Cookie Notice for the Earth Watching

The Earth Watching website provides technical articles on many Earth observation satellite missions from around the world, in addition to a number of articles focusing on airborne sensors. ESA's aim for the website is to provide an extensive directory of such articles on a single website. To make the website work properly, ESA sometimes places 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 the date and time of your visit to the site, the title of the page being viewed, the content which you clicked on or downloaded, and the country from which you are viewing the website.

The use of cookies by the Earth Watching

The cookies placed on your device by the Earth Watching website are generated by an open source web analytics platform called Matomo. The cookies are used to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the Earth Watching. They are first party persistent cookies which help ESA to know which pages are visited most often and to ensure that the Earth Watching website responds effectively to users' needs. The cookies also enable ESA to monitor repeat visits. Using a random unique visitor ID, the software is able to distinguish between the first visit and subsequent visits made by the user, to improve the accuracy of the statistics.

Matomo complies with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation of 27 April 2016 (GDPR). It seeks to protect end-user personal data, thanks to features such as source data anonymisation and opt-out mechanisms for users. All analytics data communication is encrypted via SSL protocol. The cookie data is collected in an anonymised form, so it contains no personal information and cannot be used to identify a particular visitor. For instance, Matomo uses an internet protocol (IP) anonymisation mechanism which automatically masks a portion of the IP address which you are using, effectively making it impossible to identify a particular visitor from the remaining information.

Matomo generates analytical reports on the basis of the anonymised data. These reports are distributed to ESA, and also to Airbus Defence and Space Limited (Airbus UK) and Eversis Sp. Z.o. o. (Eversis), which may be required to analyse, develop and maintain the Earth Watching website.

Matomo, ESA, Airbus UK and Eversis do not use information generated by these cookies either for promotion or marketing purposes, and they will not share the information with any third party. The cookies will not be used for any purpose other than those stated in this cookie notice.

All persistent cookies have an expiration date of 36 months, following which they are automatically removed from the user's device.

Matomo automatically deletes visitors' logs after 12 months. The anonymised statistics reports are stored for an indefinite period by ESA, for analysis purposes.

How to control cookies

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.

You can easily accept or reject the cookies on this site by choosing one of the following links:

  I accept cookiesI refuse cookies

If you do not wish to receive cookies from the Earth Watching website, or if you wish your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, you may use the option on your web browser to disable cookies or you can opt out using the 'Refuse cookies' option above. However, please note that if you disable all cookies you may not be able to take advantage of all of the features available on this website. Moreover, if you opt out, it will not be possible for ESA to take your use of the website into account when it improves the user experience of the Earth Watching website.

If you change your mind about opting out, you can choose to opt back in and be tracked again by Matomo (opt-in). 

‘Opt-out cookie'

Your current status is displayed below.