This policy describes how Celium, a service published by Romandia Labs Sàrl, collects and processes your personal data when you use the website celium.ch. It complies with the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) that entered into force on 1 September 2023. It also covers the member area and the operation of Local Energy Communities (LECs) represented by Celium; the use of these services is governed by the Celium General Terms and Conditions.
1. Data controller
The controller of the personal data collected on celium.ch is:
- Romandia Labs Sàrl
- Limited liability company under Swiss law
- Registered office: Chemin du Pré 3, 1264 St-Cergue, Switzerland
- Business identification number (UID): CHE-141.553.969
- Registered in the Commercial Register of the Canton of Vaud
- Email: contact@romandia.ch
2. Data collected and purposes
We collect only the data strictly necessary for the purposes described below. No data is collected without explicit interaction on your part (forms).
2.1 "Find your LEC" form (matching)
| Data | Nature | Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full postal address (street, postcode, locality) | Mandatory | Locate your connection point and identify the potential LECs in your zone (NE5/NE7) | Consent |
| Role: "consumer only" or "producer and consumer" | Mandatory | Tailor the matching | Consent |
| Email address | Mandatory | Contact you with the LECs identified | Consent |
| Installed production capacity (kWp) | Optional, requested only if you indicate that you are a producer | Assess the relevance of a match and compliance with the LEC's 5% threshold | Consent |
| Metering point number (format CH + 31 characters) | Optional | Speed up the topological verification with the network operator if you provide it | Consent |
2.2 Contact form
| Data | Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Personalise the reply | Consent |
| Email address | Reply to you | Consent |
| Message | Process your request | Consent |
| Newsletter sign-up (optional, checkbox) | Send you information about Celium (only if ticked) | Explicit consent |
2.3 Technical data (server logs)
During your visit, the web server records minimal technical information (IP address, date/time, page viewed, user agent) for security and diagnostic purposes. These logs are kept for a maximum of 30 days, then automatically deleted.
2.4 Anonymised audience measurement
To understand traffic on the Site, Celium records each page visit with the following data: path of the page visited, "referer" header (the originating site of the visit, if any), user agent, and a SHA-256 hash of your IP address combined with a secret salt. The raw IP address is never stored. This hash makes it possible to count unique visitors per day without being able to identify you or to perform cross-site tracking.
Visits identified as coming from robots (crawlers, AI bots, monitoring tools) are flagged as such and excluded from the statistics shown in the administrator dashboard. No cookie is used for this measurement.
2.5 Joining a LEC and member area
When you join a LEC represented by Celium (action "Join my LEC"), your member area is created and Celium processes the data needed to operate the community, in accordance with the Participation Agreement you accept. Part of this data is transmitted by your distribution system operator (DSO), with your authorisation.
| Category | Data | Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account | E-mail address, language, notification preferences, date of last login, single-use login links and sessions (stored hashed), user agent | Identify you and secure access to the member area | Performance of the contract, security |
| Participant | Name, address, telephone, number and address of the metering point, role (consumer, producer), installation characteristics, IBAN (producers), entry and exit dates | Constitute the LEC, notify it to the DSO (art. 19g of the Electricity Supply Ordinance), draw up statements and make payouts | Performance of the contract, legal obligation |
| Metering data | Energy drawn and injected at your metering point in 15-minute intervals, allocated LEC electricity quantities, transmitted by the DSO | Allocate shared electricity, calculate the value created, draw up statements, feed your dashboard | Performance of the contract |
| Statements and payments | Invoices and statements (PDF), QR reference, payments received (debtor name, amount, value date, bank reference), payouts (IBAN, amount) | Invoice, collect, pay out, keep the accounts | Performance of the contract, legal obligation |
| Proof of acceptance | Versions of the documents accepted, special conditions, date and time, IP address, user agent, means and recipient of the confirmation code, time-stamped PDF copy | Prove the conclusion of the agreement and its content | Performance of the contract, overriding interest |
| Audit log | Time-stamped actions on your file (by you, by Celium or automatically) | Traceability and security | Overriding interest |
Your individual data is visible only to you, to Celium and to the DSO. The other members of your LEC only see aggregated values for the community.
2.6 Local project pages
For some LEC projects, Celium publishes a sign-up page dedicated to a municipality (for example celium.ch/bercher), led by a resident named on the page. The data entered (name, address, e-mail, telephone, estimated consumption, remarks) is recorded by Celium and made accessible, in a protected area, to the leader of that project in order to organise the community. The project leader undertakes to treat it confidentially and not to use it for any other purpose.
3. Retention period
- Matching requests: up to 24 months after the last exchange, unless an earlier deletion is requested.
- Contact messages: up to 24 months after the last exchange.
- Newsletter subscribers: until you unsubscribe (link in each mailing).
- Server logs: maximum 30 days.
- Anonymised audience measurement: as the IP hashes are hashed and non-reversible, this data is not considered directly identifying. It is retained for statistical purposes.
- Member area and participant data: for the duration of your participation, then 12 months, unless a legal obligation provides otherwise.
- Metering data, statements, invoices, payments, agreements and proofs of acceptance: 10 years (accounting retention obligation, art. 958f of the Swiss Code of Obligations).
- Login links: 15 minutes; sessions: 30 days.
- Sign-ups on a local project page: until the LEC is constituted, at most 24 months after the last exchange.
4. Data recipients
Your data is accessible only to authorised persons at Romandia Labs Sàrl. It may be disclosed to third parties strictly in the following cases:
- Infomaniak Network SA (hosting of the website, the database and delivery of notification emails, data centres in Geneva, Switzerland) — solely in connection with the performance of the service.
- Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC (measuring conversions from our Google Ads campaigns) — the
gtag.jstag loaded in your browser transmits technical browsing data to Google (URLs visited, Google advertising identifiers, session identifiers) enabling it to attribute a conversion to an ad click. The data entered in our forms (name, address, email, message) is not transmitted to Google. - Matching: if you complete the matching form, your contact details may be shared with the potential members of an identified LEC, only after your explicit agreement.
- Legal obligation: at the request of a competent authority, within the limits provided for by law.
- Distribution system operator (DSO) of your LEC: as representative of the community, Celium communicates to it your identity, your metering point, your role and the technical data of your installation (notifications provided for by art. 19g of the Electricity Supply Ordinance) and receives your metering data from it.
- Bank of Romandia Labs Sàrl: processing of QR-bills, payments received (camt.054 files) and payouts to producers.
- Guarantee-of-origin executing body (Pronovo AG), where Celium carries out for your installation the steps provided for in the agreement.
- Leader of a local LEC project: only the sign-ups submitted on their project page.
- Other members of your LEC: only aggregated values for the community, never your individual data.
We never sell or rent your data to third parties.
5. Transfer of data abroad
The hosting of the Site, the database and the delivery of notification emails are in Switzerland (Infomaniak data centres in Geneva).
The only transfer outside Switzerland concerns the technical browsing data transmitted to Google LLC (United States) via the Google Ads tag. This transfer is covered by the Data Privacy Framework (the transatlantic data protection framework) recognised by Switzerland as offering an adequate level of protection since 2024. You can disable this tracking by installing the Google opt-out add-on in your browser, or by using private browsing mode with third-party cookies blocked.
6. Security
Romandia Labs Sàrl implements appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data against loss, unauthorised access, disclosure or destruction:
- TLS encryption (HTTPS) of all communications between your browser and the server.
- Storage in a password-protected database, with access limited to administrators.
- Automatic daily backups.
- Regular security updates of the infrastructure.
- Login to the member area without a password, by single-use link valid for 15 minutes; links and sessions stored hashed, httpOnly session cookie.
- Administration access protected by dedicated authentication; audit log of actions.
7. Your rights
In accordance with the FADP, you have the following rights over the data concerning you at any time:
- Right of access: obtain confirmation that your data is being processed and receive a copy of it.
- Right to rectification: have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
- Right to erasure: request the deletion of your data (subject to legal obligations).
- Right to object: object to processing, in particular for the newsletter (unsubscribe link).
- Right to data portability: receive your data in a structured and commonly used format.
- Right to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
Data that the law requires us to keep (statements, invoices, payments, metering data, agreements) cannot be erased before the statutory period expires; its processing is then restricted to that sole purpose.
To exercise these rights, write to info@celium.ch specifying your request. A response will be provided within 30 days. For security reasons, we may ask you to prove your identity.
8. Cookies
The Site places the following cookies and technical identifiers:
- Strictly necessary cookies for proper technical operation (for example remembering an interface state). These do not require prior consent.
- Google Ads cookies (in particular
_gcl_au,_gcl_aw) placed by thegtag.jstag to measure conversions from our Google advertising campaigns. Placed by Google LLC, default lifespan 90 days. No third-party marketing-profiling cookie external to Google is used. - Member area session cookie (strictly necessary, httpOnly, 30 days), set only after you log in.
To disable these cookies, configure your browser to block third-party cookies, or use the Google opt-out add-on.
9. Supervisory authority
If you consider that the processing of your data does not comply with the FADP, you may lodge a complaint with the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC):
- Address: Feldeggweg 1, 3003 Bern
- Website: www.edoeb.admin.ch
10. Changes
This privacy policy may be updated to reflect legal or technical developments. The date of the last update appears at the top of this page. We invite you to consult it regularly.
11. Contact
For any question relating to the protection of your personal data, write to us at info@celium.ch.