Privacy and Cookie Policy for Helsana Websites

In this Privacy Policy we explain the principles governing how the Helsana Group (including Helsana Supplementary Insurances Ltd, Helsana Insurance Company Ltd, Helsana Accidents Ltd, hereinafter collectively referred to as Helsana, we or us) collects and processes personal data through this website and other websites operated by Helsana (hereinafter referred to as Website). Personal data refers to any information that personally identifies you or makes your identification possible.

Version 2.0 dated 1 February 2024

1. Scope

This Privacy and Cookie Policy explains the acquisition and further processing of personal data collected via Helsana’s Website. This Privacy and Cookie Policy does not conclusively govern all aspects of data processing performed by Helsana. Data processing may be covered by other privacy and cookie policies or data protection statements and processing regulations, or may arise through specific circumstances or be governed by law.

2. Responsibility | Data Protection Advisor

Helsana Insurance Company Ltd is responsible for all data processing performed within the scope of this Privacy and Cookie Policy. Helsana’s Data Protection Advisor can be contacted at:

Helsana Insurance Company Ltd
Data Protection Advisor
PO Box
8081 Zurich
privacy@helsana.ch

Where Helsana falls within the scope of the GDPR, Active-Assets A2 GmbH is both its Data Protection Officer for the purposes of Article 37 GDPR and its representative for the purposes of Article 27 GDPR. Its contact details are as follows:

Active-Assets A2 GmbH
Gottlieb-Daimler-Str. 5
78467 Constance
Germany
privacy@helsana.ch

3. Collection and processing of personal data when using the Website

3.1 Type of data collected

When you visit our Website, your web browser automatically sends us certain data regarding your usage and stores this in log files. This concerns the following data in particular: Date and time when the Website was accessed, name of the Website accessed, IP address of your computer or mobile device, address of the referring website, transferred data volume as well as the name and version of the web browser used.

These data form the basis for statistical, anonymous evaluations, help to optimise and continuously further develop the Websites, and can also be evaluated for marketing purposes if you have given your consent for this. You can change your settings in the cookie preference centre  at any time.

As described below, certain uses of the Website also require Helsana to collect personal data. When using the Website, you either provide this manually (see Section 4 below), or it is provided based on your web browser’s technical settings and is either automatically collected or made available by third parties in accordance with those settings (see Section 5). If you do not wish to provide us with this personal data, you may not be able to take advantage of certain services on the Website (such as the premium calculator), or their functionality may be impaired. 

3.2 Personal data collected in connection with the use of the Website 

In connection with the use of the Website, Helsana collects the following categories of personal data: 

  • Data provided manually: This includes, but is not limited to, first name, surname, gender, date of birth, age, marital status, (e-mail) address, insurance number, telephone number, family members, preferred communication channel, personal data contained in uploaded files, etc.
  • Personal data collected automatically: This includes cookies, date, time and number of visits to the Website, pages and content accessed, referring websites, downloaded files, etc.

3.3 Use of personal data collected on the Website and legal basis

If you are already a customer of Helsana or wish to become one, we collect and process personal data during the conclusion and execution of contracts with our customers. We may link the personal data you provide via the Website to other existing personal data. Data is processed for purposes that are primarily geared toward the specific insurance contracts concluded, and may include requirements analyses and insurance consultations. For information regarding further purposes of data processing conducted as part of the contractual relationship, please refer to the general Privacy Policy of the Helsana Group.

Other than for the fulfilment of the contract or outside an existing contractual relationship, we use data collected via the Website to protect the legitimate interests of us or third parties. Examples:

  • To provide and develop the Website and improve and ensure the Website’s customer friendliness
  • To perform statistical analyses of Website use
  • To examine and optimise requirements analysis methods for the purpose of approaching customers directly
  • To advertise and market our products and services
  • To conduct market research, customer satisfaction and opinion surveys, as long as you have not objected to the use of your data
  • To enforce legal claims and as defence in legal disputes
  • To safeguard IT security and IT operations of the insurance company
  • To prevent and investigate criminal offences
  • To adopt measures for the further development of services and products, also in connection with corporate transactions where appropriate

We may also use the data to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

If, in individual cases, you have consented to the processing of your personal data for a specific purpose, we will base the processing on this consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time, whereby such withdrawal only applies to the future and does not affect the legality of data processing already carried out. Data processing carried out on the basis of your consent includes, in particular, delivery of the newsletter or submission of a contract offer based on the information you entered into the premium calculator.

4. Personal data provided manually by the user

4.1 Newsletter 

On our Website, you can subscribe to our newsletter by providing us with personal data (first name, surname and e-mail address). For verification purposes, we will send you a confirmation e-mail immediately after completion of the registration process. The personal data collected during your registration will be used for sending our newsletter. This personal data may be passed on to our marketing department. To the extent permitted by applicable data protection law, we may include codes in our newsletters that we can use to detect whether the recipient has opened the e-mail and downloaded the images contained therein. The recipient can block this in their e-mail program.

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter by clicking on the link at the end of each newsletter.

4.2 E-mail

Normal e-mails that you send to Helsana are not encrypted and may potentially be viewed by third parties. Since we are unable to safeguard the data security of unencrypted e-mail traffic sent to Helsana, Helsana excludes any warranty and liability for such traffic. For this reason, we recommend that you get in touch with us directly by using the available contact forms.

4.3 Contact forms

Confidential, personal data that you send to Helsana using the forms provided on the Websites are transmitted in encrypted form according to the current state of the art and cannot be viewed by third parties. The data you enter via the Website will be used in particular to process contracts, process your requests and, if necessary, for marketing purposes within the Helsana Group. Each form contains a notice informing you how the data will be used.

By entering your data in the premium calculator, you agree in particular to be contacted by the companies of the Helsana Group by telephone or another channel for the purpose of making you an offer.

4.4 Consent management

Helsana gives insured persons the opportunity to manage certain types of consent-based data processing themselves at any time. The consent portal can be accessed via the myHelsana self-service portal or by calling Client Services.

The consent portal enables customers to manage topics of interest to them on a targeted, individual basis, allowing us to take more customer-specific wishes into account. New consent options are continuously being created.

Since the portal has been embedded at the heart of the Helsana infrastructure, further touchpoints can also be integrated in order to generate added value for customers.

5. Personal user data collected automatically

5.1 Cookies 

5.1.1 What are cookies?

We use cookies on our Websites. Cookies are small text files that are sent by the websites you visit to the browser you use (Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.) and stored on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device. They enable websites to run or are intended to provide information to the owners of a website or third parties who receive data from this Website, such as information about the devices you use and your preferences. Cookies store certain settings about your browser as well as data concerning interactions with the Website through your browser. When a cookie is activated, it is assigned an identification number (cookie ID), which is used to identify your browser and use the information contained in the cookie. Generally speaking, this information does not identify you directly, however it can make it possible for you to have a tailored online experience.

Most of the cookies we use are temporary session cookies that are automatically deleted from your computer or mobile device at the end of your browser session. We also use permanent cookies. These remain stored on your computer or mobile device after your browser session has ended. Depending on the type of cookie, permanent cookies remain stored on your computer or mobile device for up to two years and are automatically deactivated after the scheduled period has expired.

5.1.2 Why do we use cookies?

The cookies we use help enable various features offered by our Websites. For example, cookies help save your language preferences across different pages visited during a single Internet session and thus facilitate your access to the Websites. Cookies also enable us to track and analyse the behaviour of visitors to our Websites. This helps us design our Websites in a more user-friendly, effective way and, to make your visit to our Websites as pleasant as possible and to improve the Website’s general visitor experience.

If you use the myHelsana client portal or other parts of our Website where users must log in to access content, the Website may use cookies or some other technology that helps us authenticate you more easily, store and recognise your configuration and user attributes, facilitate your navigation on the Website and provide you with more tailored content to make the available information more interesting for you.

However, cookies also enable us to personalise the content of our Website in general. We also use remarketing cookies to help us target advertisements on other websites to the interests of our Website’s visitors based on the pages you view on our Website. Cookies on our Websites additionally enable us to offer social media features that let you share content via Facebook, X (Twitter), etc.

5.1.3 How can you change your cookie settings?

In the cookie preference centre you can adjust your consent to the use of cookies on our Website at any time based on your needs.

You can choose at any time to set your browser such that no cookies are accepted or saved. Instead, you can choose to receive a warning message each time before accepting a cookie or set your browser to accept only cookies from certain websites. You can also delete any cookies that have already been saved at any time.

We would like to point out that the use of individual features offered by our Website may be restricted or prevented altogether if you reject cookies from the Website. To make navigation easier, we recommend that you accept cookies and do not delete them. If you block cookies, you may not be able to make full use of the interactive features on this Website.

5.1.4 Which cookies do we use?

 

5.2 Web analytics 

5.2.1 Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target

We use Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target or similar services on our Website. These are services provided by third parties, generally in Europe but also worldwide (in the case of Adobe products this is Adobe Systems Software Ireland Limited, 6 Riverwalk, Naas Road, Dublin 24, Ireland, www.adobe.com), which we can use to measure and evaluate the use of the Website. Permanent cookies, set by the service provider, are also used for this purpose. The service provider does not receive any personal data from us (and does not store any IP addresses), but may track your use of the Website, combine this information with data from other websites you have visited and which are also tracked by service providers and use these findings for its own purposes (e.g. to control advertising). If you are registered with the service provider, the service provider also recognises you. The service provider’s processing of your personal data is then the responsibility of the service provider and is carried out in accordance with its data protection provisions. The service provider merely informs us how our respective Website is used (without any information about you personally). You can find more information about Adobe’s web analytics services at https://www.adobe.com/uk/privacy/policy.html.

5.2.3 Adobe Campaign

Helsana uses Adobe Campaign for personalised e-mail marketing (e.g. personalised forms of address in product mailings and when sending out newsletters). The data is stored in the Adobe Experience Cloud in Ireland on behalf of Helsana.

5.2.4 Adobe Tags

Helsana uses the tag manager Adobe Tags. This service allows us to manage Website tags such as analytics tags and advertising networks such as Google and social media. The tag manager only implements tags and does not collect any personal data. The tag manager triggers other tags that may collect personal data, based on your consent and privacy settings in the cookie preference centre and consent portal. Cookies and tracking that are disabled at domain or cookie level remain disabled if they are implemented with the tag manager.

5.2.5 Google remarketing and AdWords

Google remarketing and AdWords are used to analyse your browsing habits and show you targeted, personalised advertising while you are browsing the web or using the Google search engine. In this way, personalised advertising messages tailored to you on the basis on your previous usage and browsing habits on one device (e.g. smartphone) can also be displayed on your other devices (e.g. tablet or PC).

You can permanently object to cross-device remarketing/targeting by disabling personalised advertising in your Google account. The data is collected on the basis of the consent granted via your Google account. If data collection cannot be reconciled with your Google account settings, data is collected on the basis of Helsana’s legitimate interests in the anonymised analysis of Website visitors for advertising purposes.

5.2.6 Google Marketing Platform (formerly Double Click)

Helsana uses Google Marketing Platform (formerly DoubleClick), a web analytics service provided by Google, on its Websites. The platform optimises the interaction with Google Adwords by setting cookies when you view an advert or click on one of our advertising banners on a partner website. The aim is to show you banners that are more interesting to you. The cookie enables us to record certain data on the interaction between your browser and a particular display. It also records whether you looked at an advert, clicked on it and ultimately concluded a contract with Helsana via this channel. The information stored locally (user or client side) in the cookie about the use of our Websites is transferred to Google servers and saved there.

5.3 Friendly Captcha

We use the Friendly Captcha service on our Website. This service is provided by Friendly Captcha GmbH, Am Anger 3-5, 82237 Wörthsee, Germany. Friendly Captcha is an innovative, privacy-first protection solution that defends our Website against automated programs and scripts (bots). Data is used solely to protect the Website from spam and bots. Friendly Captcha does not store or read any cookies on the visitor’s device. IP addresses are only stored in hashed form (a one-way encryption method), meaning that neither we nor Friendly Captcha are able make any inferences about individuals’ identities. The basis for processing is our predominantly private and legitimate interest in protecting our Website against abuse by bots and hence against spam and attacks (e.g. flooding attacks). You can find further information about data protection in connection with the use of Friendly Captcha at https://friendlycaptcha.com/legal/privacy-end-users/.

5.4 Social plug-ins

Our Websites use social media plug-ins, e.g. for Facebook, X (Twitter) or Google+ (providers). These plug-ins are labelled with the provider’s logo and can, for example, be a Like button, a Google+ button or a X (Twitter) button.

When you visit one of our Websites which contains such a plug-in, your browser establishes a direct connection with the provider’s computers. The provider’s website sends the content of the plug-in directly to your browser, which incorporates it into the Website. Through the incorporation of the plug-in, the provider is informed that you visited our Website. If you are logged in to your account on the provider’s website at the same time, the provider can match the visit to your profile. If you interact with the plug-ins – for example by pressing the Like button or posting a comment – the corresponding information is sent by your browser directly to the provider and stored on their servers.

If you do not want the provider to collect data on you via our Website, you have to log out of your account on the provider’s website before visiting our Website. Even if you have logged out of your account, providers still collect data in anonymised form via the social plug-ins and set a cookie on your device. If you log in to your account on the provider’s website at a later date, this data can be linked to your profile.

If a login is offered via a social login service, e.g. Facebook Connect, data will be exchanged between the provider and our Website. In the case of Facebook Connect, this could be, for example, data from your public Facebook profile. By using such login services, you are agreeing to the transfer of your data.

Please see the provider’s privacy policy for the purpose and scope of the data collected and the further processing of your data by the provider, as well as your associated rights and configuration options to protect your privacy:

For Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/policy

For Google: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

For X (formerly Twitter Inc.): http://twitter.com/privacy

For Instagram: https://privacycenter.instagram.com/

5.5 Microsoft Advertising

Helsana uses the Microsoft Advertising service on this Website. When the service is used, Microsoft stores a cookie on your device if you access the Helsana Website via a Microsoft advert. By using Microsoft Advertising, Helsana can find out which campaigns have achieved which objectives. Only pseudonymous user profiles are created.

You can reject the setting of cookies and the processing of the data obtained by Microsoft. This can be done via the browser setting that generally disables the automatic setting of cookies. Further information about data protection and the cookies used by Microsoft.

5.6 Adjust

Helsana uses the Adjust analytics tool, a product from the company Adjust GmbH (Adjust GmbH, Saarbrücker Str. 37a, 10405 Berlin, Germany). When users install a Helsana+ app (myHelsana, Helsana+, Helsana Coach), Adjust saves technical records relating to app installations and initial access to the Helsana+ app (e.g. use of the app or interactions in the user account, e.g. clicking on the individual menu items). The tool makes it possible to direct advertising in Google Adwords, DoubleClick, Facebook and X (Twitter) more specifically to user preferences.

Adjust bases its analyses on app users’ IP and MAC addresses, which are used by Helsana on an anonymised basis only. Users can revoke tracking by Adjust, and thus prevent targeted advertising, at any time by going to https://www.adjust.com/forget-device/. You can find further information on the Adjust data privacy policy at https://www.adjust.com/privacy-policy/

6. Logging with regard to e-mail communications/newsletters

6.1 Logging

When you read our e-mails, we record the time at which they are opened. We also record when you click on links or articles in the e-mail, which ones and whether you unsubscribe from further e-mail communications/newsletters.

6.2 Intended use of the data collected through logging

We use the data logged to present you with optimised content and offers in the future. Your data is used solely for the provision of services from the Helsana Group. When processing personal data, we comply with regulatory requirements, in particular the Swiss Data Protection Act (DSG).

The data logged will not be passed on to third parties.

6.3 Unsubscribing

You can unsubscribe from our e-mail communications/newsletters at any time. To do so, please refer to the instructions in the footer of every e-mail.

7. Data security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data collected via Websites against unauthorised processing, loss and destruction. We are also concerned about the confidentiality, availability and integrity of your personal data.

8. Data retention

We will retain your personal data for as long as necessary to provide the services available on the Website or for other processing purposes, such as fulfilling legal obligations, resolving disputes and enforcing our policies. If we have a legal obligation to retain your personal data, we will delete it after expiry of the respective retention period.

9. Disclosure of data and transfer of personal data abroad

Regardless of how we collect your personal data in connection with the Website, all Helsana Group companies have access to this personal data. This means that your personal data can also be processed for various purposes and linked together with personal data that is collected by another company of the Helsana Group.

Furthermore and to the extent permitted by applicable (data protection) law, Helsana may also disclose personal data to contracted service providers (both inside and outside Switzerland). In connection with data collected on the Website, these specifically consist of IT service providers working in the area of data storage and data analysis.

Personal data obtained in connection with the use of the Website may also be disclosed to third parties (inside or outside Switzerland) if we are obliged to do so by law, by court order or by official order or if this is necessary to support internal or external investigations, other legal investigations or proceedings in Switzerland or abroad or any corporate transactions.

We mainly process and store data in Switzerland and the European Economic Area (EEA), but in exceptional cases may potentially do so in any country in the world, for example through subcontractors of our service providers. If data is transferred to a country without adequate data protection, Helsana guarantees adequate protection through the use of sufficient contractual guarantees, specifically on the basis of EU Standard Contractual Clauses, binding corporate rules or based on exceptions with respect to consent, contract execution, the determination, exercise or enforcement of legal claims, overriding public interest, the data published by you or because it is necessary to protect your individual integrity. You may request a copy of the contractual guarantees by sending a written request along with a copy of an official form of identification to the contact address specified above (see Section 2) or find out from this contact where you can obtain such a copy. Helsana reserves the right to black out such copies for reasons of data protection or secrecy or to deliver only excerpts.

10. Profiling and automated individual decision-making

Profiling refers to the automated processing of personal data in order to analyse personal characteristics or produce forecasts. For example, profiling can be used to carry out analyses of personal interests, preferences, affinities or habits.

We do not generally carry out any profiling for the purposes of operating the Websites, except where you consent via the cookie banner to the use of web analytics tools (e.g. Adobe Analytics or Adobe Target). Unless you access the Website via a personalised link or invitation e-mail, your user activity itself is not personalised.

Your user activity on the Websites is evaluated in order to provide you with an individualised user experience along with offers and services that are tailored to your interests and preferences. If you do not accept the web analytics cookies, no profiling is carried out as your user activity is not recorded.

We do not use automated individual decision-making as defined in the applicable legal provisions for the purposes of operating the Website. Should we use these methods in individual cases, we will inform you separately if this is required by law.

11. Obligation to provide data

Access to the Website and the related collection of connection data (such as IP addresses) must be logged; this happens automatically during use and cannot be disabled for individual users. With the exception of the data required for technical reasons (see Section 3.1 above), you are not obliged to provide us with any personal data in connection with your use of the Website. However, certain services cannot be used without the provision of personal data, or their functionality will be impaired.

12. Users’ rights

Within the scope of the data protection law applicable to you, you have the right to access your data, to have it rectified or erased, the right to restrict data processing and otherwise to object to our data processing and to the disclosure of certain personal data for the purpose of transferring such personal data to another location (data portability). If the processing of personal data is based on your consent, you may withdraw this consent at any time. Exercising these rights usually requires that you can clearly prove your identity. Please note, however, that we reserve the right to enforce the statutory restrictions, for example if we are obliged to retain or process certain data, have an overriding interest in it (insofar as we may invoke it) or need it for enforcing claims.

If Helsana makes an automated decision concerning an individual person that has a legal impact on the data subject or significantly affects them in a similar way, the data subject may speak to a competent person at Helsana and request a reconsideration of the decision, or demand that the matter be assessed by a competent person from the outset, to the extent provided for by law. In this case, the data subject might no longer be able to use certain automated services. The person will be informed of such decisions subsequently or separately in advance.

Every data subject has the right to file a complaint with the competent data protection authority. In Switzerland, this is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (http://www.edoeb.admin.ch).

You can also prevent or restrict the installation of cookies by changing your browser settings accordingly. However, we would like to point out that, in this case, you may not be able to use all the features of this Website to their full extent.

You can also take the following technical steps to prevent the automated data processing carried out on this Website:

  • Google Analytics: Install the browser add-on by clicking on the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
  • If you do not want the provider of social plug-ins to collect data on you via our Website, you have to log out of your account on the provider’s website before visiting our Website. Even if you have logged out of your account, providers still collect data in anonymised form via the social plug-ins and set a cookie on your device. If you log in to your account on the provider’s website at a later date, this data can be linked to your profile.

13. Changes to the Privacy Policy

Helsana may modify this Privacy Policy at any time without advance notice and without notification. The version currently published on the Website shall apply.

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