Cookies notice
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 providing information about cookies and similar technologies used on the ESA GDA website gda.esa.int
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small text file that a website may save on your device, for instance, a 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.
Different types of cookies
A cookie can be classified according to 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;
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 cookies: 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. Without these cookies you would not be able to access the services or the website and therefore this category cannot be disabled.
| Source | First Party or Third Party cookie? | Cookie Name | Session or Persistent cookie? | Type of personal data collected | Purpose | Expires |
| gda.esa.int | First party | wordpress_sec_[hash] wordpress_logged_in_[hash] wp-settings-{time}-[UID] | persistent | WordPress authentication | login status | 3 months |
| gda.esa.int | First party | cookieconsent_status | persistent | consents | Cookie consent | 12 months |
Analytics Cookies: these cookies help us to improve and measure the performance of our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it, so that we can improve the website. We only place these cookies if you have provided your prior consent.
Matomo web analytics is used for this purpose.
Matomo is an open source web analytics platform, it places cookies on your device to help us to by collecting and reporting information on how you use the website, so that it can be improved:
- Information is collected in an anonymised form. Matomo’s random unique visitor ID, enables the distinction between the website user’s first visit and subsequent visits;
- Furthermore, Matomo seeks to: comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation of 27 April 2016 (GDPR); to protect the end-user’s personal data (opt-out mechanisms for users; encrypting analytics data communication; internet protocol (IP) anonymization);
- Matomo generates analytical reports on the website usage as anonymised data. These reports are distributed to ESA, and may be shared with Serco contractors, on behalf of ESA so as to support the development and maintenance of the website.
- ESA uses Matomo to anonymise data.
| Source | First Party or Third Party cookie? | Cookie Name | Session or Persistent cookie? | Type of personal data collected | Purpose | Expires |
| gda.esa.int | First party | _pk_id | persistent | Random unique visitor ID | used to store a few details about the user such as the unique visitor ID | 13 months |
| gda.esa.int | First party | _pk_ref | persistent | used to store the attribution information, the referrer initially used to visit the website | 6 months | |
| gda.esa.int | First party | _pk_ses, _pk_cvar, _pk_hsr | persistent | short lived cookies used to temporarily store data for the visit | 30 minutes |
How could you withdraw your consent and delete the cookies?
- Cookies Preferences: You can withdraw your consent for each category of cookies (excluding strictly necessary or essential cookies) at any time. Selectyour preferences in the option: “Cookie Preference”. By revoking your consent, the cookies will be deleted.
- Using Your Browser: all the cookies used on our website can be disabled by means of your browser. To disable cookies by means of your browser (generally, the “Help,” “Tools” or “Edit” menus in your browser).
Changes to our Cookies Notice
All future changes made 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 or the EOP GDA support team at gda@esa.int