Privacy Policy

Introduction

Philip Max Zollinger ("we", "us", or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website p-m-z.ch.

We comply with the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and other applicable data protection laws.

Data Controller

Information We Collect

Information You Provide

We may collect information you voluntarily provide when you:

• Contact us via email or through our website
• Request our services or consultations
• Subscribe to our journal newsletter
• Request a PDF edition of a journal entry

This may include your name, email address, phone number, company name, and any other information you choose to provide.

Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our website, we record which pages you view and how the site is used, as described in full under "Website Analytics" below. These records are kept without your IP address and without cookies from third-party services.

If you write to us through the contact form, we store the following together with your message: your IP address, the browser and device you used, and the record of your consent — the exact wording you accepted, the date and time it was given, and the IP address it came from. We keep this as proof that consent was genuinely given, as data protection law requires.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Respond to your inquiries and provide requested services
• Improve and optimize our website and services
• Analyze website usage and trends
• Keep a record of consent where the law requires it
• Comply with legal obligations
• Protect our rights and prevent misuse

Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

Under the GDPR, we process your personal data based on the following legal grounds:

• Consent: Where you have given explicit consent for specific purposes
• Contract: Where processing is necessary to fulfill a contract with you
• Legitimate interests: Where we have a legitimate business interest that doesn't override your rights
• Legal obligation: Where we are required by law to process your data

Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties. We may share your information in the following circumstances:

• With service providers who assist in operating our website (hosting, email delivery)
• When required by law or to respond to legal process
• To protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property
• In connection with a business transfer or acquisition

International Data Transfers

Your information may be transferred to and processed in countries outside of Switzerland or the European Economic Area. When we transfer data internationally, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission.

Data Retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including to satisfy legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. The periods below are applied automatically, every day.

• Contact-form messages: deleted automatically 24 months after you sent them.
• PDF requests: deleted automatically 24 months after the request.
• Journal newsletter sign-ups: kept until you unsubscribe, when the sign-up is deleted and only the address remains on our do-not-contact list.
• Visitor statistics: deleted automatically 12 months after they were recorded.
• Delivery records: the address and the reason are kept so that the address is never mailed again; the delivery log itself ages out after 24 months.

When data is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymize it.

Your Rights

Under GDPR and Swiss data protection law, you have the following rights:

• Right of access: Request a copy of your personal data
• Right to rectification: Request correction of inaccurate data
• Right to erasure: Request deletion of your data ("right to be forgotten")
• Right to restriction: Request limitation of processing
• Right to data portability: Receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Right to object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Right to withdraw consent: Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hello@p-m-z.ch. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience. For detailed information about the cookies we use and how to manage them, please see our Cookie Policy.

Website Analytics

We measure how this website is used with our own first-party analytics system. It records events such as page views, scroll depth, reading time, clicks and the referring source — without third-party analytics services, without cross-site tracking and without profiling.

Without your analytics consent, these events are stored completely anonymously and carry no identifiers. If you accept analytics cookies, a random visitor and session identifier is stored in your browser and attached to the events, so that your visits to this site can be recognised as one visit and one visitor. These identifiers are random values with no personal content, are not shared with third parties and never follow you across websites. You can withdraw your consent at any time under Cookie Settings.

Only the operator of this website can access the statistics and the underlying events. Events are stored for 12 months and then deleted automatically; identifiers can be removed on request at hello@p-m-z.ch.

Newsletter

When you subscribe to the journal newsletter, we store your email address, your language preference, and a confirmation token. We use a double opt-in process: after subscribing, you receive a confirmation email and only become an active subscriber once you click the link.

We use your email address solely to notify you when a new entry is published in the journal. We do not use it for marketing, profiling, or share it with third parties beyond our email-sending infrastructure. Each newsletter contains a one-click unsubscribe link, and you can also write to hello@p-m-z.ch to be removed.

Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). When you unsubscribe, your sign-up record is deleted: the email address, the language preference and the confirmation token all go. Only the address itself remains on our do-not-contact list, with the date and the reason, so that no further email can reach you by mistake.

If you subscribed but never confirmed, the sign-up is held as pending and one reminder is sent. You can ask us to remove it at any time.

PDF Downloads

Some journal entries are offered as a PDF. To receive one, you give us your first name, last name, email address and company. We email you a personal download link that works for 7 days, and we record when you request the PDF and whether, when and how often the link is used. We also keep the wording of the consent you gave, your IP address and your browser, as evidence of the request.

We use these details to send you the PDF and to understand which organisations read our work; Philip Max Zollinger may contact you personally about it. We do not sell the details or pass them on, beyond our own email-sending and hosting infrastructure. Ticking the newsletter box is optional and separate: it starts the usual double opt-in described above.

Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). Requests are deleted automatically after 24 months; write to hello@p-m-z.ch to have yours removed sooner.

Delivery Records

When we send an email, we record whether it reached the address. If an email bounces because the address is no longer valid, if it is reported as spam, or if you unsubscribe, we keep the address, the reason and the date. This record exists so that the address is never mailed again — it is the only part of a newsletter sign-up that outlives the sign-up itself. The wider delivery log ages out after 24 months.

Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these external sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.

Children's Privacy

Our website is not intended for children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have collected information from a child, please contact us immediately.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new policy on this page with an updated revision date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Supervisory Authority

If you are located in the European Economic Area and believe we have not addressed your concerns satisfactorily, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.

For Switzerland, the supervisory authority is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at: