PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy (the Privacy Policy) provides an overview of what happens to your personal data when you visit the https://pathogendatanetwork.org/ website (the Website).

By accessing and using the Website, you confirm that you have read and agreed that SIB collects and processes personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

  1. Introduction

1.1 The Website is developed by institutions involved in the Pathogen Data Network (PDN) project, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

1.2 The Website is operated and hosted by SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), Pass Through Entity for the PDN Project, on its servers in Switzerland.

1.3 The data controller for this Website is SIB  (we or our).

1.4 We process your personal data in compliance with applicable law, in particular Swiss data protection law and, to the extent they apply, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

1.5 The Privacy Policy explains (i) which personal data are collected when you access and use the Website, (ii) the manner and the purposes for which we process the personal data, and (iii) the measures which we take in order to protect such personal data.

  1. Data collection

2.1 We collect personal data through your use of the Website, web forms or email, newsletter subscription and registration to the Open Community Forum (the Forum). For more information about the operation of the Website and its Forum, please refer to the Terms of Use.

2.2 The personal data we collect may include any of the following: your name, company/organization name, login, password, date of birth, nationality, email, telephone number, IP address, queries, posts or any other information which we may request from you or that you may provide on a voluntary basis.

2.3 We use different types of cookies and similar technologies in connection with the Website. They might be capable of automatic data processing on your electronic device and or transferring your personal data to us. We use these technologies to monitor and analyze your interactions with the Website, enable us to improve the Website and their functionalities, to measure, monitor the traffic and helps us to understand how you use the Website. For more detailed information, please see Section 6 below.

  1. Purposes of Data Processing

3.1 We do not use any personal data for other purposes than those outlined below, unless you have given your consent to additional data processing when using certain services, or if we are legally bound to do so. For the sake of clarity, we will not sell, trade or rent any personal data to third parties.

3.2 Your personal data are collected so that we may operate the Website to allow you to use the Website.

3.3 We may process your personal data to provide you with news or updates and reply to your enquiry when you contact us through the Website.

3.4 We may process your personal data in connection with your registration to the Forum, to facilitate your participation in the Forum, including sharing your personal data to arrange discussions, and your feedback and recommendations on the PDN resources and activities for their implementation.

3.5 We may process your personal data to provide you with online support services and allow you to attend PDN events.

3.6 We process your personal data for statistical and planning purposes.

3.7 We process your personal data to improve the Website and to do internal analyses and statistics.

  1. Personal data sharing and disclosure

4.1 We may enable you to use third-party services directly from the Website, namely through social plug-ins Google LLC; Facebook Inc.; LinkedIn Corporation; Twitter and Microsoft Corporation, in which case you recognize that the third-party operators of these services may access some of your personal data in connection with the Website.

4.2 SIB may disclose your personal data to competent courts or supervisory or regulatory bodies, when SIB shall compellingly disclose your personal data, pursuant to any applicable law, regulation or order.

4.3 In the above contexts under Section 4.1, the Website may contain links to other third party’s website. Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of any company, organization or individual that we do not control, nor to any other third party’s website that may be linked to and accessible from the Website. You should carefully review the privacy policies of third party’s website to learn more about the processing of personal data. In such contexts, the collection and use of your personal data shall be governed by such third party’s website. We shall not be held responsible for their privacy practices.

  1. International transfer

5.1 We store and handle your personal data in Switzerland. However, your personal data may be disclosed and transferred to other states, provinces, countries or other governmental jurisdictions, always in compliance with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws.

5.2 Where we may transfer your personal data to third parties from within the EEA to a country outside the EEA, we will ensure that such transfer is compliant with applicable data protection law.

  1. Cookies and similar technologies

We use different types of cookies and similar technologies in connection with the Website to make more user-friendly, effective and secure your access to and use of our Website.

Cookies

6.1 SIB, who hosts the Website on its servers, may use its own cookies (first-party cookies) as well as cookies from third-party service providers (third-party cookies).  A cookie is a small file which is sent to your computer or stored automatically on your electronic device by your web browser when you visit our Website. Cookies contain a sequence of characters enabling the browser to be clearly identified when visiting the Website again. Cookies do not harm your computer and do not contain viruses. They can be stored temporarily in your browser (session cookies) or for a specific period of time (permanent cookies).

6.2 Most of the cookies we used are session cookies. They are essential for the basic function of our Website. These cookies are only used during a session, and they are deleted after your website visit. We also use analytical cookies to allow us to find out more about the use of our Website based on anonymized data and to continually improve them. If you visit our Website again, we will thus be able to reidentify your browser. For certain Website, you are given the choice to accept or reject the optional cookies by clicking on the cookie banner on the homepage. You can change this choice at any time via the cookie settings in our website’s footer.

6.3 If you do not want cookies to be stored on your device, you can configure your web browser or your device to refuse and/or restrict the cookies. Certain cookies are however essential to the functioning of the Website themselves, and their use may be altered or prevented by refusing these cookies.

6.4 For more information, please visit the website allaboutcookies.org or youronlinechoices.com where you can find more information about behavioral advertising and online privacy.

Matomo

6.5 SIB Website uses the open-source software tool Matomo to compile access statistics and to analyse general usage behaviour on our Website. This information is used to gather aggregated and anonymous statistics with a view to improving our services and to enhance user’s experience.

6.6 By default, Matomo runs exclusively on SIB’s server and is configured in such a way that no personal data is collected. For example, when you visit our website, we may collect some data on your browsing experience such as your masked IP address (anonymized by removing the last two bytes), the web page you visited, when you visited and the website page you were redirected from.

6.7 The analytical reports generated by Matomo can only be accessed by authorized SIB employees, or by duly authorized external consultants, who may be required to analyze, develop and/or regularly maintain certain sites.

Server logs files

6.8 SIB may collect the following information for each access to our Website, provided that this information is transmitted by your browser to our server infrastructure or if our web servers are able to collect it: date and time, including time zone, IP address, access status (HTTP status code), operating system including user interface and version, browser including language and version, individual pages of our website visited including the volume of data transferred, referrer URL.

6.9 We store this information – which can also represent personal data – in server log files. We use this information for safeguarding the network infrastructure, facilitating technical administration, optimizing the use of our Website, and identifying and tracking unauthorized access attempts. The data are deleted as soon as they are no longer required to achieve the above-mentioned purposes for which they were gathered.

Plug-ins and social media

6.10 SIB may also use plug-ins on our Website for social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube which are clearly indicated (usually with a corresponding icon).  If you  click on them, the operator of the corresponding social network registers that you are on our Website and where you are, and can use this information for its own purposes. The processing of your personal data by the operator is therefore the responsibility of the operator in accordance with its own data protection provisions. We do not receive any information about you from the operator.

  1. Your rights

You have the right to access your personal data processed by SIB and may request that they be removed, updated, limited or rectified.

7.1 Except as otherwise required by law, you are entitled at all times to know if SIB is processing personal data concerning you. You may contact SIB to know the content of such personal data, verify their accuracy and request that they be supplemented, removed, updated, limited or rectified. You also have the right to ask SIB to cease processing any personal data that may have been obtained in breach of applicable law, and to object to the processing of your personal data for any other legitimate reason. Please note that any information that we have copied may remain in back-up storage for some period of time after your deletion request.

7.2 Where SIB relies on your consent to process your personal data, SIB will seek your freely given and specific consent by providing you with informed and unambiguous indications relating to your personal data. You may revoke at any time such consent (without such withdrawal affecting the lawfulness of processing made prior to).

7.3 The above does not restrict any other rights you might have pursuant to applicable data protection legislation under certain circumstances. In particular, if the GDPR applies to the processing of your personal data the GDPR grants you certain rights as a data subject if the respective requirements are met:

  • Right of access
  • Right to rectification
  • Right to erasure
  • Right to restriction of processing
  • Right to data portability
  • Right to object to processing

7.4 You can obtain further details on this Section 7 and other questions on data protection by contacting us at the address set out in the Section 9 of this Privacy Policy. Furthermore, you may lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority in the event of non-compliance with data protection legislation.

  1. Data retention and archiving

Personal data processed by SIB will be retained only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined above in this Privacy Policy. When determining the relevant retention periods for your personal data, we will take into account factors including:

  • our contractual obligations and rights in relation to the personal data involved;
  • legal obligation(s) under applicable law to retain data for a certain period of time;
  • statute of limitations under applicable law(s) which is the period during which contractual claims could be brought;
  • (potential) disputes; and
  • guidelines issued by relevant data protection authorities.
  1. Contact

9.1 If you have any questions or a request in relation to the processing of your personal data by SIB, please contact the Data Protection Officer (DPO) at: dpo@sib.swiss.

9.2 To comply with the General Data protection Regulation (2016/679) we have also appointed a European representative. If you wish to contact them, their details are as follows:

Bird & Bird GDPR Representative Services SRL

Avenue Louise 235

1050 Bruxelles

Belgium

EUrepresentative.SIB@twobirds.com

  1. Changes to the Privacy Policy

SIB reserves the right to amend the Privacy Policy at any time at its sole discretion without prior notice in order to adapt it to any new commercial or technological practice or change in the law. Accordingly, we recommend that you re-read this Privacy Policy on a regular basis. If you no longer accept this Privacy Policy or any future amendments made by SIB, your sole remedy is to no longer access and/or use the Website.

 

This Privacy Policy was last updated on: 27 September 2024