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What are cookies?
To facilitate the functioning of our website we may – subject to visitors’ consent – place small data files called cookies on your device. The only exception concerns a “technical cookie” which is installed when a user first accesses the website for the sole purpose of allowing the website to function correctly (“transmission of communication over an electronic communications network”).
Cookies are pieces of text generated by the web services that a user has visited; these text files can be set on the users’ devices by the website they are currently visiting (“first party cookies”) or by a different website to the one they are currently visiting (“third party cookies”).
Below you can find information on the choice to accept (“opt-in”) or refuse the placement of cookies, the types of cookies used by our website and their purpose.
You will also find information on the possibility of opting-out from the use of cookies (if you have already chosen to opt-in).
How do we use cookies?
On the website the following types of cookies are used: ‘first-party persistent cookies', ‘session cookies’ and ‘social media cookies’.
'First-party persistent cookies' enable the tracking of the following information about the visitors to our website:
- User IP address (IP will be anonymised in a GDPR compliant manner)
- Optional User ID
- Date and time of the request
- 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 being used
- Time in local user’s timezone
- 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 user: Page speed)
- Location of the user: country, region, city, approximate latitude and longitude (Geolocation)
- Main Language of the browser being used (Accept-Language header)
- User Agent of the browser being used (User-Agent header)
Some information is also stored in first party cookies:
- Random unique Visitor ID
- Time of the first visit for this user
- Time of the previous visit for this user
- Number of visits for this user
The collected data will not be shared with any other organisations for marketing, market research or commercial purposes. Moreover, the abovementioned data cannot be used to identify a particular visitor.
'First party' cookies are created by the website and enable:
- proper functioning of the website;
- EUSPA to collect statistics to improve website functionalities – for this purpose, EUSPA uses Matomo (more information is provided below)
- social media sharing functions.
'Persistent' means that these cookies expire after thirteen months (13), after which they are automatically removed from the users’ device.
'Session’: Cookies do not contain any data - they are placed for the duration of a user session (time spent browsing the website). These cookies are necessary to keep the visitor’s choice selection when the website is accessed.
‘Necessary’ cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies. Consent of the user is not required for these cookies.
‘Social media cookies’: EUSPA is active on social media platforms. Our presence in the Twitter, Mastodon, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn communities strengthens our online presence and visibility.
- The website does not set cookies with the display of links to our social media channels when you are browsing our website;
- You can watch EUSPA videos, being redirected to our YouTube page. You can also follow links from our website to Twitter, Mastodon, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn;
- EUSPA videos on our website are links to our YouTube channel.
- Videos viewed on our YouTube channel follow YouTube’s own cookie and privacy policies over which we have no control. There is no installation of cookies from YouTube until you consent to YouTube cookies;
- Similarly, by clicking on the Twitter, Mastodon, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn button on our website, you will be re-directed to the Twitter, Mastodon, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook sites, which have their own cookie and privacy policies over which we have no control.
The following cookies are used in the European GNSS web portal:
|
Cookie Name |
Domain |
Type |
Expiration |
Purpose |
|
cookie-agreed |
www.gsc-europa.eu |
First-party |
3 months |
Indicates whether cookies have been accepted or not |
| cookie-agreed-version | www.gsc-europa.eu | Not necessary | 3 months | Used to store the version of the acceptance of cookies |
|
_pk_id |
www.gsc-europa.eu |
Not necessary |
13 months |
Used to store a few details about the user such as the unique visitor ID |
|
_pk_ses, _pk_cvar , _pk_hsr |
www.gsc-europa.eu |
Not necessary |
30 minutes |
Short lived cookies used to temporarily store data for the visit |
|
_pk_testcookie |
www.gsc-europa.eu |
Not necessary |
Instantaneous |
Used to check whether the visitor’s browser supports cookies |
|
_pk_ref |
www.gsc-europa.eu |
Not necessary |
6 months |
Used to store the attribution information, the referrer initially used to visit the website |
|
GWEB |
www.gsc-europa.eu |
First-party |
Session |
Required for a smooth navigation |
|
JSESSIONID |
helpdesk.gsc-europa.eu |
First-party |
Session |
Created by each individual application server and used for session tracking purpose for each product |
|
atlassian.xsrf.token |
helpdesk.gsc-europa.eu |
First-party |
Session |
Helps prevent XSRF attacks. Ensures that during a user's session, browser requests sent to a product are originated from that product instance. |
|
seraph.rememberme.cookie |
helpdesk.gsc-europa.eu |
First-party (only when the check box "Remember my login on this computer" is ticked) |
14 days |
Generated when the user selects the Remember my login on this computer check box on the login page |
Opting-in
When the website is accessed first, the website visitor is provided with a choice to accept (“OK, I agree”) or refuse (“Decline”) the placement of cookies.
