This policy describes which personal data is processed when you visit this website, place an order and use the SunPlot app. It is based on the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP). In short: in the app, the 3D calculation runs in your browser, and ordered reports are created by our server; we only store what is necessary for ordering, payment and delivery, and we do not pass anything on for advertising purposes.
When you access the website, your browser transmits technical information to our server (IP address, time, page accessed, browser). These server logs serve secure operation and are deleted after 30 days at the latest. Hosting: Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestrasse 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany; the server is located in the Falkenstein data centre (Germany). From the logs, we create daily statistics (day, page accessed, referring page, device class such as iPhone or Windows, a “probably a bot” note where applicable, and a short value derived from the IP address that changes daily and does not contain the IP address itself); we keep these for 13 months. In addition, when you leave a page, your browser reports how long it was visible and how far you scrolled; this is assigned to the same short value without cookies. When reading the logs, we also derive the approximate location from the IP address: the country and, for access from Switzerland and Liechtenstein, also the canton and locality. For this, we use a database on our own server (“IP to City Lite” by DB-IP, db-ip.com, licence CC BY 4.0); your IP address is not transmitted to anyone for this purpose. Only the result is stored, together with the short value – neither the IP address nor coordinates; the same retention period applies. The assignment is approximate, for example on mobile networks or with services such as iCloud Private Relay. To measure reach, we use Google Analytics, but only with your consent (see section 2a).
On your first visit, a notice asks whether we may measure the use of the website with Google Analytics 4 (Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland). The Analytics script is only loaded after you click “Agree”; if you choose “Necessary only”, nothing is transmitted to Google. What is measured: pages accessed, time spent, scroll depth, clicks on external links, the approximate region of origin as well as browser and device type. According to its own information, Google shortens the IP address before storing it. Personalised advertising is switched off (Consent Mode: after consent, “analytics_storage”, “ad_storage” and “ad_user_data” are allowed, “ad_personalization” remains blocked). For this purpose, Google stores cookies with a lifetime of up to 2 years; Google deletes the user-level analysis data after 14 months at the latest. Google may also process this data in the USA and is certified under the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Your browser remembers your choice locally (localStorage “sp_consent_v3”). You can change it at any time: Change setting. More from Google: policies.google.com/privacy.
To measure the success of our ChatGPT ads (OpenAI), we store the ad click identifier (“oppref” in the address of the page accessed) locally in your browser, only after your consent and for a maximum of 30 days. If you order a single report during this time, the click identifier is transmitted to our server with the order and stored there with the order. After the payment has been confirmed, we report the purchase to OpenAI: the click identifier, a random event identifier, the net amount in centimes and the currency CHF. The notification is sent from our server (Conversions API) and additionally from your browser via an image pixel from OpenAI; the event identifier is the same in both cases so that the purchase is only counted once. With the image pixel, the browser technically also transmits the IP address and browser information; the referrer is suppressed. We do not send names, email addresses, property addresses, order numbers or secret order or report links to OpenAI. We do not load any OpenAI script. If you decline or withdraw consent, no measurement requests are made from the browser and the stored click identifier is removed; without consent, no click identifier is transmitted with the order either. Data may also be processed outside Switzerland, in particular in the USA. Further information: OpenAI Privacy Policy. Change setting.
To measure the success of our ads on Meta (Facebook, Instagram), we store the ad click identifier (“fbclid” in the address of the page accessed) locally in your browser, only after your consent and for a maximum of 30 days. If you order a single report during this time, the click identifier is transmitted to our server together with the browser identifier (user agent) with the order and stored there with the order. After the payment has been confirmed, we report the purchase to Meta: the click identifier, the browser identifier, a random event identifier, the net amount and the currency CHF. The notification is sent from our server (Meta Conversions API) and additionally from your browser via an image pixel from Meta; the event identifier is the same in both cases so that the purchase is only counted once. With the image pixel, the browser technically also transmits the IP address; the referrer is suppressed. We do not send names, email addresses, property addresses, order numbers or secret order or report links to Meta. We do not load any Meta script and do not set any Meta cookies. If you decline or withdraw consent, no measurement requests are made from the browser and the stored click identifier is removed; without consent, no click identifier is transmitted with the order either. Data may also be processed outside Switzerland, in particular in the USA. Further information: Meta Privacy Policy. Change setting.
