Privacy policy for tenants
Responsible for processing
Your personal data will be processed by the following controllers (hereinafter "we"):
- Wincasa AG
- your landlord or landlady and his or her affiliated companies or their representatives
You can contact any controller with concerns relating to the processing of your personal data. However, the easiest way for us to respond to your request is for you to contact Wincasa AG. The contact details for data protection are as follows
Wincasa AG
Data privacy
Theaterstrasse 17
8400 Winterthur
dataprivacy@wincasa.ch
Purposes of processing
We process your personal data for the purpose of concluding or processing the tenancy agreement that you will conclude or have concluded with your landlord or landlady.
We also process your personal data for the fulfilment of legal obligations, in particular obligations under tenancy law, the obligation to report relocations, the obligation to check for sanctions, retention obligations, tax obligations, the fulfilment of official orders, etc.
We also process your personal data for the following purposes:
- Identity and credit check
- Debt collection
- Access management
- Communication and tracking of communication
- Digitalisation (e.g. scanning of incoming documents)
- Structural measures and planning
- Property valuations
- IT testing/IT development
- Security (e.g. video surveillance)
- Prevention and detection of misuse
- Safeguarding interests in any legal disputes
- Reorganisation, merger, demerger, conversion and transfer of assets
Examination of obligations in connection with recipients of sanctions
We also process your personal data for non-personal purposes (i.e. we publish the results in such a way that you cannot be identified), in particular for
- Surveys and market research
- Property statistics
- Property monitoring
- Property research
- Letting potential (evaluation of the tenancy agreement and comparison with others)
Anonymisation of personal data
Finally, we process your personal data for the purposes for which you may have given your consent, such as
- Marketing and advertising
- Smart home applications, if you use them.
Categories of personal data processed
We process the following categories of personal data, among others:
- Personal data, such as name, gender, date of birth, marital status, home town/country, official ID, photo, language, details of family members, Wincasa ID (number)
- Contact details, such as address, e-mail, telephone number
- Contract data, such as information on the preparation, conclusion and execution of the tenancy agreement
- Professional data, such as education, profession, employer
- Housing conditions
- Reference data
- Financial data, such as income, outstanding rent, creditworthiness information, debt enforcement information, certificates of loss
- Bank and insurance data, payment information
- Content data (text, image, language), such as letters, e-mail communication, communication via platforms or online channels, appointments, telephone calls
- Access data, video surveillance data
- Consumption data, such as electricity, water, heating
- All other data that you provide or make available to us
- For smart home solutions used, the corresponding personal data
We process the following categories of particularly sensitive personal data:
- Data on social welfare measures (if necessary for the payment of rent)
- Data on administrative and criminal prosecutions or sanctions (in the case of bans from the house or neighbourhood)
- Biometric data for access systems
Category of recipients of the personal data
Your personal data will be shared with the following categories of controllers:
- Exchange between us and our affiliated companies
- Shipping companies (courier and online)
- Energy, water and other suppliers
- Insurance companies, banks
- Payment providers (such as credit card companies, banks, PayPal)
- Third party administration companies (such as CSL, Verit, Naef, etc.), if such are used.
- Credit agencies and compliance verification companies
- Debt collection companies, law firms
- Authorities, courts
- Researchers, universities and colleges (no personal purposes)
- Providers of smart home applications
- Potential direct or indirect buyers of the rental property
We have no influence on the processing of your personal data by these responsible parties. Please refer to the privacy policy of these third parties.
Your personal data will be passed on to the following categories of service providers:
- Providers of IT solutions, such as GARAIO REM AG, Yarowa AG, streamnow ag
- Companies in the construction sector, such as craft businesses, architectural firms, construction management companies, providers of construction software and solutions
- Companies in the field of labelling (such as for nameplates)
- Contractors in connection with the maintenance of the rental property
- Companies involved in the management of the rental property
- Security service companies
- Property valuation companies
- Contact centres, survey and market research companies
- Usual IT providers and IT service companies
- Usual service companies, such as accounting, archiving
We also pass on your personal data to our affiliated companies.
Automated decisions (online application process)
During the online application process, Wincasa checks your suitability for the rental property and the likelihood of cancellation. This suitability check includes the information you provide, calculations based on statistical models and a credit report from a credit agency.
If the credit agency provides no or negative feedback, you will be informed accordingly. In this case, you have the right to exercise your rights to information and correction vis-à-vis the credit agency. You also have the right to send Wincasa additional information and documents relating to your creditworthiness by post to the relevant branch or by e-mail (info@wincasa.ch). The additional information and documents will be included in the current letting process if the rental property has not yet been let by the time your information and documents are processed.
Where is your data processed and stored?
In principle, your personal data may be processed in Switzerland, in the member states of the EU and the EEA and in the United Kingdom. The appropriate level of data protection in these countries is determined by the Federal Council.
It cannot be ruled out that your landlord, a (third-party) management company or a service provider may also process your personal data outside this territory, e.g. by involving group companies or foreign IT service providers. In this case, your personal data may also be processed in other countries, e.g. in the USA, but generally worldwide. These countries do not all have laws that guarantee a level of data protection equivalent to Swiss law. Contractual precautions are taken to contractually compensate for the weaker legal protection. The EU standard contractual clauses, which are also recognised by the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) and can be accessed here, are usually used for this purpose. In exceptional cases, personal data may also be transferred abroad without such contractual precautions, e.g. in the case of legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases of overriding public interests, if the fulfilment of a contract requires such disclosure or if you have separately consented to the disclosure.
What are your rights?
You have the following rights under the Data Protection Act, although these rights are subject to certain conditions or may be subject to certain restrictions:
- Right to information
- Right to rectification
- Right to object to our data processing
- Right to data disclosure or data transfer
To exercise your rights, you can contact the data protection department of Wincasa AG at the following address: dataprivacy@wincasa.ch or Theaterstrasse 17, 8400 Winterthur.