This translation is provided for information only. The French version is the only authoritative text.
This policy describes how the vs-norm.com website processes the personal data of its visitors, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the “GDPR”) and the amended French Law No. 78-17 of 6 January 1978, known as the “Informatique et Libertés” law (French Data Protection Act).
vs-norm.com is a personal blog providing information and plain-language explanations about the European VSME/VS standard and the voluntary standard. It sells no products or services online, offers neither a contact form nor newsletter sign-up, and carries out no direct marketing. The processing described below is therefore limited strictly to the technical operation of the website.
Version as of 8 November 2026.
Data controller
The controller of personal data is:
- Johan Théron, a private individual publishing the website in a personal, non-commercial capacity;
- Home address: 5 rue du Chalet, 25620 Trépot, France.
He may be contacted by email only. To protect this address from automated harvesting, it is written out in full and without a clickable link: “theron dot johan”, followed by the at sign, then “gmail dot com”. The identity of the publisher and of the director of publication is given in the website’s legal notice.
What data is processed, and why
Even without a form or user account, simply visiting a website involves the processing of certain technical data. On vs-norm.com, the processing operations are as follows.
Connection logs (server logs)
On each visit, the hosting server automatically records connection data: IP address, date and time of the request, pages viewed, browser type and operating system. These logs are generated and stored by the hosting provider.
- Purpose: to ensure the proper functioning, security and availability of the website (detecting incidents, preventing abuse and intrusions).
- Legal basis: the controller’s legitimate interest in securing his website (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Comments (if this feature is enabled)
If comments are open on an article, the information you voluntarily enter (name or pseudonym, email address, content of the comment) and your IP address are recorded by the WordPress software.
- Purpose: to enable comments to be published and moderated, and to combat spam.
- Legal basis: your consent, expressed by voluntarily submitting the comment (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR).
Audience measurement and technical caching
The website uses the WP Super Cache plugin to speed up page display. This plugin may set strictly technical cookies required for cache management. At launch, the website uses no advertising audience analytics tools and no marketing trackers. Details of the cookies are set out in the “Cookies and trackers” section below.
Recipients and processors
The data is not sold, rented or transferred to third parties for commercial purposes. It is accessible only to the controller and to the hosting provider acting as processor:
- Infomaniak Network SA, Rue Eugène-Marziano 25, 1227 Les Acacias (Geneva), Switzerland — telephone: +41 22 820 35 44 — www.infomaniak.com.
The hosting provider processes connection data solely on behalf of the publisher, under the hosting contract and its own data protection policy.
Hosting and transfers outside the European Union
The website is hosted in Switzerland by Infomaniak. Switzerland is the subject of an adequacy decision of the European Commission, recognising that the country provides an adequate level of data protection within the meaning of Article 45 of the GDPR.
As a result, hosting the data in Switzerland does not constitute a transfer requiring additional safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses): the adequacy decision alone covers this transfer. The publisher takes care not to use processors located in countries that do not offer an adequate level of protection.
Retention periods
- Connection logs: kept for a limited period for security purposes, generally in the order of six to twelve months depending on the hosting provider’s settings, then deleted or anonymised.
- Comments: kept for as long as the article and its discussion thread remain online; you may at any time request the deletion of a comment you have posted.
- Technical cookies: kept for their period of validity, which does not exceed the periods recommended by the CNIL, the French data protection authority (a maximum of thirteen months for the trackers concerned).
Cookies and trackers
A cookie is a small file placed on your device when you visit a website. vs-norm.com limits the use of cookies to what is strictly necessary.
- Strictly technical cookies: set in particular by the WP Super Cache plugin to ensure that pages display correctly and perform well. These cookies are exempt from the consent requirement because they are necessary to provide the service you request.
- Audience measurement, advertising or social media cookies: none are used at the website’s launch.
Should a non-essential tracker be set in the future, a consent banner complying with Article 82 of the Informatique et Libertés law (French Data Protection Act) would be introduced, and this policy would be updated accordingly. You can also configure your browser to refuse or delete cookies; however, refusing strictly technical cookies may impair the functioning of the website.
Your rights
Under the GDPR, you have the following rights regarding data relating to you:
- right of access;
- right to rectification;
- right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”);
- right to restriction of processing;
- right to object;
- right to data portability;
- right to set instructions regarding what happens to your data after your death.
Where processing is based on your consent (for example, a comment), you may withdraw it at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before its withdrawal.
Exercising your rights
To exercise your rights, you may send your request to the publisher by email, to the address given in the “Data controller” section: to protect it from automated harvesting, it is written out in full and without a clickable link — “theron dot johan”, followed by the at sign, then “gmail dot com”.
In order to process your request, you may be asked to specify its subject and, where there is reasonable doubt as to your identity, to provide proof of it. You will receive a response within the time limits laid down by the GDPR (in principle one month, which may be extended depending on the complexity of the request).
Complaints to the CNIL
If, after contacting us, you consider that your rights are not being respected, you may lodge a complaint with the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL, the French data protection authority), 3 place de Fontenoy, TSA 80715, 75334 Paris Cedex 07, or online at www.cnil.fr.
Changes to this policy
This privacy policy may be updated to reflect changes to the website, the tools used or the applicable regulations. The date of the last update is shown at the top of the page. For any question about the publisher’s legal information, please see the legal notice.