The FADP applies to the processing of personal data by private controllers and federal bodies. Like the GDPR, the FADP has extra-territorial scope, meaning that it applies to companies located outside of Switzerland. The extra-territorial scope of the FADP is, however, broader than that of the GDPR because it covers all circumstances that have an effect in Switzerland, even if the action was initiated from abroad. This is known as the “effect doctrine”. According to the effect doctrine not just data processing activities related to Swiss individuals are subject to the FADP. Any processing operations performed on servers in Switzerland will be caught by the FADP, even if such operations are carried out from abroad.