AVA Privacy Policy
 

Last updated: Sep 22, 2021
 

AVA collects information from visitors to our website so that we can provide you better services and information about our products. This allows us to provide our visitors with a better online experience. We use customer contact information to connect interested customers with authorized dealers.

AVA sells only through authorized resellers. On our private pro website, we use dealer data to fulfill orders, to inform purchasers of their order status, to send promotional information, to enhance the operation of our website and administer our systems. In order to efficiently serve our pro partners, credit card transactions and order fulfillment may be handled by established third party banking, processing agents and distribution institutions. When Pro installer customers that do not pay us for products ordered, we may submit their account information to a third party collection agency.

Personal information is collected only from visitors who request to find a pro installer through our website. Non-personal information may be collected from all visitors to our website with the exception of visitors who voluntarily provide information via a web-form otherwise not related to the purchase of product. Personal information may include, but not be limited to, name, home address, telephone number, e-mail address, and product selection details. Non-personal information, which may be analyzed on both a personal and aggregate basis, may include the website that the visitor just came from, which website the visitor next goes to, what browser the visitor is using and the visitor's Internet protocol (IP) address. Other non-personal information we may gather from visitors includes date and time of visit, the number of visits, the number of visits per browsing session, the host type, the operating system, the country, state and telephone area code where their hosts are located, the pages and page titles of our website that visitors viewed during their visit, whether the visitor's computer is enabled for Java or cookies, browser language, applications and plug-ins, and any search terms entered on AVA’s website.

AVA uses cookies and allows others to use cookies in the operation of its website. We may use a third party to analyze what our visitors find to be most interesting on our website. To do that, analytics providers may place a cookie on your browser with a randomly assigned unique number in order to track the pages you view on our website, along with other non-personal information.

AVA may use and allow others to use action tags in the operation of its website. Our content servers may use action tags to count the number of times that visitors visit the pages of our website. If we use a third-party e-mail distributor, they may also use action tags.

Demographic data also may be collected at our website from third party content servers, who provide us with the zip code and area code associated with a visitor's server, along with pages viewed on our website. We review the actions of visitors to our website on an aggregate basis to determine visitor preferences. We use this data to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, to statistically analyze website use, to improve our product offerings and to modify our website's content, layout and services. We may receive reports from third party content servers that tell us what content was served to website visitors.

If you contact AVA or its customer service representatives by telephone, e-mail or letter, we may keep a record of your correspondence or comments. If you report a problem with our website, we may collect such information in a file specific to you. If you contact us through a feedback area of our website or by calling one of our customer service representatives, we may ask for your name, e-mail address, pro installer, or other information in order to send you a reply. If other users or third parties send us correspondence about your activities or purchases on our website, we may keep the information in a file specific to you. If we use a third party to help us provide customer service, in order to help you most effectively, we may provide them with your order information. In some circumstances, our warranty programs may be administered by third party warranty companies and we may pass along your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, warranty purchased and information about the product purchased to the warranty company.

AVA’s website may contain links to other websites on the Internet that are owned and operated by third parties. The information practices of those websites linking from or to our website are not within our control and are not covered by this privacy policy. These other websites may send their own cookies to users, collect data, or solicit personal information. AVA cannot control and is not responsible for this collection and use of information.

AVA does not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others without your consent. We may provide non-personal information about our visitors' sales, traffic patterns, and related website information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any specific personal information. We may release account information when we believe that such release is reasonably necessary to enforce or apply our Terms and Conditions or to protect the rights, property, and safety of us, our users, or others.

Occasionally AVA may be asked by law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide personal information to the appropriate governmental authorities. We will disclose personal information upon receipt of a court order, subpoena, or to cooperate with a law enforcement investigation, without prior notice to you. We fully cooperate with law enforcement agencies in identifying those who use our services for illegal activities. We reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we in good faith believe to be unlawful.

If we make changes to any terms or conditions to the privacy policy, the changes will be posted in this document so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information and to whom we will disclose it. We may change, modify, add or remove portions of this policy at any time, and you agree that any changes will become effective immediately upon being posted unless we tell you otherwise.
 

EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Introduction
 

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) went into force across the European Union on 25th May 2018 to meet the requirements of the digital age. The new Regulation standardizes data protection laws and processing across the EU; affording individuals stronger, more consistent rights to access and control their personal information.
 

Our Commitment
 

AVA Innovations AG (‘we’ or ‘us’ or ‘our’) are committed to ensuring the security and protection of the personal information that we process, and to provide a compliant and consistent approach to data protection. We have always had a robust and effective data protection program in place which complies with existing law and abides by the data protection principles. However, we recognize our obligations in updating and expanding this program to meet the demands of the GDPR and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP).

AVA Innovations AG is dedicated to safeguarding the personal information under our remit and in developing a data protection regime that is effective, fit for purpose and demonstrates an understanding of, and appreciation for the GDPR Regulation. Our preparation and objectives for GDPR compliance have been summarized in this statement and include the development and implementation of new data protection roles, policies, procedures, controls and measures to ensure maximum and ongoing compliance.

Measures include:
 

• Information Audit - carrying out a company-wide information audit to identify and assess what personal information we hold, where it comes from, how and why it is processed and if and to whom it is disclosed.

• Policies & Procedures - data protection policies and procedures to meet the requirements and standards of the GDPR and any relevant data protection laws, including: -

• Data Protection – our main policy and procedure document for data protection has been overhauled to meet the standards and requirements of the GDPR. Accountability and governance measures are in place to ensure that we understand and adequately disseminate and evidence our obligations and responsibilities; with a dedicated focus on privacy by design and the rights of individuals.

