Policy regarding cookies and similar technologies

To make the use of our website and application easier and more enjoyable we use cookies (by cookies we mean the collection of cookies, trackers, pixels, plug-ins, beacons, recaptchas, apps and applets). Cookies enable our website to remember your actions and preferences (user name, language, font size and other display parameters) for a fixed period of time, so you do not have to enter this data every time you consult the website or surf from one page to another.

1. What is a COOKIE?

A cookie is a small text file, possibly encrypted, that a website stores on your computer or other technological devices (smartphone, tablet, etc.) that you use to consult the website. These cookies are designed to both speed up and personalise your use of the website every time you visit and  return to it.

To this end, cookies exchange data between your web browser (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Linux Opera, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge etc.) and the server hosting the website. For instance, cookies provide information about your preferences for the display of the website (language, font size...), your browsing history, your choices regarding the options offered by a website and the registration data.

Cookies enable us, for example, to compare new users with old, gain insight into how people navigate the website, count website visitors and obtain data that will enable us to improve the future surfing experience.

Cookies do not keep trace of a user's personal data, and identifiable information is never registered. If you do not wish cookies to be used, you must configure your computer’s parameters to erase all cookies from websites and/or receive a notification if cookies are stored.

If you do not wish to change the cookies setting, you can simply continue your visit to the website.

2. Which types of cookies do we use?

2.1 Cookies that are strictly necessary for surfing

These cookies are essential to browse our website and use its functionalities. They cannot be disabled in our systems. They are placed on your terminal in response to what you are doing and that constitutes a service request, such as determining your privacy preferences, logging in (accessing secure areas of the website) or filling forms.

They make it possible to:

  • browse between different sections of websites;
  • fill in forms;
  • securely verify your identity before granting access to your personal data when a personal account has been created, including browsing between the secure areas of the website requiring authentication.

You can configure your internet browser to block cookies or to warn you about the existence of cookies. Should you later refuse those cookies, certain sections of the website or certain services will either not work properly or not work at all.

2.2 Functional cookies

Functional cookies, also known as ‘functionality cookies’, provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They facilitate and analyse the operation of the website to make its use more pleasant and personalised by enabling the site to remember the choices you have made and providing you with more precise and personal characteristics.

More specifically, they make it possible to:

  • personalise services by remembering your preferences (your user name, language choice, currency, region where you are located, etc);
  • avoid having to reformulate your choices each time you visit the website (changes made by the user are retained, such as text size or font);
  • collect data communicated on online forms;
  • provide services that you have requested (like watching a video or leaving a comment on a blog);

These cookies are specific to the content management platform (WordPress, Drupal, Liferay, Craft CMS): a kind of software that can be described as the ‘engine’ of a website.

The data these cookies collect is anonymised and not capable of tracking your surfing behaviour on other websites. These cookies also expire when you close your browser, with the exception of the cookie that specifies your language preference. They are, therefore, removed from your computer or other digital devices once you close this software.

If you block these cookies, all or part of our services may not function properly.

2.3 Analytical cookies and performance cookies

These cookies collect information about how visitors use our website. More specifically, it concerns the number of times the site is visited and the surfing behavior on the site.

Thanks to these cookies we can compile statistics. For example, we can count the number of visits and track from where they arrived on our site. In this way we can measure and improve the performance of our website and our services. The cookies tell us which pages are the most popular and which are the least popular, show us how visitors browse the site and how the services are used.

These cookies also allow us to check performance in a different way: they indicate whether there have been any error messages, how often this happened and after which actions.

The cookies do not collect any data with which visitors can be identified. The data they collect is brought together in such a way that anonymity is assured. After all, the cookies only serve to make the website work better.

The data collected by the cookies is aggregated. Therefore, if you delete these cookies, we will not be able to know when you visited our site or used its services. We are then unable to monitor its performance.

2.4 Targeted cookies

These cookies collect information about your browsing habits on the internet and your use of our services in order to provide you with advertising that is tailored to you and your interests. Thanks to them, we can limit the number of times you see an advertisement and estimate the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. Usually these cookies are installed by advertising networks with the permission of the website operator. They remember the visits to a website and share that information with other companies (eg advertising companies). Targeting cookies are often linked to functionalities of the website provided by a partner company.

Thanks to them:

  • you don't have to see the same commercials repeatedly;
  • we can measure the effectiveness of our various communication campaigns or of an advertising campaign;
  • We can personalize the advertisements on our websites and other communication platforms.

The data is collected and shared with third parties in order to be able to advertise specifically and to propose optimal solutions for our administrations, publishers and any advertisers. No personal data is collected and no one can be identified from the collected data.

Targeted cookies are based on the unique identification number of your browser and digital device on the internet (IP address). If you block these cookies, you will continue to see advertisements. You will only get less targeted advertising.

2.5 Third party cookies

Third-party cookies may be installed in (third-party) applications built into our website or services. Or they are present in advertisements (illustrations, animations, videos, etc.) on advertising space built into our website or services. Take for example buttons like "Share" and "Like": they come from social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Viadeo, etc.

The social media that provide such a button can identify you via that application button, even if you have not used the button while consulting our website or our services. This type of application button allows them to track your surfing behavior on our website or on our services when your social media account is active on your device (unclosed session) while you are surfing on our website or on our services.

The issuance and use of cookies by third parties is subject to the privacy policies of those third parties. We therefore have no control whatsoever over the process that social media use to collect data about your surfing behavior on our websites or on our services and to link it to the personal data they have themselves.

Be sure to consult the privacy policy of those social media. This way you get to know the (advertising) purposes of the surfing data that they can collect through those application buttons. Their privacy policy should allow you to make choices: you can configure your user accounts for each of the social media.

Please note that you can choose at any time to refuse the storage of cookies on your digital device. This can be done easily and at no cost. In this way, neither we nor our partners have access to the data that cookies collect.

3. How do I manage the cookies on my computer, tablet, etc?

Most web browsers are automatically configured to accept cookies. However, you can configure your browser to accept or block all cookies or just some of them.

You can delete cookies already installed on your device (computer, smartphone, tablet...) at any time and configure most browsers to block cookies. However, in that instance, you may have to specify certain preferences each time that you visit our website. There is also a risk of certain services and functionalities being inaccessible. In other words, we cannot guarantee you access to all the services on our websites if you refuse to register cookies.

In your browser’s parameters, you can refuse the installation of cookies. How to activate or deactivate cookies and to delete them depends on your digital device and your web browser: