Privacy statement

1. Who are we and what do we do?

The following body is generally responsible for all of the data processing covered by this Privacy Statement:

Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss
Operation Centre 1
P.O. Box 258
8058 Zurich-Airport

(hereinafter referred to as “MeteoSwiss”, “we” or “us”).

For enquiries or requests relating to data protection, please contact us at

rechtsdienst[at]meteoswiss.ch or on
+41 58 460 91 11.

Below is an overview of what kinds of personal data we process, how, and for what purposes.

For information about data protection in relation to using the MeteoSwiss-App, please refer to the separate MeteoSwiss app privacy statement.

2. What is “personal data” and what does “processing” mean?

Data protection law regulates the processing of personal data. “Personal data” refers to any information that can be associated with a specific person. This can include the following information, for example:

• Contact information (e.g. name, postal address, e-mail address or telephone number)
• Personal information such as gender
• Records of your visits to websites and your use of apps

“Processing” means any handling of your personal information. This includes the following actions, for example:

• Collection and storage
• Adaptation and amendment
• Use and exploitation
• Association with other data
• Disclosure
• Deletion and destruction

3. What kinds of personal data do we process?

We process different types of personal data, depending on the occasion and purpose. This is described in more detail in this section.

When you access our website and apps, the following data in particular is stored in log files:

• IP address
• Date
• Time
• Browser request
• General information that is transmitted about your operating system or browser

When you contact us, we collect and process the following information about you, which you provide when registering with us:

• First name
• Surname
• Gender
• E-mail address (mandatory field)

When you visit or use our website and apps, we process certain technical data, including:

• Information about the time you accessed our website or apps
• The duration of your visit
• The pages and apps accessed
• Information about the device and browser used

4. For what purposes do we process personal data?

We process personal data for the following purposes in particular:

• To conduct statistical, pseudonymous or anonymous analysis in order to better understand the behaviour of our users and recognise trends; this enables us to continuously improve our offerings
• To operate and manage our IT and other resources
• To provide, manage, secure and personalise websites, apps and online offerings
• To send targeted information through electronic channels, provided the information has been requested by the recipient
• To communicate with you
• To fulfil archiving and other administrative purposes
• To verify and comply with legal obligations, including orders issued by a court or other authority

5. Who do we share your personal data with?

Personal data is treated confidentially. Our employees have access to your personal data only to the extent necessary for the purposes described and the activities of the employees concerned. These include employees in support areas such as IT. They are obliged to maintain confidentiality when handling your personal data. We may also share your personal data with third parties whose services we use (e.g. IT service providers).

We may choose or be obliged to disclose personal data to other entities for their own purposes in special cases, e.g. to law enforcement authorities in the event of suspected misuse. In such cases, the recipient of the data is a separate data controller under data protection law.

6. How do we process personal data in connection with websites and apps?

When you visit or use our website or apps, we process your personal data (see section 3) so that we can make the website or app available, as well as for IT security purposes and to improve user-friendliness.

We also use “cookies” (files that are stored on your device) and similar technologies when you visit our website or use our apps. These are needed for personalising certain content on the website and for analysing anonymous statistics about the use of the website, such as:

• My Locations
• Recent location searches
• Local forecast tab
• Local forecast: toggle settings
• My Applications

The cookies used for the anonymous statistics are deleted within one year after you visit the website.

For anonymous statistical analysis of the use of our website, we use the web analytics software Matomo. Matomo is operated in a dedicated environment by an external service provider on behalf of MeteoSwiss.

Tracking on our website using JavaScript is controlled by MeteoSwiss. The IP address is anonymised before storage. The data obtained is used exclusively for web analytics and is not shared or combined with other data sets.

Third-party cookies

Integrated external applications (e.g. Roundshot) use cookies from third parties, so that they can collect the data required for their services. We do not transmit any personal data to such third-party providers.

7. How long do we store your personal data?

We store your personal data in personally identifiable form for as long as is necessary to fulfil the specific purpose for which we collected it; in the case of registrations, this is usually at least for the duration of the registration. You can cancel your registration at any time.

We also store personal data if we have a legitimate interest in doing so, e.g. for documentation and evidence preservation purposes or to protect rights and defend against legal claims. In addition, we store your personal data for as long as it is subject to a statutory retention obligation.

8. How do we protect your personal data?

In close cooperation with our internal and external hosting service providers and other IT service providers, we take appropriate technical security measures (e.g. encryption, pseudonymisation, logging, access restriction, data backup, etc.) and measures of an organisational nature (e.g. instructions to employees, confidentiality agreements, checks, etc.) to keep your personal data secure, to protect it against unauthorised or unlawful processing and to counteract the risk of loss, unintentional modification, unintentional disclosure or unauthorised access. However, security risks cannot be completely ruled out; certain residual risks are generally unavoidable.

9. What rights do you have in connection with the processing of your personal data?

You can object to data processing at any time. Under the law that applies to you, you also have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data, as well as the right to access your personal data or have it rectified or erased, to restrict the processing of it by us, or to have the personal data you have provided to us transferred to you free of charge in a readable format (data portability). You also have the right to withdraw your consent without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. In addition, you may lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority.

10. Miscellaneous

The processing of your personal data is necessary in particular to conclude or perform a contract with you and/or to process personal data with your consent. Furthermore, the data processing is necessary to protect our legitimate interests, including:

• Communicating with users not governed by a contract
• Information activities
• Better understanding the behaviour of our users
• Improving services and developing new ones
• Protecting users and data
• Ensuring IT security in connection with the use of websites, apps and other IT infrastructure
• Maintaining and organising business operations, including the operation and further development of websites and other systems
• Asserting or defending against legal claims
• Complying with Swiss law and internal regulations

Generally speaking, you are not obliged to provide your personal data. You are only required to provide certain data when registering (e.g. on the form: your e-mail address or your first and last name). It is also necessary for us to process log data and certain other data collected when you use websites and apps. For the communication with us, we also have to process at least the personal data that you provide to us or that we provide to you.