• Data Retention & Erasure – we have updated our retention policy and schedule to ensure that we meet the ‘data minimization’ and ‘storage limitation’ principles and that personal information is stored, archived and destroyed compliantly and ethically. We have dedicated erasure procedures in place to meet the new ‘Right to Erasure’obligation and are aware of when this and other data subject’s rights apply; along with any exemptions, response timeframes and notification responsibilities.

• Data Breaches – our breach procedures ensure that we have safeguards and measures in place to identify, assess, investigate and report any personal data breach at the earliest possible time. Our procedures are robust and have been disseminated to all employees, making them aware of the reporting lines and steps to follow.

• International Data Transfers & Third-Party Disclosures – where AVA Innovations AG stores or transfers personal information outside the EU, we have robust procedures and safeguarding measures in place to secure, encrypt and maintain the integrity of the data. Our procedures include a continual review of the countries with sufficient adequacy decisions, as well as provisions for binding corporate rules; standard data protection clauses or approved codes of conduct for those countries without. We carry out strict due diligence checks with all recipients of personal data to assess and verify that they have appropriate safeguards in place to protect the information, ensure enforceable data subject rights and have effective legal remedies for data subjects where applicable.

• Subject Access Request (SAR) – we have revised our SAR procedures to accommodate the revised 30-day timeframe for providing the requested information and for making this provision free of charge. Our new procedures detail how to verify the data subject, what steps to take for processing an access request, what exemptions apply and a suite of response templates to ensure that communications with data subjects are compliant, consistent and adequate.

• Legal Basis for Processing - we are reviewing all processing activities to identify the legal basis for processing and ensuring that each basis is appropriate for the activity it relates to. Where applicable, we also maintain records of our processing activities, ensuring that our obligations under Article 30 are met.

• Privacy Notice/Policy – we are revising ****our Privacy Notice(s) to comply with the GDPR, ensuring that all individuals whose personal information we process have been informed of why we need it, how it is used, what their rights are, who the information is disclosed to and what safeguarding measures are in place to protect their information.

• Obtaining Consent – we are revising our consent mechanisms for obtaining personal data, ensuring that individuals understand what they are providing, why and how we use it and giving clear, defined ways to consent to us processing their information. We have developed stringent processes for recording consent, making sure that we can evidence an affirmative opt-in, along with time and date records; and an easy to see and access way to withdraw consent at any time.

• Direct Marketing – we are revising ****the wording and processes for direct marketing, including clear opt-in mechanisms for marketing subscriptions; a clear notice and method for opting out and providing unsubscribe features on all subsequent marketing materials.

• Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) – where we process personal information that is considered high risk, involves large scale processing or includes special category/criminal conviction data; we have developed stringent procedures and assessment templates for carrying out impact assessments that comply fully with the GDPR’s Article 35 requirements. We have implemented documentation processes that record each assessment, allow us to rate the risk posed by the processing activity and implement mitigating measures to reduce the risk posed to the data subject(s).

• Processor Agreements – where we use any third-party to process personal information on our behalf (i.e. Payroll, Recruitment, Hosting etc), we have drafted compliant Processor Agreements and due diligence procedures for ensuring that they (as well as we), meet and understand their/our GDPR obligations. These measures include initial and ongoing reviews of the service provided, the necessity of the processing activity, the technical and organizational measures in place and compliance with the GDPR.

• Special Categories Data - where we obtain and process any special category information, we do so in complete compliance with the Article 9 requirements and have high-level encryptions and protections on all such data. Special category data is only processed where necessary and is only processed where we have first identified the appropriate Article 9(2) basis or the Data Protection Bill Schedule 1 condition. Where we rely on consent for processing, this is explicit and is verified by a signature, with the right to modify or remove consent being clearly signposted.
   

Data Subject Rights
 

In addition to the policies and procedures mentioned above that ensure individuals can enforce their data protection rights, we will soon provide easy to access information via www.ava.com/legal and by contacting dataprotection@ava.com, to facilitate an individual’s right to access any personal information that AVA Innovations AG processes about them and to request information about:
 

• What personal data we hold about them

• The purposes of the processing

• The categories of personal data concerned

• The recipients to whom the personal data has/will be disclosed

• How long we intend to store your personal data for

• If we did not collect the data directly from them, information about the source

• The right to have incomplete or inaccurate data about them corrected or completed and the process for requesting this

• The right to request erasure of personal data (where applicable) or to restrict processing in accordance with data protection laws, as well as to object to any direct marketing from us and to be informed about any automated decision-making that we use

• The right to lodge a complaint or seek judicial remedy and who to contact in such instances
   

Information Security & Technical and Organizational Measures
 

AVA Innovations AG takes the privacy and security of individuals and their personal information very seriously and take every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure the personal data that we process. We have robust information security policies and procedures in place to protect personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and have several layers of security measures, including:

• SSL, access controls, password policy, encryptions, pseudonymization, restrictions etc.
   

GDPR Roles and Employees
 

AVA Innovations AG have designated Raphael Oberholzer as our Data Protection Officer (DPO) and have appointed a data privacy team to develop and implement our roadmap for complying with the new data protection Regulation. The team are responsible for promoting awareness of the GDPR across the organization, assessing our GDPR readiness, identifying any gap areas and implementing the new policies, procedures and measures.

AVA Innovations AG understands that continuous employee awareness and understanding is vital to the continued compliance of the GDPR. We have implemented an annual employee training program.

If you have any questions about our measures for GDPR, please contact Data Protection Officer (DPO).
 

AVA AG

c/o Raphael Oberholzer

Niklaus-Konrad-Strasse 8

4500 Solothurn Switzerland

dataprotection@ava.com