Cookie policy

Please read this cookie policy (“cookie policy”, "policy") carefully before using the website www.brussels-school.be (“website”, "service") operated by the Brussels School of Governance ("us", 'we", "our"), which is an alliance between the Institute for European Studies (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Vesalius College.

 

What are cookies?

 

Cookies are simple text files that are stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server. Each cookie is unique to your web browser. It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier, website’s domain name, and some digits and numbers.

 

What types of cookies do we use?

 

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies allow us to offer you the best possible experience when accessing and navigating through our website and using its features. For example, these cookies let us recognize that you have created an account and have logged into that account.

Performance cookies

Performance cookies collect information about how you use our website e.g. which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors, for example in forms. These cookies don't collect any information that could identify you – all the information collected is anonymous and is only used to help us improve how our website works, understand what interests our users and measure how effective our advertising is.

Targeting cookies

Targeting or advertising cookies are used to target advertisements to the interests of users, based upon previous web browsing activity. They are linked to services provided by third parties. You can control whether or not these cookies are used, but preventing them may stop us from offering you some services. As these cookies are managed by third parties, you may alternatively use the third parties' own tools to prevent these cookies.

Additionally, the three types of cookies mentioned above can be broken down into two further sub-types.

  • Session cookies are temporary, allowing the website to link the actions of a user during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and finishes when they close the browser window. All session cookies expire and are deleted when the session finishes.
  • Persistent cookies remain on a user's device for a set period of time specified in the cookie. These can last after you have closed your browser and allow a website to remember your actions and preferences.

 

Which cookies do we use?

 

Below is an overview of the cookies that are used on our website www.brussels-school.be. We use Piwik Pro to analyse our website traffic.

Cookie Domain Cookie type Expiration Cookie type Description
_hjFirstSeen .unibuddy.co 3rd party 30 min Performance The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.
_GRECAPTCHA www.recaptcha.net 3rd party 6 months Performance Google reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA) when executed for the purpose of providing its risk analysis.
li_gc .linkedin.com 3rd party 6 months Performance Used to store guest consent to the use of cookies for non-essential purposes
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress .unibuddy.co 3rd party 30 minutes Performance The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.
ppms_privacy brussels-school.be 1st party 1 year Performance Piwik PRO cookie
AnalyticsSyncHistory .linkedin.com 3rd party 1 month Performance Used to store information about the time a sync with the lms_analytics cookie took place for users in the Designated Countries
lidc .linkedin.com 3rd party 1 day Performance This is a Microsoft MSN 1st party cookie that ensures the proper functioning of this website.
personalization_id .twitter.com 3rd party 1 year 1 month Targeting This cookie carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website.
UserMatchHistory .linkedin.com 3rd party 1 month Targeting This cookie is used to track visitors so that more relevant ads can be presented based on the visitor's preferences.
_gcl_au .brussels-school.be 1st party 3 months Targeting Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services
_fbp .brussels-school.be 1st party 3 months Targeting Used by Meta to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers
bcookie .linkedin.com 3rd party 1 year Performance This is a Microsoft MSN 1st party cookie for sharing the content of the website via social media.
bscookie .www.linkedin.com 3rd party 1 year Performance Used by the social networking service, LinkedIn, for tracking the use of embedded services.
_hjSession .unibuddy.co 3rd party 30 minutes Performance A cookie that holds the current session data. This ensues that subsequent requests within the session window will be attributed to the same Hotjar session.
li_sugr .linkedin.com 3rd party 3 months Targeting Collects data on user behaviour and interaction in order to optimize the website and make advertisement on the website more relevant.
_hjIncludedInSessionSample .unibuddy.co 3rd party 2 minutes Performance Registers data on visitors' website-behaviour. This is used for internal analysis and website optimization. 
ln_or brussels-school.be 1st party 1 day Performance Used to determine if Oribi analytics can be carried out on a specific domain.
_hjSessionUser .unibuddy.co 3rd party 1 year Performance Hotjar cookie that is set when a user first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
muc_ads .t.co 3rd party 1 year 1 month Targeting Collects data on user behaviour and interaction in order to optimize the website and make advertisement on the website more relevant.

 

How to delete cookies?

 

If you want to restrict or block the cookies that are set by our website, you can do so through your browser settings. Alternatively, you can visit www.internetcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers and devices. You will find general information about cookies and details on how to delete cookies from your device.

 

Contacting us

 

If you have any questions about this policy or our use of cookies, please contact us on privacy_bsog@vub.be.