Government.nl (like other websites that are part of the Central Government Online Platform) uses cookies and web analytics to anonymously analyse visitor behaviour on the website. This page explains what cookies Government.nl uses and for what purpose.
Cookies do not contain personal details
A cookie is a small text file with a unique number. When you visit a website, the website will often place cookies on your computer, tablet or smartphone. The cookies used by Government.nl do not contain personal data. This means you can use the website anonymously.
Purpose of cookies: improving the website
Government.nl uses analytical cookies to monitor and understand how visitors use the site. This helps to improve the website. It shows where users require more information and how the site can be made more user-friendly.
No permission required for analytical cookies
Under the Telecommunications Act (also known as the ‘Cookies Act’) visitors do not have to give permission for the kind of cookies placed by Government.nl. This is because analytical cookies have a very limited impact on privacy.
Cookies for web analytics
Government.nl places cookies in order to perform web analytics in the program Piwik. The Ministry of General Affairs gathers the following data in Piwik:
devices and software used (devices, browsers and operating system)
links used to reach our website
links used within the website
search terms used in the search feature on the website itself.
Name, purpose and lifetime of analytical cookies
Name of cookie
Purpose
Lifetime
_pk_id
Is the visitor a new visitor or a returning visitor? The value of the cookie is a unique number (id) for each visitor.
13 months
_pk_ses
Which webpages did the visitor go to?
30 minutes
stg_externalReferrer
Which website or webpage referred the visitor to the website?
Duration of the visit
stg_last_interaction
Is the visitor returning after a previous visit (more than 30 minutes ago) or starting a completely new visit? This cookie records the timestamp of the visitor’s last interaction.
365 days
stg_returning_visitor
Has the visitor been to the website before? The value of the cookie is Yes or No.
365 days
stg_traffic_source_priority
From which type of traffic source did the visitor come to the website? This cookie can have the following values:
Direct
Referral
Social media
Search engine (such as Google of Bing)
Campaign or advertisement
30 minutes
All websites collect visitors’ IP addresses. Government.nl also does this, but these are not stored in Piwik. IP addresses are stored in log files. Log files are kept for 5 days on the web server so that they can be used by the web analytics program Piwik. They are then kept for another 90 days for security purposes, and they may only be consulted for this reason.
The Ministry of General Affairs has put measures in place to further limit the traceability of visitors to Government.nl. Immediately after the log files are imported into Piwik, the last group of numbers (‘octet’) in every IP address is deleted. This takes place in a temporary memory, before the IP address is stored in Piwik.
Once this has happened, no more personal data is processed. This means the ministry complies with the rules for processing personal data set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Cookies for user surveys
Visitors to the website may be asked for their opinion about the website. Government.nl conducts anonymous user surveys using the Mopinion software program. This involves loading a survey script and placing cookies. The script determines whether a visitor is shown survey questions and which questions they are shown. This depends on which page the visitor is on, for example.
Naam of cookie
Purpose
Lifetime
Name, purpose and lifetime of cookies for user surveys
MSopened
Was the visitor shown a form with survey questions?
30 days
MSFeedbackSent
Did the visitor provide feedback by submitting the survey form?
30 days
No tracking cookies
Government.nl does not use tracking cookies. Tracking cookies can follow visitors as they visit different websites. As a result, the website does not support the Do Not Track (DNT) web browser feature.
