Data Processing Agreement

How we process personal data for you when you use Pulse, and what we promise about it.

Published 30 October 2026. In force from 29 November 2026.

15 sections

How this agreement applies

What this agreement is, when it takes effect, and how it relates to our terms.

This Data Processing Agreement applies when you use Pulse to process personal data of other people, such as the people who visit your website. You are the controller of that data and Ciphera BV is your processor. It is made of the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses for controllers and processors (Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/915), set out below word for word with the choices they leave open, and Annexes I to IV, which describe our processing.

It forms part of our Terms of Service (section 9.2) and takes effect on 29 November 2026. You accept it when you accept the Terms, and no signature is needed: Article 28(9) of the GDPR allows the contract to be in electronic form. Until 29 November 2026, it applies to you from the day you ask for it at privacy@ciphera.net.

If anything in our Terms contradicts these Clauses, the Clauses prevail (Clause 4). Liability under this agreement is subject to section 12 of the Terms, except where the law does not allow a limit.

Where the California Consumer Privacy Act applies to you, section 9.3 of the Terms adds the terms it requires of a service provider.

We update the Annexes when our processing changes. We tell you 30 days before we add or replace a sub-processor, and you can object (Clause 7.7(a)).

Section I

Purpose and scope

What the Clauses are for, and what they cover.

(a)

The purpose of these Standard Contractual Clauses (the Clauses) is to ensure compliance with Article 28(3) and (4) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).

(b)

The controllers and processors listed in Annex I have agreed to these Clauses in order to ensure compliance with Article 28(3) and (4) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and/or Article 29(3) and (4) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

(c)

These Clauses apply to the processing of personal data as specified in Annex II.

(d)

Annexes I to IV are an integral part of the Clauses.

(e)

These Clauses are without prejudice to obligations to which the controller is subject by virtue of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and/or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

(f)

These Clauses do not by themselves ensure compliance with obligations related to international transfers in accordance with Chapter V of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and/or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

Invariability of the Clauses

The Clauses cannot be changed, only completed.

(a)

The Parties undertake not to modify the Clauses, except for adding information to the Annexes or updating information in them.

(b)

This does not prevent the Parties from including the standard contractual clauses laid down in these Clauses in a broader contract, or from adding other clauses or additional safeguards provided that they do not directly or indirectly contradict the Clauses or detract from the fundamental rights or freedoms of data subjects.

Interpretation

The Clauses are read with the GDPR’s own definitions.

(a)

Where these Clauses use the terms defined in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 respectively, those terms shall have the same meaning as in that Regulation.

(b)

These Clauses shall be read and interpreted in the light of the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 respectively.

(c)

These Clauses shall not be interpreted in a way that runs counter to the rights and obligations provided for in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 / Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 or in a way that prejudices the fundamental rights or freedoms of the data subjects.

Hierarchy

The Clauses prevail over any other agreement between us.

In the event of a contradiction between these Clauses and the provisions of related agreements between the Parties existing at the time when these Clauses are agreed or entered into thereafter, these Clauses shall prevail.

Docking clause

The optional docking clause, which we do not use.

This optional clause is not used: every customer accepts the agreement through our Terms of Service.

Section II: Obligations of the Parties

Description of processing(s)

Where the processing is described.

The details of the processing operations, in particular the categories of personal data and the purposes of processing for which the personal data is processed on behalf of the controller, are specified in Annex II.

Obligations of the Parties

Our duties: instructions, security, sub-processors and transfers.

7.1 Instructions

(a)

The processor shall process personal data only on documented instructions from the controller, unless required to do so by Union or Member State law to which the processor is subject. In this case, the processor shall inform the controller of that legal requirement before processing, unless the law prohibits this on important grounds of public interest. Subsequent instructions may also be given by the controller throughout the duration of the processing of personal data. These instructions shall always be documented.

(b)

The processor shall immediately inform the controller if, in the processor’s opinion, instructions given by the controller infringe Regulation (EU) 2016/679 / Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 or the applicable Union or Member State data protection provisions.

7.2 Purpose limitation

The processor shall process the personal data only for the specific purpose(s) of the processing, as set out in Annex II, unless it receives further instructions from the controller.

7.3 Duration of the processing of personal data

Processing by the processor shall only take place for the duration specified in Annex II.

7.4 Security of processing

(a)

The processor shall at least implement the technical and organisational measures specified in Annex III to ensure the security of the personal data. This includes protecting the data against a breach of security leading to accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access to the data (personal data breach). In assessing the appropriate level of security, the Parties shall take due account of the state of the art, the costs of implementation, the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing and the risks involved for the data subjects.

