In this data protection declaration, we, BAK Economics AG (hereinafter BAK), explain how we collect, process and handle personal data. This is not an exhaustive description; other data protection declarations (or general terms and conditions, conditions of participation and similar documents) may govern specific matters. Personal data is understood to be all information that relates to an identified or identifiable person.

If personal data of third parties (e.g. data of colleagues) are made available to the BAK, it must first be ensured that these persons are aware of this data protection declaration. Personal data may only be disclosed to the BAK if this has been requested or permitted and the personal data is correct.

This privacy policy is designed to meet the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), the Swiss Data Protection Act ("DPA") and the revised Swiss Data Protection Act ("revDSG"). However, whether and to what extent these laws are applicable depends on the individual case.

1. person responsible / data protection officer / representative

Mr Matthias Pfister is responsible for the data processing carried out by BAK (unless otherwise stated in individual cases). If you have any data protection concerns, you can send them to us at the following contact address (this is also the address of our data protection officer in accordance with Art. 37 DSGVO):

BAK Economics AG

Güterstrasse 82

CH-4053 Basel

Switzerland

info(at)bak-economics.com

+41 61 279 97 00

You can reach our data protection officer in accordance with Art. 37 DSGVO at:

matthias.pfister(at)bak-economics.com

+41 61 279 97 00

2. collection and processing of personal data

We primarily process the personal data that we receive from our customers and other business partners in the course of our business relationship with them and other persons involved in it, or that we collect from their users when operating our websites, apps and other applications.

To the extent permitted, we also take certain data from publicly accessible sources (e.g. debt enforcement registers, land registers, commercial registers, press, internet) or receive such data from other companies within the BAK, from authorities and other third parties. In addition to the data about you that you give us directly, the categories of personal data that we receive about you from third parties include, in particular, information from public registers, information that we learn in connection with official and legal proceedings, information in connection with your professional functions and activities (so that we can, e.g. (e.g. so that we can conclude and process transactions with your employer with your help), information about you in correspondence and meetings with third parties, creditworthiness information (insofar as we process transactions with you personally), information about you which people close to you (family, advisors, legal representatives, etc.) give us so that we can conclude or process contracts with you or involving you (e.g. references, your address for deliveries, full details of your creditworthiness). References, your address for deliveries, powers of attorney, information on compliance with legal requirements such as anti-money laundering and export restrictions, information from banks, insurance companies, sales and other contractual partners of ours on the utilisation or provision of services by you (e.g. payments made, purchases made), information from the media and Internet on your person (insofar as this is appropriate in the specific case, e.g. in the context of a job application, press release, etc.).e.g. in the context of an application, press review, marketing/sales, etc.), your addresses and, if applicable, interests and other socio-demographic data (for marketing), data in connection with the use of the website (e.g. IP address, MAC address of the smartphone or computer, details of your device and settings, cookies, date and time of the visit, pages and content accessed, functions used, referring website, location details).

3. purposes of data processing and legal basis

We use the personal data we collect primarily to conclude and process our contracts with our customers and business partners, so in particular in the context of economic analyses and forecasts with our customers and the purchase of products and services from our suppliers and subcontractors, as well as to comply with our legal obligations at home and abroad. If you work for such a client or business partner, your personal data may of course also be affected in this capacity.

In addition, we also process personal data about you and other individuals, where permitted and where we consider it appropriate, for the following purposes in which we (and sometimes third parties) have a legitimate interest commensurate with the purpose:

• Offer and further develop our offers, services and websites, apps and other platforms on which we are present;
• Communicating with third parties and handling their enquiries (e.g. applications, media enquiries);
• Review and optimisation of needs assessment procedures for direct client engagement and collection of personal data from publicly available sources for client acquisition;
• Advertising and marketing (including the organisation of events), insofar as you have not objected to the use of your data (if we send you advertising as an existing customer of ours, you can object to this at any time, we will then put you on a blocking list against further advertising mailings);
• Market and opinion research, media monitoring;
• Assertion of legal claims and defence in connection with legal disputes and official proceedings;
• Prevention and investigation of criminal offences and other misconduct (e.g. conducting internal investigations, data analysis to combat fraud);
• Guarantees of our operations, in particular IT, our websites, apps and other platforms;
• Video surveillance to maintain house rights and other measures for IT, building and facility security and protection of our employees and other persons and assets belonging to or entrusted to us (such as access controls, visitor lists, network and mail scanners, telephone recordings);
• Purchase and sale of business divisions, companies or parts of companies and other transactions under company law and the associated transfer of personal data as well as measures for business management and insofar as for compliance with legal and regulatory obligations as well as internal regulations of BAK.

If you have given us consent to process your personal data for certain purposes (for example, when you register to receive newsletters or carry out a background check), we process your personal data within the scope of and based on this consent, unless we have another legal basis and we require such a basis. Consent given can be revoked at any time, but this has no effect on data processing that has already taken place.

4. cookies / tracking and other technologies related to the use of our website

We typically use "cookies" and similar technologies on our websites to identify your browser or device. A cookie is a small file that is sent to your computer or automatically stored on your computer or mobile device by the web browser you are using when you visit our website or platforms. When you return to this website (or use our platforms), this allows us to recognise you even if we do not know who you are. In addition to cookies that are only used during a session and deleted after your visit to the website ("session cookies"), cookies can also be used to store user settings and other information for a certain period of time (usually six months) ("permanent cookies"). However, you can set your browser to reject cookies, save them for one session only or otherwise delete them prematurely. Most browsers are preset to accept cookies. We use persistent cookies (so that you save user preferences such as language or autologin). This allows us to better understand how you use our services and content and to display offers and advertisements tailored to you (which may also happen on other companies' websites; however, they will not learn from us who you are, if we even know, because they will only see that the same user is on their website who was on a particular page with us). If you block cookies, certain functionalities (such as language selection, content modules, functions) may no longer work.

We also include visible and invisible image elements in our newsletters and other marketing emails in some cases and where permitted, by retrieving these from our servers we can determine whether and when you have opened the email so that we can measure and better understand how you use our offers and tailor them to you here too. You can block this in your email program; most are preset to do this.

By using our websites and platforms and agreeing to receive newsletters and other marketing emails, you consent to the use of these techniques. If you do not wish to do so, you must set your browser or e-mail programme accordingly.

We sometimes use Universal Analytics (formerly Google Analytics) or similar services on our websites. This is a service provided by third parties that may be located in any country in the world (in the case of Universal Analytics, it is Google Ireland (based in Ireland), Google Ireland relies on Google LLC (based in the USA) as an order processor (both "Google"), www.google.com), with which we can measure and evaluate the use of the website (not on a personal basis). Permanent cookies set by the service provider are also used for this purpose. We have configured the service so that the IP addresses of visitors are shortened by Google in Europe before being forwarded to the USA and thus cannot be traced. We have switched off the "Data sharing" and "Signals" settings. Although we can assume that the information we share with Google is not personal data for Google, it is possible that Google can draw conclusions about the identity of visitors from this data for its own purposes, create personal profiles and link this data to the Google accounts of these individuals. If you have registered with the service provider yourself, the service provider also knows you. The processing of your personal data by the service provider then takes place under the responsibility of the service provider in accordance with its data protection regulations. The service provider only informs us how our respective website is used (no information about you personally).

5. data transfer and data transmission abroad

Within the scope of our business activities and the purposes set out in section 3, we also disclose data to third parties, insofar as this is permitted and appears to us to be appropriate, either because they process it for us or because they want to use it for their own purposes. This concerns the following bodies in particular:

• Service providers of ours (within BAK as well as externally, such as banks, insurance companies), including order processors (such as IT providers);
• Dealers, suppliers, subcontractors and other business partners;
• Customers;
• domestic and foreign authorities, official agencies or courts;
• Media;
• public, including visitors to websites and social media;
• Competitors, industry organisations, associations, organisations and other bodies;
• Acquirers or parties interested in acquiring business divisions, companies or other parts of BAK;
• other parties in potential or actual legal proceedings;

all recipients together.

