Philos (Φίλος)
Regard with affection
Philos (Φίλος)
Regard with affection
1. Introduction
With this Privacy Policy we, Philos & Partners Ltd., Claridenstrasse 25, 8002 Zurich, Switzerland (hereinafter "Philos", "we" or "us"), describe how we collect and further process personal data. This Privacy Policy is not necessarily a comprehensive description of our data processing. Other declarations, general terms and conditions, contracts or similar documents may also apply in the data processing context.
The term "personal data" in this Privacy Policy shall mean any information that identifies, or could reasonably be used to identify any natural person.
If you provide us with personal data of other persons (such as family members, work colleagues), please make sure the respective persons are aware of this Privacy Policy and only provide us with their data if you are allowed to do so and such personal data is correct.
This Privacy Notice is aligned with the Swiss Data Protection Act.
2. ResponsibilityWe are responsible for the data processing described herein unless otherwise stated in the individual case. If you have any data protection concerns, you may contact us at the above address, by e-mail to Email dataprotection@philospartners.com or by call at +41 58 058 70 10.
3. Collection and Processing of Personal DataWe primarily process personal data that we obtain from our clients and other business partners as well as other individuals in the context of our business relationships with them (e.g. names, addresses, e-mail addresses, passport and ID information or numbers, bank account details, financial and professional circumstances, investment objectives, knowledge and experience in financial matters, tax information and other data that must be collected for the provision of financial or our other services and compliance with regulatory requirements (such as anti-money laundering laws, automatic exchange of information in tax matters, FATCA, etc.)) or that we collect from users when operating our website (www.philospartners.com) (see details at the end of this Section 2).
Apart from personal data you provided to us directly (which may include sensitive personal data), the categories of data about you include, but are not limited to:
(i) information and data from publicly accessible sources/registers, from authorities or other third parties (e.g commercial registers, land registers, press, Internet);(ii) data received in connection with administrative or court proceedings;
(iii) information in connection with your professional role and activities;
(iv) information from correspondence and discussions with third parties;
(v) credit rating information;
(vi) information about you given to us by individuals associated with you (family, consultants, legal representatives, etc.) in order to conclude or process contracts with you or with your involvement (e.g. references, CVs, powers of attorney, information on compliance with legal requirements such as anti-money laundering legislation or financial market regulation);
(vii) information about you found in the media or internet (insofar as indicated in the specific case, e.g. in connection with job applications, compliance reviews); and
(viii) data in connection with your use of our website (e.g., IP address, MAC address of your smartphone or computers, information regarding your device and settings, cookies, date and time of your visit, sites and content retrieved, applications used, referring website, localization data).
4. Purpose of Data Processing and Legal Grounds
We primarily use collected data in order to conclude and process contracts with our clients and business partners, in particular in connection with the financial services in the fields of professional asset management, investment advisory, asset consolidation and oversight as well as ancillary services, as well as in order to comply with our domestic and foreign legal obligations (e.g. financial market regulatory requirements). You may be affected by our data processing in your capacity as an employee of such a client or business partner.
As far as permitted and reasonable, we may process your personal data and personal data of third parties for the following purposes, which are in our (or, as the case may be, any third parties') legitimate interest, such as:
- providing and developing our products, services and website;
- client and background checks (KYC) to comply with out regulatory obligations;
- processing and administrating of job applications;
- review and optimization of procedures regarding needs assessment for the purpose of customer approach and acquisition;
- advertisement and marketing (including organizing events), provided that you have not objected to the use of your data for this purpose;
- asserting legal claims and defense in legal disputes and official proceedings;
- prevention and investigation of criminal offences and other misconduct;
- ensuring our operation, including our IT, data security and our website;
- implementation of measures for IT, building and facility security and for the protection of our employees and other persons and assets belonging to or entrusted to us (such as access controls, video surveillance, visitor lists, network and mail scanners, telephone records);
- acquisition and sale of business divisions, companies or parts of companies and other corporate transactions and the transfer of personal data related thereto as well as measures for business management and compliance with legal and regulatory obligations as well as internal regulations of Philos.
If you have given us your consent to process your personal data for certain purposes (for example for carrying out KYC or suitability checks), we will process your personal data within the scope of and based on this consent, unless we have another legal basis, provided that we require one. Consent given can be withdrawn at any time, but this does not affect data processed prior to withdrawal.
