Privacy policy

Thank you for applying to Abacus Research AG

Abacus-Platz 1,
9300 Wittenbach,
St. Gallen/Switzerland,
[email protected],
Phone +41 71 292 25 25

We are responsible for processing your data in connection with our job portal at jobs.abacus.ch and the application process for permanent positions, internships, apprenticeships, unsolicited applications and applications for theses, for registrations for an information evening for apprentices or as a trainee for the AbaCollege and for all other questions relating to applications, training and employment.

As we take the protection of your data very seriously, we have a data protection officer in the company who ensures that we comply with the legal data protection requirements. They are also your point of contact if you have any questions about data protection or wish to assert your rights in this regard. You can easily contact them by writing to [email protected].

This includes all information that relates to a specific or identifiable person, i.e. you. This may include your name, address and e-mail address, telephone number, date of birth, photo, certificates, CV, and your IP address.

This also includes particularly sensitive data (“sensitive data”) such as health data or data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or trade union membership. They also include genetic and biometric data that could be used to uniquely identify you. They are subject to additional provisions.

• 3.1.   You contact us or send us an unsolicited application by e-mail

  If you contact us by e-mail or via a contact form on our website and provide us with data (such as name, address, e-mail address, message, etc.), we will process this data for the purposes you have specified. We store and use this data so that we can answer your question or process your request.

  If you would like to send us an unsolicited application, please send it via our website. We have provided a special form for this purpose. However, if you do send an application directly by e-mail, it will be processed in the same way as an application that reaches us via our job portal. We store and process your data and application documents in our HR system. If your unsolicited application matches an open position, you will take part in the normal application process. Otherwise, we will inform you that there is currently no suitable vacancy.

  If you send the application via email, we would like to point out that, for reasons of data security, no application documents should be sent by unencrypted e-mail. You can encrypt your application attachments yourself, for example with a ZIP solution, and provide us with the corresponding password separately (by telephone).

  After you have contacted us, we may process your data because we have a legitimate interest in doing so. We would like to answer your questions or process your request.

  If you send us an unsolicited application, we may also do so in order to carry out pre-contractual measures, as your application is aimed at a contractual relationship that you would like to have with us.

  We will delete your transmitted data after you have contacted us if it no longer needs to be stored, the purpose of your contact has been fulfilled, you have objected to the processing or we have satisfactorily resolved your request, unless there are legal obligations to retain the data, or we are permitted to continue processing the data on other legal grounds.
   

• 3.2.   You visit our website with our job portal
  In the following sections, we will inform you about how we process your data when you visit our website with our job portal.
   
  • 3.2.1.  Cookies

    We use cookies when you visit our job portal on our website. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your end device. Your browser accesses these files, whereby we use functional cookies for our job portal. They are required so that a technical connection can be established with our website that you are using. It also ensures that before you upload an application, the content of the form you have filled in is kept for a period of 28 days and any files you have attached are kept for a maximum of 8 days so that the data is still available for a later submission of an application if you do not want to send it straight away. If you visit the job portal again after the above-mentioned period has expired, your language selection and your data will be irretrievably deleted.

    This cookie is used so that you as an applicant can visit the job portal and experience it in a user-friendly way by not having to re-enter and upload all data and documents if you were unable to complete the application process. This is in our interest as well as yours. If you do not want this, you can delete all data and documents from the application form before you leave the job portal.

    This cookie is a so-called "persistent" cookie, which is stored on your end device for a period of 10 years and which you can proactively delete in your browser. The 10 years is exclusively the lifespan of an ID, which does not allow any further conclusions to be drawn about you after the data has been deleted but is necessary for technical reasons.

    Another cookie, which is persistent for 1 year, stores your selection via the cookie consent banner on our website. We have a legitimate interest in this so that we can prove which selection you have made in the cookie consent banner.
     

  • 3.2.2.  Server log files
    In addition, further data is collected which your browser transmits to our server, and which is stored as server log files. This includes, amongst others, the following data:
    - visited domain,
    - IP address of the end device used, date and time,
    - website from which our job portal was accessed,
    - operating system of the end device used,
    - the browser used during access and all information from the 'user agent' that the browser transmits to the server,
    - amount of data transferred.
    
