Privacy Statement

1. General Provisions

1.1    Purpose of the Privacy Statement

The present Privacy Statement describes the personal data that SERAFE AG (SERAFE AG, PO Box, 8010 Zurich) collects, the purpose for which it processes this information and the bodies from which it obtains these personal data. When processing personal data, Serafe complies with the prevailing data protection provisions and the special statutory provisions applicable to it. All employees of Serafe are subject to the duty of confidentiality and have signed an appropriate confidentiality agreement at the start of their employment with the Company.

1.2 Statutory mandate of Serafe AG

Upon adopting the revision of the Federal Act on Radio and Television (RTVA) on 14 June 2015, the Swiss electorate approved a system changeover from the device-dependent reception fee to the device-independent household reception fee. Now every household in Switzerland periodically receives a bill no matter if it has registered its own radio or television. Only the following are exempt from the duty to pay this fee:

  • upon request, recipients of supplementary benefits to old-age, survivors' and invalidity insurance,
  • diplomats,
  • upon request, deaf-blind individuals.

The household fee serves to finance the Swiss Confederation’s performance mandate for radio and television. As of 01 January 2019, Serafe acts on behalf of the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) as the new fee collection agency. In this role, Serafe sends out bills, identifies the households and individuals exempt from the fee, accepts payments and, if necessary, initiates dunning and debt collection processes.

2. Processing of Personal Data

2.1    What data do we process concerning you?

Serafe processes only the personal data specified in the RTVA. Serafe receives this information in particular from the cantons and municipalities' Registers of Residents and from Ordipro, the information system operated by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). In addition, it processes all data that customers disclose to it in applications for exemption and other communications.

In the cases specified by law (supplementary benefits-based exemption and deaf-blindness), Serafe also processes sensitive data that allow conclusions to be drawn about a person's health and his or her social assistance benefits.

2.2 For what purposes do we process your personal data, and how do we obtain the information?

2.2.1 Collection of the household reception fee

The cantons and municipalities are obligated to deliver the following data regarding the households and the associated persons on a monthly basis:

  • OASI number pursuant to Section 50c of the Federal Act of 20 December 1946 Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASIA);
  • Number of the municipality as assigned by the Federal Office and official name of the municipality;
  • Building ID assigned by the Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings (GWR) of the Federal Office;
  • Dwelling ID pursuant to the GWR, household composition and type of household;
  • a person's official name and any other authenticated names appearing in the Civil Register;
  • all given names in the proper order;
  • residence address and delivery address, including postcode and city;
  • Date of birth and place of birth;
  • Gender;
  • Establishment or residence in the municipality;
  • Municipality of the establishment or residence;
  • if moving in: Date of move and municipality or State of origin;
  • if moving away: Date of move and target municipality or State;
  • if relocating within the municipality: Date
  • Date of death.  

An individual is defined by our system as the bill recipient (debtor). The bills for the household fee are addressed and sent to the debtor. If the household fee is not paid, Serafe may dun the debtor and initiate the debt collection process if the bill remains unpaid. However, debt collection may be enforced against all members of a household who are jointly liable for the household fee.

2.2.2 Identification of fee-exempt persons 

Serafe also obtains data on a monthly basis from Ordipro, the information system operated by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). These details are necessary in order to identify fee-exempt diplomats. In accordance with the RTVA, the following data must be delivered to Serafe:

  • Surname and first name;
  •  Home address;
  • Date of birth
  • Legitimation card details;
  • OASI number pursuant to Section 50c of the Federal Act of 20 December 1946 on Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASIA).

Serafe utilises this information in order to identify the households that are exempt from the reception fee based on a household member's status as a diplomat.

For purposes of reviewing exemption applications from recipients of supplementary benefits and deaf-blind individuals, Serafe processes all data provided to it by the requesting customers. To determine if a person is exempt from the household fee as a recipient of supplementary benefits, Serafe may also process sensitive personal data that allow conclusions to be drawn about a person's health and his or her social assistance benefits.

