Effective since: 18 November 2018

The Cookie Policy of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA)

The Cookie Policy of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA)

Effective since:

This policy relating to cookies (hereafter, the “cookie policy”) describes the different types of cookies that ACA uses on its website (www.aca-secretariat.be) (hereafter, the “website”) and the manner in which users can configure these cookies.

ACA maintains a strict privacy policy and is committed to being transparent about the technologies that are used on its website. To the extent that the information collected using cookies constitutes personal data, the provisions of the ACA Privacy Policy shall apply and supplement this Cookie Policy.

1. What are cookies?

Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by website owners to make their websites work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.

Cookies set by the website owner (in this case, ACA) are called “first party cookies”. Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called “third party cookies”. Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website (e.g. advertising, interactive content and analytics). The parties that set these third-party cookies can recognize your computer both when it visits the website in question and also when it visits certain other websites.

2. What are cookies used on the ACA website and why?

ACA uses different types of cookies for different reasons.

Cookie

Purpose

Essential Cookies (strictly necessary)

Such cookies are essential for browsing the ACA website or strictly necessary for the provision of a service specifically requested by a user.

The removal of this type of cookies can lead to navigation difficulties and is therefore strongly discouraged.

Preference Cookies

(Performance)

These cookies collect information about a user’s choices and preferences and the user’s navigation more pleasant and personalised.

These cookies make it possible to memorise the language chosen during a user’s first visit to the ACA website to personalise it accordingly.

We use only English. Applicable?

Analytics Cookies

(Statistics)

Analytics cookies are used to gather information about a user’s use of the website, in order to improve the content of the website, make it more suitable to the user’s needs and increase the website’s usability.

For example, these cookies inform ACA about the most visited pages of its website or help identify problems that may be encountered during navigation.

Third-party/Sharing Cookies

(Social Networks)

These cookies allow a user to share the content of the website with other people via social networks. Some sharing buttons are integrated via third-party applications that can issue this type of cookies. This is particularly the case with the buttons “Facebook”, “Twitter”, “YouTube” and “LinkedIn”.

Do we have all of these?

Social networks providing such a sharing button are likely to identify a user with this button, even if the user did not use this button when visiting the ACA website. ACA invites users to consult the privacy policy of these social networks, by visiting their respective websites, to learn more about the purpose of using the information collected through these sharing buttons.

Third-party Advertising/Advertising Cookies

These cookies are used for marketing purposes, especially to display targeted advertising, conduct market research and evaluate the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.

3 How to configure the cookies?

Users can easily delete, disable or accept cookies from the ACA website at any time by configuring their browser settings.

Each browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.) has its own cookie configuration mode. To learn more about the procedure to follow concerning a particular navigator, visit the following site: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/ or visit your browser’s help menu for more information.

Users using different computers, smartphones and/or tablets should not forget to configure each device so that each of them corresponds to their preferences regarding cookies.

4. Will the ACA website still work without cookies?

Users will still be able to view the ACA website, but some interactions may not work normally.

5. What about other tracking technologies, such as web beacons?

Cookies are not the only way to recognize or track visitors to a website. Web beacons (sometimes also called “tracking pixels” or “clear gifs”) are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enable ACA to recognise when someone has visited its website or taken an action in relation to the website. In many instances, these technologies are reliant on cookies to function properly. As a result, declining cookies will impair their functioning.

6. Does ACA allow social networking cookies?

Yes, these cookies are used to enable users to share pages and content that they deem interesting through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by the social networks in question. To refuse these cookies, users should check how to do this through their browser specificities (http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/) or visit their browser’s help menu for more information.

7. Further questions?

If you have other questions, contact ACA at secretariat@aca-secretariat.be or write to the following postal address: Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), 15 rue d’Egmontstraat, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.

Belgian registry number: 0451407415