These recipients are partly domestic, but can be anywhere in the world. In particular, you must expect your data to be transferred to all countries in which BAK is represented by group companies, branches or other offices, as well as to other countries in Europe and the USA where the service providers we use are located (such as Microsoft or Google).

If a recipient is located in a country without adequate legal data protection, we contractually oblige the recipient to comply with the applicable data protection (for this purpose, we use the revised standard contractual clauses of the European Commission, which can be accessed here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?), unless the recipient is already subject to a legally recognised set of rules to ensure data protection and we cannot rely on an exemption provision. An exception may apply in particular in the case of legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases of overriding public interests or if the performance of a contract requires such disclosure, if you have consented or if it is a matter of data made generally accessible by you, the processing of which you have not objected to.

6. duration of the retention of personal data

We process and store your personal data for as long as it is necessary for the fulfilment of our contractual and legal obligations or otherwise the purposes pursued with the processing, i.e. for example for the duration of the entire business relationship (from the initiation, processing to the termination of a contract) as well as beyond that in accordance with the statutory retention and documentation obligations. In this context, it is possible that personal data will be retained for the time during which claims can be asserted against our company and insofar as we are otherwise legally obliged to do so or legitimate business interests require this (e.g. for evidence and documentation purposes). As soon as your personal data is no longer required for the above-mentioned purposes, it will be deleted or anonymised as a matter of principle and as far as possible. For operational data (e.g. system logs, logs), shorter retention periods of six months or less generally apply.

7. data security

We take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access and misuse, such as issuing instructions, IT and network security solutions, access controls and restrictions, encryption of data carriers and transmissions, pseudonymisation or controls.

8. obligation to provide personal data

In the context of our business relationship, you must provide such personal data as is necessary for the establishment and performance of a business relationship and the fulfilment of the associated contractual obligations (you do not generally have a legal obligation to provide us with data). Without this data, we will generally not be able to enter into or perform a contract with you (or the entity or person you represent). Also, the website cannot be used if certain information to secure traffic (such as IP address) is not disclosed.

9. profiling (and automated decision making)

We process your personal data partly automatically with the aim of evaluating certain personal aspects (profiling). We use profiling in particular to be able to inform and advise you about products in a targeted manner. In doing so, we use evaluation tools that enable us to provide needs-based communication and advertising, including market and opinion research.

For the establishment and implementation of the business relationship and also otherwise, we generally do not use any fully automated automatic decision-making (such as regulated in Art. 22 DSGVO). Should we use such procedures in individual cases, we will inform you separately about this, insofar as this is required by law, and inform you about the associated rights.

10. rights of the data subject

Within the framework of the data protection law applicable to you and to the extent provided for therein (such as in the case of the GDPR), you have the right to information, correction, deletion, the right to restriction of data processing and otherwise the right to object to our data processing, in particular that for the purposes of direct marketing, profiling for direct advertising and other legitimate interests in the processing, as well as to the release of certain personal data for the purpose of transfer to another body (so-called data portability). Please note, however, that we reserve the right to assert the restrictions provided for by law, for example if we are obliged to retain or process certain data, have an overriding interest in doing so (insofar as we are entitled to rely on this) or require it for the assertion of claims. If you incur costs, we will inform you in advance. We have already informed you about the possibility of revoking your consent in section 3. Please note that exercising these rights may conflict with contractual agreements and may have consequences such as premature termination of the contract or costs. We will inform you in advance if this is not already contractually regulated.

The exercise of such rights usually requires that you clearly prove your identity (e.g. by a copy of your ID card where your identity is otherwise not clear or cannot be verified). To exercise your rights, you can contact us at the address given in section 1.

In addition, every data subject has the right to enforce his or her claims in court or to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority.  The competent data protection authority in Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (

www.edoeb.admin.ch).

11. changes

We may amend this privacy policy at any time without prior notice. The current version published on our website will apply. Insofar as the data protection declaration is part of an agreement with you, we will inform you of the change by e-mail or other suitable means in the event of an update.