Valid from 01 September 2023.
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The revised Data Protection Act and the associated Data Protection Ordinance come into force in Switzerland on 1 September 2023 and are applicable without a transitional period. The new legislation affects all companies in all sectors, but particularly those that manage sensitive, personal customer data, such as fiduciary and IT companies, healthcare practices and property management companies.
What exactly will change from 1 September?
The most important measures in brief: From 1 September 2023, the company or organisation must ensure the security of personal data, introduce multi-factor authentication, define super administrators for data processing and implement internal directives and training.
Penalties: Previously, breaches of data protection were considered trivial offences, but now even a breach of the obligation to provide information is considered a criminal offence.
The privacy policy must be published on the website. This is central. The wording must be precise, transparent, understandable and easily accessible. Data subjects must always be informed about the use of their data BEFORE it is processed. In addition, requests from data subjects regarding data processing must be responded to free of charge and within 30 days ("duty to provide information"). The data must also be transmitted in a commonly used electronic format.
Who does the new data protection law apply to?
The new Data Protection Act only protects natural persons (but no longer legal entities) from misuse, but all companies and individuals who process data are obliged to do so. The law is also applicable worldwide for all situations as soon as they have an impact on Switzerland. The worldwide applicability allows action to be taken against the data hunger of large tech companies such as Alpha (Google), Meta (Facebook), Amazon, etc.