    We also process this data based on our legitimate interests. They are used to establish a connection to the server, but also for statistical purposes and to improve our job portal. We also use this data:
    - for clarification work regarding support cases,
    - for the analysis of technical problems,
    - for saftey-relevant clarifications,
    - in suspected cases of unlawful use.

    We do not pass this data on to third parties and do not use it in any other way, unless this is necessary to pursue our claims, to fulfil the intended purpose or to comply with legal obligations.

    We record the log files centrally and delete them automatically after 28 days, unless their retention beyond this period is necessary for evidentiary purposes, for example for use as evidence before authorities or courts for unlawful use of our website. We will then exempt them from deletion until the respective incident has been finally clarified and may keep them until a legally binding decision or judgement has been reached.
     

    3.2.3. reCAPTCHA by Google

  • To protect our job portal from bots and possible spam, we have integrated reCAPTCHA by Google (Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 5, Ireland). This enables us to distinguish whether we have received an application from a human or whether it has been improperly processed by an automated, machine programme (e.g. a bot). To do this, you make certain entries before uploading the application so that this can be verified. In addition, your IP address and possibly other data, such as the pages you visit on our site and on which reCAPTCHA is integrated, the date and your time spent on our website, the identification data of your browser and operating system type, your Google account, if you are logged in to Google, mouse movements on the reCAPTCHA areas and the tasks in which you identify images are also required by Google for reCAPTCHA. They are sent to Google and processed by them. The analysis starts automatically as soon as you open the website with reCAPTCHA. We use reCAPTCHA from Google to ensure the security of our systems. Documents uploaded via the form are stored in our HR system. If we do not install such a security tool, bots could upload documents to our systems unhindered. This is how we protect ourselves from unwanted and dangerous automated calls of our website. It is in our legitimate interest to protect our system security.

    If you would like to know more about reCAPTCHA or how Google processes data, you can find out more here, directly from Google:
    Privacy policy:
    https://policies.google.com/privacy
    Terms of use:
    https://policies.google.com/terms
     

    3.2.4.  Additional cookies and other technichal means

  • How and what other data is collected from you when you visit our websites (e.g. through additional cookies, web beacons or other technical means) and how we analyse this data (e.g. through analysis and tracking tools) as well as other data processing by us as a company can be found in our general privacy policy and the respective cookie consent banner.
     

  • 3.2.5.  Your browser settings
    You can also configure your Internet browser yourself, so that you are informed when cookies are installed. You can decide individually or generally whether to accept or exclude them. Every browser is different in the way it manages cookie settings, but your browser's help menu will certainly explain how you can change your cookie settings. However, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that we cannot guarantee that you will be able to access all the functions of our website without restrictions if your browser does not allow cookies.
     
• 3.3.   You apply via our application form

  You can send us your data - as provided in the respective application form - and your documents via our form. We store all the data you enter and process it in our HR system. Your data will be used exclusively for processing your application and will be processed in keeping it strictly separately from other data. You will see the data you send us after you have entered it in the application form before you send it. This includes:

  Title, first and last name, address, e-mail address, private/mobile telephone number, date of birth, photo, and application documents (such as letter of motivation, CV, degrees, or work references). This may contain personal, even sensitive data, especially in photos, cover letters and CVs. You give us all your data voluntarily. The fields marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory, all others are optional.
   

• 3.3.1.  Possible consent

  We would like to expressly point out that sensitive data in your application, such as information on marital status, health data (except for any possible status as a severely disabled person, if you wish to disclose the data to us of your own free will), trade union membership, conclusions on ethnic origin or religion, are expressly not desired. If you still wish to inform us of this, this is done based on your express consent, which you can revoke at any time with effect for the future. We do not take this sensitive data into account when assessing your application.

  When you send us a photo in your documents or via uploads so that it can be stored in the HR system, you consent to this by submitting the photo. If the photo contains references to sensitive data (e.g. skin colour, religion, health), your consent also relates to this sensitive data. Your consent is voluntary, and you can delete a photo that has already been uploaded from the application form. You can revoke your consent at any time and your photo will then be deleted from the personnel system.

  Once you have successfully sent us your application, you will receive an automatic confirmation email that we have received it. This e-mail will be automatically deleted from the job portal after 28 days. If you do not receive this email, please use the contact details above or resend your application.

  We store and process your data for the purpose of carrying out the application process. We use the data to communicate with you, to check your qualifications and suitability, for a possible interview with you, to conduct the interview, to document it and to assess whether we hire you, train you or not. For this purpose, we process your data stored by us in our HR system. Those responsible within the HR department as well as the line managers responsible for your application and their deputies have access to it.
   

  3.3.2.  References
• If you provide us with a reference in your application documents, we assume that you have obtained their consent for us to contact them and that you agree to the reference being obtained from this person. Otherwise, we will only ask for and contact a reference with your consent. We will ask you for this separately. Consent is given voluntarily and can be revoked at any time for the future.
   
• 3.3.3.  Legal basis for data processing

  We may process your data and application documents because you have given us your consent, if necessary, your express consent in the case of sensitive data, or because the data processing is carried out for the implementation of pre-contractual measures at your request. We also have a legitimate interest in carrying out efficient applicant management.

  Consents that you give in an application form can be found at the end of this privacy policy. You can revoke your consent at any time with effect for the future. You can object to a processing based on legitimate interests at any time. If you would like to find out more about your rights, you can read all about them under "Your rights".
  
  3.3.4.  Deletion of data or cancellation

• All application data will be deleted from the job portal server immediately after successful downloading and transfer to our personnel system, provided there are no retention obligations to the contrary. If we were to forget to download and transfer an application, the application data therein will be deleted at the latest 4 weeks after the successful submission of the application data.

  If we do not hire or train you at the end of the application process, we will delete your data no later than 6 months after we have notified you of a rejection, unless a longer retention period is required by law or if we are permitted to store your data to fulfil legal obligations or to defend against or assert legal claims. Our legitimate interest for a longer use of the data then lies, for example, in a burden of proof in discrimination proceedings.

  If you have consented to further processing of your data, we will store and process your data in accordance with the consent you have given.

  If we hire you at the end of the application process or if we train you, we will transfer your data to the personnel master data and your personnel file as part of the contractual relationship. It is then processed in accordance with the statutory provisions for the employment relationship or the corresponding contractual relationship.

  The information you provide us with must be accurate, complete, current, and not misleading. Failure to do so may result in us not considering your application or in us taking appropriate legal action after you have already been hired.

If you register for an informative evening as a student or trainee, we will process the data you and your parents provide in the registration form for the purpose of organising the informative evening. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email or further information on the organisation of the informative evening from us. We will retain this data until the apprenticeships on offer have been filled. If you are offered an apprenticeship with us, we will process your data in accordance with the statutory provisions for the employment relationship, otherwise we will delete the data once all open apprenticeship positions have been filled. Before the informative evening takes place, we will pass on your data to the other companies and organisations that help to organise and run the informative evening. This will also give them an insight into the participants of the informative evening and the opportunity to stay in contact with you afterwards.

We use our own systems to implement our HR system; your data is not generally passed on to an external company. In certain cases, however, we pass on your data, or it is accessed by certain processors.
 

• 5.1. Companies in the Abacus Group
  If your application matches an open position at another company in the Abacus Group, we will forward your application documents to the responsible HR department there and, if applicable, to the decision-maker at the respective company. This is done after consultation with you and only after you have given your consent thereto. The responsible company will then contact you directly, whereby your application will be processed within the framework of national regulations and the data processing will be carried out to implement pre-contractual measures with you in relation to a possible employment as an employee. You can revoke your consent at any time with effect for the future. We will then inform the relevant HR department of your revocation so that they can delete your data. If you would like to find out more about your rights, you can read all about them under "Your rights".
   
• 5.2. Further processors
  So that we can operate our job portal via the Internet and communicate with you by e-mail, we have commissioned companies for website publishing, hosting, and e-mail provision. They can access your data if they process your data for us as our processors as part of a contractual relationship. They process your data only for the purpose of providing the job portal, for e-mail communication and for the provision of the associated services and functionalities. Our processors are carefully selected by us and commissioned in writing. They are bound to our instructions and are regularly monitored. They only receive data to the extent necessary to perform the order processing specifically agreed upon. We will provide information about our processors on request.
   
