Privacy Policy

The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) is a federal scientific establishment governed by the Belgian Science Policy Office (Belspo). It is involved in important scientific research activities and carries out public service missions. Its registered address is rue Vautier 29, Bruxelles 1000, Belgium, under the VAT registration number BE0353070496.

The use of this website is subjected to the following Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Please, read it carefully. Moreover, we inform you that by accessing or using the website and the materials contained herein, you acknowledge that you have read and unconditionally accepted the following Terms and Conditions.

Terms and Conditions of Use

The user acknowledges and voluntarily and expressly accepts that the use of the website owned by RBINS is made under his/her sole and exclusive responsibility at all times. While making use of this website, the user undertakes not to act in any way that may damage the image, interests or rights of the project MANIFESTS Genius and/or of third parties, or that may damage, render useless or overload the website, or that may impede, in any way, the normal use of the website.

Limitation of Liability

The use of this site is at the user’s sole risk. RBINS relinquishes any liability for errors or omissions on the contents of this Website or other websites that can be accessed through this one. Thus, RBINS shall not be held responsible for any damage deriving from the use of the website, nor any actions carried out based on the information provided therein.

This Website contains materials prepared by the MANIFESTS Genius Consortium for information purposes only. The user must be aware that such material may not reflect the latest legislative developments or legal precedents regarding the matters analysed. Likewise, this material can be modified, developed and updated immediately without previous notice.

The material contained in this Website shall not replace, under any circumstances, legal advice services or of any other nature whatsoever. Access to this material does not constitute a lawyer-client relationship, or any other type of trust or professional relationship between RBINS and the user of this Website. The user shall therefore not act on the basis of the information contained here without first seeking the relevant professional advice.

RBINS implements reasonable security measures which are adequate to detect the existence of viruses. Nonetheless, the user must be aware that the current security measures for computer systems on the Internet are not entirely trustworthy and that, therefore, RBINS cannot guarantee the non-existence of viruses or any other elements that may cause alterations to the user’s computer systems (software and hardware) or to his/her electronic documents and files contained in the already mentioned systems.

Personal Data Protection

This Privacy Policy has been developed taking into account the provisions of the Organic Law 15/1999 (13 December) on Personal Data Protection, the Recommendations No. 2/2001 (17 May) and No. 1/1999 (23 February), issued by the European Group of Article 29 pursuant to Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October.

On this Website, no personal data is gathered nor provided to third parties without the prior consent of the users.

Browsing Data

The browsing data and software necessary for operation of the website gather some personal data, the transfer of which is implicit to the use of Internet communication protocols.

Such information is not obtained in order to be associated with identified users, but its own nature could allow, through the association with third-party data, their identification. This category of data includes IP address or domain name of the computer used to enter the Website, URL address of the requested resource, hour, and other parameters related to the operating system of the user’s computer environment.

These data shall only be used to gather anonymous statistical information regarding the use of the Website or to control its appropriate technical functioning. Immediately after the verification of these data, they will be cancelled without prejudice to the obligations established by the Act 34/2002 of 11 July, on Information Society and Electronic Commerce Services.

This Privacy Policy is only applicable to the MANIFESTS Genius project Website, and is not guaranteed in the access of links by this website nor in the links from this one to other websites

The links included in this website may lead users to other sites, webs and/or applications belonging to third parties, which are not controlled by RBINS in any way. RBINS is not responsible for the contents or condition of said sites, webs and applications. By providing those links, RBINS does not recommend them nor give its approval to their contents.

Security

The Security measures used by RBINS are adapted to the required security level for the data provided by users, in accordance with GDPR 2016/679.

Applicable Legislation and Competent Court

The Belgium law shall be applicable for the resolution of any disputes or questions related to this website or the activities carried out in it. The parties hereto specifically submit to said legislation; the Courts of Brussels being competent for the resolution of any conflict arising from or related to its usage.

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is a file or device that is downloaded into the User’s terminal equipment (computer/smartphone/tablet) in order to store data that could be updated and recovered by the entity responsible for its installation. In other words, a cookie is a file that is downloaded into your computer when accessing certain websites. Cookies allow websites, among other things, to store and to recover information about the browsing habits of users or users’ equipment and, depending on the information and on the way they use their equipment, cookies can serve as a way to recognize them.

Why Does this Website Use Cookies?

On this Website the cookies serve to make the usage of the website and the navigation through it easier to the user, to guarantee access to certain services, and to improve its functional configuration.

More specifically, the cookies used by this Website are the following:

  • Own cookies: sent to the user’s equipment from an equipment or domain managed by the editor and from which the requested services are provided to the users.
  • Third-party cookies: sent to the user’s equipment from an equipment or domain that is not managed by the editor, but by another entity that processes the obtained data thanks to cookies.
  • Session cookies: designed to collect and store data while accessing the Website.
  • Persistent cookies: designed to collect and store data over a specified period of time.
  • Technical cookies: used to enable the User to browse through a website, platform or application.
  • Analytic cookies: gathered to analyze the behavior and the actions of the users, as well as to create browsing profiles in order to include service and technical improvements.

Which Type of Cookies Does this Website Use?

  • Technical Cookie:
    Session - 5 day (expiration); Own (own/third-party); sessionid (Name).

    The SessionID value is used to uniquely identify a browser with session data on the server. It is randomly generated and stored in a 5 day expiring session cookie in the browser. The SessionID value is then sent with each request to the server.
    This cookie is vital for the functioning of the Website (Functionality).

  • Technical Cookie:
    Persistent - 1 year (expiration); Own (own/third-party); csrftoken (Name)

    Similar to SessionID value, the CSRF token is a unique, secret, unpredictable value that is generated by the server-side application and transmitted to the client in such a way that it is included in a subsequent HTTP request made by the client. When the later request is made, the server-side application validates that the request includes the expected token and rejects the request if the token is missing or invalid.
    This cookie is vital for the functioning of the Website (Functionality).

  • Technical Cookie:
    Persistent - 6 months (expiration); Third-party, Google Analytics (Own/third-party); _GRECAPTCHA (Name).

    Provide spam protection.
    This cookie is vital for the functioning of the Website (Functionality).

  • Analytic Cookie:
    Persistent - 2 years (expiration); Third-party, Google Analytics (Own/third-party); _ga (Name).

    These cookies are set by Google Analytic in order to track the usage of the website.
    These cookies will not be applied if you turn them off for this Website (Functionality).

How to manage cookies settings?

This section will provide a brief overview of how to make consultations about and carry out the configuration of the cookies system when using the most common web browsers. In this regard, almost all web browsers enable the user to obtain general information about the cookies installed in a website. More specifically, they allow the user to verify the existence of cookies, their expiration or the removal system. In this connection, several related links are provided for further information:

Nonetheless, users can choose whether to allow, block or remove the cookies installed in their equipment by modifying their web browser configuration in accordance with the instructions given. For further information, you must note that, usually, the cookies configuration is located either at the browser’s “Preferences” menu or at its “Tools” menu. In any case, you can always resort to the Help function of your browser to solve any doubts that may arise.

It is convenient to take into account that if the installation of all the cookies is prevented, the web contents and certain functions and services may be affected.