With your consent, we also record confirmed online purchases (product, a unique transaction number, amount, tax and currency). Names, email addresses, property addresses and secret report links are not transmitted to Google in the process. We link Analytics with Google Ads and import purchase events to measure the success of our ads. Personalised advertising remains switched off. Because of this extended measurement purpose, we ask for your consent again.
Also only with your consent, we analyse how the ordering process is used: opening the report page, starting an order, the result of the address check and the start of the payment process. For the address check, we only measure whether it was successful or not – and, if unsuccessful, a general category (address not found, network error, address not confirmed). The entered address itself, coordinates and email addresses are not transmitted to Google in the process. We use this analysis to identify at which point an order is abandoned. If you decline or withdraw your consent, this measurement does not take place; ordering, payment and the address check work unchanged.
When you enter an address in the checker or in the app, it is transmitted to the federal services (geo.admin.ch / swisstopo) for the search. To load the geodata, the coordinates are sent to federal services (swisstopo, FOEN, SFOE, ARE, FEDRO, FSO, MeteoSwiss), to the cantons (hazard maps via geodienste.ch), to our own geodata server (buildings, elevations, vegetation as well as points in the surroundings from OpenStreetMap and FOT public transport stops) and, if our server cannot be reached, to OpenStreetMap (Overpass API). If you switch on the additional function “WSL trees” in the app, data is retrieved directly from the WSL research institute. In doing so, these services receive your IP address and the requested coordinates. In the checker and in the app, we do not store the addresses entered; there, the sun and shadow calculation takes place on your device. Ordered reports are created by our server (sections 5 and 6).
Plot information (PLR cadastre): For the information on the plot and land-use planning (for example the land-use zone and the noise sensitivity level), the app requests the extract for the property from the PLR cadastre service of the canton in which it is located. For this, the federal property identifier (EGRID) is transmitted. The request goes directly from your browser to the canton, which also receives your IP address. For the cantons of Schwyz and Glarus, it goes via our server; the canton then only receives the property identifier, not your IP address (only if our server cannot be reached does the app query the canton directly). Our server keeps these extracts for at most 12 hours per property so that the canton is not queried repeatedly, and counts the requests per IP address in working memory only, to prevent misuse. In our server logs, the property identifier is masked. Cantons whose extract we do not include in the report are not queried by the app; there, the report only shows a link to the canton’s PLR cadastre.
If you sign up for the waiting list in the checker, we store your email address together with the selected canton in order to notify you as soon as the relevant data is available. The address is only used for this purpose and is deleted at any time on request.
Notification about subscriptions: If you sign up to be notified about subscriptions, we store your email address and, if provided, your first and last name in order to notify you as soon as subscriptions are available again. The details are only used for this purpose and are deleted at any time on request.
For an order, we store your email address, your name and, if provided, company and billing address (street, postcode, town), the address and coordinates of the property, the selected product (for subscriptions also the selected cantons), the payment identifiers and a photo of the property if you choose to send one (it appears on the title page of your report and is not used otherwise). Payment is processed via Stripe Payments Europe Ltd. (Dublin, Ireland); card and TWINT data is entered directly with Stripe and never reaches us. Stripe processes this data in accordance with its own privacy policy (stripe.com/privacy). We retain order data and accounting records for 10 years in accordance with the Swiss Code of Obligations.
The finished report is stored on our server under a secret, unguessable link address and can be accessed for 6 months. After that, the report and photo are automatically deleted from our server; if you want to keep the report longer, download it as a file beforehand. The order data itself is retained as an accounting record in accordance with section 5. We delete photos for orders that were not completed after 30 days. The report contains the address of the property and the calculated values, but no other personal data.
The chapter “What could change in the area” shows building applications where cantons or cities provide them as open data or publish them in the official gazette: currently in the cantons of Zurich, Geneva, Basel-Landschaft, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Schwyz, Valais, Zug, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Schaffhausen and in the City of Bern. In Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Schwyz, Valais, Zug, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Schaffhausen the applications come from the cantonal official gazettes, which we retrieve through the interface of the official gazette portal (SECO); our display is not an official publication, and we show an application only as long as it is online on the portal, at most 12 months. We only take the location (address or coordinate), the type of project in our own classification (for example new building or conversion), dates such as filing, publication or deadline, and the link to the official office. We do not take the names of developers, owners, architects or companies. We do not even request fields containing such names from the sources. We read the project description only to determine the type of project and do not store it. We do not take plans or attachments. From the same official gazettes we also show, in these seven cantons, public plan displays and plan approval applications, for example for roads, railway installations, pipelines and cables, flood protection or zoning plans. We take the title of the notice if it comes from a municipality, a canton, a utility or a railway, otherwise only the type of notice, plus the municipality, publication date, deadline and the link to the official office. We place a point on the map only if the notice itself gives a coordinate or a specific plot; otherwise the notice appears only as a note for the municipality.
The address and location of a plot can nevertheless be personal data, because the owner can be identified via the land register. We process this information only to show it as a point on the map in the report for the chosen address. As a rule, we compare our collection with the sources every day. If a source no longer provides an application, we delete it on our side. We do not keep our own collection of earlier applications. For statistics, we additionally only count how many applications were filed per municipality, year and type of project, without address or plot. In the Canton of Zurich we show the building applications that the canton itself has published as open data since 2025. A report already delivered contains the status as of the day it was created.
If an entry is wrong or you would like a building application for your plot not to appear in future reports, write to info@sunplot.ch and state the application number or the plot. We correct wrong information as quickly as possible. On request, we hide the entry in future reports. For this we only keep the application number or the plot, without names. The official publications are always authoritative.
With a subscription, you receive a licence code. On start-up and before each report, the app checks with our server whether the subscription is valid and the quota is sufficient. In the process, the code, the time, the app version, the address of the property analysed and a random device identifier are transmitted and stored. The device identifier is a random number that the app creates in its storage on first start-up; it contains no hardware characteristics and no personal reference. The server uses it to count the quota, to recognise properties that are analysed more than once, and to see on how many devices a code is used (protection against passing on the code). Only the device class (for example iPhone or Android phone) is stored with the device identifier, never the full browser string. We delete these entries automatically after 12 months.
We send confirmations, report links and licence codes by email via Google Workspace (Google Ireland Limited, Dublin, Ireland). We do not send advertising emails. We keep a copy of every email sent to you in our order management system (time, recipient, subject and text) so that, in the event of a query, we can trace what was delivered to you. This copy can only be viewed by us and is retained like the other order data (section 5). The report link it contains no longer works once the 6 months under section 6 have expired.
Suggestions for improvement: You can send us suggestions via the form on the “Questions & answers” page. We store the text, the email address if you choose to provide one and the page the suggestion came from, and receive it as a notification; we only use this information to review the suggestion and, where appropriate, to reply to you.
The app and the report remember settings, recently loaded regions, cached maps and point clouds as well as your licence code in your browser’s storage (localStorage / IndexedDB). This speeds up the next opening and can take up several hundred megabytes. This data does not leave your device and can be removed via the browser settings (“Clear website data”) or prevented by blocking website data in the browser; the app then still works, but has to reload everything each time it is opened.
We do not sell any data and only pass it on to the processors named, insofar as this is necessary for the service: Hetzner (hosting, Germany), Stripe (payment, Ireland) and Google (email and, only with consent, Analytics; Ireland). Germany and Ireland are among the countries whose data protection the Federal Council recognises as adequate. Stripe and Google may also process data in the USA; both companies are certified under the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Authorities only receive data if we are legally obliged to provide it; this does not apply to the requests to federal and cantonal geoservices described in section 3.
You have the right to access, rectify and delete your data as well as the right to data portability. To exercise these rights, write to info@sunplot.ch. The competent supervisory authority is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).
We amend this policy when the services change. The version published here at the time applies. This policy is available in German, French, Italian and English; in case of discrepancies, the German version prevails.
Last updated: 21 October 2026