• 5.3. Other recipients
  Otherwise, the data will only be passed on or otherwise disclosed to other parties if this is permitted or required by law if it is necessary to fulfil legal obligations or if we have your consent to do so.

In this section we inform you on how you can fill out the form quickly and easily by using "Apply-with" buttons and how your data is processed.
 

• 6.1. Publications of job adverts on other platforms

  In addition to using the job portal on our website, you can also find our job advertisements on the following platforms, among others: ostjob.ch, jobs.ch, heise.de, ictjobs.ch, itjobs.ch, javajobs.ch, jobup.ch, Instagram and Facebook.

  If you use the link in the job advert, you will be forwarded immediately to our server on our job portal. The subsequent processing of your data will then take place as described above.

  You must review the data processing that takes place on the websites of the above-mentioned platforms in the respective data protection declarations published by them. There you will also find further information about your rights and setting options to protect your privacy with them. We are not responsible for their data processing.
   

• 6.2.   "Apply-with" buttons

  You can also use our "Apply-with" buttons from LinkedIn, Xing and jobs.ch. If you have already saved data on one of these platforms, you authorise your data to be imported into our application form by clicking on the relevant button. You can adjust the data in the application form before uploading.

  You must read the data processing that takes place on the websites of these platforms in the data protection declarations published by them. There you will also find further information about your rights and setting options to protect your privacy with them. We are not responsible for their data processing.

To give us a better picture of your professional background, we can visit your professional profiles on LinkedIn and Xing. We process this publicly accessible job-related data about you in our interest to find out whether you are a good fit for us. If you do not want this, you can let us know. We do not look at or process data from social networks or other websites that do not have a company or employment-oriented context.

In our application process, data from or about you is also used to evaluate personal aspects (profiling) as part of partially automated processing according to certain criteria. We want to use such assessments to find out your suitability for the specific task. However, the decision to enter a contractual relationship is always made by the responsible line manager and the HR department.

When we receive your application, we use CV parsing from Textkernel in the Netherlands to analyse your documents, whereby this data processing takes place in a server solution in Germany. CV parsing enables us to quickly extract attributes from CVs so that our employees can better assess your suitability based on the information extracted. Further information on how Textkernel processes data can be found in their privacy policy at https://www.textkernel.com/privacy-statement/.

As a matter of principle, no decisions based exclusively on automated processing are made that would have legal effect against you or would significantly affect you in a similar way. We will inform you in advance should such processing take place in individual cases and ensure that data is processed lawfully.

In principle, your data will be processed and stored for as long as is necessary and permissible for the purposes for which we have received your data. This means that we will retain your data for as long as we have a relationship with you after contacting you or as an applicant or future employee, as long as we are allowed to store your data within the scope of your consent, as long as there are (possible) obligations or obligations towards us, as long as there is a legal obligation to retain or document it, as long as a special legal situation requires this, such as with regard to legal disputes, limitation periods or official investigations, or for as long as you were informed when the data was collected.

After exercising your right of revocation or objection, after the stated purposes have been achieved or after the expiry of existing retention obligations and periods, we will delete your data or anonymise it or, if permissible, restrict its processing, unless you have consented to further use of your data or we have expressly reserved the right to use data beyond this, which is permitted by law or contract and about which we will inform you accordingly.

The deletion of data in connection with your visit to our websites (such as the use of cookies, web beacons and other technical means as well as analysis and tracking technologies) can be found in our Privacy Policy.

We take data protection very seriously and treat your data confidentially and in accordance with legal regulations. To this end, we have taken technical and organisational measures to ensure an appropriate level of protection. These measures may include the pseudonymisation and encryption of personal data, security measures relating to the confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of the systems, the ability to quickly restore the availability of and access to the data in the event of a physical or technical incident, and the regular review, assessment, and evaluation of the effectiveness of the technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of the processing. Your data is thus protected against loss, misuse, alteration or destruction and unauthorised access in accordance with the state of the art. Our standard of security is constantly upgraded to the latest technological developments. Our employees and processors are bound to confidentiality and only act within the scope of our instructions.

Under certain circumstances, it is possible that e-mails are sent in unencrypted form (i.e. they can be read immediately without the need for you to decrypt them beforehand). Such unencrypted e-mails are exposed to a greater risk than encrypted e-mails, which is why we hereby expressly advise you not to send any confidential information such as application documents via these channels.

