1. Where is my data stored?

Where are my files physically kept?

Short answer: Your files are stored in Zurich, Switzerland. AI requests are processed briefly in Belgium (EU) only when you actively use drafting features.

Your contracts, messages, and account information remain stored on servers located in Zurich.

When you ask Laine to generate, revise, or analyse a document, only the text needed for that request is briefly processed through enterprise AI infrastructure located in Belgium. The result is immediately returned and stored again in Zurich. Nothing is stored permanently outside Switzerland.

Laine uses professional cloud infrastructure hosted in Switzerland under enterprise-grade security standards, with encryption, access controls, and auditability aligned with recognised modern security practices.

What data exactly does Laine store?

Short answer: Only what is needed to provide the service.

  • Your account information: name, email address, professional details.
  • The documents you create or upload.
  • Messages exchanged with your clients through the platform.
  • Technical usage logs needed to operate and secure the service.

Laine does not create profiles on your clients and does not collect personal data beyond what you actively submit through the platform.

Can other lawyers on the platform see my files?

Short answer: No. Each lawyer’s workspace is fully isolated.

Each lawyer’s workspace is logically separated through database-level segregation and access controls designed to prevent cross-access between users. Your files remain accessible only within your own environment.

Why does Belgium appear if my files are stored in Zurich?

Short answer: Because storage and AI generation are two separate technical steps.

  • Your files stay in Zurich.
  • Only the text needed to generate an answer briefly passes through Belgium.
  • The answer returns immediately and is then stored again in Zurich.

Storage remains Swiss. AI generation is temporary EU processing.

What the law requires

  • Art. 13 Swiss Bar Act: client data must remain protected against unauthorised disclosure
  • Permanent storage is maintained in Switzerland to ensure a high level of control and confidentiality
  • Any cross-border transfer requires adequate legal protection.

What Laine does

  • Permanent storage in Zurich, Switzerland.
  • AI processing occurs only temporarily within the EU (Belgium)
  • Data stored on the platform is protected through encryption at rest
  • No data stored permanently outside Switzerland

2. Who can access my files and messages?

Can anyone at Laine read my client files?

Short answer: Not in the normal course of the service.

Laine does not access your files or client messages as part of ordinary service operation.

Access to production data is restricted by role. Only authorised technical personnel responsible for maintaining the platform may reach certain environments, within defined technical boundaries and under internal controls.

As with any professional cloud service, exceptional technical access may exist when necessary to maintain security, stability, or resolve incidents. That access is controlled, limited, and documented.

Are messages with my clients confidential?

Short answer: Yes.

Messages are encrypted while they travel through the network and while they are stored. They are not used for AI training and are not shared with third parties.

What the law requires

  • Art. 13 LLCA: professional secrecy covers all client communications

What Laine does

  • No routine access to files or messages in ordinary service operation
  • Access is role-based, controlled, and documented
  • Lawyers must ensure the tools they use do not allow accidental disclosure
  • Messages encrypted in transit and at rest.
  • No sharing with third parties

3. Laine is not ChatGPT – what is the difference?

Is Laine just another AI tool?

Short answer: No. Laine is a legal infrastructure built with dedicated contractual and controlled safeguards.

When you use a consumer AI tool directly, whether free or paid, you remain under standard consumer terms, typically involving infrastructure controlled by US-based providers, without contractual protections designed for legal professional obligations.

Laine works differently: your files remain stored in Switzerland, AI processing occurs under enterprise contractual safeguards, and the provider is contractually prohibited from training on your data.

When Laine generates a contract, what happens to my text?

Short answer: It is processed briefly, then deleted.

The text you submit is sent to enterprise AI infrastructure in Belgium for the short time needed to generate the answer. It exists only during that generation window.

Under enterprise contractual commitments, it is not retained after processing. The provider has no contractual right to keep it, reuse it, or train on it.

Is my data used to train an AI?

Short answer: No.

Training an AI means feeding documents into a model so it learns from them permanently. That does not happen with your files.

Your documents remain stored in Zurich and are not used to improve external models.

How does Laine prevent reuse of my data?

Short answer: Three protections: a contractual prohibition, a technical configuration, and minimisation.

  • Contractual prohibition on retention and training, binding on the AI provider.
  • Enterprise zero-retention configuration: text is deleted once the output is generated.
  • Minimisation of identifying information through technical measures and user-side drafting discipline. Lawyers should avoid inserting unnecessary personal identifiers when not needed for drafting.

Using AI tools directly

Using Laine
Storage Typically infrastructure controlled by US-based providers Zurich, Switzerland
AI processing Usually outside Swiss legal framework Belgium (EU), GDPR framework
AI training May depend on provider settings Contractually prohibited
Contractual safeguards Consumer terms Enterprise contractual commitments
Deletion after processing Not always guaranteed Zero-retention enterprise setup
Professional secrecy No lawyer-specific framework Built around legal professional use
Most lawyers who use consumer AI tools on client matters are unaware of the exposure this creates. Laine is built to address that exposure through purpose-built infrastructure, contractual safeguards, and a legal framework designed around professional practice.

