Privacy Policy

Helvetia Media Academy AG is committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our online platform and services, including beginner journalism courses, international journalism training programs, digital media skills workshops, media ethics seminars, and advanced reporting techniques. By using our site or services, you agree to the terms of this privacy policy.

Information We Collect

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you express an interest in obtaining information about us or our services, when you participate in activities on our site, or otherwise when you contact us. The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the site, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. This may include your name, contact details such as email address and phone number, payment information, and any other information you choose to provide related to your participation in our courses or use of our services.

We may also automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate our site. This information does not reveal your specific identity but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our site, and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our site, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

How We Use Your Information

We use the personal information we collect for various purposes, including:

• To provide, operate, and maintain our services, including managing your course enrollments and account.
• To process transactions and manage payments for services.
• To communicate with you, provide customer support, and respond to your inquiries.
• To send you administrative information, such as information about changes to our services and policies.
• To send you marketing and promotional communications, where this is in accordance with your marketing preferences.
• To improve our site, services, marketing, and your experience.
• To develop new courses, services, and features.
• To enforce our terms, conditions, and policies.
• To comply with legal obligations and protect against fraudulent or illegal activity.

Legal Basis for Processing

We process personal data under the following legal bases:

• Your consent: We may process your data if you have given us specific consent to use your personal information for a specific purpose.
• Performance of a contract: We may process your data when we believe it is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you, including providing our services.
• Legal obligations: We may disclose your information where we are legally required to do so to comply with applicable law, governmental requests, a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process.
• Legitimate interests: We may process your data when it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms.

Sharing Your Information

We may process or share your data based on the following legal basis:

• Consent: We may process your data if you have given us specific consent to use your personal information for a specific purpose.
• Legitimate Interests: We may process your data when it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate business interests.
• Performance of a Contract: Where we have entered into a contract with you, we may process your personal information to fulfill the terms of our contract.
• Legal Obligations: We may disclose your information where we are legally required to do so.
• Vital Interests: We may disclose your information where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding potential violations of our policies, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person and illegal activities, or as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.

We may share your personal data with third-party vendors, service providers, contractors, or agents who perform services for us or on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. Examples include payment processing, data analysis, email delivery, hosting services, customer service, and marketing efforts. We may also share your data with affiliates or business partners. We may also share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies to access or store information. Specific information about how we use such technologies and how you can refuse certain cookies is set out in our Cookie Policy, which is incorporated into this privacy policy.

International Transfers

Your information may be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction. If you are located outside Switzerland and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including Personal Data, to Switzerland and process it there. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy. Where your data is transferred outside the EEA or Switzerland, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as Standard Contractual Clauses.

Data Retention

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law, such as for tax, accounting, or other legal requirements. When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it, or, if this is not possible, securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

Data Security

We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information.

Your Privacy Rights

In some regions, such as the European Union and the United Kingdom, you have rights under applicable data protection laws. These include the right to:

• Request access to and obtain a copy of your personal data.
• Request rectification or erasure of your personal data.
• Request the restriction of the processing of your personal data.
• Object to the processing of your personal data.
• Request data portability.
• Withdraw your consent at any time where processing is based on consent.
• Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the contact details provided below. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Contact Information

If you have questions or comments about this policy, you may contact us at:

Helvetia Media Academy AG

10 Bleicherweg

8001 Zurich

Switzerland

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated date and will be effective as soon as it is accessible. We encourage you to review this privacy policy frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.