EDPB Cookie Policy

Website cookies

We use cookies on our website. A cookie is a small piece of data that a website stores on the visitor’s computer or mobile device.

You can find in this page the option to manage your consent regarding cookies.

General types of cookies we use

As indicated in our cookie banner, we use two types of cookies:

  1. Essential cookies - we currently use one cookie to ensure that, when you return to our website, we know which cookie option about non-essential cookies you have selected in your previous visit.
  2. Non-essential cookies - these are cookies that we use to collect aggregated statistics about your visit. You can see below what information we collect about your visit.

If you don’t make a choice in the banner, no cookies will be deployed (either essential or non-essential), but the banner will re-appear every time you visit our website.

Europa Analytics and its cookies

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

It uses an open-source analytics platform, Matomo (formerly 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. On top of that, the EDPB has created a feature to manage users’ consent to the collection of users’ browsing experience for anonymised statistics.

Data protection information and measures in Europa Analytics

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.

Cookies (from Matomo) used by Europa Analytics enable the European Commission to track the following information about visitors. This information is used to prepare aggregated statistics reports of visitors’ activity, which do not contain any personal data:

  • 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.

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 itself (please check the Commission’s cookie policy here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/cookies_en).

Besides some session cookies, a random ID persistent cookie is generated by Matomo, which allows Europa Analytics to identify when a user returns to the site. This cookie has an expiration date of 13 months, after which it is automatically removed from the user's device.

  • First party cookies are cookies 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.
  • Persistent cookies are cookies saved on your computer which are not deleted automatically when you close your browser, unlike a session cookie, which is deleted when you close your browser. Persistent cookies are only used to re-identify you upon your next visit.

Consent to collecting your browsing experience, including personal data, for the production of aggregated statistics

By default, the browsing experience of our website visitors is NOT tracked by Europa Analytics. You may, though, choose to consent to our processing of any personal data collected during your browsing experience on our website to allow us to produce aggregated statistics.

If you enable the Do Not Track option (see below for an explanation) in your web browser, we will respect your choice and your  browsing experience on our website will not be tracked for our aggregated  statistics.

If you have not enabled the Do Not Track option, we will show you a cookie banner for you to make your choice and install a cookie called “edp_cookie_agree” to keep track of your choice. If you consent to the processing mentioned above, then Europa Analytics is activated and some relevant cookies loaded (i.e., essential and non-essential ones, as described above under ‘General types of cookies we use’). You can always decide to withdraw your consent, or consent again at any time.

The “edp_cookie_agree” expires after 6 months: then, if your Do Not Track option is not enabled, you will be shown the cookie banner again to renew your choice.

In case you have disabled all cookies, you will be shown the cookie banner at each visit of our website.

If you wish to consent to (or withdraw your consent from) analytics:

Accept Refuse

Do not track preferences

Do Not Track is a function that allows visitors not to be tracked by websites. Do Not Track options are available in a number of browsers including:

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 Matomo, 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 of origin for statistical purposes 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 solely via their IP address.

Visitor logs retention periods

Europa Analytics automatically deletes visitors' logs after 13 months. Aggregated data sets, containing no personal 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 or requests for further information on EDPB’s cookie policy can be sent to our webmaster.

If you have any questions concerning the processing of personal data, you can also contact the EDPB DPO.