(b)

The processor shall grant access to the personal data undergoing processing to members of its personnel only to the extent strictly necessary for implementing, managing and monitoring of the contract. The processor shall ensure that persons authorised to process the personal data received have committed themselves to confidentiality or are under an appropriate statutory obligation of confidentiality.

7.5 Sensitive data

If the processing involves personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, genetic data or biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or a person’s sex life or sexual orientation, or data relating to criminal convictions and offences (“sensitive data”), the processor shall apply specific restrictions and/or additional safeguards.

7.6 Documentation and compliance

(a)

The Parties shall be able to demonstrate compliance with these Clauses.

(b)

The processor shall deal promptly and adequately with inquiries from the controller about the processing of data in accordance with these Clauses.

(c)

The processor shall make available to the controller all information necessary to demonstrate compliance with the obligations that are set out in these Clauses and stem directly from Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and/or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725. At the controller’s request, the processor shall also permit and contribute to audits of the processing activities covered by these Clauses, at reasonable intervals or if there are indications of non-compliance. In deciding on a review or an audit, the controller may take into account relevant certifications held by the processor.

(d)

The controller may choose to conduct the audit by itself or mandate an independent auditor. Audits may also include inspections at the premises or physical facilities of the processor and shall, where appropriate, be carried out with reasonable notice.

(e)

The Parties shall make the information referred to in this Clause, including the results of any audits, available to the competent supervisory authority/ies on request.

7.7 Use of sub-processors

(a)

The processor has the controller’s general authorisation for the engagement of sub-processors from an agreed list. The processor shall specifically inform in writing the controller of any intended changes of that list through the addition or replacement of sub-processors at least 30 days in advance, thereby giving the controller sufficient time to be able to object to such changes prior to the engagement of the concerned sub-processor(s). The processor shall provide the controller with the information necessary to enable the controller to exercise the right to object.

(b)

Where the processor engages a sub-processor for carrying out specific processing activities (on behalf of the controller), it shall do so by way of a contract which imposes on the sub-processor, in substance, the same data protection obligations as the ones imposed on the data processor in accordance with these Clauses. The processor shall ensure that the sub-processor complies with the obligations to which the processor is subject pursuant to these Clauses and to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and/or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

(c)

At the controller’s request, the processor shall provide a copy of such a sub-processor agreement and any subsequent amendments to the controller. To the extent necessary to protect business secret or other confidential information, including personal data, the processor may redact the text of the agreement prior to sharing the copy.

(d)

The processor shall remain fully responsible to the controller for the performance of the sub-processor’s obligations in accordance with its contract with the processor. The processor shall notify the controller of any failure by the sub-processor to fulfil its contractual obligations.

(e)

The processor shall agree a third party beneficiary clause with the sub-processor whereby - in the event the processor has factually disappeared, ceased to exist in law or has become insolvent - the controller shall have the right to terminate the sub-processor contract and to instruct the sub-processor to erase or return the personal data.

7.8 International transfers

(a)

Any transfer of data to a third country or an international organisation by the processor shall be done only on the basis of documented instructions from the controller or in order to fulfil a specific requirement under Union or Member State law to which the processor is subject and shall take place in compliance with Chapter V of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

(b)

The controller agrees that where the processor engages a sub-processor in accordance with Clause 7.7. for carrying out specific processing activities (on behalf of the controller) and those processing activities involve a transfer of personal data within the meaning of Chapter V of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the processor and the sub-processor can ensure compliance with Chapter V of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 by using standard contractual clauses adopted by the Commission in accordance with of Article 46(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, provided the conditions for the use of those standard contractual clauses are met.

Assistance to the controller

How we help you answer requests and meet your duties.

(a)

The processor shall promptly notify the controller of any request it has received from the data subject. It shall not respond to the request itself, unless authorised to do so by the controller.

(b)

The processor shall assist the controller in fulfilling its obligations to respond to data subjects’ requests to exercise their rights, taking into account the nature of the processing. In fulfilling its obligations in accordance with (a) and (b), the processor shall comply with the controller’s instructions

(c)

In addition to the processor’s obligation to assist the controller pursuant to Clause 8(b), the processor shall furthermore assist the controller in ensuring compliance with the following obligations, taking into account the nature of the data processing and the information available to the processor:

(1)

the obligation to carry out an assessment of the impact of the envisaged processing operations on the protection of personal data (a ‘data protection impact assessment’) where a type of processing is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons;

(2)

the obligation to consult the competent supervisory authority/ies prior to processing where a data protection impact assessment indicates that the processing would result in a high risk in the absence of measures taken by the controller to mitigate the risk;

(3)

the obligation to ensure that personal data is accurate and up to date, by informing the controller without delay if the processor becomes aware that the personal data it is processing is inaccurate or has become outdated;

(4)

the obligations in Article 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

(d)

The Parties shall set out in Annex III the appropriate technical and organisational measures by which the processor is required to assist the controller in the application of this Clause as well as the scope and the extent of the assistance required.

Notification of personal data breach

What we do if a personal data breach happens.

In the event of a personal data breach, the processor shall cooperate with and assist the controller for the controller to comply with its obligations under Articles 33 and 34 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 or under Articles 34 and 35 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, where applicable, taking into account the nature of processing and the information available to the processor.

9.1 Data breach concerning data processed by the controller

In the event of a personal data breach concerning data processed by the controller, the processor shall assist the controller:

(a)

in notifying the personal data breach to the competent supervisory authority/ies, without undue delay after the controller has become aware of it, where relevant/(unless the personal data breach is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons);

(b)

in obtaining the following information which, pursuant to Article 33(3) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, shall be stated in the controller’s notification, and must at least include:

(1)

the nature of the personal data including where possible, the categories and approximate number of data subjects concerned and the categories and approximate number of personal data records concerned;

(2)

the likely consequences of the personal data breach;

(3)

the measures taken or proposed to be taken by the controller to address the personal data breach, including, where appropriate, measures to mitigate its possible adverse effects.

Where, and insofar as, it is not possible to provide all this information at the same time, the initial notification shall contain the information then available and further information shall, as it becomes available, subsequently be provided without undue delay.

(c)

in complying, pursuant to Article 34 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, with the obligation to communicate without undue delay the personal data breach to the data subject, when the personal data breach is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons.

9.2 Data breach concerning data processed by the processor

In the event of a personal data breach concerning data processed by the processor, the processor shall notify the controller without undue delay after the processor having become aware of the breach. Such notification shall contain, at least:

(a)

a description of the nature of the breach (including, where possible, the categories and approximate number of data subjects and data records concerned);

(b)

the details of a contact point where more information concerning the personal data breach can be obtained;

(c)

its likely consequences and the measures taken or proposed to be taken to address the breach, including to mitigate its possible adverse effects.

The Parties shall set out in Annex III all other elements to be provided by the processor when assisting the controller in the compliance with the controller’s obligations under Articles 33 and 34 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

Section III: Final provisions

Non-compliance with the Clauses and termination

Suspending or ending the processing, and what happens to the data.

(a)

Without prejudice to any provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and/or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, in the event that the processor is in breach of its obligations under these Clauses, the controller may instruct the processor to suspend the processing of personal data until the latter complies with these Clauses or the contract is terminated. The processor shall promptly inform the controller in case it is unable to comply with these Clauses, for whatever reason.

(b)

The controller shall be entitled to terminate the contract insofar as it concerns processing of personal data in accordance with these Clauses if:

(1)

the processing of personal data by the processor has been suspended by the controller pursuant to point (a) and if compliance with these Clauses is not restored within a reasonable time and in any event within one month following suspension;

(2)

the processor is in substantial or persistent breach of these Clauses or its obligations under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and/or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725;

(3)

the processor fails to comply with a binding decision of a competent court or the competent supervisory authority/ies regarding its obligations pursuant to these Clauses or to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and/or Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

(c)

The processor shall be entitled to terminate the contract insofar as it concerns processing of personal data under these Clauses where, after having informed the controller that its instructions infringe applicable legal requirements in accordance with Clause 7.1 (b), the controller insists on compliance with the instructions.

(d)

Following termination of the contract, the processor shall, at the choice of the controller, delete all personal data processed on behalf of the controller and certify to the controller that it has done so, or, return all the personal data to the controller and delete existing copies unless Union or Member State law requires storage of the personal data. Until the data is deleted or returned, the processor shall continue to ensure compliance with these Clauses.

Annexes

List of parties

Who the parties are.

Controller

The customer: the person or organisation that holds the Pulse account, identified by the account’s details.
Contact: the account’s owner, at the email address on the account.
Activities: using Pulse to measure visits to its websites or apps.
Role: controller.
Signature and date: accepting the Terms of Service, on the day of acceptance or on the day this agreement takes effect, whichever is later.

Processor

Ciphera BV, KBO/BCE 1013.721.660, De Kleetlaan 2, 1831 Diegem, Belgium.
Contact: privacy@ciphera.net.
Activities: providing Pulse, a web analytics service.
Role: processor.
Signature and date: publishing this agreement, which takes effect on 29 November 2026.

Description of the processing

What data we process for you, why, and for how long.

Categories of data subjects: People who visit the controller’s websites or apps where the controller has installed the Pulse script or sends events to Pulse.
Categories of personal data: For each page view or event: the page’s path, keeping only the query parameters the controller allows (or no path at all, where the controller turns paths off), the referring address and campaign (UTM) parameters, the time, how long the page was visible and actively used, and how far it was scrolled; the country, and the region and city only where the controller turns them on, derived from the IP address when the request arrives (the IP address is not stored); device type, browser, operating system, screen size, language and timezone, as the browser reports them (the User-Agent string is not stored); event names, properties and revenue values the controller chooses to send; an identifier for the visit that is valid for one day of the site’s own calendar, a keyed hash of the site’s domain, the IP address and the User-Agent whose random key exists for that day only and is then deleted; and the results of automated-traffic detection (a classification of the browser software, of the network and of the secure connection, interaction signals, a score and a verdict).
Sensitive data: None is intended. The controller does not send special categories of personal data in event properties (Terms, section 9.3).
Nature of the processing: Receiving requests from visitors’ browsers through the content delivery network, deriving the data above, discarding the IP address and the User-Agent string, storing the events, counting them into statistics, showing them to the controller’s team, exporting them or sending reports as the controller sets up, and excluding automated traffic. Detection compares browser settings within one website only.
Purposes: Providing web analytics to the controller, excluding automated traffic from it, and keeping the service secure.
Duration: For as long as the controller uses Pulse. Events are kept for the retention period the controller sets for each site, six months for a new site unless changed, and then deleted. All of a site’s data is deleted when the site or the account is deleted; backup copies expire on their own schedule after that.
Processing by sub-processors: The same subject matter, nature and duration, limited to the service each sub-processor provides (Annex IV).

III

Technical and organisational measures

How we protect it.

Minimisation by design: No cookies and no browser storage for analytics. The IP address and the User-Agent string are used when a request arrives and never stored. The visit identifier lasts one day of the site’s calendar, and its key is then deleted. Region and city are off unless the controller turns them on.
Separation: Every query that serves a customer is limited to that customer’s site. Staging uses its own databases and credentials.
Encryption in transit: Every request to Pulse uses HTTPS. The secure connection ends at the content delivery network, which reaches our servers over a second secure connection that checks our certificate.
Access control: Staff reach production only through an access gateway with multi-factor authentication and certificates that expire after twelve hours, and only staff who need it have that access. Secrets are kept in a dedicated secrets manager, not in code.
Availability and recovery: Backups every day, with a second copy in another data centre, and restore tests every month.
Monitoring: Availability, backup and security alerts, with checks from inside our cluster and from a separate server outside it.
Personal data breaches: We tell the controller without undue delay, with the information Clause 9.2 lists, at the email address on the account.
Requests from data subjects: We pass on any request that reaches us and help the controller answer it (Clause 8). Pulse holds no name or contact detail of a visitor, so a request can only be matched where the controller can point to a site and a time.
Vulnerability reports: Our disclosure policy and security.txt on ciphera.net.

List of sub-processors

The companies that help us provide Pulse.

The controller authorises these sub-processors (Clause 7.7(a)). We tell you 30 days before we add or replace one, and you can object.

Infomaniak

Purpose: Servers, databases, object storage, off-site backups and domain registration
Data processed: All data we store
Location: Switzerland

Exoscale

Purpose: Email server and backup storage
Data processed: Email and backup copies
Location: Switzerland

Bunny

Purpose: CDN, DNS, DDoS protection, edge routing
Data processed: IP addresses (transient)
Location: Global (edge network)

Sub-processors: service, purpose, data processed, and location
Service	Purpose	Data processed	Location
Infomaniak	Servers, databases, object storage, off-site backups and domain registration	All data we store	Switzerland
Exoscale	Email server and backup storage	Email and backup copies	Switzerland
Bunny	CDN, DNS, DDoS protection, edge routing	IP addresses (transient)	Global (edge network)

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