Chapter 2 . Section 1

Swiss FADP Article 5: Definitions

In this Act: (a) personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person; (b) data subject means a natural person whose personal data is processed; (c) sensitive personal data means: 1. data relating to religious, philosophical, political or trade union-related views or activities, (2) data relating to health, the private sphere or affiliation to a race or ethnicity, (3) genetic data, (4) biometric data that uniquely identifies a natural person, (5) data relating to administrative and criminal proceedings or sanctions, (6) data relating to social assistance measures; (d) processing means any handling of personal data, irrespective of the means and procedures used, in particular the collection, storage, keeping, use, modification, disclosure, archiving, deletion or destruction of data; (e) disclosure means transmitting personal data or making such data accessible; (f) profiling means any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements; (g) high-risk profiling means profiling that poses a high risk to the data subject's personality or fundamental rights by matching data that allow an assessment to be made of essential aspects of the personality of a natural person; (h) breach of data security means a breach of security that leads to the accidental or unlawful loss, deletion, destruction or modification or unauthorised disclosure or access to personal data; (i) federal body means an authority or service of the Confederation or a person entrusted to carry out public tasks on behalf of the Confederation; (j) controller means a private person who or federal body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purpose and the means of processing personal data; (k) processor means a private person or federal body that processes personal data on behalf of the controller.

Switzerland enacts in German, French and Italian. This is Fedlex's English translation, which Fedlex itself publishes without legal force. Where a word matters, the German, French or Italian text governs and this page does not. Every other instrument in this library is reproduced from its own authentic language text; this one is the exception and says so on every page.

Source text reproduced from Fedlex, Classified Compilation SR 235.1, English translation, version in force from 1 September 2023 and marked for verification against the official source. Cross-checked against a second reproduction.