We use cookies on our website. A cookie is a small piece of data that a website stores on the visitor’s computer or mobile device.
We use cookies for the technical functioning of the website and, if you consent to it, to collect your browsing experience on our website for anonymised statistics, whose purpose is to improve our communication and the service we offer.
You can find in this page the option to manage your consent.
You can also find some information about cookies relating to our social media channels.

We do monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of this website as well as the other websites which our servers host.
This website uses an implementation of the open-source analytics platform, Matomo (formerly known as Piwik) which is fully controlled by INESC TEC. This platform enables the protection of end-user personal data thanks to features such as IP address de-identification. Furthermore, INESC TEC has implemented a tool to manage users’ consent to the collection of users’ browsing experience for anonymised statistics.

Data protection information and measures undertaken by the data controllers
Cookies in this website are classified within the following categories:
Strictly necessary cookies are cookies used exclusively to carry out the transmission of a communication on an electronic communication network, or, insofar as this is strictly necessary, to the provider of an information society service that has been explicitly requested by the contracting party or user to provide said service.
Functionality cookies allow websites to remember the user’s site preferences and choices they make on the site including display resolution and language.
Analytics cookies are used directly by the website manager to collect aggregate information on users’ activities performed on the website (for instance, page views, origin by country) and are collected anonymously and only for statistical purposes.
Performance cookies are also used for gathering data on how visitors use a website, for instance, which pages of a website are visited most often, or if they get error messages on web pages. The data is collected anonymously and is only used to improve the functionality of a website.
On the other hand, one might distinguish first party cookies which are cookies set by the website you’re visiting (only that website can read them) from cookies placed by external service providers, to analyse how people are using their websites (third party cookies).
Finally, under another categorization, session cookies, which are deleted when you close your browser, differ from persistent cookies, which are saved on your computer and are not deleted automatically when you close your browser from.

The Matomo cookies used in this website allow us to track the following information that we use to prepare aggregated, anonymous statistics reports of visitors’ activity:

•    IP address (2 bytes only; the most specific part of the address is anonymised)
•    Location: country, region, city, approximate latitude and longitude (Geolocation)
•    Date and time of the request (visit to the site)
•    Title of the page being viewed (Page Title)
•    URL of the page being viewed (Page URL)
•    URL of the page that was viewed prior to the current page (Referrer URL)
•    Screen resolution of user’s device
•    Time in local visitor’s time-zone
•    Files that were clicked and downloaded
•    Links to an outside domain that were clicked
•    Main language of the browser being used (Accept-Language header)
•    Browser version, browser plugins (PDF, Flash, Java, …) operating system version, device identifier (User-Agent header)
•    Language of the visited page
•    Site Search

Data controllers retains full control over the data collected through first-party cookies by storing the data in servers fully owned and controlled by INESC TEC.
Besides some session cookies, a random ID persistent cookie is generated by Matomo, which allows the data controllers to identify when a user returns to the site. This cookie has an expiration date of 13 months, after which it is automatically removed from the user’s device.

Consent to collecting your browsing experience for anonymised statistics
By default, the browsing experience of our website visitors is NOT tracked. You may, though, choose to consent to contributing your browsing experience on our website for us to produce anonymised statistics.
We will prompt you a cookie banner for you to make your choice and install a cookie called “edp_cookie_agree” to keep track of your choice. Only if you consent to analytics, such option is activated and some relevant cookies are loaded. You can always decide to withdraw your consent or consent again at any time.
The “edp_cookie_agree” expires after 6 months: then, you will be prompted the cookie banner again to renew your choice.
In case you have disabled all cookies, you will be prompted the cookie banner at each visit of our website.
If you wish to consent to (or withdraw your consent from) analytics:
Accept Withdraw consent

Do not track preferences
In addition to these settings and at any event you may enable the Do not Track function in your browser. Do Not Track is a function that allows visitors not to be tracked by websites. Do Not Track options are available in a number of browsers including:
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Chrome
Safari
Opera

You may find useful visiting the following link if you look for general information on how to enable Do not Track functions in browsers at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

Restricted access to information
All analytics data communication is encrypted via HTTPS protocol. The analytical reports generated by our system can only be accessed by authorised staff or by duly authorised external sub-contractors, who may be required to analyse, develop and/or regularly maintain certain sites.
Masking of IP addresses
Note: institution, city and country of origin for statistical purposes are determined from the full IP, then stored and aggregated before a mask is applied. Through Matomo INESC TEC uses an IP de-identification mechanism that automatically masks a portion of each visitor’s IP (Internet Protocol), effectively making it impossible to identify a particular visitor via the sole IP address.

Visitor logs and data retention
Visitors’ logs are automatically deleted after 13 months. Anonymised and aggregated data are stored for an indefinite period for analysis purposes only.


Social media cookies
Brussels Hub is active on the following social media platforms: Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Our presence in such communities strengthens our online presence and visibility.
•    Brussels Hub website does not set cookies when displaying links to our social media channels when you browse our website.
•    You can watch Brussels Hub videos, which we upload (embed) also to our YouTube page. You can also follow links from our website to Twitter and LinkedIn.
•    In order to watch a video on our website, a message will alert you that you need to accept YouTube cookies to do so. YouTube has its own cookie and privacy policies over which we have no control. There is no installation of cookies from YouTube until you consent to YouTube cookies and then are redirected to the YouTube website.

Contact
You can enquire us about the way we use cookies via our contact form.
You can also reach our Data Protection Officer at dpo@inesctec.pt