Privacy Policy

The VBC Privacy Policy Last Updated : January 10th 2020

Please read these Terms carefully, as they affect your legal rights. Your agreement to The VBC - The Virtual Business Cards and PGH Sàrl with and be bound by these Terms is deemed to occur upon your first use of the Site, App and/or Services. If you do not agree to be bound by these Terms, you should stop using the Site, App and Services immediately.

Welcome, and thank you for your interest in The VBC - The Virtual Business Card an app of PGH Sàrl (The VBC, The VBC - The Virtual Business Card, PGH Sàrl, we, or us) and our website at https://vbc.app, along with our related subdomains, APIs, web and mobile applications, and other services provided by us (collectively, the Services). This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, and share information from users of our Services (“Users”). By using our Services, you agree to the collection, use, disclosure, and procedures this Privacy Policy describes. Beyond the Privacy Policy, your use of our Services is also subject to our Terms of Service.

1. Definition and nature of personal data we collect

The term "personal data" refers to any and all information which enables an individual to be identified, more specifically your surname, first name(s), postal and email addresses, telephone number(s), data concerning transactions on the Platform, bank card numbers, as well as any other information about you which you may choose to provide us with.

Whenever you use the Platform, that can be accessed from the https://vbc.app website and/or on the "The VBC" PWA, mobile application, for the purposes of using the provided networking services that enable you to increase your professional network, share your contact information we may request the following personal data about you:

Name
Email address

We also collect the following personal data when you register directly on our Platform to field your VBC, or when you want participate to an event you have to provide your info to be added on the bill, all your information will only be use in our services within the context of the event for which you want participate and sends us your contact details in order that we may contact you:

Name
Email address
Phone number
Profile picture
Company, job title, and bio
Other information you provide about your interests, what you’re seeking, and what services you offer.

Other Information We Collect When You Use the Platform.

Location Information. When you use our Platform, infer your general location information, for example by using your internet protocol (IP) address.
Device Information. We receive information about the device and software you use to access the Platform, including IP address, web browser type, operating system version, phone carrier and manufacturer, application installations, device identifiers, mobile advertising identifiers, and push notification tokens.
Usage Information. To help us understand how you use the Platform and to help us improve it, we automatically receive information about your interactions with the Platform, like the content you view, the searches you conduct, and the dates and times of your visits.
Information from Cookies and Similar Technologies. We and third party partners collect information using cookies, pixel tags, or similar technologies. Please see the Cookies section for more information.

2. Purpose of this Privacy Policy / Charter

The purpose of this privacy policy/charter (hereinafter referred to as the "Charter ") is to inform you of the means by which we collect and process your personal data, with the strictest respect for your rights.

3. Identity of the entity responsible for collecting and processing data

Responsibility for the collection and processing of your personal data lies with the company The VBC & PGH Sàrl, registered with the Registre du Commerce à Delémond whose head office is located Au Village 28b, 2887 Soubey, canton du Jura, Switzerland, (referred to within the framework of this Charter as "Us" or "We").

4. Collecting and processing personal data

Your personal data is collected and processed for one or more of the following purposes:

(i) To manage your access to and use of the services available on the Platform.

(ii) To carry out customer management operations relating to contracts, orders, deliveries, invoices, loyalty schemes, follow-up with customers, third-party service providers analytics, etc…

(iii) To compile a list of registered members, users, customers and prospective customers.

(iv) To issue newsletters, invitations and promotional advertisements. Should you not wish to receive these, we offer you the option to opt-out when your data is being collected.

(v) To send you suggestions for networking connections with other users of the Platform. Should you not wish to receive these, we offer you the option to opt-out when your data is being collected.

(vi) To compile commercial and web traffic statistics for our services.

(vii) To manage reviews on products, services or content.

(viii) To manage unpaid invoices and potential disputes regarding the use of our products and services.

(ix) To find and prevent fraud, and respond to trust and safety issues that may arise;

(x) For compliance purposes, including enforcing our Terms of Service or other legal rights, or as may be required by applicable laws and regulations or requested by any judicial process or governmental agency; and

(xi) For other purposes for which we provide specific notice at the time the information is collected.

We shall inform you, when requesting your personal data, if certain information must be provided or if it is optional. We shall also inform you of the consequences should you not wish to provide this information.

We also inform you that we are likely to collect your data indirectly, either from organizers of events which you are attending, and thus enabling you to use our services, or from other users of our services.

In this respect, you are hereby informed that we may reuse your personal data that is stored in the VBC Directory of another user of our services who has expressly authorized us to access their contacts to put you in contact with each other.

5. Recipients of the collected and processed data

Our company's staff, any authorities in charge of audits (external auditors in particular) and our subcontractors will have access to your personal data.

For the purposes of the networking service, we will also provide your personal data to the organizers of professional events for which you are registered and for which you have used the services of the Platform. The event organizer may use this data for the same purposes and under the same conditions as those referred to in this Charter. The event organizer remains solely responsible for their respect of their own legal and declarative obligations with regard to their processing of your personal data, which they carry out themselves, with their own means and for their own requirements. We are only responsible for our use of your personal data, excluding any other use by the event organizer.

Government agencies or representatives of the law, ministerial officers or organisations responsible for the collection of debts may also be recipients of your personal data, for the sole purposes of meeting our legal obligations.

As Required By Law and Similar Disclosures. We may access, preserve, and disclose your information if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to: (a) comply with law enforcement requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; (b) respond to your requests; or (c) protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety.

Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers. We may transfer your information to service providers, advisors, potential transactional partners, or other third parties in connection with the consideration, negotiation, or completion of a corporate transaction in which we are acquired by or merged with another company or we sell, liquidate, or transfer all or a portion of our assets.

6. Assignment of personal data

Your personal data will not be assigned to, rented to or exchanged with any third party, with the exception of the organizers of events for which you are registered and to whom we provide data concerning you, in relation with their events.

We may generate, and share with organizers of events for which you are registered, usage statistics collected by individuals during an event, in order to calculate the rate of use of our services and have a clear understanding of interactions within their community. This data includes both anonymous generic usage data (e.g. number of users, average number of user contacts, percentage of user additions, number of active users) and personal data related to events organized by the organizer and for which you are registered.

7. Data retention period

(i) Regarding data relating to customer and prospect management:

Your personal data shall not be retained any longer than is strictly necessary for the management of our business with you. However, data proving the existence of a right or a contract must be kept in order to adhere to legal obligations and shall be held for the term stipulated by the applicable law.

Regarding potential prospecting operations for customers, their data may be held for a period of three (3) years after the termination of the business relationship in question.

Personal data relating to a prospective customer, who is not already a customer, may be held for a period of three (3) years from the moment it is collected or from the last contact with the prospective customer.

At the end of this period of three (3) years, we may contact you again in order to find out if you wish to continue to receive commercial solicitation.

(ii) Regarding bank card data:

Financial transactions relating to payments for purchases and fees on the Platform are entrusted to a payment service provider who ensures the smooth processing and security of these transactions.

For the purposes of the services, this payment service provider may require us to send them your personal data relating to your bank card numbers, which it collects and stores in our name and on our behalf.

We do not have access to this data.

In order to enable you to make regular purchases or pay any related fees on the Platform, data relating to your bank cards is retained for the duration of your registration on the Platform and at the very least, up to the time you carry out your last transaction.

By checking the box on the Platform expressly reserved for this purpose, you give us your express consent to retain this data.

Your banking card's security code or CVV2 code is not stored.

If you do not want your personal data relating to your bank card numbers to be retained under the conditions specified above, we shall not keep this data beyond the time necessary for the completion of the transaction.

In any event, data relating to the card may be retained for the purposes of providing proof in the event of a transaction subsequently being contested, in intermediary archives, for the period stipulated. This period may be extended to fifteen (15) months in order to account for the possibility of deferred debit cards being used for payment.

(iii) Regarding the management of opt-out lists compiled during prospecting activities:

Information enabling recognition of your right to opt-out is retained for a minimum of three (3) years following the exercising of your opt-out right.

(iv) Regarding web audience tracking statistics:

Information stored in users' terminals, or any other means used to identify users and enabling them to be tracked or to measure the frequency of their visits, shall be retained for no longer than thirteen (13) months.

8. Security

For your information, we take all necessary precautions and appropriate organisational and technical measures to maintain the security, integrity and confidentiality of your personal data, and especially to prevent it from being altered or damaged and to prevent any third party from accessing it.

In this respect, we hereby inform you that we respect the security measures put in place by our data hosting provider, Infomaniak, whose security measures can be accessed on they’re web page.

9. Hosting

We also hereby inform you that your data is stored solely on the servers of Infomaniak, located in Switzerland.

Your data will not be transferred outside the Switzerland as part of our conditions of use of the services we offer.

10. Legal basis of the processing

The legal basis of our processing of your personal data is the following:

(i) The performance of the contract to which you are party for purposes of using our services on our Platform.

(ii) Our legitimate interest in developing and promoting our business;

(iii) Compliance with the legal obligations to which we may be subject

11. Access to your personal data

You have the right to obtain and, where appropriate, correct or delete any data concerning you, via online access to your account. You can also direct correspondence to the contact information provided in article 17.

You may request the limitation of the processing of data concerning her in certain cases defined in art.18 of the GDPR.

Finally, persons whose data are collected on the basis of our legitimate interest, as mentioned in the article "Legal basis of the processing", are reminded that they may at any time oppose the processing of data concerning them. We may, however, be led to proceed with the processing if there are legitimate reasons for the processing that prevail over your rights and freedoms or if the processing is necessary to ascertain, exercise or defend our rights in court.

12. Portability of your personal data

You may have data portability rights regarding the personal data that you provide us, understood as data that you have actively and consciously declared in order to access and use our services, as well as data generated from your activity using the services. We remind you that these rights do not relate to data collected and processed on any other legal basis than the consent or implementation of the contract binding us.

These rights can be exercised free of charge, at any time, and in particular when closing your account on the Platform, in order to recover and keep your personal data.

In this context, we will send you your personal data, through any pertinent channels, in a commonly-used and machine-readable standard open format, in accordance with industry standards.

13. Big data application

Our social networking products and other services may experience business exploration on big data application along with trends of information society. Upon it is confirmed that our contemplated disposal of data resources is in compliance with applicable laws and regulations after compliance review, we may process data mining, processing and matching. We understand user’s concern of protection of personal information and privacy and fully note that the potential legal risk if it is held by authority that there is legal compliance issue and commit that all attempts in this regard will be made upon confirmation that our contemplated disposal of data resources is in compliance with applicable laws and regulations after compliance review.

14. Lodging a complaint with a supervisory authority

The Services are being provided to you by The VBC &/or PGH Sàrl and your use of the Services constitutes an agreement by The VBC & PGH Sàrl and by you to be bound by these Privacy Policy. The VBC is one product of PGH Sàrl registered in Delémont, headquartered at Au Village 28b in Soubey (2887), and you may contact The VBC &/or PGH Sàrl by sending correspondence to that address or by emailing by using the form in the footer at the left corner. These Privacy Policy are governed by the laws of Switzerland without regard to conflict of law principles, and the only court competent to deal with any dispute between you and The VBC &/or PGH Sàrl that may arise about their validity, interpretation or performance, unless there is a contrary and mandatory procedural requirement, will be the Tribunal cantonal du Jura at Porrentruy in Switzerland ( in french language ).

15. Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly collect, maintain, or use personal information from children under 13 years of age, and no part of our Service is directed to children. If you learn that a child has provided us with personal information in violation of this Privacy Policy, then you may alert us by using the contact form in the footer at the bottom left corner of this page.

16. Your Choices

Marketing Communications. You can unsubscribe from our promotional emails via the link provided in the emails. Even if you opt-out of receiving promotional messages from us, you will continue to receive administrative messages from us.

Do Not Track. There is no accepted standard on how to respond to Do Not Track signals, and we do not respond to such signals.

17. Amendments

We reserve the right to amend this Charter at any moment, at our sole discretion, either in its entirety or in part. Such amendments shall come into effect once the new Charter is published. Your use of the Platform following the entry into effect of these amendments, shall constitute acknowledgement and acceptance of the new Charter. Failing that, and if you are not in agreement with the new Charter, you should refrain from accessing the Platform. If we materially change the ways in which we use or share personal information previously collected from you, we will notify you through the Platform, by email, or other communication.

18. Privacy protection in bankruptcy/sale/merger

In case of sale of company assets, merger with another business entity or bankruptcy filing, etc., the information we collect in providing services may be assigned as part of our assets, and any other entity assigned with this part of assets may continue to use the information according to law and the Privacy Policy.

If your trust in us changes upon the abovementioned assignment, you can cancel your account according to the existing rules.

19. Contact Information

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about our processing activities, or wish to exercise any of your rights, please use the contact form at the left bottom of this page or write to us at PGH Sàrl - Au Village 28b, 2887 Soubey - Switzerland.