Why your health data stays in Switzerland
We established the Health Data Safe Foundation in Switzerland for one reason. We wanted a place where we could guarantee that no one but the patient decides who can access and use their health data. Three things had to be true for that.
Privacy is written into the constitution
In Switzerland, the protection of personal data is a constitutional right. Article 13 of the Federal Constitution protects everyone against the misuse of their personal data.
That matters because of where the rule sits. It is not an ordinary law that can be rewritten in a single parliamentary session. Amending the Constitution requires the agreement of the citizens themselves. The protection our patients rely on does not depend on the priorities of any given year.
Data held in Switzerland stays under Swiss law
Article 271 of the Swiss Criminal Code makes it an offence to hand over data held in Switzerland to a foreign authority without Swiss authorisation. A foreign authority cannot reach the data directly. It has to go through Swiss legal channels, where a Swiss judge reviews the request.
For that protection to mean anything, the servers and the operator both have to be Swiss, because jurisdiction follows the company as much as the machines. Our platform runs on Exoscale, a Swiss company based in Lausanne, in its Geneva zone.
Sharing stays a choice
The European Health Data Space addresses a real problem. Health data locked in incompatible systems helps no one, and we agree with the goal. The difference is the default. Under the EHDS, secondary use of health data is the norm and patients are given the right to object. Switzerland sits outside that framework.
On our platform, every share is the patient’s decision, taken project by project, reviewed by an ethics committee, and recorded in a log the patient can read. We build to EHDS standards, so research carried out with HDS data can be published and reused across Europe. What differs is not the technical standard. It is who says yes.
A foundation, not a company
That leaves one person who can open the door, and it is the right one: the patient.
Health Data Safe is a foundation, not a company. It was registered in the canton of Vaud on 10 October 2025 under Articles 80 and following of the Swiss Civil Code, and it has no profit-making purpose. Its assets are tied to its purpose, and the Foundation itself cannot be sold. Its purpose commits it to public health, quality of care and scientific progress, with the fundamental rights of patients at the centre; the data entrusted to the platform serves care, research and public health, and nothing else.
The Foundation is supervised by the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations, and its accounts are audited by an independent body. Changing what the Foundation is for is not a decision its Council can take on its own. The essential articles are published on our statutes page.
Why Vaud
We chose Vaud because our people and our partners are here: EPFL, the CHUV, Biopôle in Epalinges, and the Tech4Eva women’s health accelerator at EPFL Innovation Park.
The full argument is set out in our 2026 white paper. Request your copy below.