Technical cookies:
As soon as the website is accessed by non-registered users, a “technical cookie” (“GWEB”) is installed for the sole purpose of allowing the website to function correctly.
The same behaviour occurs when a registered user accesses the customer web portal (available only to registered users). In this case, the following technical cookies, necessary for the proper functioning of the GSC helpdesk, are installed: the cookie “atlassian.xsrf.token” is created when the visitor accesses the customer portal for the first time, while the cookies “JSESSIONID” and “seraph.rememberme.cookie” as soon as the visitor logs in with their credentials.
Accept cookies: By clicking this option, the visitor gives consent to the placement of all the cookies for the:
- Optimal functioning of the website;
- Social media sharing function;
- Collection of statistics.
Decline (cookies): By clicking this option, the visitor does not give consent to the placement of cookies. In this case, only the following cookies are placed:
- A session cookie (cookie-agreed, value 0): this is a technical cookie whose main purpose is to remember the visitors’ selection choice with respect to cookies. This cookie is placed for the duration of a user session (time spent browsing the website) and will be automatically deleted after 3 months;
- Cookies required for the proper working of the GSC web portal (GWEB);
- Cookies required for the proper working of the GSC helpdesk (JSESSIONID, atlassian.xsrf.token, seraph.rememberme.cookie).
Choosing not to accept cookies does not hinder your navigation experience on the website.
No selection made: If a visitor neither accepts nor refuses cookies, the banner will re-appear each time the user reloads/opens a new GSC link until a selection is made. No cookies shall be placed on visitors’ devices with the exception of the technical cookies explained above, unless the visitor selects “Accept”.
Opting-out
In case a visitor has opted-in to the placement of cookies, it is always possible to change this decision and opt-out. In order to opt-out, visitors need to delete all the cookies from their browser. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work. Each browser has a slightly different system – please see below some examples:
- For Chrome go to: Settings ›Privacy and Security › Clear browsing data › Select “Cookies and other site data”
- For Internet Explorer go to: Safety› Delete Browsing History › Select “Cookies and website media” › Click “Delete”
- Microsoft Edge go to: Settings › Clear Browsing Data › Select “Cookies and saved website data” › Click “Clear”.
- For Firefox go to: Options ›Privacy and Security ›Cookies and Site Data › Click “Clear data”
- For Safari go to: Preferences ›Privacy › Cookies and website data › Click “Manage Website Data” (Mac) or “Remove All Website Data”. (Windows), › Select “Remove All” to delete all the cookies
To learn more on how to clear your cookies in different browsers you may visit https://www.aboutcookies.org/
Do not track option
Do Not Track is a technology that enables visitors to opt out from being tracked by websites for whatever purpose, including the use of analytics services, advertising networks and social platforms. You can enable the 'Do not track' option:
- directly in your web browser, as Matomo will not track users who have enabled this option in their web browsers;
- by unclicking the “Enable user tracking” in the user’s personal area, tab “My Profile”, field “Matomo settings”.
Matomo
The website uses Matomo (formerly named “Piwik”) in order to track the information of visitors described above. For this purpose, the abovementioned collected data are stored in servers located at the GNSS Service Centre (within the EU).
More information on Matomo’s privacy policy can be found here.