Last Updated: 4 June 2026
Welcome to lgsa.com. We organise open water swimming events and
officially ratify swim attempts across Lake Geneva (Lac Léman).
Because our activities take place in a cross-border region and serve
swimmers primarily across Europe, we are deeply committed to
protecting your personal data.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and
safeguard your information when you visit our website (hosted on
Squarespace) or register for our events. Our data practices are
designed to comply with the European Union's General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection
(FADP).
1. Data Controller and Contact Information
For the purposes of European and Swiss data protection laws, the
data controller is the entity responsible for your personal data. If
you have any questions, concerns, or wish to exercise your legal
rights regarding your data, please contact us directly:
2. The Personal Data We Collect
We only collect personal data that is necessary to provide you with
our services, fulfil our contractual obligations, ensure your safety
during events, or improve your experience on our website.
A. Data You Voluntarily Provide to Us
-
Identity, Contact, and Demographic Data: First
and last names, date of birth, sex, email addresses, phone
numbers, and shipping addresses. We collect your date of birth and
sex to verify age requirements and to properly categorise official
swim classifications and results.
-
Booking & Athletic Information: When you
register for an open water event or submit a swim ratification
request via our third-party booking platform (Checkfront), we
collect your swim pace and swim history.
-
Health and Safety Data (Special Category Data):
Due to the extreme and challenging nature of open water swimming
in Lake Geneva, we require athletes to submit a medical check
(medical certificate) and a self-assessment swim. This information
is not collected via the website but is shared with us securely
via email. Under the GDPR, medical data is classified as "special
category data" and is handled with the highest levels of
confidentiality.
-
Exclusion of Payment Card Data: To protect your
financial security, we do not collect, process, or store your
credit card or bank account details. Online payments are handled
securely and directly off-site by our payment processor, Stripe,
or via manual direct bank transfer.
B. Data Collected Automatically
When you visit lgsa.com, we and our third-party service providers
automatically collect certain technical information from your
browser or device, including:
- IP addresses
- Browser types and versions
- Device types and operating systems
- Geographic location data (at a regional or city level)
3. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies and similar tracking pixels to optimise our website,
measure performance, and deliver relevant marketing.
-
Essential Cookies: Necessary for the technical
operation, security, and basic functionality of our website
platform (Squarespace).
-
Analytics Trackers: We use Google Analytics and
PostHog to understand how visitors interact with our site, helping
us improve layout, navigation, and content.
-
Advertising & Retargeting Pixels: We utilise
the Facebook Pixel and LinkedIn Pixel to track the effectiveness
of our social media campaigns and deliver relevant advertisements
to individuals who have expressed interest in our swims.
You can manage or disable non-essential cookies via your web browser
settings or through our cookie consent banner.
4. How We Use Your Data (Legal Basis for Processing)
Under the GDPR and Swiss FADP, we must have a valid legal basis to
process your personal data. We use your information for the
following purposes:
-
Performance of a Contract & Safety Verification:
To process your event bookings, evaluate your physical
preparedness for extreme swims using your swim history and pace,
coordinate event logistics, verify age and category requirements,
and officially validate and ratify your swim attempts across Lake
Geneva.
-
Processing Special Category (Health) Data: We
process your medical checks and swim self-assessments based on
your explicit consent (provided when you email these documents to
us) and because it is vital for ensuring your health, safety, and
physical welfare during high-risk sporting activities on the lake.
-
Fulfilment of Orders: To print, pack, and ship
any merchandise orders you place via our third-party
print-to-order shipping partners.
-
Legitimate Interests: To analyse website traffic
trends, optimise our platform functionality, protect against
fraudulent activities, and maintain internal organisational
records.
-
Consent: To send you marketing emails and
newsletters regarding upcoming swims, events, or organisation
updates. You can withdraw this consent at any time by clicking the
"unsubscribe" link in any email.
5. Third-Party Data Sharing and Subprocessors
We do not sell your personal data. We only share your data with
trusted, essential third-party service providers (subprocessors) who
perform critical operational functions on our behalf.
Our core data partners include:
-
Booking Operations: Checkfront (where your
official event account and registration details reside)
- Payment Processing: Stripe
-
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) & Marketing:
HubSpot
-
Infrastructure & Email: Google Workspace and
Squarespace
-
Physical Merchandise Fulfilment: Third-party
print-to-order shipping partners
6. International Data Transfers
Because we utilise standard-setting cloud software tools based in
the United States (such as Google Workspace, Stripe, and HubSpot),
your personal data may be transferred to, stored, and processed
outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.
To ensure your data remains robustly protected, we only transfer
data to third countries that are recognised as providing an adequate
level of data protection, or where the recipient has entered into
Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European
Commission and the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information
Commissioner (FDPIC).
7. Data Retention and Deletion
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil
the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes
of satisfying any legal, accounting, safety, or regulatory reporting
requirements.
-
Health and Medical Data: Medical certificates and
health self-assessments submitted via email are retained only for
the duration necessary to safely clear you for your scheduled
event and to address any immediate post-event liability windows,
after which they are securely deleted.
-
Sporting Records: Official swim ratification
records (e.g., successful completions of crossing Lac Léman, age
group, sex/category, swim history, and official paces) are
archived permanently as part of our historic sporting registry,
unless you explicitly request their removal.
8. Age Restrictions
Our services, events, and website are directed at adults and
competitive youth athletes. We do not intentionally target or
collect personal data from children under the age of 16 without
explicit, verifiable parental or legal guardian consent. If we learn
that we have inadvertently collected data from a minor under 16
without authorisation, we will delete it immediately.
9. Your Legal Rights (GDPR & FADP)
If you are a resident of the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, you hold
specific, powerful statutory rights regarding your personal data.
You can exercise these rights at any time by emailing us at
info@lgsa.com:
-
Right of Access: You have the right to request a
copy of the personal data we hold about you.
-
Right to Rectification: You can request that we
correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
-
Right to Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): You
can request that we delete your personal data, subject to certain
legal exceptions (such as our need to comply with financial audits
or legal obligations).
-
Right to Restrict or Object to Processing: You
can object to our processing of your data for direct marketing or
based on our legitimate interests.
-
Right to Data Portability: You have the right to
request that we transfer your data to another organisation or
directly to you in a structured, machine-readable format.
-
Right to Withdraw Consent: Where our processing
is based on your consent (such as marketing emails or the
submission of medical documents), you have the right to withdraw
that consent at any time.
-
Right to Lodge a Complaint: You have the right to
lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in your country of
residence if you believe our processing violates data protection
laws.
We will respond to all legitimate requests within 30 days. We may
ask you to verify your identity before fulfilling the request to
protect your privacy and security.
