Personal data

What is personal data?

Information that relates to an identified or identifiable natural person is personal data. This includes name, address, date of birth, telephone number and email address as well as IP addresses, location data and biometric data. The information can be used in a direct or indirect way to identify an individual. The GDPR and the Data Protection Act regulate the protection of personal data in the European Union and Switzerland. Companies and organizations must ensure that they process personal data in a lawful and transparent manner and take appropriate security measures to protect this data. The importance of personal data for companies Companies use personal data for various reasons, such as customer management, marketing activities, human resources and to fulfill legal obligations; therefore, it is of great importance. Companies must ensure that they process personal data only for specified and lawful purposes and comply with data protection principles. Personal data breaches can lead to significant fines and damage customer trust in a company. It is therefore important that companies implement appropriate data protection measures and consistently follow data protection guidelines.

Consent to the processing of personal data

In general, the processing of personal data is only permitted with the consent of the data subject. This consent must be freely given, well informed, specific and clear. Individuals are allowed to withdraw their consent at any time. It is important that companies ensure that the consent of data subjects is properly documented and can be proven at any time. Companies must be transparent about the processing of personal data and provide clear privacy notices that clearly state the purposes of data use, retention periods and rights of data subjects.

The rights of data subjects in relation to personal data

Individuals enjoy various rights in relation to their personal data. These include the right of access to the data processed, the right to rectification of inaccurate data, the "right to be forgotten", the right to restriction of processing and also the right to data portability.