withdraw consent to data processing without giving reasons;
• Objection if the data is processed by Smart City Hub Switzerland on the basis of a legitimate interest.