When using the application form, your data will be transmitted in encrypted form according to the current state of the art. Our website, including our job portal, is secure (https). Please note that security gaps can never be completely ruled out when transmitting data over the Internet. We cannot guarantee 100% security of all systems, especially when using our websites. We assume no liability for wrongful actions by unauthorized third parties.

As a company, we use various tools from foreign companies, such as US companies, whereby we take care to contractually agree to storage locations within Switzerland or the EU with these companies as far as possible. However, it is possible that data may be transmitted to their servers abroad, such as in the USA, during use or in support cases. Both the EU and Switzerland issued positive adequacy decisions concerning the USA after entering the corresponding Swiss/EU-US Data Privacy Frameworks, so that a data transfer to the USA is lawful following certification of such companies.

For data that is processed in a third country without an adequate level of data protection, we provide suitable guarantees, such as the conclusion of standard data protection clauses (adapting the necessary contractual and technical measures and requirements of the FDPIC) to ensure that data is transferred abroad in compliance with the law. We resort to legally permissible exceptions only in isolated cases, such as allowing data transmission to a Third Country without an adequate level of data protection based on express consent by the data subject.

It is possible that different law applies to certain data processing. It must therefore be examined on a case-by-case basis whether the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), the Ordinance to the Federal Act on Data Protection (OFADP) and Swiss national law or another foreign law such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the national law of another country are applicable to data subjects. Abacus checks this for each individual case and will carry out the data processing that takes place within the framework of the respective legal requirements.

You have the following rights regarding your data, insofar as we have been able to establish your identity:

- right to information,
- right to rectification and deletion,
- right to restrict processing,
- right to object to processing,
- right to data portability.

You also have the right to assert your claims in court and to complain to a data protection supervisory authority about the processing of your data by us.

We will comply with your request for deletion unless it conflicts with an obligation to retain data or we need the data to assert, exercise or defend our legal claims.

You can revoke your consent to the processing of your data at any time for the future. Such a revocation does not affect the legality of the processing carried out since the consent until the revocation.

If we base the processing of your data on our legitimate interests or those of a third party following a balancing of interests, you can object to such processing. In such a case, we will examine your objection and will either stop or adapt the data processing or point out to you our compelling interests worthy of protection, which is why we would like to continue the processing. These must outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing must serve the assertion, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

You are not obliged to provide us with your data. However, it is possible that certain functions of our website will not be available or will only be available to a limited extent if you do not provide any data. In addition, it is possible that no contractual relationship can be entered into with you without the required data.

If you have any questions about your application or data protection in general, or if you wish to exercise your rights, withdraw your consent or object to a data processing, please contact us:

[email protected]
[email protected]

Abacus-Platz 1,
9300 Wittenbach,
St. Gallen/Switzerland,
[email protected],
Phone +41 71 292 25 25

This privacy policy is subject to periodic review and may, if necessary, be amended at any time with effect for the future without prior notice in the event of legal or technical changes or due to new or revised offers or services, in compliance with applicable regulations. For this reason, we ask you to read this privacy policy at regular intervals to be aware of possible changes. The current version of the privacy policy published on the website applies in each case.

Consent for sensitive data
My documents contain sensitive data. I expressly consent to their processing. This is the only way the application can be considered in its present form. They will not be included in the assessment of my application unless there is a legal obligation to do so. My consent is voluntary, and I can apply with the sensitive data removed, without this affecting my chances in the application process. I can revoke my consent at any time.

Consent for the inclusion of a photo in the personnel system
A photo submitted by me may be stored in the personnel system. If the photo contains references to sensitive data (e.g. skin colour, religion, health), my consent also relates to this sensitive data. My consent is voluntary, and I can delete an already uploaded photo from the application form. I can revoke my consent at any time, in which case my photo will be deleted from the personnel system.

Consent for inclusion in the Abacus talent pool
In the event that the application process does not lead to an appointment, I consent to the data provided during the application process (including any sensitive data provided) being stored beyond the end of the application process and used for subsequent contact. This means that I can later be offered relevant jobs that match my professional qualifications. My consent is voluntary, and I can revoke it at any time.