Cookie Policy
Why a cookie policy?
To make this site work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device. Most big websites do this too.
In accordance with “cookie’s law”, this page describes what you need to know about how Perso-Indica uses cookies and how to manage or remove them, if you wish to do so, you should know; what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store them. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored, however, this may downgrade or “break” certain elements of the sites functionality.
Cookies are designed to make your visit to a website and internet browsing experience smooth and friendly.
On Perso-Indica, you can manage and/or delete cookies as you wish. Information about how to do this is provided in the section “How to manage cookies”.
In relation to the use of cookies by third parties, note that we do not have access or control over these cookies. Third parties use session cookies to facilitate social sharing or perform analytics. For information on third party cookies, please see below.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are sent to the user's computer or mobile device (usually to the user’s browser) by the visited websites; they are stored in the user's terminal equipment to be then re-transmitted to the websites on the user’s subsequent visits to those websites They enable the website to remember the user’s actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size and other display preferences), over a period of time, so he doesn’t have to keep re-entering them whenever he comes back to the site or browse from one page to another.
Cookies are not dangerous. They are not computer programs and cannot be used to circulate viruses.
Web pages may contain electronic images known as web beacons - sometimes called “clear GIFs”, “single-pixel GIFs”, or “web bugs”. Web beacons are used to deliver cookies on our websites, count clicks/users/visitors, and deliver co-branded content or services. We may include web beacons in our newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon. The website may also contain web beacons from third parties to help us compile aggregated statistics regarding website operations. These web beacons may allow the third parties to set or read cookies on your device. In addition to, the aforementioned cookies and web beacons, the website also uses other technologies to store and retrieve data from your device. This may be done to maintain your preferences or to improve speed and performance by storing certain files locally. All of these technologies are referred to as “cookies”.
What are cookies used for?
Cookies are present as a rule in substantial numbers in each user's browser and sometimes they remain stored for long. They are used for several purposes ranging from IT authentication to the monitoring of browsing sessions up to the storage of specific information on user configurations in accessing a given server, and so on.
In order to appropriately regulate these devices, it is necessary to distinguish them by having regard to the purposes sought by the entities relying on them, as there are no technical features that allow differentiating them. This is actually the approach followed by the law, which is provided for the obligation to obtain the users' prior informed consent to the installation of cookies for purposes other than those of a merely technical nature – pursuant to EC directive 2009/136 (see Section 1(5), letter a), of legislative decree No. 69 of 28 May 2012).
From this standpoint and for the purposes of this decision, cookies may be distinguished into two major groups: “technical” cookies and “profiling” cookies:
1. Technical Cookies: they are those usually installed directly by the data controller or the website manager and can be grouped into browsing or session cookies, which allow users to navigate and use a website (e.g. to purchase items online or authenticate themselves to access certain sections); analytics cookies, which can be equated to technical cookies insofar as they are used directly by the website manager to collect aggregate information on the number of visitors and the pattern of visits to the website; functional cookies, which allow users to navigate as a function of certain pre-determined criteria such as language or products to be purchased so as to improve the quality of service.
Users' prior consent is not necessary to install these cookies, while information has to be provided. Taking account of the guidance provided by the “Article 29 Working Party”, in particular via its Opinion 4/2012 on Cookie Consent Exemption as adopted on 7 June 2012, the following cookies can be exempted from informed consent under certain conditions if they are not used for additional purposes:
- user input cookies (session - id), for the duration of a session o persistent cookies limited to a few hours in some cases;
- authentication cookies, used for authenticated services, for the duration of a session.
- user centric security cookies, used to detect authentication abuses, for a limited persistent duration;
- Multimedia content player session cookies, such as flash player cookies, for the duration of a session;
- load balancing session cookies, for the duration of session.
- customization persistent cookies, for the duration of a session (or slightly more);
- third party social plugin content sharing cookies, for logged in members of a social network.
With regard to the social networks, the working party notes, however, that the use of third party social plug-in cookies, for other purposes than to provide a functionality explicitly requested by their own members, requires consent, notably if these purposes involve tracking users across websites.
2. Profiling Cookies: they are aimed at creating user profiles and are used to send ads messages in line with the preferences shown by the user during navigation. In the light of the highly invasive nature of these cookies vis-à-vis users' private sphere, European legislation requires users to be informed appropriately on their use in order to give their valid consent.
Characteristics of a cookie
Cookies are often categorized according to the following characteristics:
- whether they are “session cookies” or “persistent cookie”;
- whether they are “third party cookies” or not.
A “session cookie” is a cookie that is automatically deleted when the user closes his browser, while a “persistent cookie” is a cookie that remains stored in the user’s terminal device until it reaches a defined expiration date (which can be minutes, days or several years in the future).
The term “third party cookie” can be misleading:
- In the context of European data protection, the Directive 95/46/EC defines a third party as “any natural or legal person, public authority, agency or anyone else other than the data subject, the controller, the processor and the persons who, under the direct authority of the controller or the processor, are authorized to process the data. Thus, a “third party cookie”, would refer to a cookie set by a data controller that is distinct from the one that operates the website visited by the user (as defined by the current URL displayed in the address bar of the browser).
- However, from the perspective of browsers, the notion of “third party” is solely defined by looking at the structure of the URL displayed in the address bar of the browser. In this case “third party cookies” are cookies that are set by websites that belong to a domain that is distinct from the domain of the website visited by the user as displayed in the browser address bar, regardless of any consideration whether that entity is a distinct data controller or not.
Why does this website use cookies?
We use cookies for a variety of reasons as mentioned below. Some cookies are essential, meaning that they are necessary to navigate the website and use its services and features. Enabling these cookies is not strictly necessary for the website to work, but it will provide users with a better browsing experience. Users can delete or block these cookies, but if they do that some features of this site may not work as intended.
Other cookies are non-essential; they may record users’ preferences and enable the website to perform as they would like, or enable us to perform analytics or serve advertisements.
The main reasons cookies are on site are to:
- remember choice (acceptance cookie): this cookie is used to record when a user has given their implied consent for the use of cookies;
- keep track of the user’s input (user input cookies): this typical first party user input session cookie is used to keep track of the user’s input in a series of message exchanges with a service provider in a consistent manner: when filling online forms over several pages or providing an information service explicitly requested by the user;
- remember the user (authentication cookie): this session cookie is used to identify the user once he has logged in, so can browse multiple pages and do things like download content without being asked for his log in details each time. This cookie is also needed to allow user to authenticate him on successive visits to the website and gain access to authorized content. This cookie will usually be deleted when user logs out, however in some cases they may remain afterwards to remember their site preferences when logged out;
- store a user’s preference (user interface customization cookie): this cookie is used regarding a service across web pages and not linked to other persistent identifiers such as the username. It is only set if the user has explicitly requested the service to remember a certain piece of information, for example, by clicking on a button or ticking a box. It can be a session cookie or have a lifespan counted in weeks or months, depending on their purpose. Typical examples of customization cookies are: language preference cookies that are used to remember the language selected by a user on a multilingual website (e.g. by clicking on a “flag”), result display preference cookies that are used to remember the user’s preference regarding online search queries (e.g. by selecting the number of results per page);
- enable social sharing (social plug-in content sharing cookie): many social networks propose “social plug-in modules” that website operators can integrate in their platform notably to allow social networks users to share contents they like with their “friends” (and propose other related functionalities such as publishing comments). These plug-ins store and access cookies in the user’s terminal equipment in order to allow the social network to identify their members when they interact with these plug-ins. It is important to distinguish users who “logged-in” through their browser in a particular social network account, from “non-logged-in” users who are either simply not a member of that specific social network or who have “disconnected” from their social network account. Since by definition social plug-ins are destined to members of a particular social network, they are not of any use for non members, and therefore consent from non-members and “logged-out” members is needed before third party cookies can be used by social plug-ins;
- provide data for improving our websites (analytics cookie): analytics are statistical audience measuring tools for websites, which often rely on cookies. These tools are notably used by website owners to estimate the number of unique visitors, to detect the most preeminent search engine keywords that lead to a webpage or to track down website navigation issues. Analytics tools use a number of different data collection and analysis models, however the first party analytics cookies are not likely to create a privacy risk when they are strictly limited to first party aggregated statistical purposes and when they are used by websites that already provide clear information about these cookies in their privacy policy as well as adequate privacy safeguards. Such safeguards are expected to include a user friendly mechanism to opt-out from any data collection and comprehensive anonymization mechanisms that are applied to other collected identifiable information such as IP addresses.
- serve advertising (profiling cookie): this cookie is used to send advertising messages in line with the user's online navigation preferences.
The cookies we set
This site offers newsletter or email subscription services and cookies may be used to remember if users are already registered and whether to show certain notifications which might only be valid to subscribed/unsubscribed users.
When users submit data to through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember their details for future correspondence.
In order to provide users with a great experience on this site we provide the functionality to set users’ preferences for how this site runs when they use it. In order to remember their preferences we need to set cookies so that this information can be called whenever they interact with a page is affected by their preferences.
A list of the cookies used across this site can be seen in the below table:
|
Cookie |
Name |
More information |
|---|---|---|
|
Acceptance cookie |
displayCookieConsent |
This essential cookie remembers that you accepted the use of cookies. Expiration date is 1 year from the day it gets created. |
|
Session cookie |
JSESSIONID |
This cookie is used to recover users’ settings (save the user sessions and store certain settings such as accessibility settings). It only lasts for the current session. |
|
Technical cookie |
oam.Flash.RENDERMAP.TOKEN |
This cookies is used to hold data for the JSF Flash Scope. Expiration date is 1 year from the day it gets created. |
Third-party cookies
This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping us to understand how users use the site and how we can improve their experience. These cookies may track things such as how long users spend on the site and the pages that they visit so that we can continue to produce engaging content. For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.
Analytics cookies do not collect or store users’ personal information (for example, names or addresses), so this information cannot be used to identify individuals.
This site also uses social media buttons and/or plugins that allow users to connect with their social network in various ways. In order to work the social media sites such as; Facebook, Twitter, cookies will be set through our site which can be used to enhance their profile on their site or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies.
A list of the cookies used across this site can be seen in the below table:
|
Cookie |
Name |
More information |
|---|---|---|
|
Analytics cookies |
__utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmt, __utmz |
Collects aggregate statistical data about how visitors use the site so that we can improve the user experience and serve up the content our visitors find most useful. Google Analytics cookies store information about what pages users visit, how long they are on the website, how they got there and what they click on. They do not collect or store Personal Information. |
The cookie-related information is not used to identify users personally and the pattern data is fully under our control.
These cookies are not used for any purpose other than those described here.
How to manage cookies?
Users can control and/or delete cookies as they wish – for details, see aboutcookies.org, but it should be noted that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that they visit.
They can delete all cookies that are already on their computer and they can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. However, if they do this, they may have to manually adjust some preferences every time they visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.
Unfortunately, in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without disabling completely the functionality and features they add to this site.
How to disable cookies?
Users can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on their browser (see browser Help for how to do this). The users must be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that they visit.
Amendments
We may change this Cookie Policy at any time. Please take a look at the last updated date at the bottom of this page to see when this Cookie Policy was last revised. Any changes in this Cookie Policy will become effective when we make the revised Cookie Policy available on or through the website.
More Information
Hopefully that has clarified things for users and as was previously mentioned if there is something that users aren't sure whether they need or not it's usually safer to leave cookies enabled in case it does interact with one of the features they use on our site. However if they are still looking for more information then they can contact us through e-mail: fabrizio.speziale@ehess.fr
LAST UPDATED: 30.06.2015