2.2.3 Customer communication

If you have any questions or other concerns, you can contact SERAFE AG by phone, email, using our contact form on our website or by post. All data that you provide to Serafe in this regard will be used by it exclusively for the purpose of efficiently processing your requests, for documentation and evidentiary reasons and for training purposes. 

If you phone us, we will record the call for training and evidentiary purposes. Before the conversation starts, you will be informed about the recording via a taped message. By starting the conversation, you give us your consent to record the call.

2.3 How long do we retain your personal data?

We retain the personal data that we obtain from third parties or from you for as long as we need the information for evidentiary reasons, for overriding interests and to fulfil documentation and retention duties. This retention is particularly necessary so that Serafe can fulfil its statutory mandate, namely the collection of the household reception fee and the 10-year commercial retention duty. Serafe retains the bills for the household reception fee and the information concerning a household and its members at least for the duration of the statutory prescriptive period for the household reception fee. This period lasts five years and begins on the due date of the fee (Section 59 (3) RTVO). Serafe continues to store these data even after this five-year prescriptive period has expired if this

  • is necessary for fulfilling contractual or statutory duties of retention and documentation (including but not limited to the 10-year commercial retention period specified in Section 958f (1) CO, to which Serafe is subject);
  • for realising certificates of unpaid debts (the prescriptive period is 20 years from the date of issuance);
  • for asserting outstanding claims;
  • for evidentiary purposes or
  • for overriding interests.  

We retain personal data that you disclose to us via post, e-mail or in a telephone call for as long as we need them for collecting the household reception fee, for evidentiary reasons, for overriding interests or for fulfilling statutory or contractual retention duties. If data are still needed but the identification of the data subject is no longer required, we take the appropriate measures to remove the reference to the person.

3. Disclosure of Data

3.1 Do we transfer the processing of your personal data to contractors?

Serafe engages contractors for purposes of fulfilling its statutory mandate and for customer communication. It has concluded agreements with these contractors to ensure that they process the personal data exclusively for the purposes of Serafe, namely collecting the household reception fee and furthermore safeguarding the data by means of appropriate technical and organisational measures. The contractors are also contractually bound to maintain confidentiality.

3.2 Do we transmit your personal data abroad, as well?

Serafe processes the personal data chiefly in Switzerland. If personal data are transmitted abroad, Serafe ensures that the receiving country has legislation in place that provides for appropriate data protection. Otherwise, the protection of the data is ensured by concluding the EU standard contractual clauses. Serafe's IT service provider has a subsidiary headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. This subsidiary's employees must access Serafe's systems in Switzerland particularly to perform support and maintenance activities but also for other work and may view the personal data in the process. This thus constitutes a data disclosure abroad. Since New Zealand is a country with appropriate data protection, your personal data are also adequately protected by the legislation in force there.

4. How do we protect your personal data?

Your data are safeguarded against unauthorised access, changes, deletion and other processing operations. To that end, we have implemented technical measures in our systems, as well as organisational measures throughout the enterprise. SERAFE AG operates an ISO 27001:2013 certified information security management system.

5. What rights do you have, and how can you assert them?

You have the right to request information from us as to the data we process concerning you. You also have the right to have incorrect or unnecessary data rectified, erased or destroyed. However, we may refuse to rectify, erase or destroy your data if we have an overriding interest in continuing to process them without alteration, particularly if we must retain the data for statutory or contractual reasons. Moreover, we will point out to you that Serafe obtains the bulk of its data from external registers, namely from the Registers of Residents of the cantons and municipalities and from Ordipro, the information system operated by the FDFA.

Serafe is not permitted to verify, rectify or erase these data. Therefore, if you request the rectification, erasure or destruction of data from the Registers of Residents or from Ordipro, please contact the relevant Register directly. In order to assert your rights, please send a letter to the following address:

SERAFE AG
PO Box
8010 Zurich

 

6. Amendments to this Privacy Statement

Serafe may modify this Privacy Statement at any time without prior notice. The current version published on the website www.serafe.ch shall apply. In the event of contradictions between the different language versions of this Privacy Statement, the German version shall take precedence. If the Privacy Statement is part of an agreement with you, then, in the event of an update, Serafe shall inform you of the change via e-mail or other appropriate means.