5. Cookies / Tracking and Other Techniques Regarding the Use of our WebsiteWe typically use "cookies" and similar techniques on our website, which allow for an identification of your browser or device. A cookie is a small text file that is sent to your computer and automatically saved by the web browser on your computer or mobile device, when you visit our website. If you revisit our website, we may recognize you, even if we do not know your identity. Besides cookies that are only used during a session and deleted after your visit of the website ("session cookies"), we may use cookies in order to save user configurations and other information for a certain time period (e.g., two years) ("permanent cookies"). Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may configure your browser settings in a way that it rejects cookies, only saves them for one session or deletes them prematurely. Most browsers are preset to accept cookies. We use permanent cookies for the purpose of saving user configuration (e.g., language, automated log in), in order to understand how you use our services and content, and to enable to show you customized offers and advertisement (which may also happen on websites of other companies; should your identity be known to us, such companies will not learn your identity from us; they will only know that the same user is visiting their website has previously visited a certain website). Certain cookies are sent to you from us, others from business partners with which we collaborate. If you block cookies, it is possible that certain functions (such as, e.g., language settings, shopping basket, ordering processes) are no longer available to you.
In accordance with applicable law, we may include visible and invisible image files in our newsletters and other marketing e-mails. If such image files are retrieved from our servers, we can determine whether and when you have opened the e-mail, so that we can measure and better understand how you use our offers and customize them. You may disable this in your e-mail program, which will usually be a default setting.
By using our website and other marketing e-mails you agree to our use of such techniques. If you object, you must configure your browser or e-mail program accordingly.
6. Datatransfer and Transfer of Data AbroadTo the extent necessary, permitted and compatible with the principles of professional secrecy, we also disclose personal data to third parties in the course of our business activities and for the purposes set out in section 4, either because they process the data for us or because they need the data for their own purposes. The data transfer may be made to the following persons (the "Recipients"), among others:
our service providers (e.g. banks, insurance companies, external compliance and risk management officers, lawyers), including order processors (e.g. IT providers);
subcontractors and other business partners of Philos or you (e.g. custodian banks, fund administrators, providers of financial instruments);
domestic and foreign authorities, official agencies or courts (e.g. the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA or the supervisory organization supervising us pursuant to the Financial Market Supervision Act);
industry organizations, associations, organizations and other bodies;
acquirers or parties interested in the acquisition of business divisions, companies or other parts of us;
other parties in potential or pending legal proceedings,
Certain Recipients may be within Switzerland but they may also be located abroad. In particular, you must anticipate your data to be transmitted to other countries in Europe and the USA where our service providers or their headquarters are located (such as Microsoft).
If a Recipient is located in a country without adequate statutory data protection, we require the Recipient to undertake to comply with data protection (for this purpose, we use the revised European Commission’s standard contractual clauses, which can be accessed here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj), unless the Recipient is subject to a legally accepted set of rules to ensure data protection and unless we cannot rely on an exception. An exception may apply for example in case of legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases of overriding public interest or if the performance of a contract requires disclosure, if you have consented or if data has been made available generally by you and you have not objected against the processing.
7. Retention Periods for your Personal DataWe process and retain your personal data as long as required for the performance of our contractual obligation and compliance with legal obligations or other purposes pursued with the processing, i.e. for the duration of the entire business relationship (from the initiation, during the performance of the contract until it is terminated) as well as beyond this duration in accordance with legal retention and documentation obligations. Personal data may be retained for the period during which claims can be asserted against our company or insofar as we are otherwise legally obliged to do so or if legitimate business interests require further retention (e.g., for evidence and documentation purposes). As soon as your personal data are no longer required for the above-mentioned purposes, they will be deleted or anonymized, to the extent possible.
8. Data SecurityWe have taken appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal data from unauthorized access and misuse such as the issuance of internal policies, IT and network security solutions, access controls and restrictions, encryption of data carriers and transmissions, pseudonymization, etc.
9. Obligation to Provide Personal Data To UsYou need to provide us with personal data that is necessary for the conclusion and performance of our business relationship and the performance of our contractual obligations. Without this information, we will usually not be able to enter into or carry out a contract with you (or the entity or person you represent). In addition, the website cannot be used unless certain information is disclosed to enable data traffic (e.g. IP address).
10. Your RightsIn accordance with and as far as provided by applicable law, you have the right to access to, rectification and erasure of your personal data and to the restriction of or objection to our data processing; in addition, you have the right to receive certain personal data for transfer to another controller (data portability). Please note, however, that we reserve the right to enforce statutory restrictions on our part, for example if we are obliged to retain or process certain personal data, have an overriding interest or need the data for asserting claims. If exercising certain rights will incur costs on you, we will notify you thereof in advance. We have already informed you of the possibility to withdraw consent in Section 3 above.
In order to assert these rights, please contact us at the addresses provided in Section 2 above.
In addition, you are entitled to enforce your rights in court or to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority. The competent data protection authority of Switzerland is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (http://www.edoeb.admin.ch).
11. Amendments of this Privacy PolicyWe may amend this Privacy Policy at any time and without prior notice. The current version published on our website shall apply.
Effective as of September 1, 2023