Normally, cookies are small text files that websites (so called Publisher, or “First Parties”) visited by the user, or different websites (so called “Third Parties”) download and store in a device in the user’s availability; this happens directly in case of Publisher and indirectly, i.e., through these latter, in case of Third Parties.
The devices we are referring to are, for examples, a computer, a tablet, a smartphone, or every other device able to store information. Today, and even more so in the future, we must name the so called IoT (Internet of Things), which are designed to connect to the network and with each other to provide different types of services, not necessarily limited to pure communication.
Software for the internet browsing and the functioning of these devices, for examples browsers, can store cookies then resend them to the sites that generated them at the next visit of the same user, therefore remembering the settings of his/her previous interaction with one or more websites.
Information encoded in cookies may include personal data like an IP address, a username, a unique identification, or an e-mail address, but they may also contain data which are not personal like the language, setting or information on the type of device that a person is using for browsing the website.
Therefore, cookies may perform important and different functions, among which the session tracking, the storage of information on specific settings concerning users accessing the server, thereby facilitating the use of online content, etc. They may be used, for example, to track items in an online shopping cart or the information used for filling out a computer form.
Cookies and, to a good extent, other tracking tools may have different features in terms of time therefore they can be classified according to their duration (session or persistent cookies), in other words from a subjective point of view (depending on whether the publisher acts autonomously or on behalf of the “Third Party”).
The classification that responds to the principles of the legal framework and thus also to the requirements of protection of the individual is that which is ultimately based on macro-categories:
- technical cookies, used with the only purpose of “performing the transmission of a communication over an electronic communication network, or to the extent strictly necessary for the provider of an information society service explicitly requested by the contracting party or user to provide such a service” (see Article 122(1) of the Code);
- Profiling cookies, used to trace specific actions or patterns of behaviour recurring in the use of the functionalities offered to specific identified or identifiable persons in order to group the various profiles into homogeneous clusters of different sizes, so as to enable the Data Controller, among other things, to modulate the provision of the service in an increasingly personalised manner beyond what is strictly necessary for the provision of the service, and to send targeted advertising messages, i.e. in line with the preferences expressed by the user while surfing the web.
- ”Analytics cookies”
These cookies called analytics are used to collect statistical information, in aggregate or otherwise, on the number of users accessing the Site and how they visit the site. The user's consent is required in the case of third-party analytics cookies (e.g. Google) which allow the user's IP address to be identified.
Otherwise, if the conditions listed below are met, they may be treated as technical cookies and it will not be necessary to obtain the user's consent (as indicated in the guidelines of 10 June 2021 by the Italian Data Protection Authority). In particular, it is required that a) cookies are only used to produce aggregate statistics and in relation to a single site or mobile application, b) at least the fourth part of the IP address is masked, c) third parties refrain from combining the minimised analytics cookies with other processing or passing them on to other third parties.
Cookies may also be classified as:

• session cookies, which are deleted immediately when the browser is closed (e.g. Internet Explorer, Safari, Google Chrome, etc..).
• persistent cookies, which - unlike session cookies - remain on your device and continue to operate after you close your browser and until a certain period has passed.
• first-party cookiesi.e. cookies generated and managed directly by the operator of the website on which the user is browsing.
• third-party cookies, which are generated and managed by parties other than the operator of the website on which the user is browsing (by virtue, as a rule, of a contract between the owner of the website and the third party).

To learn more about the installed cookieds, please refer to the Matomo FAQs.

The use oftechnical cookies is strictly limited to what is necessary for the safe and efficient navigation of the site.