What the law requires

  • nFADP: personal data may only be used for the purpose it was collected for
  • Art. 13 LLCA: information covered by professional secrecy cannot be disclosed to third parties
  • Lawyers must verify that tools they use offer adequate data protection guarantees

What Laine does

  • Text sent to the AI deleted on provider side once output is generated, under enterprise commitments
  • Contractual prohibition on AI training, binding on the provider
  • AI processing in the EU under GDPR Switzerland has an adequacy agreement with the EU
  • Encrypted connection throughout. No client identifiers sent to the AI where avoidable, through minimisation measures and drafting discipline

4. Does my data leave Switzerland?

Does my data cross a border at any point?

Short answer: Only briefly, when AI is used.

Your files stay in Switzerland. Only the text needed to generate an answer briefly passes through Belgium.

Belgium is part of the EU, which means the transfer benefits from one of the strongest legal protection frameworks available. Nothing remains stored there.

What the law requires

  • nFADP art. 16: international transfers require adequate protection in the destination country
  • Lawyers must ensure cross-border transfers of client data are legally justified.

What Laine does

  • Storage remains exclusively in Switzerland.
  • AI processing in Belgium: covered by Switzerland's adequacy agreement with the EU
  • No data stored outside Switzerland.

5. Who remains legally responsible?

If a Laine-generated contract contains an error, is Laine liable?

Short answer: No. Your professional responsibility remains unchanged.

Laine is a technology infrastructure designed to assist in the structured drafting of legal documents. It is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal opinions. The platform delivers legal indications and structured outputs based on advanced technology, a proprietary legal methodology, and frameworks developed in collaboration with legal professionals.

While Laine has been built using sophisticated systems, legal logic, and a specifically developed Laine drafting methodology, it remains a tool intended to facilitate and streamline the drafting process. It does not exercise independent legal judgment.

Where a user elects to request a professional review of such document through the platform, the reviewing lawyer assumes full responsibility for the review and any resulting advice or modifications. In all cases, full professional responsibility for the final document, including its accuracy, completeness, and suitability, remains with the reviewing legal professional.

Is using Laine compatible with Swiss bar obligations?

Short answer: Yes, if used as a tool.

Laine is designed to remain compatible with Swiss professional obligations. It does not advise your client. It does not replace your judgment. You remain responsible for understanding what the tool does and reviewing its output.

If you have a specific concern about your cantonal bar rules, Laine recommends consulting your bar directly.

Is Laine compatible with my duty of professional secrecy?

Short answer: Yes. Laine is designed to operate within the boundaries of professional secrecy under Swiss law.

Professional secrecy under Art. 13 LLCA and Art. 321 SCC covers all information entrusted to a lawyer in the course of the professional relationship, including when processed through digital tools.

Laine addresses this through:

  • Storage exclusively in Switzerland, with workspace isolation between users.
  • Enterprise zero-retention AI processing: no client data retained by the AI provider after the output is generated.
  • Contractual prohibition on data access, retention, and training by the AI provider.
  • Encryption in transit and at rest, with role-based access controls.
  • No sharing of client data with third parties.

What the law requires

  • LLCA art. 12: lawyers must exercise their profession with care and diligence
  • Duty of competence includes understanding and verifying the tools used
  • Professional secrecy remains applicable to all content processed through the platform

What Laine does

  • Laine provides drafting assistance. It does not substitute for professional judgment.
  • The lawyer is the author of record for every document
  • AI output must always be reviewed before client use

6. Am I automatically enrolled in Laine’s AI contribution programme?

What is this programme and am I part of it without knowing?

Short answer: Participation is optional. The programme is inactive by default.

You join only if you actively choose to participate.

  • If you opt in, no client and personal or identifiable information is processed, including names, parties, amounts, case references, file numbers, or any client or matter identifiers. All data is strictly anonymised and encrypted, in full respect of professional secrecy obligations.
  • Only structural drafting logic is analysed: clause patterns, methodology, risk allocation – basically, your working methodolgy is analyzed to improve Laine.
  • You may leave at any time with no effect on your access.

7. How long is my data kept?

What happens when I stop using Laine?

Short answer: Data is retained only as long as necessary.
Account data is deleted after your subscription ends, subject to operational needs.

Professional files are retained according to legal retention requirements applicable to your practice, typically up to 10 years under Swiss professional standards, unless a longer retention period applies under specific professional or contractual obligations.

You may request return or deletion of your data, subject to applicable legal obligations.

What the law requires

  • Swiss law imposes minimum retention periods for lawyer files, typically up to 10 years
  • nFADP: data must not be kept longer than necessary

What Laine does

  • Retention aligned with legal requirements applicable to your practice
  • Automatic deletion once retention periods expire
  • Return or deletion available on request

8. What rights do I have over my data?

What are my rights under Swiss data protection law?

Short answer: The full set of rights under nFADP applies.

  • Request access to your data and obtain a copy. – Have inaccurate data corrected.
  • Request deletion where legally possible.
  • Receive your data in a portable format.
  • Object to certain processing activities.

Contact Laine’s Data Protection Officer:

dataprotection@laine.ai · Avenue de la Gare des Eaux-Vives 28, 1208 Geneva

Unresolved matters may be escalated to the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

💡 Any questions? Write to dataprotection@laine.ai. We reply in English and French