Swissfundraising calls for amendments to proposed data protection law changes

Swissfundraising is calling for amendments to draft changes of the country’s data protection laws, which it believes go beyond EU requirements and could hinder the ability of charities to fundraise effectively.

Swissfundraising is responding to the Swiss Federal Office of Justice’s consultation on the proposed changes, which aim to bring its data protection regulations, including the Federal Data Protection Act (FDPA), into line with EU laws and the GDPR.

The consultation ended earlier this month, with the new law expected to come into effect in Spring 2018. The proposed changes include more control for individuals over their personal data, explicit opt-in, great transparency, and stricter penalties for data protection infringement.

Swissfundraising has sent a 16-page document to the Federal Office of Justice with its comments and suggested amendments. These include greater clarity on a number of the changes and more precise definitions of a number of new or modified terms that appear in the draft law, including “profiling”, “sensible personal data” and “declaration of agreement”.

Swissfundraising is also arguing that some of the proposals go beyond EU requirements and risk increasing the administrative burden and cost of fundraising for charities, and could in some cases make fundraising more difficult.

In a statement, the Swiss association’s Board said:

“Swissfundraising welcomes efforts to protect the rights of donors and consumers and agrees with the need to adopt EU directives in Switzerland. Measures and sanctions that go beyond these directives and that are partly ambiguous however aren’t in the public’s favour, restrain our work and increase the administrative workload not only in fundraising, but for charities overall.”