We use cookies on our website for its technical functioning and for gathering statistics. A cookie is a small piece of data that a website stores on the visitor’s computer or mobile device.

The table on this page lists the cookies that this website uses and describes their purpose.

You will also find some more detail here about cookies relating to our social media channels and Europa Analytics, the service we use for our statistics, including privacy measures, opting out and masking of IP addresses.

Social media cookies

The EDPS is active on three social media platforms. Our presence in the Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn communities strengthens our online presence and visibility.

• The EDPS website does not set cookies with the display of links to our social media channels when you are browsing our website;
• You can watch EDPS videos, which we upload (embed) to our YouTube page. You can also follow links from our website to Twitter and LinkedIn;
• In order to watch an EDPS video on our website, a message will alert you that you need to accept YouTube cookies to do so. YouTube has its 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 LinkedIn button on our website, you will be re-directed to the LinkedIn site, which has its own cookie and privacy policies over which we have no control;
• The display of our Twitter feed on this website uses a cookie-free component provided to us by the European Commission. Clicking on the Twitter icon on this website will re-direct you to the Twitter site, which has its own cookie and privacy policies over which we have no control.

Europa Analytics

Europa Analytics is the corporate service, which monitors and evaluates the effectiveness and efficiency of the EDPS and the European Commission websites as well as the other websites the Commission hosts.

It uses an open-source analytics platform, Piwik, fully controlled by the European Commission. This platform enables the protection of end-user personal data thanks to features such as IP address de-identification and a mechanism for users to opt-out so that their browsing is not processed for analytics purposes.

Privacy measures

Europa Analytics is configured to use the second level domain europa.eu (used by the websites of European institutions) and to store first-party cookies that expire after 13 months.

Cookies (from Piwik) used by Europa Analytics enable the European Commission 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

To improve the accuracy of the produced reports, information is also stored in a first-party cookie from our website and then collected by Europa Analytics:

• Random unique Visitor ID
• Time of the first visit for the specific visitor
• Time of the previous visit for the specific visitor
• Number of visits for the specific visitor 

• First party cookies are set by the website you’re visiting. Only that website can read them.  In addition, a website might potentially use an external service to analyse how people are using their site. Europa Analytics sets their own cookie to do this and does not use external parties.
  The data collected is masked and cannot be used to identify a particular visitor. They will not be shared with any other organisation for marketing, market research or commercial purposes.
  For persistent cookies, a random ID is generated by Piwik, which allows Europa Analytics to identify when a user returns to the site. All persistent cookies have an expiration date (13 months), after which they are automatically removed from the user's device.

• Persistent cookies are saved on your computer and are not deleted automatically when you close your browser, unlike a session cookie, which is deleted when you close your browser.
  The European Commission retains full control of the data collected through first-party cookies by storing the data in servers fully owned and controlled by the European Commission.

Opting out

By default, the browsing experience of website visitors is tracked by Europa Analytics in order to produce anonymised statistics.

You may choose not to be tracked (opt-out). If you change your mind, you can choose to be tracked again (opt-in).

If you wish to opt-out (or opt-in back again) please click here:

Please note: this feature will opt you out (or in) of cookies too.  If you choose to opt-out, you will receive an opt-out cookie (piwik_ignore) so that your decision is remembered. If you regularly delete your cookies, you will need to opt-out each time you delete them.

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
 

• If you enable do not track in your web browser, Europa Analytics will respect your choice;
•  If you have enabled the do not track function, you will not be tracked. This is in addition to you opting-out of the aggregation and analysis of data for our website statistics;
•  If you have not enabled the do not track option but you choose to opt-out, the cookie ‘piwik_ignore’ will be stored in your browser. All visitors with a piwik_ignore cookie will not be tracked by Europa Analytics;
• if you have disabled all cookies from your browser, we will still collect some general data about your browsing (e.g. a record of a visitor to our website) but they will be less accurate and your visit will not be tracked (Piwik cookies are not used).

Restricted access to information

All analytics data communication is encrypted via HTTPS protocol. The analytical reports generated by Europa Analytics can only be accessed through the European Commission Authentication System (ECAS) by authorised Commission staff dealing with Piwik, the relevant European institution staff or by duly authorised external sub-contractors, who may be required to analyse, develop and/or regularly maintain certain sites.

Masking of IP addresses

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

Visitor logs

Europa Analytics automatically deletes visitors' logs after 13 months. Anonymised and aggregated data are stored for an indefinite period by the European Commission for analysis purposes.

Contact

Specific questions about the storage and use of Europa Analytics data can be sent to us via our contact form.