Privacy policy

Last updated: [Datum]

This English text is a summary provided for convenience. The German version of this privacy policy is the binding one.

It explains what personal data we collect on autoankaufsg.ch, why we use it and what rights you have. The Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) applies; for visitors from the EU and the EEA we also take the GDPR into account.

1. Who is responsible

Autoankauf Schweiz AG, Pfäffikerstrasse 29, 8310 Kemptthal, Switzerland, which operates this website under the brand Autoankauf St. Gallen. Our local office is at Erikastrasse 2, 9000 St. Gallen. You can reach us on 079 368 95 26 (from abroad +41 79 368 95 26) or at kontakt@autoankaufsg.ch.

2. What data we process

Offer form. When you offer us your vehicle we record your name, phone number, e-mail address and town, together with the vehicle details such as make, model, body type, date of first registration, fuel, mileage, gearbox and your asking price, plus anything you write in the comments field. Please limit that field to what helps us assess the vehicle.

Photos. Pictures you upload are stored with your enquiry. We need photos of the vehicle only; please do not upload pictures of people or of documents belonging to others.

Time stamp and abuse protection. We store the time your enquiry arrived and a salted hash of your IP address. The IP address itself is not kept. The hash serves one purpose: recognising and blocking automated bulk submissions.

Phone, e-mail and WhatsApp. If you call or write, we process what you tell us in order to reply. WhatsApp is run by a third party that processes your data under its own privacy terms, including outside Switzerland; phone or e-mail are the alternatives if you prefer to avoid that.

Anonymous visit statistics. To see which pages are read, we compute a hash from technical characteristics of your connection and browser, combined with a secret salt and the current date. It changes every day and cannot be traced back to you. We store only the page viewed, the time, the language, the device type and the referring domain. There are no third-party analytics and no advertising trackers.

Cookies. The public pages set no cookies. Only the protected administration area, which is used by us alone, sets a session cookie for logging in; visitors are not affected.

Delivery of the pages. Technical connection data reaches our hosting provider so that the pages can be displayed in your browser (see section 5).

3. Purposes

Assessing your vehicle, sending you a non-binding offer and arranging an inspection or collection.
Completing a purchase if you accept: contract, handover, deregistration at the road traffic office and, where needed, settling a leasing or credit balance.
Answering questions you send us by phone, e-mail or WhatsApp.
Protecting the website against automated bulk submissions.
Understanding, anonymously, which content is used, so that we can improve the site.
Meeting legal obligations such as keeping business records.

We do not sell your data and do not pass it on to third parties for advertising.

4. Legal basis

Under Swiss law we process your data because you ask us for an offer and we want to answer that request and complete a possible purchase, and because we have a legitimate interest in running the website securely and evaluating its use anonymously. Where the GDPR applies to you, we rely on the initiation and performance of a contract, on our legitimate interests in abuse protection and anonymous statistics, on legal obligations and, where we expressly ask for it, on your consent, which you may withdraw at any time with effect for the future.

You are not obliged to give us any data, but without the details in the form or a conversation we cannot assess your vehicle or make an offer.

5. Recipients and transfers abroad

Within Autoankauf Schweiz AG, only the people handling your enquiry see your data. Beyond that, the following recipients may be involved:

Hosting. The website and the form data are stored with [Hosting-Anbieter], who processes them on our behalf and under our instructions. If that provider operates its infrastructure outside Switzerland, we make sure adequate data protection is in place, for instance through a country with a recognised level of protection or through contractual safeguards.
Completing a purchase. If a sale goes ahead, we share data only as far as the transaction requires: with the road traffic office for the deregistration and, if you give us a signed authority for it, with the leasing or credit company to obtain the settlement quote.
Authorities. Where the law requires it or where it is necessary to enforce our rights, we may disclose data to authorities or courts.
WhatsApp. Contact via WhatsApp involves that provider, as described in section 2.

6. Retention

Enquiries, including photos, time stamp and IP hash, are kept for [Aufbewahrungsdauer] and then deleted unless a purchase has taken place. If we buy your vehicle, we keep the contract and receipts for as long as statutory record-keeping rules require. The visit statistics contain nothing that identifies a person and are deleted automatically after roughly 14 months.

7. Security

We protect your data with technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk, against loss, alteration and unauthorised access. The administration area in which enquiries are viewed is protected by a login.

8. Your rights

You have the right to

find out whether and which data we hold about you;
have inaccurate data corrected;
have your data deleted, unless a retention duty prevents it;
have processing restricted, or object to it;
receive the data you gave us in a common electronic format;
withdraw any consent you have given.

To exercise these rights, write to kontakt@autoankaufsg.ch or by post to Autoankauf Schweiz AG, Pfäffikerstrasse 29, 8310 Kemptthal, Switzerland. We may ask you to prove your identity so that data does not reach the wrong person. You may also contact the competent supervisory authority: in Switzerland the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), in the EU or EEA the data protection authority of your country of residence.

9. Changes

We update this policy when the website or the legal requirements change. The version published here applies; its date is shown on this page.

10. Contact

Questions about data protection: kontakt@autoankaufsg.ch or 079 368 95 26.