Privacy Notice

Introduction

Thank you for visiting the website of The International School of Zug and Luzern, Switzerland. (Hereinafter “ISZL”, “we”, “our”, and “School”)

In the course of the services we provide to you, ISZL will process those personal data relating to its prospective, current and past parents, students, employees, volunteers, contractors, and the extended ISZL community, as is needed for it to fulfill its functioning as an educational establishment. With regard to such processing, ISZL will qualify as the data controller which means we determine how an individual’s Personal Data is processed and for what purposes.

Personal data shall mean any information that relates to an identified or identifiable living natural person.

In this capacity, ISZL takes the protection of your personal data very seriously and strives to comply with Swiss data protection regulations (such as the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection of 1 September 2023), and EU data protection regulations (General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 or GDPR), each as amended or replaced from time to time.

We are committed to keeping Personal Data accurate, up-to-date, safe, secure and will not keep Personal Data longer than necessary. This privacy notice explains how we use Personal Data, who we share it with and the ways in which we protect and account for the protections to privacy. This notice applies to all Personal Data collected for and on behalf of the School. This pertains to information collected in paper form (forms, documents, in writing) and through technological means such as information systems and email.

From time to time, we will make you aware when we require additional Personal Data for processing through a separate specific privacy notice.

ISZL prospective, current and past parents, students, employees, volunteers, contractors and the extended ISZL community are all encouraged to read this Privacy Notice and understand ISZL’s obligations regarding data protection to its community.

ISZL reserves the right to amend this privacy notice. In such cases the ‘last updated’ date at the top of this page will be amended accordingly.

How we use personal data

The School collects Personal Data and sensitive categories of Personal Data of prospective, current and past parents, students, employees, volunteers, contractors and other persons to provide a safe and caring international environment for teaching, learning and general educational purposes. We use the information you provide for purposes that are necessary and required to undertake the performance of the contract into which you are entering or have entered into and do so as we are required to do by law.

We use the information you provide in the following ways:

To undertake and manage ISZL admissions and enrolment
To provide a safe learning environment
To comply with child protection requirements
To support and enable the academic, pastoral and personal objectives of children, including the monitoring and reporting of progress
To provide support and care for emotional and psychological wellbeing (pastoral and counselling)
To protect the health of the students and employees we serve
To provide a tailored learning environment and make evidence based education decisions for the children we serve
To enable students to take part in standardised or external assessments
To enable the children we serve to continue or progress their education at other educational organisations
To monitor (where appropriate) the responsible and safe use of IT and communication systems
To support and develop our employees in the performance of their duties
For financial planning to help in the future planning and resource investment purposes
To meet our statutory reporting requirements to the education and other authorities
To help investigate any concerns or complaints you may have
To ensure campus security including video surveillance and monitoring of campus entry and exit
To make you aware of services, information, news, events and activities that are undertaken at or in association with ISZL
To promote or market the School’s services
To maintain relationships with alumni and the extended ISZL community
To build and maintain the ISZL community, including through fundraising
To respond to requests from former employees, parents and students for information related to their time at ISZL

Basis on which ISZL processes personal data

We process Personal Data to carry out the education services as prescribed above. We do so under the lawful basis that the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract in which you are entering or have entered into. In some circumstances we may have to process data for other purposes that are not necessary for the performance of the contract. In such cases, the processing may be based upon (i) our legitimate interests, such as providing a safe learning environment, maintaining the ISZL community, fundraising, etc., (ii) on the protection of you or your children’s vital interests, (iii) on the compliance with our legal obligations and/or (iv) on the consent you or your children may have provided to us.

Categories of personal data processed by ISZL

Categories of Personal Data processed by ISZL includes:

Personal Data (such as name, unique number, address, telephone contacts and e-mail address as well as employment information including employer, position and work contacts)
Special categories of data (such as health and nationality) (see more detailed information below)
Other relevant categories for the performance of our services (such as assessment, relevant medical information, languages spoken, special educational needs information, exclusions / behavioural information and psychological reports and assessments)
Attendance information (such as lessons attended, number of absences and absence reasons)
Logging and audit in the use of IT systems and education technology apps, applications and cloud based systems
Photographs and videos (see more detailed information below)

Special categories of data

The education services we provide require us to collect and process special categories of data for the purposes of safeguarding, the protection of vulnerable children, and wellbeing of those within our care. We do not disclose or share special categories of data without explicit and unambiguous consent unless we have to do so where we are required to by law, or where we have good reason in protecting the vital interests of an individual, or where not doing so would place someone else at risk.

