Cookies Policy

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device (such as a smartphone or a tablet) when you visit the site.

Cookies can be used for various purposes, such as for “remembering” user preferences or to generate statistics. Thus, cookies allow a website to store certain information in order to improve the user experience by eliminating the need to insert repeatedly the same information. Our cookies are not used to identify you personally.

For further information on cookies, please see EDAA's guide to online behavioural advertising and online privacy.

How do we use cookies?

Different types of cookies exist in EIGE’s website:

• First-party cookies. These are set by EIGE’s website you are visiting and only this website can read them. These cookies are strictly necessary for the provision of the web service requested by you.

  At EIGE we mostly use first party cookies, which comprise of two categories:

  • Essential cookies, which are necessary for the technical functioning of the website. These cookies are always placed when you visit the EIGE’s website; and

  • Analytics cookies, which support EIGE in generating anonymous website statistics. This is performed with the use of Matomo, an open source web analytics service, and Hotjar, a tool for analysing user behavior. Matomo uses cookies to help analyse the use of EIGE’s website and to compile reports about website activity. Similarly, Hotjar uses cookies to collect anonymous data on user interactions such as page views, clicks, and session durations. This information is not passed onto third parties and is used solely for improving our website and services. This information is not passed onto third parties.

    Please note that the analytics cookies are not automatically stored in your computer when you visit our website and will only be placed if you provide your consent.

  EIGE retains full control of the data collected through first-party cookies by storing the data in servers controlled by the Agency. Anonymised and aggregated data are stored for an indefinite period by EIGE for analysis purposes.

• Third-party cookies. These are set and stored by a different website in a manner that is outside the control of EIGE.

What cookies do we use specifically?

The following cookies are used in the EIGE’s website:

Essential cookies

• cck1 (duration: 6 months) - set by the EIGE website to hide the cookie notice pop-up and remember the user’s choice.
• mtm_consent_removed (duration: 1 year) – set by the EIGE website to remember that user has opted out.
• SSESS* (duration: 1 month) – set by Drupal for logged in users.

Analytics cookies

• _pk_* (duration: variable) - various Matomo analytics cookies set for users that allowed tracking; the full list of such cookies can be consulted on the Matomo website.
• _hjSession* (duration: variable) – various Hotjar user tracking cookies for users allowed tracking; the full list of such cookies can be consultes on the Hotjar website.

What type of information do we collect via the EIGE’s analytics cookies?

Cookies from Matomo enable EIGE to track the following information about visitors. We use this information to prepare aggregated, anonymous statistics reports of visitor activity:

• IP address (masked)
• Location: country, region, city, approximate latitude and longitude (Geolocation)
• Date and time of the request (visit to the site)
• Title of the page being viewed (Page Title)
• URL of the page being viewed (Page URL)
• URL of the page that was viewed prior to the current page (Referrer URL)
• Screen resolution of user's device
• Time in local visitor's time-zone
• Files that were clicked and downloaded (Download)
• Links to an outside domain that were clicked (Outlink)
• Pages generation time (the time it takes for webpages to be generated by the webserver and then downloaded by the visitor: Page speed)
• Main language of the browser being used (Accept-Language header)
• Browser version, browser plugins (PDF, Flash, Java, …) operating system version, device identifier (User-Agent header)
• Language of the visited page
• Campaigns
• Site Search
• Events

Note: Institution, city and country origin are determined from the full IP, then stored and aggregated before a mask is applied. Matomo uses an IP de-identification mechanism that automatically masks a portion of each visitor's IP, effectively making it impossible to identify a particular visitor via the sole IP address.

How can I opt out from the analytics cookies?

Please note that in any case our cookies are not used to identify you personally.

Do not track preferences

Do not track is a function that allows visitors to opt out from being tracked by websites for any purpose including the use of analytics services, advertising networks and social platforms. Do not track options are available in a number of browsers including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, Opera.

In addition, all the browsers allow the user to accept, decline or delete cookies, in particular by selecting the appropriate settings in the browser. Please note, however, that disabling cookies may prevent the correct functioning of some of the services on our website, thus affecting the browsing, in total or in part, which will have an impact on your experience of using our website.

On EIGE’s website:

• If you have enabled do not track in your web browser, we will respect your choice;
• If you have enabled the do not track function, you will not be tracked. This is in addition to the approach of consent and opting out processes that we follow.

Social media cookies

EIGE is active on several social media platforms. Our presence in the Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook communities strengthens our online presence and visibility.

The EIGE website does not set cookies with the display of links to our social media channels when you are browsing our website. You can watch EIGE’s videos, which we upload to the website or to our YouTube page. You can also follow links from our website to Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

To view this content, you need to click on the social media buttons on our website which will re-direct you to the relevant sites. You will, then, need to accept their specific terms and conditions, which includes their cookie policies. Be informed that EIGE has no control over the cookie policies of external websites.

If you do not view the content, the external provider will not install any third-party cookies on your device.

Details about the cookie policies of other websites are provided on their own cookie notice pages. For example, if you choose to watch one of our videos on YouTube, you will be asked for explicit consent to accept YouTube cookies; the same applies for Facebook and LinkedIn.

Contact

Should you require any additional information on the cookies and similar technology we use, please send your request to dpo@eige.europa.eu.