---
title: "Swiss FADP Article 5: Definitions"
url: "https://www.engagecompliance.co/law/swiss-fadp/article-5"
type: "legal-text"
date: ""
---
# Swiss FADP Article 5: Definitions

_Chapter 2 . Section 1_

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.

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.