To make this website work optimally, the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA) uses cookies to help analyse the use of its website.
The controller for the statistics generated by the use of cookies is the Head of General Coordination Unit and the contact e-mail address is [email protected]
What are cookies?
Cookies are short text files stored on a user's web browser (such as a computer, tablet or phone) to optimise the user's browsing experience and to provide usability and statistical information to eu-LISA.
Cookie Types
There are two types of cookies.
Persistent cookies remain on a user's device for a set period specified in the cookie. They are activated each time that the user visits the website that created the particular cookie.
Session cookies are temporary. They allow website operators to link the actions of a user during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and finishes when they close the browser window. Once you close the browser, all session cookies are deleted.
How does eu-LISA use cookies?
eu-LISA uses the open-source analytics platform Piwik which runs on a web server for the purpose of measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of this website. eu-LISA's website visitors are tracked using one cookie called 'first-party session cookie'.
- 'First party' means that eu-LISA retains full responsibility and control of the data collected through these cookies, by storing the data in servers fully owned and controlled by eu-LISA. This data is not shared with any organisations for marketing, market research or commercial purposes.
- 'Session', for eu-LISA, means that the cookie set by our website will expire immediately after closing the browser session.
Within the content of the cookie there is no personal information stored and cannot be used to identify a particular website visitor. Further to the random identifier generated by Piwik, which enables eu-LISA to understand when a user returns to the site, there are other random identifiers, search and document viewing related, that optimise the user's experience. This information is used to gather aggregated and anonymous statistics with a view to improving our services and to enhance your user experience.
Our cookie is not used to identify you personally. It is just there to make the site work better for you and for eu-LISA to improve the quality of the website.
Social media cookies
eu-LISA is active on several social media platforms. Our presence in the Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook communities strengthens both our online presence and visibility and provides further information to EU citizen:
- The eu-LISA website does not set cookies with the display of links to our social media channels when you are browsing our website;
- You can watch eu-LISA's videos, which we upload to the website or to our YouTube page. You can also follow links from our website to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn;
- By clicking on the social media buttons on our website, you will be re-directed to the relevant sites, which have their own cookie and privacy policies over which we have no control;
Privacy measures
Piwik is configured to store values in a first-party cookie that expire when no longer used and the cookie itself will be deleted when the browser is closed.
Piwik values stored in the cookie enable eu-LISA to track 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)
- Site Search
To improve the accuracy of the produced reports, information is also stored in a first-party cookie from our website and then collected by Piwik:
- 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
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:
Masking of IP addresses
Organisations, city and country origin are determined from the full IP (Internet Protocol), then stored and aggregated before a mask is applied. Piwik uses an IP de-identification mechanism that automatically masks a portion of each visitor's IP, effectively making it impossible to identify a particular visitor via the sole IP address.
Data storage
Anonymised and aggregated data is stored for an indefinite period by eu-LISA for analysis purposes.
How to control cookies
You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see AboutCookies.org.
Managing cookies in your browser
Most browsers allow you to:
- see what cookies you've got and delete them on an individual basis
- block third party cookies
- block cookies from particular sites
- block all cookies from being set
- delete all cookies when you close your browser
If you chose to delete cookies, you should be aware that any preferences will be lost. Also, if you block cookies completely many websites might not work properly.
