We value personal data protection and privacy. We also mean it. That’s why we don’t even collect personal data via our website in the sense of email addresses, names and so on via forms. Yet, we do use cookies like all sites (must) do, among others to tell you what cookies we use. Indeed, that sounds weird but it isn’t and it’s what we explain in this cookie policy.
Anytime you want a site or a platform to remember something on the Web, also when it’s that you don’t want to be remember or tracked in one or the other way, a cookie is needed. No cookies, no Web. So, what are cookies, what is our cookie policy and what cookies do we use?
What are cookies again?
When you visit any web site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience.
Cookies are small pieces of data which get installed on your computer or other device while visiting websites. As said, without cookies there would be no websites at all. Cookies, for example, allow you to buy online or to remember your log-in details for your favorite social networks or other websites.
There are different types of cookies. For some cookies visitors of a website don’t need to give their consent (meaning: agree that they are installed on your computer or device), regardless of the local/national/regional laws. For other cookies you need to give permission with again differences.
Various countries and regions have various privacy and data protection laws, also regarding the use of cookies. i-SCOOP uses cookies too. The list of cookies we use and their purposes are explained below. Some cookies only are needed for a “session” (visit), others are more “persistent”. In total we have around 20 cookies.
Cookies and external links
If you visit sites we link to (we love to link), whether it’s SlideShare, YouTube or the site of any company or organization: do note that they have their cookie policies as well. And we can’t really impact those.
Listing all the sites we link to in this cookie policy would be a rather lengthy process and make this page a book as linking is what the Web (should be and for some still) is about. Pretty much all sites have some form of cookie policy though and, if all is well, it shouldn’t be too hard to find.
Since the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which applies to visitors from the EEA (European Economic Area), which includes the European Union (EU), there are also plenty of sites using all sorts of cookie consent and cookie policy pop-ups and notification bars. That’s what we do too for EEA visitors (which represent around 25% of our visitors). To them we say: sorry if you don’t like it and that it spoils the entire mobile web experience, certainly if you like to browse anonymously or now and then clean the list of cookies on your mobile and again need to see all those banners. Still friends?
We also must admit our cookie consent bar for EU/EEA visitors is not entirely finished yet. The cookies we use install. Below you can read what is coming and more on those cookies. In the meantime we ask for your forgiveness and won’t point fingers or explain why that is unless you really want to know. There was more than a “reasonable effort” for those knowing GDPR – and it ain’t over yet.
The cookies on i-SCOOP and some cookie removal tips
Strictly necessary cookies
These are cookies that are essential to make the website function and don’t need any consent such as cookies that remember what you have added to your shopping basket when buying online.
In the case of i-SCOOP the strictly necessary cookies which you can see further below are needed to show the OneTrust cookie consent tool to EEA visitors. It can’t be changed as that would mean we can’t tell you what cookies we use and configure our tools.
Performance cookies
Performance cookies typically are cookies enabling website owners to see how much traffic they have on which pages. This can also include information on demographics.
In the case of i-SCOOP the performance cookies are cookies enabling us to gather essential information about what visitors like to read on our site and how often which pages on our website are visited how often.
The information we gather to gain insights into how our website is doing via the analytical cookies include the IP address of a visitor (in a masked format), which pages are viewed, when people visit our site, how much traffic we have and so forth.
For these analytics we use Google Analytics and set it in a way that:
- Only one person has access to it.
- IP addresses are anonymized.
- We don’t have reports on user settings.
Two Google Analytics cookies we use are first-party cookies. First-party cookies are created by the website you visit, in this case i-SCOOP. One is a third-party cookie and used by the OneTrust platform.
Functional cookies
As the name indicates, functional cookies enable functionalities. These are often used and can include many types of functionalities, depending on the goal of the site.
i-SCOOP uses a few functional cookies only.
Targeting cookies
Whether you call them targeting cookies, advertising cookies or marketing cookies, it boils a bit down to the same.
i-SCOOP partially takes care of its own ads in the context of marketing partnerships that can include consultancy, actual services, content marketing, media partnerships or promotions of events. The tool we use only tracks impressions and clicks. If you’re interested to know how we work with brands: info[at]i-scoop.be.
Advertising and cookies
We also have Google Ads. These install cookies from Google and from DoubleClick, among others. It’s again a limited list and of course we follow Google AdSense policies for the EEA and only allow to show non-personalized ads which really would be nice everywhere in our view (contextual ads instead of personalized ones that is).
Our consent tool for EEA visitors is also waiting to be updated with new and much needed features such as a better user interface, honoring Do Not Track or DNT (see below), support of the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework and granular compliance reporting. As a member of the IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals) and respecting personal data on the Web since before the EU existed we’re glad to get all those features (announced on May 22, 2018) but of course we need to wait until they get activated, which we try to speed up but do not control.
Google AdSense also intends to become a partner of the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework in June 2018 which is perhaps a bit too detailed but for those wanting to know the evolutions in the online marketing and media landscape it could matter.
Do Not Track and AdChoices
What is important, we feel, is that we explain that ‘Do Not Track’ a.k.a. DNT thing and AdChoices a bit more as it grants visitors more control.
‘Do Not Track’ has been in the make since quite some time and is some sort of universal opt-out mechanism as you can read here. Quote: “Do Not Track is a way to keep users’ online behavior from being followed across the Internet by behavioral advertisers, analytics companies, and social media sites”. We’re glad that OneTrust is working on getting it activated for us.
Another type of opt-out model, specifically for ads, is Google’s AdChoices but it’s less strict. Anyway, you can read about it here and set your AdChoices too. If you have no time now: you can do it anywhere you see a Google ad as it always shows this AdChoices logo and option.
More cookie removal and analytics opt-out tips/possibilities
If you don’t like the cookie policy of a site there are ample ways to remove cookies. Do note that some websites in this case will block access. With the changes made in privacy policies since the GDPR ample website simply say accept all cookies or keep out.
For those with a somewhat friendlier cookie policy there are several things you can do.
- It might be handy to know there is a way to stop Google Analytics from measuring website analytics all together, offered by Google. You can opt out of Google Analytics with an Opt-out Browser Add-on which you find here (external link opens).
- You can also clean the ‘history’ of your browser. Go to the settings of your browser and select what you want to clean (this can include cookies and far more). You can also select the period for which you want to clean your web history. Attention: when cleaning your website history make sure you don’t remove passwords of sites you often use (or at least make sure you have them somewhere nearby).
- Finally, all web browsers allow you to use the Web in a ‘more or less’ “anonymous” way (not truly anonymous) although the degree in which they do differs. So: use the browser that fits your needs and privacy desires best. And then it’s up to you to see what sites you don’t want to visit and want to visit, including those that say, ‘accept or get lost’.
Cookie policy – automatically updated list of cookies
Below is a more elaborated explanation of the different types of cookies, which cookies we use and what they do.
We intend to make it visible to everyone across the globe but that means a bit more writing and time as we don’t want the standard explanations but an in-depth explanation per cookie. Stay tuned.
For now it is an automatically updated list that is generated by the OneTrust cookie consent and website scanning tool.
If you have questions, remarks or complaints please do let us know via info[at]i-scoop.be
Last update: May 27, 2018.
