Does the GDPR apply to me?

This is a question that anyone who operates a website must answer for themselves. Nevertheless, we can still provide you with a few pointers to help you answer it correctly.

The GDPR is based on the “place of performance” principle. Thus, when deciding whether the Regulation applies to a website provider, it is irrelevant whether they are based outside the EU or not. The place of performance is the location where the visitor views the offering or the website (e.g. on their smartphone at Frankfurt Airport, on their laptop traveling from Paris to Zurich by train).

You will more than likely be subject to the GDPR if your website is not aimed exclusively at visitors from Switzerland. Possible indicators for the applicability of the GDPR include displaying product prices in different currencies (e.g. CHF and EUR), providing directions to customers from abroad, specifying shipping costs to other countries, or displaying a telephone number with an international dialing code. The Regulation is relatively vague in this case, and there are no precedents to suggest how the law would be applied.

You are also very likely to be affected by the Regulation if you view or analyze your website’s statistics using tools such as Google Analytics. All of the data that is collected for this purpose (e.g. IP addresses) is considered personal data.

If you use Logaholic, the tool processes the same data that Hostpoint always does. For details, please see the article "Which data relating to my visitors does Hostpoint always process?"

The GDPR may not apply to data that is processed for websites “of a natural person in the course of a purely personal or household activity and thus with no connection to a professional or commercial activity”. (Art. 2 GDPR, para. 2c)

Hostpoint also needs to collect certain personal data in order to provide its services without technical problems and in compliance with the law. You can find out more under: "Which data relating to my visitors does Hostpoint always process?"