The European Space Agency (herein the “Agency” or “ESA”) is an intergovernmental organisation established by its Convention opened for signature in Paris on 30 May 1975 having its headquarters located at 24 rue du Général Bertrand, CS 30798, 75345 Paris Cedex 07, France.
Protection of Personal Data is of great importance for ESA, therefore this Cookie Notice aims to ensure lawfulness and transparency by explaining the cookies and similar technologies that we use in the ESA public website, what they do, what your choices regarding their use are and how you can contact us.
What is a cookie?
Cookies are small bits of data that a website may send to the browser on your device, for instance mobile device or computer, upon your visit to the website. Cookies may allow a website to recognise an individual’s device and store some information about the user.
What are the different types of cookies?
A cookie can be classified by its lifespan and the domain to which it belongs. By lifespan, a cookie is either a:
session cookie which is erased when the user closes the browser or;
persistent cookie which remains on the user's computer/device for a pre-defined period of time;
As for the domain to which it belongs, there are either:
first-party cookies which are set by the web server of the visited page and share the same domain;
third-party cookies stored by a different domain to the visited page's domain. This can happen when the webpage references a file, such as JavaScript, located outside its domain.
Which cookies do we use?
Strictly Necessary or Essential Cookies: these cookies are strictly necessary for the website to provide the services that you requested and/or for the solely purpose of the transmission of the services and/or the website. Without these cookies you would not be able to access the services or the website and therefore this category cannot be disabled.
Functional Cookies: These cookies are not strictly necessary, but allow you to have a with a better experience by provide enhanced and more personal features. We only place this cookies if you have provided your prior consent.
Source / Package | First Party or Third Party cookie? | Cookie Name | Session or Persistent cookie? | Type of personal data collected | Purpose | Expires |
Website / CMS | First Party | Preference cookies (if applicable) | Persistent | Language, consent and other user preferences | Remember user choices and improve the user experience | According to website/CMS configuration |
symfony/security-http + symfony/security-bundle | First Party | REMEMBERME (if configured) | Persistent | Authentication identifier / token | Keeps the user authenticated between sessions | According to the configured remember-me lifetime |
pimcore/pimcore | First Party | Pimcore language cookie | Persistent | Language preference | Stores the user's selected back-office language | According to Pimcore configuration |
Vimeo | Third Party | vuid | Persistent | Unique identifier, IP address, browser/device information | Distinguish visitors and generate Vimeo usage statistics and engagement metrics | According to Vimeo's cookie configuration |
Vimeo | Third Party | Player preference cookies | Persistent | User/player preferences, browser/device information | Store video player preferences such as volume, playback settings and language | According to Vimeo's cookie configuration |
Google / YouTube | Third Party | PREF | Persistent | User preferences, browser/device information | Stores language, player and display preferences | According to Google configuration |
Google / YouTube | Third Party | VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | Persistent | Unique identifier, browser/device information, playback information | Supports video playback and estimates available bandwidth; may also support visitor distinction and usage measurement | According to Google configuration |
Google / YouTube | Third Party | yt-player-* | Persistent | User/player preferences | Stores video player settings such as volume and playback preferences | According to browser/site configuration |
Analytics Cookies: these cookies collect information about how you use our website and help us, for example, to understand what is of interest to our users and measure how effective our communications are. In this way, we can adapt the content of our website more specifically to your needs and thereby improve what we offer you, for example by ensuring that you can easily find what you are looking for.
In this website we use the following analytics cookies:
Matomo:
Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform, places cookies on your device that help us to improve the website by collecting and reporting information on how you use the website:
Information is collected in a pseudonymised form. Matomo’s random unique visitor ID, enables the distinction between the website user’s first visit and subsequent visits.
Moroever, Matomo seeks to: comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation of 27 April 2016 (GDPR); to protect end-user personal data (opt-out mechanisms for users; encrypting analytics data communication; internet protocol (IP) pseudonymization mechanism for automated masking of a portion of the IP address used to prevent user identification).
Matomo generates analytical reports on the basis of the pseudonymised data. These reports are distributed to ESA, which may be required to analyse, develop and maintain the website.
ESA uses Matomo to track the visitors’ path in the platform. Information and navigation data gathered by Matomo are just accessible to ESA employees.
Third Party Websites' Cookies
Certain third-party features on our website require cookies. When using our website, you may encounter embedded content which we do not have control of, and cookies that were not placed by us. For example, when a video player or social media content is embedded on a page, it may set cookies. We do not have control over the placement of cookies by other websites, even if you are directed to them from our website.
How do you withdraw your consent and delete the cookies?
Using Your Browser: all the cookies used on our website can be disabled through your browser. To disable cookies through your browser, follow your browser instructions. Normally within the ‘Help’, ‘Tools’ or ‘Edit’ menus in your browser. Please note that blocking or deleting cookies may lead to reduced functionality of some features on the website. Therefore, the website may not function optimally without enabled cookies, in particular strictly necessary and essential cookies.
Changes to our Cookies Notice
All future changes we make to our Cookie Notice will be posted on this website.
Contact
In case of any question, you can contact ESA DPO, as first point of contact, by sending an email to: dpo@esa.int
Last update: 21/09/2026