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This Cookies Policy (“Policy”) explains how the European Respiratory Society uses cookies and similar technologies (local storage, session storage) to recognise you when you visit its websites (“Websites”). It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control our use of them. We use the term “cookies” in this Policy to refer to cookies and all such similar technologies that collect information automatically when you are visiting our Websites.
Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
There are two broad categories of cookies:
We use first party and third party cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Websites to operate, and we refer to these as “essential” or “strictly necessary” cookies. Other cookies also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our Websites. Third parties cookies are served through our Websites for advertising, analytics and other purposes.
Cookies can remain on your computer or mobile device for different periods of time. Some cookies are “session cookies”, meaning that they exist only while your browser is open. These are deleted automatically once you close your browser. Other cookies are “permanent cookies”, meaning that they survive after your browser is closed. They can be used by websites to recognise your computer when you open your browser and browse the Internet again.
The types of cookies used on our Websites can be classified into one of five categories, namely “essential website cookies”, “functionality cookies”, “analytics and performance cookies”, “advertising cookies”, and “social media cookies”. We’ve set out some further information about each category, and the purposes of the cookies we and third parties set in the following table.
Essential website cookies
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our Websites and to use some of its features, such as access to secure areas.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the Websites to you, you cannot refuse them. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings however, as described below under the heading “How to control or delete cookies”.
These cookies are served by:
Performance and functionality cookies
These cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our Websites but are non-essential to their use. However, without these cookies, certain functionality (like videos, choices you made for the user interface, offline capabilities, etc.) may become unavailable.
Advertising cookies
Third parties may serve cookies on your computer or mobile device to serve advertising through our Websites. These companies may use information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide relevant advertisements about goods and services that you may be interested in. They may also employ technology that is used to measure the effectiveness of advertisements. This can be accomplished by them using cookies or web beacons to collect information about your visits to this and other sites in order to provide relevant advertisements about goods and services of potential interest to you. The information collected through this process does not enable us or them to identify your name, contact details or other personally identifying details unless you choose to provide these.
Analytics and customisation cookies
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our Websites are being used or how effective are marketing campaigns are, or to help us customise our Websites for you.
Social networking cookies
These cookies are used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on our Websites through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes too. Because of how cookies work, we cannot access these cookies, nor can the third parties access the data in cookies used by us.
If you do not want these cookies, you will need to logout from your social accounts before visiting our websites. If you have already visited our websites and do not want these cookies anymore, logout from your social accounts, then delete the cookies.
Cookies are not the only way to recognise or track visitors to a website. We may use other, similar technologies from time to time, like web beacons (sometimes called “tracking pixels” or “clear gifs”). These are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enable us to recognise when someone has visited our Website or opened an e-mail that we have sent them. This allows us, for example, to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within our Websites to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have come to our Website from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, to improve site performance, and to measure the success of e-mail marketing campaigns. In many instances, these technologies are reliant on cookies to function properly, and so declining cookies will impair their functioning.
Third parties may serve cookies on your computer or mobile device to serve advertising through our Websites. These companies may use information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide relevant advertisements about goods and services that you may be interested in. They may also employ technology that is used to measure the effectiveness of advertisements. This can be accomplished by them using cookies or web beacons to collect information about your visits to this and other sites in order to provide relevant advertisements about goods and services of potential interest to you. The information collected through this process does not enable us or them to identify your name, contact details or other personally identifying details unless you choose to provide these.
You have the right to choose whether or not to accept cookies and we have explained how you can exercise this right below. However, please note that if you choose to refuse cookies you may not be able to use the full functionality of our websites.
Most browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. These settings will typically be found in the “options” or “preferences” menu of your browser. In order to understand these settings, the following links may be helpful. Otherwise, you should use the “Help” option in your browser for more details.
If you only want to limit third party advertising cookies, you can turn such cookies off by visiting the following links:
Please bear in mind that there are many more companies listed on these sites than those that drop cookies on our website.
To learn more about cookies, or how to control, disable or delete them, go to this detailed guidance. In addition, certain third party advertising networks, including Google, permit users to opt out of or customize preferences associated with your internet browsing. Learn more about this feature from Google
We may update this Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Please therefore re-visit this Policy regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies.
If you have any questions or comments about this Policy, or privacy matters generally, please contact us via email at privacy@ersnet.org .
