To make the eTwinning platform work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device. A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login) over a limited period of time, so you don't have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another.
How do we use cookies?
On the eTwinning Platform we only use a very limited number of cookies to keep user preferences. These cookies help to improve user experience of the website by providing a more personalised service, without having to ask you every time again.
If you give consent via the cookies bar, another set of cookies is also installed to run web analytics. In al cases, the information gathered via the cookies, including the IP addresses of the users, is always anonymous.
In eTwinning we use both “First Party” cookies - this means they originate from eTwinning and all the information related to them is handled and stored in eTwinning – and “third party” cookies (only for web analytics, and for YouTube, if users interact with the videos).
First part cookies are strictly necessary in order for the eTwinning platform to provide the service explicitly requested by the user when logging in (for instance in eTwinning Live, TwinSpace and other restricted areas).
For third party cookies, please see the paragraph on “YouTube videos” and ‘Web Analytics’
More detailed information about the type of cookies we are using can be found on the following table:
| Name | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
|
JSESSIONID |
First-party cookie | JSESSIONID is a platform cookie used by Java powered web platforms. This cookie is used by the webserver to keep an anonymous or authenticated user session alive for the duration of the website visit. This cookie is automatically removed when the user closes their browser. |
| utma | Google analytics |
It helps identify the unique visitors. |
| utmz |
Google analytics |
It is used to calculate traffic drivers e.g. search engine traffic, ad campaigns and navigation within the site. |
| utmb |
Google analytics |
It is used to establish and continue a user session with your site. |
| utmc |
Google analytics |
It keeps track of the number of times a visitor has been to the site pertaining to the cookie, when their first visit was and when their last visit occurred. |
YouTube Videos
Some pages on the platform display embedded YouTube videos, for which we use Privacy-Enhanced Mode. In this case, YouTube won't install cookies when you visit those pages on our site unless you decide to interact with the videos (play, share, etc). In this case 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.
Web Analytics
As we mentioned above, the eTwinning platform uses Google Analytics for web analytics. Google Analytics is a tool that uses cookies to track visitor interactions, helping website owners understand how visitors engage with their website. If you give consent to install the cookies related to Google Analytics, it collects information without identifying users directly.
Users can always opt out of Google Analytics without affecting how you visit our site – for more information on opting out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you use, visit this Google page.
How to control cookies?
You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see aboutcookies.org. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.