Privacy Policy

1. Controller

Silex Legal GmbH ("the Company," "we," "us," or "our") (Bahnhofstrasse 52, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland) is the data controller for personal data processed via silexlegal.org under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (revised FADP, in force 1 September 2023). Contact: [email protected].

2. What We Do and Why It Matters for Your Data

Silex Legal provides AI-assisted Swiss legal research. Practitioners submit questions in German, French, or Italian; the system resolves the controlling statute from the Systematische Rechtssammlung (SR), identifies applicable Bundesgericht (BGer) decisions, and returns the full citation trail with source links to official publications.

The data we process is therefore specifically: the legal questions you type into the service, the session and account data needed to deliver results, and the technical signals required to maintain a secure, accurate platform. We do not use submitted legal queries to train machine-learning models without your explicit written consent. We do not sell or share query content with third parties for any commercial purpose.

3. Personal Data We Process

• Account and contact data you provide at registration (email address, name if given);
• Legal query content submitted to the research service;
• Research history and citation results associated with your account;
• Communication content from support inquiries and contact form submissions;
• Technical data automatically collected during service use (IP address, browser type, device identifiers, access timestamps);
• Analytics data collected with your prior consent (session duration, pages visited, search terms used).

We do not knowingly collect personal data from individuals under the age of 18.

4. Purposes and Legal Bases

We process personal data for the following purposes:

• Providing the citation research service and returning query results (contract performance);
• Account management, authentication, and billing administration (contract performance);
• Responding to support requests and contact form inquiries (contract performance / legitimate interest);
• Maintaining and improving service security and performance (legitimate interest);
• Complying with applicable legal obligations under Swiss law (legal obligation);
• Analytics and usage measurement, where you have given prior consent (consent).

5. International Transfers

Where the Company transfers personal data outside Switzerland, we ensure adequate protection through mechanisms recognised by the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), including Standard Contractual Clauses or transfers to countries the Swiss Federal Council has recognised as providing adequate protection (see the Federal Council's adequacy list). Technical infrastructure is hosted within the EEA or under equivalent contractual safeguards.

6. Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes set out in this policy or as required by law:

• Account data: retained for the duration of the account and up to 24 months after account deletion;
• Legal query and research history: retained for the duration of the active subscription, then deleted within 90 days of account closure unless you request earlier deletion;
• Contact and support correspondence: 24 months from last contact;
• Technical access logs: 90 days;
• Consent records (for audit purposes): 3 years from the date of consent.

7. Your Rights under the FADP

Under the revised FADP you have the following rights in relation to personal data the Company holds about you:

• Right to information about whether and how we process your personal data;
• Right of access and to obtain a copy of your personal data;
• Right to rectification of inaccurate or incomplete data;
• Right to erasure or destruction of your personal data;
• Right to object to processing not based on contract performance or a legal obligation;
• Right to data portability in a structured, commonly used format;
• Right not to be subject to an automated individual decision with significant legal effects without human review.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days; where a request is complex or numerous we may extend that period by up to two further months and will notify you accordingly.

8. Right to Complain

If you believe the Company has processed your personal data unlawfully, you may lodge a complaint with the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC): edoeb.admin.ch.

9. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

The Company does not set non-essential cookies (analytics, preferences) until you give prior consent through the cookie banner. See our Cookie Policy for full details of the cookies we use and how to manage your preferences.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be notified by posting a revised version with a new effective date. Continued use of the service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact