ESGE Cookie Policy

This version is in effect since 18/03/2016

1. General

1.1. The limited liability company under Belgian law, European Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy, registered at the Crossroads Bank (“Banque Carrefour des entreprises/Kruispuntbank”) under the number 0832.374.915 (VAT BE 0832.374.915), whose head offices are located at 3000 Leuven (Belgium), Diestsevest 43/0001 (hereinafter “ESGE”), primarily makes use of cookies to enhance the surfing experience on www.old.esge.org (hereinafter the “Website”). All data ESGE retrieves from their cookies is anonymous and is only used to understand the customer experience on the website with the aim to improve the performance and usability on this Website.

1.2. ESGE may change, supplement or amend this policy as it relates to any future use of the Website from time to time, for any reason, by conspicuously posting a revised policy on the Website.

2. What is a cookie?

2.1. A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is usually a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user’s web browser while a user is browsing a website. When the user browses the same website in the future, the data stored in the cookie can be retrieved by the website to notify the website of the user’s previous activity. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember the state of the website or activity the user had taken in the past. They help ESGE to optimize a visit to the website by a visitor (hereinafter the “Visitor”), to remember technical choices (e.g. choice of language, a newsletter, etc.) and to show more relevant services and offers. If the Visitor wants to consult the Website, ESGE recommends that the cookies are turned on. However, if the Visitor prefers not to do this, he is always free to not turn them on.

2.2. Cookies may include clicking particular buttons, logging in, or a record of which pages were visited by the Visitor even months or years ago. Although cookies cannot carry viruses, and cannot install malware on the host computer, tracking cookies and especially third-party tracking cookies are commonly used as ways to compile long-term  records of individuals’ browsing histories — a major privacy concern that prompted European and US law makers to take action in 2011. This cookie policy is in accordance with the current Belgian law (Law of 10/07/2012 laying down provisions on electronic communications, BS 20/9/2012).

2.3. This Website uses different types of cookies.

  1. Strictly necessary cookies

As the name suggests these cookies are strictly necessary to enable the Visitor to move about the Website or to provide certain features the Visitor has requested.

  1. Functionality cookies

These cookies enhance the functionality of the Website by storing the Visitor’s preferences. For example, the Visitor can set his profile on the homepage.

  1. Tracking cookies

These cookies will outlast user sessions. If a persistent cookie has its Max-Age set to 1 year, then, within that year, the initial value set in that cookie will be sent back to the server every time the Visitor visits the server. This is used to record a vital piece of information such as how the Visitor initially came to this Website. For this reason they are also called tracking cookies. For example, once the Visitor has selected his preferred language, the Website will record this preference in a persistent cookie set on the Visitor’s browser. When the Visitor then revisits the Website it will use that persistent cookie to ensure that the content is delivered in the Visitor’s preferred language.

  1. Performance cookies

These cookies help to improve the performance of the Website, providing a better user experience. ESGE uses Google Analytics, a popular web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics uses cookies to help ESGE to analyze how visitors use the Website. It registers the number of visitors and tells things about their behavior overall – such as the typical length of a visit on the Website or the average number of pages a Visitor views.

  1. Third party cookies

To support ESGE’s communications ESGE embed the content of social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn and ESGE makes use of sharing possibilities on social networks. The channels ESGE uses may present cookies from these websites and does not control these. The Visitor should check the relevant third party website for more information about these cookies.

3. Opting out of cookies

3.1. There are a number of options available to avoid the storage of cookies. Please visit the websites of the different browsers to learn how to block the storage of cookies. Besides avoiding storage, it is also possible to delete at any time the current installed cookies on your computer.

3.2. The Visitor needs to bear in mind that if he decides to delete all of his cookies, he will likely have to re-enter all of his usernames and passwords on all of the websites that he visited, which he previously didn’t even have to think about. As mentioned before, cookies can be a real asset to the web surfing experience.