Special categories of data such as nationality or health may be used from time to time in forecasting and planning for education service provision. Where used in this way, the data will be anonymised.

Photographs and videos

Photographs and videos are a key media through which to record and share everyday life at ISZL to the parents, students, employees, alumni, the extended ISZL community, prospective families and the general public. ISZL uses such media for promotional purposes on, including but not limited to: the ISZL website, printed publications, electronic newsletters and ISZL social media. Photographs and video are also generated for educational purposes (records of lessons, field trips, sports, events, staff professional development) by faculty and students and play an important role in the delivery of our teaching and learning programme. Photographs and videos may also be used for the identification of students, parents or employees for health related purposes (e.g. allergies). As members of the ISZL community, parents, students, employees and alumni may be photographed or filmed and these photographs or film used for marketing, educational or safety related purposes.

Class photographs and event media intended for our parent communities are shared via secure, non-searchable links accessible exclusively to verified parents/guardians through password-protected school platforms e.g. Schoology. While we implement technical measures to restrict initial access and trust our community to respect student privacy, please note that further sharing of these links by recipients is beyond the School’s control. Parents are encouraged to exercise discretion when sharing media outside the intended audience.

Photographs or videos used for promotional purposes will not identify individuals by their full name. If individuals are identified by name then this will only be done with prior consent.

Publications intended for the ISZL community including the password protected portals and ISZL Schoology Environment and Yearbook, may identify parents, students, employees, alumni and members of the extended ISZL community either directly or indirectly depending on their context. These publications however, are usually only accessible to members of the ISZL community.

Participating in our community

We are keen to ensure all individuals associated with ISZL can participate in the community. To do so we will use the Personal Data you have provided to make you aware of services, information, news, events and activities that are undertaken at or in association with the School and do so under the lawful basis of legitimate interests. We may invite you to sign up for information or to be contacted on other activities such as campus development.

Communicating with you

Where we need to contact you we may keep a record of emails, letters and other types of correspondence. Where we need to communicate sensitive or confidential information to you we may use additional and proportionate security measures to do so.

CCTV+

We collect information in the form of CCTV to ensure the safety and security of students, employees and ISZL property. We retain CCTV images for up to 30 days after which they are deleted unless we need to retain the images for further investigation or law enforcement purposes. Access to these images can be requested through the Data Protection Office (contact details below).

Collecting student information and consent

Whilst the majority of student information you provide to us is required for the performance of a contract or by law, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with the appropriate laws and regulations, we will inform you when we require consent to process the information. Where consent is provided you or your child are free to withdraw consent at any time. You can contact our Data Protection Office (contact details below) if you or your child wish to withdraw consent.

Retention of personal data

We keep Personal Data for as long as reasonable with regard to the purposes described in How we use personal data above of this Notice or for any other purposes that may be communicated to you.

ISZL retains Personal Data after parents, students, staff, service providers / suppliers, volunteers and other persons have left ISZL in order to provide traceability. It is widely accepted that a School should hold data on the achievements and experiences of a child for their benefit in later life should they need to access that information. We do so as it would be accepted that a school would hold data on the achievements and experiences of the child for the purposes of their benefit in later life should they need access to that information.

Security

Whilst we store and use your Personal Data we will ensure the appropriate security of your Personal Data including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

Sharing and transfers of personal data

The information we collect is shared within ISZL for the purposes of delivering the services required. The information we collect may also be shared with other organisations or with third party processors in the undertaking of a service or contract in the delivery of the education services we provide.
Example of who we may share data with:

any company or provider where sharing the information is necessary to make payments or book benefits to you
schools, colleges or universities that the students attend after leaving us
Swiss education authorities
the student’s family and representatives
service providers to enable them to provide the service we have contracted them for (e.g., providers of IT services; academic service providers; providers of extra-curricular activities, internships and field trips; tertiary education institutions)
family nurses, doctors or social service organisations including child protection authorities, where sharing is in the vital interests, or where not sharing could have a negative impact on the individual
government organisations, police, courts, tribunals, health and social services including child protection authorities where we are required to do so by law, or where we have your consent to do so) our auditors.
Personal Data is transferred to organisations outside Switzerland and outside the European Union. This may for example occur for the purposes of student application for college or university. Various teaching and learning applications are also used that are based outside Switzerland. For such transfers of personal data outside of Switzerland and outside the European Union, ISZL has implemented suitable safeguards in the form of appropriate contractual clauses where required under applicable data protection legislation. Where this is not the case the data is anonymised before transmission. Information on these and the protections afforded by these data processors can be requested from the Data Protection Office (contact details below).

