Cookie Policy
INTRODUCTION
The European Space Agency (herein the “Agency” or “ESA”) is an intergovernmental organisation established by its Convention opened for signature in Paris on 30 May 1975 having its headquarters located at 24 rue du Général Bertrand, CS 30798, 75345 Paris Cedex 07, France.
Protection of Personal Data is of great importance for ESA, therefore this Cookie Notice aims to ensure lawfulness and transparency by explaining the cookies and similar technologies that we use in the website , what they do, what your choices regarding their use are and how you can contact us.
In the following cookie policy:
- ‘Platform‘ means the https://gssc.esa.int/ web portal, its content and associated services.
- ‘Content’ means all pages, screens, information and materials included in or accessible throughout the platform.
- ‘you’, ‘your’ and ‘yours’ means you, the person(s) accessing our Platform and related services, and the party on whose behalf you are doing so.
- ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ means the European Space Agency (ESA).
WHAT ARE COOKIES?
A cookie is a small text file that a website may save on your device, for instance mobile device or computer, upon your visit to the website. Cookies may allow a website to recognise an individual’s device and store some information about the user.
WHY DO WE USE COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES?
Cookies do a lot of different jobs, such as remember that you are logged in, letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences and generally improving the user experience.
DO WE USE COOKIES FOR MARKETING, TARGETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA?
No, we don’t use cookies for marketing purposes or social media and we have not enabled analytics cookies like for instance Google Analytics. Cookies that we generate are not shared with third party companies.
DO WE USE ANY COOKIES FROM THIRD PARTY COMPANIES?
Some cookies we use are from third party companies, such as reCAPTCHA, to provide us with anti-spam and protection intelligence about our sites. These companies use programming code to collect information about your interaction with our sites, such as the pages you visit, the links you click on and how long you are on our sites. This code is only active while you are on GSSC websites. For more information on how these companies collect and use information on our behalf, please refer to the Google Privacy & Terms.
WHAT TYPES OF COOKIES ARE THERE AND WHICH ONES DO WE USE?
A cookie can be classified by its lifespan and the domain to which it belongs. By lifespan, a cookie is either a:
- Session cookie which is erased when the user closes the browser or;
- Persistent cookie which remains on the user’s computer/device for a pre-defined period of time;
We use both session and persistent cookies on our Portal.
As for the domain to which it belongs, there are either:
- First-party cookies which are set by the web server of the visited page and share the same domain;
- Third-party cookies stored by a different domain to the visited page’s domain. This can happen when the webpage references a file, such as JavaScript, located outside its domain.
WHICH COOKIES DO WE USE?
Strictly Necessary or Essential cookies: Without these cookies you would not be able to access the services or the website and therefore this category cannot be disabled. These cookies are strictly necessary for the website to provide the services that you requested and/or for the solely purpose of the transmission of the services and/or the website.
We don’t use Strictly Necessary or Essential cookies in our Platform.
Functional cookies: These cookies are not strictly necessary, but allow you to have a with a better experience by providing enhanced and more personal features. We only place these cookies if you have provided your prior consent.
| Source | First Party or Third Party cookie? | Cookie Name | Session or Persistent cookie? | Type of personal data collected | Purpose | Expires |
| Web server | ESA | cookieconsent_status | Persistent | None | Manages the user’s consent to the use of cookies on the website | 12 months |
| Web server | Third Party (The Newsletter Plugin) | newsletter | Persistent | None | Manages the user’s consent to the newsletter subscription | 12 months |
| Web server | ESA | roles | Session | None | It allows storing the role/roles of the user per session | Session time |
| Web server | ESA | user | Session | None | It allows storing the username of the user per session | Session time |
| Web server | ESA | token | Session | None | It allows storing a unique identifier per session through which it is possible to link necessary data to enable ongoing navigation and allow access according to user’s rights | Session time |
“roles”, “user” and “token” cookies allow the user to navigate the https://gssc.esa.int/portal. They allow storing a unique identifier per session through which it is possible to link necessary data to enable ongoing navigation and allow access according to user’s rights.
Analytics cookies: These cookies help a site to improve and measure the performance of our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. We only place these cookies if you have provided your prior consent.
| Source | First Party or Third Party cookie? | Cookie Name | Session or Persistent cookie? | Type of personal data collected | Purpose | Expires |
| Web server | Third Party (Piwick) | _pk_ses.2.944e | Persistent | None | Short lived cookie used to temporarily store data for the visit | 30 minutes |
| Web server | Third Party (Piwick) | _pk_id.2.944e | Persistent | None | Used to store a few details about the user such as the unique visitor ID | 13 months |
“_pk_ses.2.944e” and “_pk_id.2.944e” are Matomo Web analytics cookies developed by Piwick, which allows the measurement and analysis of navigation on web pages. These cookies collect information anonymously, including the number of visitors to the site, origin of the site visits and the pages visited. This information helps us improve the navigation and content of this website based on the amount of visits and other data provided by these cookies.
Social Media Plugin cookies: These cookies enable you to share our website content via your social media account(s) or easily share information with others.
We don’t use Social Media Plugin cookies in our Platform.
HOW DO YOU WITHDRAW YOUR CONSENT AND/OR DELETE THE COOKIES?
- Cookies Policy Banner: When you visit the GSSC portal for the first time, a banner is displayed that you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy. If you don’t agree, only the Essential cookies are used. In that case the Cookie policy Banner will stay on the screen and cannot be removed.
- Message Of The Day (MOTD) Banner: By not clicking on the MOTD banner, no cookie is stored in the browser that remembers that you have clicked away the message. As a result the message will be displayed on every page you visit.
- Using Your Browser: All the cookies used on our website can be disabled through your browser. To disable cookies through your browser, follow your browser instructions. Normally within the “Help”, “Tools” or “Edit” menus in your browser. Please note that blocking or deleting cookies may lead to reduced functionality of some features on the website. Therefore, the website may not function optimally without enabled cookies, in particular strictly necessary and essential cookies.
CHANGES TO OUR COOKIES NOTICE
All future changes we make to our Cookie Notice will be posted on this website.
CONTACT
In case of any question, you can contact ESA DPO, as first point of contact, by sending an email to: dpo@esa.int
RELATED PRIVACY PUBLICATIONS
Please note that alongside this Cookie Policy, we also publish our GSSC Portal Terms And Conditions.