Last updated: 2 April 2021
1. About this Notice
1.1 This Cookie Notice ("Notice") explains how The Synergist uses cookies and similar technologies to recognise you when you visit its websites. It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control our use of them. The Synergist comprises of The Synergist ASBL – BE0536 681 303, headquartered at Avenue Louise 231, 1050 Brussels, Belgium and Synergist Services SPRL – BE0642 918 077, headquartered at Avenue Louise 231, 1050 Brussels Belgium (collectively "The Synergist", "we", "us", and "ours").
1.2 We use cookies and similar technologies on our corporate website (available at http://www.thesynergist.org/) as well as on the blogs and applications we develop which are dedicated to ongoing projects ("Websites"). More precisely, we develop the Synapse platform and our blogs include the following projects: Safe Motherhood Week Europe, Pregnancy & Medicine Initiative, Alliance for Maternal Health Equality, Patient-Focused Medicine Development, From Testing to Targeted Treatment, Break Dengue, Paradigm and Motherhood Collective Impact.
1.3 Please take the time to read this Notice carefully. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us via email to admin@thesynergist.org or send a letter to GDPR, The Synergist – Avenue Louise, 231, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
2. What are cookies?
2.1 Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by website owners in order to make their websites work or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.
2.2 Cookies have many different features, such as allowing you to navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving the user experience. They can also help ensure that the advertisements you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.
2.3 Cookies set by the website (in this case, The Synergist) are called "first party cookies". Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called "third-party cookies". Third-party cookies enable third party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website (e.g. like advertising, interactive content, and analytics). The parties that set these third-party cookies can recognise your computer or mobile device both when it visits the website in question and also when it visits certain other websites.
3. How long do cookies last?
3.1 Cookies can remain on your computer or mobile device for different periods. Some cookies are 'session cookies', which means they only exist when your browser is open and are automatically deleted when you close your browser. Other cookies are 'persistent cookies', meaning they survive after your browser is closed and can be used by websites to recognize your computer when you re-open your browser later. The duration of the cookies used on our Websites is explained in more detail in the table below.
4. Why do we use cookies?
4.1 When you visit our Websites, we may place the following types of cookies:
| Types of cookies | How to refuse |
| Essential websites 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 can I control cookies?", your usage of the website will be compromised depending on your browser settings. |
| Performance and functionality cookies: These cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our Websites, but are not essential to their use. However, without these cookies, some functionalities such as videos may become unavailable. |
We will only place these cookies if you expressly accept them when you first visit our Websites via our cookie preference banner.
Please note that you can withdraw your consent for this type of cookie at any time by re-opening our cookie preference banner, available here. To refuse these cookies, you can also follow the instructions below under the heading "How can I control cookies?". |
| 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 our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customise our Websites for you. |
We will only place these cookies if you expressly accept them when you first visit our Websites via our cookie preference banner.
Please note that you can withdraw your consent for this type of cookie at any time by re-opening our cookie preference banner, available here. To refuse these cookies, you can also follow the instructions below under the heading "How can I control cookies?". |
| Audience measurement cookies: These cookies allow us to measure the audience on our Websites or to test different versions in order to optimize editorial choices according to the respective performances of different versions of the Websites. These cookies also allow us to detect navigation problems or to organize the content displayed on our Websites. |
We will only place these cookies if you expressly accept them when you first visit our Websites via our cookie preference banner.
Please note that you can withdraw your consent for this type of cookie at any time by re-opening our cookie preference banner, available here. To refuse these cookies, you can also follow the instructions below under the heading "How can I control cookies?". |
| Advertising cookies: These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests. |
We will only place these cookies if you expressly accept them when you first visit our Websites via our cookie preference banner.
Please note that you can withdraw your consent for this type of cookie at any time by re-opening our cookie preference banner, available here. To refuse these cookies, you can also follow the instructions below under the heading "How can I control cookies?". |
| 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 (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes too. |
We will only place these cookies if you expressly accept them when you first visit our Websites via our cookie preference banner.
Please note that you can withdraw your consent for this type of cookie at any time by re-opening our cookie preference banner, available here. To refuse these cookies, you can also follow the instructions below under the heading "How can I control cookies?" |
4.2 More specifically, you will find the list of the cookies we place when you visit our Websites.
5. What about other tracking technologies, like web beacons?
5.1 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 Websites or opened an email, such as a newsletter, 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 improve site performance, and measure the success of email campaigns. In many instances, these technologies are reliant on cookies to function properly, and so declining cookies will impair their functioning.
6. What about targeted advertising?
6.1 Third parties may serve cookies on your computer or mobile device to serve advertising. These companies may use information about your visits to these Websites and other websites in order to provide relevant advertisements about goods and services in which you may be interested. They may also employ technology that is used to measure the effectiveness of advertisements.
6.2 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.
6.3 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.
6.4 All cookies for targeted advertising purposes that may be placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit our Websites are listed in the table in section 4.2 above.
7. How can I control cookies?
7.1 You have the right to decide whether to accept or reject specific categories of cookies. You can exercise your cookie preferences by saving them in our cookie preference banner available here.
7.2 You can set or amend your web browser controls to accept or refuse some cookies. If you choose to reject cookies, you may still use our Websites though your access to some functionality and areas of our Websites may be restricted. As the means by which you can refuse cookies through your web browser controls vary from browser to browser, you should visit your browser's help menu for more information.
7.3 In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt-out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or http://www.youronlinechoices.com.
8. What are my other rights in relation to my personal data?
8.1 Subject to the requirements under applicable data protection law, you can exercise rights over the cookies and other technologies containing your personal data. We provide reasonable steps to allow you to access, rectify, erase, port, or restrict the use of your personal data. You have the right to object to the use of your personal data at any time, subject to applicable law. When a collection is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal by applicable law.
9. The cookies that were sent in the past
9.1 If you have disabled one or more cookies, we can always use information collected by these cookies before the deactivation. However, we cease to collect information via the opted-out cookie.
10. More information about cookies
10.1 For more information about cookies, including an explanation about how cookies are placed on your device, or how to manage and delete them, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
11. Updates to this Notice
11.1 We may update this Notice from time to time in response to changing legal, technical or business developments. When we update our Notice, we will take appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make.
11.2 You can see when this Notice was last updated by checking the “last updated” date displayed at the top of this Notice.