Cookie Policy
Belgisch Instituut voor Lastechniek VZW (Belgian Welding Institute, hereinafter referred to as “BWI”, “we”) primarily uses cookies to improve your browsing experience on https://www.bil-ibs.be (hereinafter referred to as the “Website”). All data BWI retrieves from its cookies are anonymous and will only be used to understand the customer experience on the Website with the aim to improve the performance and usability of this Website.
BWI has the right to update this cookie policy by posting a new version on the Website. It is, in this framework, strongly recommended to regularly consult the Website and the page explaining the cookie policy, to make sure that you have knowledge of any changes.
What is a cookie?
A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, a web cookie, or a browser cookie is typically a small text file sent from a website and stored in the web browser of the user while a user is browsing on a website. When the user surfs on the same website in the future, the data stored in the cookie can be retrieved through the website to inform the website of the user's previous activity. Cookies were designed as a reliable mechanism for websites to remember the status of the website or the activity which the user has undertaken in the past. They help us to optimize your visit to the Website, to remember the technical choices (e.g. language choice, newsletter, etc.) and to show more relevant services and offers. If you wish to consult the Website, BWI encourages you to enable cookies. However, if you choose not to do this, you are always free to disable them.
Cookies may include: clicking on certain buttons, logging on or a record of the pages which were visited by the user, even months or years ago. While cookies cannot contain viruses and cannot install malware on the host computer, tracking cookies, and especially third-party tracking cookies, are often used as ways of compiling long-term data on the browsing history of individuals - a major privacy concern that gave rise for the European and US lawmakers to take action in 2011. This cookie declaration is in accordance with current Belgian law (Act of 10/07/2012 laying down rules on electronic communications, Belgian Official Gazette 20/9/2012).
This Website uses different types of cookies
- Strictly necessary cookies: as the name suggests, these cookies are strictly necessary to enable you to surf the web or to provide certain functions that you have requested.
- Cookies for functionality: these cookies improve the functionality of the website by storing your preferences. For example, you can set up your profile on the homepage.
- Tracking cookies: these cookies will survive user sessions. When the Max Age of a persistent cookie is set at one year, then within that year, the initial value, included in that cookie, will be returned to the server each time the user visits the server. This is done to save vital information, such as how the user initially came to the Website. For this reason, they are also known as tracking cookies. For example, once you have selected your preferred language, the website will record your preference in a persistent cookie and save on your browser. If you then re-visit the Website, the Website will use this persistent cookie to ensure that the content is displayed in the desired language.
- Performance cookies: these cookies help to improve the performance of the Website and thus to provide a better user experience. BWI uses Google Analytics, a popular web analysis service provided by Google Inc. Google Analytics uses cookies to help BWI analyse how users use the Website. It records the number of visitors and tells BWI things about their overall behaviour - such as the typical duration of a visit to the Website or the number of pages a user looks at on average.
- Third-party cookies: in order to support its communications, BWI has anchored its content in social media channels, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. BWI also makes use of the sharing opportunities on social networks. The channels used by BWI may contain cookies from these websites and BWI does not check these out. You should consult the relevant website of these third parties for more information about these cookies.
List of cookies used by this Website
Since BWI's Website runs on the Drupal open-source content management system (CMS), which is constantly subject to change, BWI is not able to give an accurate and exhaustive list of the cookies used by the Website.
In any event, Drupal allows some cookies to enhance the user experience of the Website and to provide assistance in the use of the Website (e.g. check whether the user has enabled JavaScript).
Nevertheless, via "Settings", you can consult a list of the cookies used by the website at the time you visit them for most browsers.
Disable cookies
A number of options are available to prevent the storage of cookies. Please visit the websites of the different browsers to learn how you can block the storage of cookies.
It is worth remembering that if you decide to delete all your cookies, you probably need to re-enter all your usernames and passwords for all the websites you visit, where you previously did not even have to think about that. As mentioned above, cookies can significantly enhance your browsing experience on the Web.
If you want to know more about cookies, please visit the website www.allaboutcookies.org. This website provides more information about cookies, explains in detail how you can remove the cookies that you find, and it shows you how to enable trusted sites to store cookies on your computer.
Contact details BWI
Belgian Welding Institute
Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 48
9052 Zwijnaarde
Belgium
Tel +32 (0)9 292 14 00
E-mail: info@bil-ibs.be