Automated data decisions

We usually do not use automated data decisions (these are decisions affecting data subjects that are completely automated, i.e. without human influence). Should this exceptionally be the case, we would inform you separately.

IT Systems

All the Personal Data we process is processed by ISZL. For the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance this information is located on servers within the school or within hosted servers provided by our service providers. No 3rd parties have access to your Personal Data unless the law allows them to do so. Where the law allows and information is shared with 3rd parties, we ensure they have the same protections in place as we do. We cannot deliver our education services without processing the data we collect and share.

In following the principles of Article 32 – Security of Processing of the GDPR, we have in place proportionate organisational and technical measures to protect Personal Data.

Analytics

We use website statistic packages such as Google Analytics to analyse trends in how our website is accessed and utilised. Information monitored includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, geographic location of visitors (country, city), browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, time spent on pages, and keywords used to find our site via search engines. This information is anonymous and cannot be directly linked to individual users. We may use it to identify high-use or low-use areas of the site, pinpoint problem areas of the site, analyse broad demographic trends in our visitors and make decisions about how to make it easier for people to find and navigate our website.

If you don’t want Analytics to be used in your browser, you can install the Google Analytics browser add-on. More information about the ways in which Google Analytics collects and processes personal data can be found here.

Links

This website may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website.

Cookies

The ISZL website may use ‘cookies’ to help you personalise your online experience. A cookie is a small text file stored by your browser that allows the website to “remember” your preferences (such as calendar settings and site bookmarks) on the site from visit to visit, or to maintain your “logged in” status when visiting protected areas. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. Web browsers have settings allowing you to reject cookies or selectively accept cookies, or delete cookies previously accepted.

More information about how we use cookies, the types of cookies we use and how to manage your cookie preferences on this site can be found in our Cookie Policy.

Your rights

Under data protection legislation, individuals have certain rights related to the processing of Personal Data. Students who have an appropriate level of maturity, may exercise these rights individually. These rights include:

Right to be informed – be informed of how we are processing your Personal Data – this Privacy Notice serves to explain this to you but do contact us if you have any questions (see Point of Contact details below)
Right of access – right to request access to information about you that we hold. Note that certain data is exempt from the right to access. This includes information that identifies other individuals or any confidential reference given by ISZL for the purpose of the education, training or employment of an individual.
Right to rectification – have your data corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete
Right to erasure – also known as ‘right to be forgotten’ allows you to be able to request the erasure of Personal Data in some circumstances such as where it is no longer needed by us for the purpose for which it was collected or you have withdrawn your consent. The right to erasure is not an absolute right
Right to restrict processing – the right to request the restriction or suppression of your Personal Data in certain circumstances for example, where you have told us the data is inaccurate and we are in the process of checking this. In such circumstances we will continue to store your data but will not process it further until we have checked and confirmed whether the data is inaccurate. Not, like the right to erasure, the right to restrict processing is not an absolute right
Right to data portability – allows you to receive Personal Data that you have provided us in a structured, commonly used machine readable format. It also allows you the right to request us to transmit this data to another controller
Right to object – allows you, in certain circumstances, to object to the processing of your Personal Data. For example, you may object to processing of your data for direct marketing or to object to automated individual decision-making (making a decision solely by automated means without any human involvement) or profiling (automated processing of Personal Data to evaluate certain things about an individual). Another example would be to object to processing of Personal Data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
Right to withdraw consent – in those instances in which the processing of your Personal Data is based on consent, you have the right (subject to age provisions) to withdraw that consent. Please note that the processing will end from the moment the withdrawal takes place without any effect on the processing that took place prior such withdrawal
Right to complain – while the first point of contact related to the processing of your Personal Data or in exercising any of the rights identified above should be us (see Point of Contact below), you also have the right to directly contact the Supervisory Authority in Switzerland which is:
Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC)
Feldeggweg 1
CH- 3003 Berne
Switzerland

There may be instances where you may not want us to process or share your Personal Data. In these cases, we may not be able to fulfil the service you need, or do so in a limited way, or be able to comply with a statutory obligation. In those instances, we will not be able to comply with your request and we will tell you if that’s the case.

ISZL, in responding to any requests related to the processing of your Personal Data will do so within a month in accordance with the applicable data protection legislation.

Point of contact

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, or if you wish to exercise any of the rights listed under Your Rights above then please contact:

Data Protection Office dpo@iszl.ch

Zug Campus
Walterwil 1
6340
Switzerland

Walterwil 1
6340
SwitzerlandRiverside Campus
Rothusstrasse 4b
6331 Hünenberg
Switzerland

Last updated: March 2025