CIOMS Privacy Statement

CIOMS – Privacy Statement

The Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (hereinafter “CIOMS”) is aware that the security of your private information from the use of our website is an important concern. We take the protection of your personal data very seriously. Personal data means any information which may lead to your identification (hereinafter “Personal Data”). This Privacy Statement explains which data we collect and how we use and protect the data collected. This Privacy Statement applies to any Personal Data that we process.

1.   Terms

‘Personal Data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

‘Controller’ means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.

‘Processing’ means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction.

2. Contact Details

Please contact the CIOMS with any problems, questions or suggestions that you may have. The constant development of the internet requires occasional adjustments to our privacy statement. We retain the right to make changes when necessary. General Contact Information and Controller of your Personal Data is: CIOMS, Route des Morillons 1, CH 1218 Grand Saconnex (Geneva), Switzerland  E-Mail: info@cioms.ch  

3. Collection Data

You can use our website without actively disclosing Personal Data. You are not required to actively provide Personal Data as a condition of using our site, except as may be necessary to provide you with information or enable you download full copies of our publications (reports)ents at your request.

This data, which is collected automatically or passively from or about you could possibly lead to your identification, but it is not used for other purposes (such as user tracking for targeted marketing) than website security. You may furthermore actively provide Personal Data through various forms to inquire or receive information. In each case such Personal Data will be used to fulfil your request (e.g. placing an enquiry).  

Even though we may be able combine this data actively provided by you with the data collected automatically or passively from you, we do not do so. With regard to the Personal Data provided by you e.g. for information you have requested, or for other purposes you have authorized, we rely on technical and organizational means to assure that applicable data security regulations are followed.

When accessing the website, the user’s internet browser automatically transmits certain data for technical reasons. This so-called log file information is stored separately from other data that the user may provide:

• Date and time and duration of access;
• Browser type/version;
• Operating system used;
• URL of the previously visited website;
• Amount of data transferred;
• IP address (Internet Protocol address);
• Name of the files retrieved;
• http status code (e.g. “request successful”);
• URL of the accessed website;

The aforementioned log file information is stored exclusively for technical reasons and is not assigned to a specific person at any time. Data whose storage is required for evidentiary purposes is exempt from deletion until the respective incident has been finally clarified.

4. Processing of Personal Data / Transfer of Personal Data

The database containing your Personal Data remains at our organisation or stays with data processors or servers acting on our behalf and responsible to us. In this connection, we may share your data with service providers, including such acting as data processors or sub-processors, or for example with our Member and Observer representatives/ experts/ working groups of CIOMS, or any other delegates/ units of CIOMS or with which CIOMS is associated with. Your Personal Data will not be passed on by us or by our agents for use by third parties in any form whatsoever, unless we have obtained your consent or are legally obliged to do so.

We will retain control of and responsibility for the use of any Personal Data processed by us. In exceptional cases some of this data may be stored or processed at computers located in other jurisdictions worldwide, such as the United States, whose data protection laws may differ from Switzerland. In such cases, we will ensure that appropriate protections are in place to require the data processor in that country to maintain protections on your Personal Data that are equivalent to those that apply in Switzerland (for this purpose, we use the revised standard contractual clauses of the European Commission (SCC), which are available here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj together with the Switzerland-specific amendments), insofar as it is not already subject to a legally recognized set of rules to ensure data protection and we cannot rely on an exemption. In case you have questions relating to your Personal Data and potential transfers of your Personal Data and the potential protections taken connected to such transfers please do not hesitate to send an e-mail to the Controller of your data or contact him/her at the address as set forth above under the section 2. ‘Contact Details’.

5. Purposes of Use

The Personal Data that you actively provide us with will only be used for the purpose for which you provide such data e.g., for supplying you with the requested information or for other purposes for which you have given your consent, except where otherwise provided by law.

In the case of comments, you provide CIOMS by email on various CIOMS Working Group documents e.g., draft documents posted for public consultation, your comments, including your Personal Data (your name, your organisation’s name, your email address etc.) will be provided to the participants which have been appointed within CIOMS to work on the document which you have provided comments on.

You can also register via our website to receive CIOMS email notifications when new items are published on the CIOMS website and will need to provide your email address for this. Registration is voluntary; if you register, we process your email address in order to send out the email notification. You can unsubscribe from notification service any time by using the unsubscribe button in each notification email.

6.   Cookies

Cookies and similar technologies are very small text documents or pieces of code that often contain a unique identification code. When you visit a website or use a mobile application, a computer asks your computer or mobile device for permission to store this file on your computer or mobile device and access information. Information collected through cookies and similar technologies may include the date and time of your visit and how you use a particular website or mobile application.

We only use necessary cookies which ensure that our website functions smoothly during your visit. 

In the settings of the browser you are using, you can change the settings to block cookies. In most browsers, you will find an explanation of how to do this in the so-called “help function”. However, if you block cookies, you may not be able to use all the technical functions of our website and this may have a negative impact on your user experience.

7.  Security

CIOMS uses technical and organizational security precautions to protect your Personal Data from manipulation, loss, destruction or access by unauthorized persons.

8.  Right of Access to, Rectification, Erasure or Restriction of Processing, Right to Object to Processing, Right to Data Portability

You have the right to request from the Controller (1) access to and (2) rectification or (3) erasure of your Personal Data or (4) restriction of processing of your Personal Data as well as you can (5) object to the processing of your Personal Data. Just send an e-mail to the Controller of your Personal Data or contact him/her at the address as set forth above under the section 2. ‘Contact Details’.

9.  Right to Withdraw Consent at Any Time

You have the right at any time to withdraw your consent to the processing of your Personal Data for the future. For clarifications sake such withdrawal will, however, not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. Again, just send an e-mail to the Controller of your Personal Data or contact him/her at the address as set forth above under the section 2. ‘Contact Details’.

10.   Data Retention

We only retain Personal Data for as long as is necessary for us to reply to your enquiry or to fulfil the purpose to which you have given your consent, except where otherwise provided by law. Personal Data related to CIOMS activities may be stored for archival purposes.

BY PROVIDING PERSONAL DATA TO US AND BY USING OUR WEBSITE, YOU CONSENT TO THE COLLECTION AND USE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT.