SwitzerlandFADP Articles 16-17, Cross-Border Transfer of Personal Data from Switzerland
Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP / revDSG / nLPD), SR 235.1, Art. 16-17
In force since .
A cross border transfer rule binding public and private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- on_request
- Who audits it
- Regulator
What it requires
- Rely on the Federal Council's adequacy list, standard contractual clauses with the Swiss-law addendum, binding corporate rules, or a narrow Article 17 derogation before moving personal data of a person in Switzerland outside an adequate jurisdiction.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text. Also read by: Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) (guidance, recorded ).
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CT.PO-P2Policies, processes, and procedures for enabling data review, transfer, sharing or disclosure, alteration, and deletion are established and in place (e.g., to maintain data quality, manage data retention).
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
- Guidance link
- https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/en/cross-border-transfer-of-personal-data
- Guidance body
- Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC)
- Open questions
- Do the standard data protection clauses the Commissioner has recognised under Article 16 paragraph 2 letter d of the Federal Act on Data Protection suffice without supplementary technical measures where the law applicable to the recipient "allows disproportionate access by the authorities"?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Articles 16 and 17 allow disclosure abroad on an adequacy decision, listed safeguards (some notified to the FDPIC beforehand) or a listed exception. No log, register or retention period is required. Article 17 paragraph 2 makes the controller or processor inform the FDPIC on request about disclosures under the exceptions in paragraph 1 letters b number 2, c and d, a regulator's power to demand information and not a record the controller must keep.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Transfer abroad is permitted without extra safeguards to a state or international body the Federal Council has found provides an adequate level of protection, a maintained list that includes the EU and EEA states.
Absent adequacy, a transfer needs a safeguard: standard contractual clauses, the EU SCCs work with a Swiss-law addendum, binding corporate rules, or one of the narrower Article 17 derogations, explicit consent, contract necessity, overriding public interest, life or safety, or transfer of data from a public register. This is structurally the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Chapter V mechanism, adequacy or safeguards or a derogation, not a hard localization duty.
The European Commission's own adequacy decision for Switzerland was reconfirmed , covering the post-revision regime, and Switzerland's own Federal Council lists the EU and EEA as adequate for outbound transfers, so the relationship is adequate in both directions.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app processes personal data.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .